Beginnings and Endings

Beginnings and Endings Senior Projects 2013-14

Your Introduction • Draws the reader into the essay • Advances the general topic of your essay. • Provides necessary background information • Presents your essay’s thesis, usually as the last sentence

Broad to Narrow • Funnels reader from a broad statement of the topic to the narrowest point in the introduction. During registration week, tables offering MasterCard or Visa applications litter college campuses like autumn leaves. Gifts are offered just for completing an application, and the promise of easy credit is tempting. Once that shiny piece of plastic is in hand, the way you use it can mean the difference between starting out after graduation with a good credit record and starting out under a mound of debt. Establishing a set of simple rules can help you make your credit card an asset instead of a liability.

Narrow to Broad Instead of beginning with a statement of your general topic, the narrow-to-broad introduction begins at a point that is smaller than your thesis and expands toward that thesis.

Narrow to Broad Thousands of feet above the earth, a small crystal traces a zigzag path to the bleak landscape below. It is the first snowflake of the season, soon to be followed by many more that will blanket the earth in a layer of white. Winter is my favorite of all the seasons. I love its beauty, I enjoy the opportunity to ski, and, like a kid, I can never wait for Christmas to arrive.

Quotation A habit has been defined as a “shackle for the free.” This statement seems particularly relevant to the habit of smoking. A person who smokes is no longer free but is chained to a habit that is expensive, socially unacceptable, and dangerous. Seriously, don’t smoke.

Anecdote • A brief story that illustrates a point. • Need to keep story to a few sentences and be sure to include a transition that connects the anecdote to the thesis.

Anecdote When she saw her front door standing open, the woman knew there had been another break-in. She took her five-year-old daughter next door and returned with a neighbor and a borrowed baseball bat. Hesitantly, she entered. Vulgar graffiti covered the walls, and the sofa had been slashed. In neighborhoods like this one where crime is out of hand, residents often feel powerless. But community involvement in the form of neighborhood watches, neighbor patrols and insistence on strong police presence can help residents of high-crime neighborhoods reclaim their streets.

Contrasting Idea • Helps show off your own ideas to greater effect. • Need a transition word such as “but” or “however” to demonstrate change. • Need a clear, strong contrast – contrast of time or contrast of person.

Contrast of Time In the 1950s, Ward Cleaver types in blue suits kissed their wives at the door at 8:30 a.m. and drove off to work. By 5:30 they were back, calling “Honey, what’s for supper?” A nine-to-five day may have worked well half a century ago, but in most families today, both parents work. To make it easier for working parents, companies need to become more flexible. Allowing employees to work from home by computer, to schedule their own hours, or to share a job with another employee would benefit both the company and the worker.

Contrast of Person When I hit a home run at the bottom of the ninth to win the game for the McDuffiee’s Auto Parts Tigers, my dad was not there. He missed many family activities because he believed his first duty was to his job. After I graduate from college, I will give my career its due, but it will not be my only priority. I hope to have a well-rounded life with time for career, time for family, and time for activities that interest me.

Historical • Provides the reader with background information – the “history” behind your essay. • Establishes authority or expertise on a subject. • Sets the stage for discussion.

Historical • Through my parents’ divorces and subsequent remarriages, I have acquired one stepfather, two stepmothers, three sets of step-grandparents, three stepsisters, two stepbrothers and assorted step-aunts, uncles and cousins. I speak with the voice of experience when I say that getting along with stepfamilies requires compromise, respect of others’ privacy and willingness to share.

Conclusion • Need to keep the goodbye short, and don’t introduce any new information. • After the detailed support of the body paragraphs, the first sentence or two of the conclusion should take your reader again to a broad, thesis-level view of the topic.

Summary • Recap the main points of the essay, making sure to use different wording than you did in your thesis and topic sentence. • During my tour of duty with the Air Force, I received hands-on experience in electronics, furthered my education, and developed confidence in my ability to handle my own life. I never piloted a plane while I was in the Air Force, but in many ways, I learned to soar.

Recommendation • Suggests a solution to a problem raised in the essay. • It does not matter whether the shot is fired in the commission of a robbery, in the heat of an argument, or by accident. The result is the same: a life is lost. The logical solution is one already implemented by more enlightened countries: to outlaw handguns. Outlawing handguns is a major step toward a safer, saner, less fearful society.

Prediction • Looks toward the future • A society of graying baby boomers, working parents, and two-income families is becoming increasingly dependent on service providers. In the new century, hiring help with housecleaning, lawn maintenance, and child care will no longer be a luxury for many Americans, but a necessity.

Full Circle • Incorporates a word or image from the introduction as a theme in the conclusion, thus bringing the essay “full circle” to end where it began.

Full Circle • Introduction: The photograph in the magazine showed a laboratory rat with a human ear growing out of its back. The strange-looking creature was part of an experiment in the growth of human cartilage through genetic engineering. I immediately thought of my neighbor, Otis Needham, who lost an ear to cancer. Genetic engineering is a relatively new field, but it promises quantum leaps in organ and tissue replacement, cure of disease, and prevention of birth defects.

Full Circle • Conclusion: In a laboratory somewhere, a little white rat, burdened with an ear he cannot use, heralds a brighter future for the Otis Needhams of the world. Thanks in part to this little rat and others like him, human beings will live longer and healthier lives through the promise of genetic engineering.

Quotation I had always planned to go to college “someday,” but it took a loaded gun to make me realize how much of my life I had squandered behind the counter of the Kwik-Stop #7. The day after the robbery, I gave my notice and filled out a college application. At the time, I had never heard of Cervantes, but his words express a truth I realized that day: “By the streets of someday, one arrives at the house of never.”

Any questions? I’m all ears! Well, mostly.

Beginnings and Endings