Ideas for intros and conclusions

The key to a good introduction is this:

Focus and excite your reader!

As long as your intro is doing these two things, it can look however you want!  However, if you want more ideas for what to do in an intro, here are some formats you can try...

1. Paint a picture of a common experience that you and your audience share.

   • Example:  Few things are as satisfying as a warm hot chocolate on a cold day, or a nice refreshing lemonade after a day out in the blistering heat.

2. Provide a false assumption that the later argument will prove incorrect.

   • Example: Most people think that being in a place of power and holding authority is entirely beneficial to one’s lifestyle.   However, most people are wrong...

3. Narrate a small anecdote that is humorous or relates to the argument at hand.

   • Example: Michael Jordan had practiced for weeks after school right before he tried out for his 8th grade basketball team. Knowing that his hard work would pay off, he approached his tryout with confidence. When the roster was posted, he ran to see it, as he knew he performed to the best of his ability, and yet his name wasn’t on the roster.

He was cut.

4. Reference a commonly known or important historical event that relates to the topic of discussion. 

   • Example:  We all think we know the Great Depression.  Long lines at soup kitchens and people out of work and desperately hoarding money.  However, what we don't often think of are all the public goods that came out of it: all the public art, the libraries, a lot of the social spaces we thrive in today.

5. Provide a staggering/surprising statistic or fact. 

   • Example: Interestingly enough, most people are losers; they just don’t want to admit it. 

or

Twenty-five percent of people eat spiders daily. 

6. Provide definition(s) that are the foundation(s) for your argument. 

   • Example: How would you describe marriage?  To some people, marriage is a moral commitment, instituted by God, for individuals of opposite sexes to embrace.  To others, marriage is more of a social institution, instituted by government, for the purpose of allowing individuals to share benefits if they are willing to commit to one another.   But for me, marriage is a commitment made between two people and two people alone - a promise to be teammates together for the rest of your lives.

7. Make a broad universally true statement about an abstraction your argument relates to. (NOTE: This is the lamest tactic, and really annoying to AP readers...we roll our eyes usually when people use this...) 

   • Example: Humans are social creatures.

8. Develop an extended metaphor. 

   • Example: Unnoticed by the busy family members, are the multitudes of insects drawn to the porch lights like beacons in the dark. Unfortunately for the bugs that swarm too close to the lamps’ warmth, death is almost certain. In a similar sense, throughout Greek mythology, sailors are known to shipwreck off the coast of an island where dangerous bird-like creatures lure men toward their dominion through captivating but lethal song. Like moths’ fatal attraction to light, men willingly sail to their likely deaths just to hear the honeyed voices of the notorious Sirens.

Once you've got a good couple of opening sentences, the best move is to start leading your reader to some kind of main idea, initial point, or other key concept you need them to have in mind before they get to your body paragraphs! (NOTE: This does NOT have to be a thesis - there are lots of pieces of writing where it doesn't make sense to have the thesis in the intro at all!  As long as you are giving your reader a key idea to grab onto, you've done your job in your intro.)

A good method for this is called the FUNNEL INTRO...

The key to a good conclusion is this:

Leave your reader with the big takeaway!

As long as your intro is doing this one key thing, it can look however you want! 

Just remember that your conclusion is NOT where you just retell me things you already said earlier in your essay!  I can remember what you just said!

If you want more ideas for how to go about doing this, here are some formats you can try...

1. Put the argument/analysis in a bigger world context

   1. • Example: Competition is an aspect of society that is ripping us apart.  The hyper-competitive and partisan political world we live in is making it difficult for family members to even talk to one another openly.  What can we do to shift away from competition and towards collaboration?  It's a question that is of the utmost urgency for us to answer.

2. Suggest a change we need to make

   1. • Example: After experiencing these horrifying truths, hopefully, in the future, the American people will teach their young to covet their peers more than profits. Then, no longer will corporations be willing to throw away the lives of their consumers—which are more valuable than any price tag—because their directors will understand that a single human being should be cherished by all.

3. Issue a call-to-action

   1. • Example: A new world is on the horizon. And it will be more incredible than any of us can possibly imagine. Our greatest innovations are ahead of us, not behind. But we need great engineers and thinkers to build that world for us. And that’s you. We need you to not give up. Ever. We need you to finish your projects. We need you to leverage the power of an immigrant-rich workforce. And we need you all to be a little insane.

4. Propose a solution

   1. • Example: So what can we do about this?  Many world leaders are ignoring the calls from the masses to set bigger limits on carbon emissions, but there are actions that we can take on a more individual basis to take action, even in the face of governmental indifference.  We can change our diets and eat less meat.  We can make sure to spend our money with companies who have pledged to do their part for climate change and are producing sustainable products.  And we can certainly keep calling our senators and congressmen: the government can't ignore the will of the people forever.

5. Leave the audience with a compelling image

   1. • Example: Think again of Shilpa, that little girl from India.  Imagine that her mom gets a micro-loan to start a dress alteration business out of her home.  The alteration business now makes it possible for the family to have enough money to send Shilpa to school.  She can get an education, and with her education, she can lift herself out of poverty.  And it only took one $20 donation.  Does $20 seem too expensive now?

6. Mirror something you said in the intro ("sandwich" technique)

   1. • Example: And so we arrive back at Tiger Woods.  Was he a victim of the hyper-focus and pressure of the media and sports outlets?  Or was his problem more one of temperament?  Now that we have looked at the dangerous pressures a competitive mindset can place on athletes, artists, and driven students, I think it's safe to say that it was the competitive atmosphere that led Woods to put too much pressure on himself. 

7. Explain an implication of the argument/analysis

   1. • Example: No individual deserves to be shackled by ignorance, apathy, and inaction. It’s human nature to desire change during times of peril, and it’s human nature to desire control: both qualities are offered to the masses with compulsory voting laws. Individuals often dream about being able to make lasting, impactful differences for generations to come, and voting is a means to this end. To choose not to vote is to choose to give up one’s natural inclinations, and it seems as though for most who don’t vote this abandonment of instinct is shamefully all for the sake of slothfulness.