Introductions and Conclusions

English for International Students Unit www.eisu.bham.ac.uk Introductions and Conclusions I. Introductions Introductory Task When do you write your introduction: before you write the end of the essay? And when do you write your conclusion? Compare your habits with your neighbours’. ‘An introduction is crucial, not just for what it says about the topic, but for what it tells the reader about the writer’s style and approach.’ There are two types of introductions depending on the length of the essay: The ‘full’ introduction Full introductions can be written as a section in their own right and, in certain circumstances, may well be several paragraphs long. As a rough guide, a full introduction should be roughly between 5 to 10% of your total word count. Full introductions generally do most of the following: 1. Identify the subject of the essay. The easiest way to do this is to refer back to the question. ‘This essay will evaluate…..’ 2. Signpost the shape and content of the argument. The intention here is to give the reader a ‘road map’ of the essay. At its simplest, this involves highlighting the main stages of your argument. ‘The first section focuses on….’ 3. Highlight the major debates that lie ‘behind’ the question. Essay questions will often centre on a key debate or debates. Usually these debates will not be referred to explicitly but will lie ‘behind’ or be implied in the question asked. For example, if your topic is ‘Is behaviour biologically or socially produced?’ – what are some of the debates surrounding this issue? 4. Define terms. Be careful not to be over-enthusiastic about defining terms. You don’t need to define absolutely everything, particularly terms that are in widespread use. Nevertheless, some definitions can be useful. For example:  Key concepts and technical terms  Terms that are contested  Theories or approaches that have different versions 5. Establish a position. This means indicating the particular ‘line’ that you intend to take in an essay. The statement ‘This essay explores the use of capital punishment in the USA’ certainly tells us what the essay is about. However, the statement ‘This essay explores the use of capital punishment in the USA and argues that it is a fundamental abuse of human rights’ clearly establishes the author’s position on this issue and anticipates or signals the content of the essay’s conclusion. The basic introduction In a very short essay you may only have between 50 and 100 words to tell your reader what the essay is about. As a result, your introduction will need to be concise and highly focused. It should still: • identify the subject of the essay and define key terms; • highlight any major debates that lie ‘behind’ the question or provide background information; • signpost the shape of the essay. An important point to note is that there is no such thing as a standard introduction. Much depends on the demands of the question, the nature of your research and the length of your text. Task 1 The following two texts are examples of student writing. Identify as many of the 5 stages listed above as possible. Extract 1 The capacity of human beings to acquire the diverse rules and grammar of a language is truly remarkable. People all over the world seem to begin to acquire language at around the same age and this is one of the factors that led Chomsky to create his innateness hypothesis. More specifically, Chomsky has argued that humans have some kind of genetical Language Acquisition Device (LAD) which is now replaced with the more accurate UG or ‘Universal Grammar’. His theory is accepted by many contemporary psycholinguists and is most eloquently defended in Steven Pinker’s book, The Language Instinct. While some researchers disagree with his views and there is evidence to support both sides, I will argue that Chomsky’s beliefs are well-supported and very influential in the history of psycholinguistics. Extract 2 The tradition of second language teaching was for centuries based on one classical method, which enjoyed absolute and unquestionable authority until the turn of the nineteenth century and which in some societies still remains the synonym for satisfactory language teaching. The twentieth century, however, turned into a training ground for the many ‘best ways’ of teaching a foreign language, as a result of intensive research and constant changes in the field of second language acquisition theories. In the last few decades, many Second Language Acquisition researchers have been advocating for yet another shift. The communicative or functional approach is believed by many to provide the best model for teaching a foreign language. In this essay, I will attempt to place the communicative approach within a broader context of second language teaching theory and practice. I will also discuss the decisive factors underlying teaching trends in [name of country] state schools with respect to the communicative approach. Task 2 Prepare to write an introduction to an essay with the title ‘Higher education should be available to everyone – discuss’ by answering the following questions: a) Which terms in the title need defining? b) What background information could you give? c) How can you show the current relevance of this topic either in Britain or another country? d) How are you going to limit your discussion: geographically, historically or both? e) How will you organise the main body of your essay? When you work on introductions, it is always worthwhile asking yourself a series of questions, like the ones above, to help you decide what information to include. II. Conclusions The primary job of a conclusion is to provide a final condensed version of the essay’s core argument and in the process to provide an overview of the state of ‘current knowledge’ or ‘current opinion’ on the topic. There is usually a link between the starting point, i.e. the title and introduction, and the conclusion. If the title is asking a question the answer should be contained in the conclusion. The reader may look at the conclusion first to get a summary of