Writing Conclusions
I'm trying to think of some techniques for writing essay conclusions (to give to my students), other than just the "summarize what you've already said" method, which harks back to the 5-paragraph essay model: tell us what you're going to tell us, tell us, then tell us what you told us. Here's what I've come up with so far:
- Call for awareness: Several students are writing about new issues, so ending with a call for awareness seems fitting.
- Unanswered questions/Implications for further study: What issues can be resolved in this essay, and what questions remain about the issue?
- Rationale: Why is this an important thing to study? (This is mainly for people doing comparison papers.)
- Call for action/What you can do: Kind of like a call for awareness, but with specific directions for the audience on how they can get involved and combat this problem.
Can anyone think of any more?
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Good endings
yes, anything is better than those 5-paragraph essay endings! how about finding a powerful passage from something they've read and quoting it in the conclusion?
i tell my students good conclusions are the hardest part to write once you get away from the traditional restatement of the thesis kind.
that was me, cindy, btw. too
that was me, cindy, btw. too lazy to log in :-)
Thanks for the idea, Cindy!
Thanks for the idea, Cindy!
Readings vs. Own Thoughts
The one thing I really don't like, though, is when students use a quotation as the final statement of their essays: it's like saying, "Well, she says it better, so there's nothing more to say."
Part of what you're pointing towards, Clancy, is I think a student need for seamlessness: they feel an obligation to present a conclusion so smooth, hermetic and inviolate as a sort of synecdochic representation of the entire paper. Along with your "call for future research" thing, I'd suggest pointing to where the fissures and gaps are, to what the paper *doesn't* resolve -- but that's a mighty tall order to ask of an undergraduate who has a lot invested in understanding her knowledge as if not complete at least unified.
Conclusions are frequently distancing moves, where authors step back from the skein of thought with which they've been working. Perhaps asking students to understand that such a step back can be in terms of style or genre or structure, as well as in terms of content, might be a possibility.
Mike
Quote: "Perhaps asking stu
Quote:
"Perhaps asking students to understand that such a step back can be in terms of style or genre or structure, as well as in terms of content, might be a possibility."
Very interesting!--but I'm wondering what that would look like. Can you give me an example?
I guess what I'm really trying to do is give my students helpful strategies for how to close the paper (and future research papers they'll write!) without putting one arbitrary, unnecessary standard on them. For example, my high school and undergrad teachers always told me to do that "tell us what you told us" conclusion, but then end with a "Clincher Sentence." That last sentence is CRUCIAL. It has to blow the reader away. I mean, come on.
Anyway, changing the subject, I went over Toulmin schemas today and asked students to give examples of claims, reasons, warrants, backing, conditions of rebuttal, and qualifiers based on their research topics and one example I brought up. At the end of the class, I had them do a quick "clearest concept/muddiest concept" note to me. On Wednesday I'll revisit the muddy concepts. I hope not everything was muddy...yikes.