Do you wonder why you lose so many marks over your introduction and conclusion? Isn’t the content of your essay more important? Why does your lecturer get irritated when you forget to do a conclusion? Are they really so important? Of course, the answer to that is a resounding, yes!

Why is an introduction and conclusion so important in an academic essay?

Both of these play an important role in your essay. An introduction shows that you have understood the topic, have a hypothesis that you plan to discuss and gives your reader a clear view of what your essay will cover. In a simple way, it is the overview of the points you will make in the body of your essay. In other words, it points to where you are going to go.

Your conclusion is equally important. If you don’t have a conclusion your reader is left hanging in the air. In your conclusion you need to show how the various points you presented have proved the hypothesis that you presented in your introduction. It is nearly a mirror image of your introduction except, in this case, you are reflecting on what your essay has shown.

How to write an introduction?

First you need to analyse the topic you have been given: e.g.: ‘Critically discuss social media’s impact on relationships.’

Start by underlining all the key words or phrases and make sure that you understand them. ‘Critically discuss social media’s impact on relationships.’ Don’t start writing your essay until you clearly understand each of the terms and you’ve done your research.

It’s probably best to write your introduction and conclusion at the END of your essay planning, because then you will have a clear idea of what you are going to say in your essay.

Draft your introduction based on the following 3 steps:

What are you writing about in your essay?
Why are you writing about it?
How will you write about it?

What you are writing about:

Obviously your lecturer understands the question that have set you in your topic but you need to show that you have understood it fully. In order to do this, you will need to restate the question in your own words. For example, you could put the topic, ‘Critically discuss social media’s impact on relationships’ into other words such as: ‘The use of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp have had a profound impact on various human relationships because (you can list your points after you’ve written your body paragraphs).

It’s useful to show what approach or argument you are going to present. For example, you could take the approach that social media is having a detrimental impact on relationships in general so this will need to be shown in your introduction.

You may sometimes need to give a brief overview of the topic to show that you have understood the basic information on which the topic is based. The emphasis here is on brief! You only need to include a couple of sentences. For example, for the one about social media, you could give some information about how many people use social media, just to show that you understand that it is an important issue.

Your introduction should only be about 10% of your total word count. If you know you have to write a 10 000-word essay, then your introduction should be no longer than about 1000 words.  

Why are you writing about it?

Your lecturer has set you this topic so that you can show that have fully understood the complexities of the topic. Often, the assignment will not have a straightforward answer and you’ll need to show in your introduction that you have understood the research and that you are reflecting on the significance and the complications that surround it.

How will you write the essay?

It t is helpful to guide your reader by showing them the basic structure of your essay in your introduction. Once you have decided on the points that you will be making in your essay, you can use these to show how you’ve organised the information.

It’s also a good idea to show that you have applied critical thinking skills to the assignment. You’ve understood and analysed the information and you may need to briefly show in your introduction what limitations your essay has or which models, theories or approaches you have taken.

Always remember that your introduction is not the place to start arguing or presenting new information. You are limiting it to show the reader that you have understood your topic and you have a clear pathway that you plan to take in the body of the essay.

How to write a conclusion?

A conclusion should be roughly the same number of words as the introduction (about 10% of your overall word count). As I’ve mentioned before, this is the mirror image of your introduction. It can be useful to copy/paste your introduction at the end of the essay as a starting point. But, if you chose to do this, you will need to adapt it quite significantly.

Draft your conclusion based on the following 3 steps:

Where are we?
How did we get here?
Where does that leave us?

You cannot include any new information in your conclusion. If you bring in new points, then you are starting a new discussion and you don’t want to do that! Your conclusion also helps remind the reader of all the points you’ve made in arguing your topic by giving a brief overview.

Where are we?

This is the ‘answer’ that you have to the original question that you were given. Sum up your answer in one sentence. ‘It is clear that social media, in all its forms, is causing a major disconnect between people and effecting the quality of relationships.’ Don’t use the phrase ‘to conclude’. It should be clear to your reader that this is your conclusion so rather use other linking words such as: ‘As illustrated’, ‘It is clear ‘, ‘obvious that ‘, ‘is (not/partially) true’ ‘It is the case … because (+ your reasons)’.

How did we get here?

This is where you remind the reader of the points that you made in your essay. These should be the same points that you made in your introduction to show how you were planning to structure your essay. You’ll need to change the wording somewhat and use them to show how you reached your conclusion (e.g.: that social media is bad for relationships).

Where does this leave us?

This is an opportunity to explain the significance of the conclusion that you have reached. What is significant about the fact that social media is bad for us (if that was your approach to the topic)? Why is this information important? How does it add to our overall understanding of the topic? What can we do now? You might need to include what needs to be explored next as your research was limited in its scope and word count. How does this lead to additional research? (This is especially useful to third and fourth year students who are thinking about a dissertation or thesis to approach in a postgraduate setting).

As you can see, both your introduction and conclusion are really important aspects of an essay. Together, they count for about 20% of your word count and they set the tone for your whole essay. If your reader is impressed with your introduction, they will immediately be set up to have positive thoughts about the rest of your essay. Once, they’ve read your conclusion, they will have a very clear idea of everything you covered in your essay and feel a sense of satisfaction that you have understood the assignment fully and that you have been able to argue the hypothesis that you set out in your introduction. By writing really great introductions and conclusions, you are well on your way to achieving great results for all your hard work!

Reference:

Newcastle University – Writing introductions and conclusions