the main arguments or points. We must note that not every academic essay has a conclusion. This is especially true of longer essays, dissertations and theses. In some of these cases, the conclusion may be linked to the discussion section, or it may be called ‘concluding remarks’ or ‘summary’. However, in most cases it is helpful for the reader to have a section which looks back briefly at what has been said and makes some comments about the main part. A brief conclusion should usually do the following: • recap the key points in your argument or summarise the key debates raised by the question and synthesise them; • provide a final condensed version of the essay’s core argument that restates your position on your question. In longer conclusions, you may include the following: • suggest implications for the findings and raise some proposals; • concede limitations of your research; • suggest ideas for further research. TIP: When you are revising your essay, always read your introductions and conclusions one after the other to see if they ‘match’ each other. Task 3 Read the following list of extracts from the conclusions and match them with the list of functions in the box. i) summary of main body ii) limitations of research iii) suggestions for further research iv) implications and proposals a) In this review, attempts have been made to summarise and assess the current research trends of transgenic rice dealing exclusively with agronomically important genes. b) As always, this investigation has a number of limitations to be considered in evaluating its findings. c) Obviously, business expatriates could benefit from being informed that problem focused coping strategies are more effective than symptom focused ones. d) Another line of research worth pursuing further is to study the importance of language for expatriate assignments. e) Our review of thirteen studies of strikes in public transport demonstrates that the effect of a strike on public transport ridership varies and may either be temporary or permanent. f) To be more precise, there was a positive relation between tolerant and patient problem solving and all four measures of adjustment; general, interaction, work and subjective well-being. g) To empirically test this conjecture, we need more cross-national replication of this research. Task 4 Bearing in mind what you know about conclusions, talk to your neighbour and comment on the following short student example: In conclusion, deposit insurance schemes should be designed in a manner so that they discourage, to some extent, the taking of moral risks whilst enhancing the effectiveness of safety nets. Based on what has been discussed in this paper, I would disagree with the current conventional wisdom surrounding deposit insurance. The study focused on a theoretical presentation of the ineffectiveness of deposit insurance and thus further research in this area could be conducted to assess the relationship between deposit insurance and moral hazard. This could be carried out by conducting detailed empirical research testing the effectiveness of both explicit and implicit deposit insurance in relation to moral hazard. Key Task 1 Extract 1 [identifies subject:] The capacity of human beings to acquire the diverse rules and grammar of a language is truly remarkable. People all over the world seem to begin to acquire language at around the same age and this is one of the factors that led Chomsky to create his innateness hypothesis. [defines terms (very broadly!):] More specifically, Chomsky has argued that humans have some kind of genetical Language Acquisition Device (LAD) which is now replaced with the more accurate UG or ‘Universal Grammar’. [major debates:] His theory is accepted by many contemporary psycholinguists and is most eloquently defended in Steven Pinker’s book, The Language Instinct. [establishes a position:] While some researchers disagree with his views and there is evidence to support both sides, I will argue that Chomsky’s beliefs are well-supported and very influential in the history of psycholinguistics. Extract 2 The tradition of second language teaching was for centuries based on one classical method, which enjoyed absolute and unquestionable authority until the turn of the nineteenth century and which in some societies still remains the synonym for satisfactory language teaching. [debates:] The twentieth century, however, turned into a training ground for the many ‘best ways’ of teaching a foreign language, as a result of intensive research and constant changes in the field of second language acquisition theories. In the last few decades, many Second Language Acquisition researchers have been advocating for yet another shift. The communicative or functional approach is believed by many to provide the best model for teaching a foreign language. [subject, shape and content:] In this essay, I will attempt to place the communicative approach within a broader context of second language teaching theory and practice. I will also discuss the decisive factors underlying teaching trends in (name of country) state schools with respect to the communicative approach. Task 2: suggestions a) ‘higher’ education, ‘everyone’: international students, mature students, students with disabilities, students from poor socio-economic groups, ethnic minority students, ...? b) historical information: e.g. student grants and fees, other access issues c) being debated in parliament/being reported in the newspapers d) focus on UK, current situation/recommendations for the future e) 1. reasons why it is not available 2. reasons why it should be available 3. counterarguments and rebuttal 4. practical requirements to make it available i) summary of main body: a, e, f ii) limitations of research: b iii) suggestions for further research: d, g iv) implications and proposals: c Task 3 Task 4 You could discuss the elements that are present here: summary of main idea and clear positioning, suggestions for future research. You could also have commented on the length (the essay was 3000 words long), the use of the past tenses, ...