In conclusion writing, the goal for students is to wrap up their academic writing with interest.
But what does that mean?
And more importantly, how can I teach something as abstract as “interesting.”
Interesting is subjective and somewhat judgemental. If I tell students to just make it “interesting,” the hidden message is that they are writing for me.
I never want to make my students feel like they are jumping through some invisible “please the teacher” hoop.
I do want them to feel like their essay conclusion writing matters.
Teaching Conclusion Writing
Let’s talk about common practice in English teacher world for a sec.
The inverted funnel is an often-used strategy used by well-intentioned teachers.
Start with a re-stated thesis, and broaden out from there.
This isn’t wrong, it’s just woefully generic.
I like to put teaching strategies through the “struggling student” test. If I’m not sure how to end my essay and my teacher tells me to just “go broad” in my conclusion, but to keep it “interesting,” I’m going to shrug my shoulders and write a regurgitation of my essay’s main points. Maybe I’ll end with some sort of pithy statement. Done.
Wait, wait, wait, you may be saying. It’s good for students to struggle. They need to make sense of their ideas for themselves. Or, maybe you teach honors students and don’t want to “hold their hand” too much?
Giving structure doesn’t mean that you’re doing the thinking for students. It’s giving all students access to writing a great conclusion.
And I’ve found that my honors students are able to take this structure to a whole different level than my standard-level students. In the process, though, all students are clear and feel empowered to write. That’s what I want!
Writing Conclusion Paragraphs
Here are the steps I teach students to follow when writing the conclusion in academic writing.
It’s worth mentioning that this conclusion strategy goes hand-in-hand with this introduction writing strategy.
Ideally, the introduction and conclusion of the essay should work together, and I want my students to see a connection between how they began their essay and how they end their essay. This gives a bigger purpose to the “hook” and it gives a direction for students to uncover some deeper meaning in their conclusion.
Steps to Conclusion Writing:
👉 Begin with the thesis statement. Ask students to paraphrase it in their own words.
👉 Next, ask students to review what they wrote for their introductory hook. After their conclusion, their goal should be to review the significance of the thesis idea as seen in their essay. Then, they should write a sentence that joins the introduction idea back to that hook idea. Here, they should ask an open-ended question which they will go on to answer in the next step. This is what I call “coming full circle.”
👉 After blending in a question that makes sense in the context of their ideas, students should think deeply and answer their question. This answer is the beginning of their “so what.”
By the end of the essay, students should be discussing the significance of a bigger idea in terms of society and/or human nature. This conclusion writing step is all about students being reflective and helping their reader to think about the larger implications of what they “thought about” in their essay.
👉 Students usually stop at one level of “so what,” but I tell my students this is like peeling back layers of an onion. They can usually extend their thinking to find an even deeper insight. To extend, I have students continue to ask themselves why what they just wrote is significant, why it matters in the world, etc. So, this step is about playing the “so what” game until they arrive at that truly golden realization that really makes readers go “hmm, I never thought about it that way before.”
👉 Part of the very last sentence should be a “zinger.” In a nutshell, a zinger is a short, wise, or witty statement that is often a call to action, empathy, kindness, or self-reflection. Alternatively, a zinger can look toward the future and think about what might happen.
Zinger Example: “Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future” – Elie Wiesel
Conclusion Paragraph Example
As you can see, in the example below, the student moves from a restated thesis to a quick review of how the main idea (evil in human nature) relates to the thesis. The author uses the stem “as ____________, readers questioned _____________” to create a bridge to the bigger question that ties evil in human nature back to the focus of the hook (superheroes).
From here, the student tries for a “so what,” discussing how evil vs. good grows in humans. This bit has a potential zinger in the realization that humans need to be their own heroes; however, it’s a bit cliche and can be pushed further.
The student continues and asks “so what” again. The final section has a more specific zinger in relation to something specific happening in the world today. It is both a call to action and self-reflection for the reader. I’m glad the student challenged herself to take this a step further so that this thinking happened.
Thesis: In Lord of the Flies, Golding hints that human nature is both good and evil. In the absence of societal norms, Golding’s characters underwent a social experiment.
Circle Back & Ask: In the absence of societal norms, Golding’s characters underwent a social experiment. As their savage nature took over, readers questioned why evil had taken over and no one stepped in to save the day until it was too late. Where was the Superman Jedi Princess on that island? And how can we make sure that good, not evil, wins in the end?
So What?: To answer this question, consider a basic principle of life: what we feed grows. We have to feed the better parts of our nature such as love, patience, self-control, and we have to starve the worst parts of our nature: jealousy, anger, pride, fear. We need to be our own heros and fight for what is right.
Extend: When we feed the good, evil is defeated. So what, you may ask. This means that every choice counts. Every person counts. While we cannot reverse societal trends that feed some of the worst parts of human nature, we can start with ourselves. The evil is always there, beneath the surface, just waiting to come out. Just look at all of the people panic buying toilet paper in the wake of Covid-19. Are you going to be that person fighting for more Angel Soft in aisle 19, or will you choose to feed the softer side of your humanity?
Conclusion Writing Activities
If you liked this post, you’ll want to check out the graphic organizers for intro and conclusion writing that go along with this strategy. I find that they help students to execute this conclusion writing strategy and also to join it to their introduction writing.
Grab them here from my web store: https://lindsayannlearning.com/product/introduction-and-conclusion-writing-graphic-organizers-slideshow/
Or here on Teachers Pay Teachers: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Introduction-Writing-Graphic-Organizers-Distance-Learning-5356176
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