Writing Openings and Endings That Earn
Two sentences at each end
- A timed essay does not have room for a ceremonial opening or a summary close.
- Two sentences at each end is enough to do a permitted job properly.
- Everything else belongs in the body, where four of the six points live.
Building the opening
- Sentence one: the job — position the subject, name the exigence, or establish your standing.
- Sentence two: the defensible thesis, responding to the prompt.
- Nothing else. No history of humanity, no announcement of intent, no undisputed definition.
Does this sentence belong at an end?
Sort each sentence by where it belongs.
Put the steps of writing an opening in order.
Two sentences on the page, but the claims are sketched before either of them.
Building the ending
- Sentence one: the thesis in language the essay has earned, or its significance.
- Sentence two: what follows — the wider question, or what the argument obliges.
- Then stop. An essay that ends twice weakens both endings.
An essay that ends twice has two chances to finish strongly.
Ending twice weakens both endings — stop after the second sentence.
Select all the openings this lesson says to cut.
The thesis is one of the two sentences the opening is for.
If time runs short, do not sacrifice commentary to write a conclusion. A missing conclusion costs part of one point; a body paragraph with evidence and no commentary costs part of four.
If you run short of time, you should...
A missing conclusion costs part of one point; missing commentary costs part of four.
Write the ending ____, when you know what the essay turned out to argue.
The ending should use language the essay has earned.
When to write them
- Write the opening after you have sketched your claims, so the thesis covers what you can actually defend.
- Write the ending last, when you know what the essay turned out to argue.
- If you run short of time, a missing conclusion costs less than a body paragraph without commentary.
The deletion test, both ends
- Delete the opening and start at the first body paragraph. What was genuinely lost?
- Delete the ending and stop at the last. Does the essay end, or just stop?
- Whatever was lost is what those paragraphs should contain — and nothing more.
A complete opening: "The scheme was introduced after a single year's figures showed a decline. Its own measure of success, however, records exactly the failure it was created to prevent." Two sentences: exigence, then a defensible thesis.
Two sentences at each end. Opening: the job, then the defensible thesis. Ending: the thesis in earned language or its significance, then what follows. Write the opening after sketching claims and the ending last — and never sacrifice commentary to write a conclusion.