Drafting and Revising
CHAPTER DESCRIPTION (Also found in SLO #1)
- Define drafting and revising
- Develop strategies for drafting and revising
Introduction to Drafting and Revising
Throughout this chapter, we’ll discuss some of the methods we can use for drafting essays, but remember that your drafting process is yours to choose. Find a method that produces the kinds of writing that reflect both your ideas and your writing voice. Many instructors recommend a practice that is referred to as fast drafting, in which the student writes under the pressure of a time limit, much like freewriting. This allows students to create without their inner critic undermining their momentum. It empowers the “creator hand” to work with agency while silencing the “editor hand.” It is important to note that creating on one hand and editing and revising on the other are not, however, stages that exist respectively at the beginning and the end. You might, for example, revise and edit some of your drafts before deciding to add more new material. And as the section below makes clear, the editing and creating “hands” are very similar often in the stages of revision.
Drafting
To do fast drafting, students first need to set up the conditions that will help in their success and are appropriate to their abilities to focus. The following are easy steps writers follow:
- Create a block of time in which there are no interruptions. This should be a realistic length, given a writer’s ability to focus, from 10 minutes at a time to 75 minutes or longer.
- Decide on the goal: Write a paragraph in 10 minutes, 2 pages in 1 hour, or a complete essay in 1 hour and 15 minutes.
For some, 75 minutes is a good length, but some students find that after 30 minutes, they can no longer concentrate. If that is the case, they should plan on several shorter sessions of distraction-free time.
During this time, students should turn off their phones and social media, let the dog outside, and ensure that it’s time for children to sleep. This needs to be quiet, concentrated time.
As the section above makes clear, drafting can be messy—you might include ideas that you later cut, and it is wise to maintain a separate file for this material as you work through the writing process. But again, you should let go of your worries about good and bad ideas. There will be time to rethink, rephrase, and rework during the revision process.
Revising
The Revision Process
Revision literally means to re-see or re-envision a piece of writing. This process may involve adding, rearranging, removing, and replacing (ARRR) words, sentences, and ideas. Since writing is recursive, revising may require revisiting the prewriting stage. A recursive process means that you will create, edit, and revise and return at various points to all three of these stages. Writing is not a strictly linear act, with a beginning, middle, and end. In fact, revision will help you understand that the writing process is as important as the writing product!
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- Adding
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What else does the reader need to know? If the essay doesn’t meet the required word or page count, what areas can be expanded? Where would further explanation help key points to be more clear? This is a good time to go back to the prewriting notes and look for ideas that weren’t included in the draft.
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- Rearranging
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Even when writers carefully plan their writing, they may need to rearrange sections for their essays to flow better.
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- Removing
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Some ideas just don’t work or don’t contribute enough to the overall goal of the essay. Often when writers delete excess words or paragraphs, the ideas become clearer.
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- Replacing
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Vivid details help bring writing to life. Writers need to look for strong examples and quotable passages from outside sources to support their arguments. If particular paragraphs aren’t working well, writers need to try rewriting them.
Other Useful Strategies
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- Reverse Outlining
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In reverse outlining, the student reads through the written text and notes, noting down the topic of each paragraph. This way, the student can review if each paragraph has a clear focus and if each paragraph fits the overall organization of the paper. More on reverse outlining is available at The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL), “Reverse Outlining: An Exercise for Taking Notes and Revising Your Work.”
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- Reading Aloud
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The act of reading one’s essay aloud allows the student to “hear it” in the way a reader will. This act permits the writer to slow down and pay attention to all words in the essay. They get a sense of what a reader experiences, where words are clear and effective, and where they are weak. Poorly structured sentences are hard to read out loud, indicating that this would be a good place to start revising. This technique is a great precursor for receiving feedback from others. It also helps writers take responsibility for their writing.
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- Peer and Instructor Feedback
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No one becomes a good writer in a vacuum. Sometimes, writing is done for ourselves, but more often, writing is done to connect to others, to share thoughts, and to communicate something others need to know. At this stage of the process, it’s important for writers to get the measure of how well their writing works for readers that they want to entertain, educate, or persuade. Showing the writing to someone else is essential. This might be done in a writers’ circle or just with a friend who is good with words and can be asked for feedback. It’s best to show our work to several people to get more than one opinion. Receiving feedback helps writers discover the strengths in their writing as well as areas that may be improved.
After receiving feedback—whether through track changes in Google Docs or Microsoft Word, on paper, or verbally in a peer-review session—the writer can discuss the comments with the reviewer. It’s important that a writer consider these comments. Every reader comes from a different point of view, and the writer may not agree with everything that is said by various readers. Sometimes, comments will be contradictory. It is the writer’s responsibility to ask further and decide how to use comments received. A community that embraces and nurtures its members through the revision process works to communicate feedback so that everyone can grow and learn.
Successful college students utilize their resources, specifically their instructors and peers, to get feedback. Tutoring is an effective means by which students can receive knowledgeable one-on-one feedback about their writing. It can also be an effective way to help manage time.
Peer mentors provide students with additional one-on-one and group support in writing classrooms or during office hours. The peer mentor has had the previous experience of completing similar writing assignments, and students find it helpful when they revise with their expertise in mind.
Something to Remember
Handling Peer and Instructor Reviews
In many situations, you will be required to have at least one of your peers review your essay (and you will, in turn, review at least one peer’s essay). Even if you’re not required to exchange drafts with a peer, it’s simply essential at this point to have another pair of eyes, so find a classmate or friend and ask them to look over your draft. In other cases, your instructor may be intervening at this point with ungraded but evaluative commentary on your draft. Whatever the system, before you post or trade your draft for review, reflect on your original statement of purpose to ensure you are giving a clear statement of your desired voice, audience, message, tone, attitude, and reception. Also, consider preparing a descriptive outline showing how the essay actually turned out and comparing that with your original plan, or consider writing a brief narrative describing how the essay developed from idea to execution. Finally, include any other questions or concerns you have about your draft so that your peer reader(s) or instructor can give you useful, tailored feedback. These reflective statements and documents could be attached with your draft as part of a writer’s memo. Remember, the more guidance you give your readers, regardless of whether they are your peers or your instructor, the more they will be able to help you.
When you receive suggestions for content changes from your instructors, try to put aside any tendencies to react defensively so that you can consider their ideas for revisions with an open mind. If you are accustomed only to getting feedback from instructors that is accompanied by a grade, you may need to get used to the difference between evaluation and judgment. In college settings, instructors often prefer to intervene most extensively after you have completed a first draft, with evaluative commentary that tends to be suggestive, forward-looking, and free of a final quantitative judgment (like a grade). If you read your instructors’ feedback in those circumstances as final, you can miss the point of the exercise. You’re supposed to do something with this sort of commentary, not just read it as the justification for a (non-existent) grade.
Sometimes, peers think they’re supposed to “sound like an English teacher,” so they fall into the trap of “correcting” your draft, but in most cases, the prompts used in college-level peer reviewing discourage that sort of thing. In many situations, your peers will give you ideas that will add value to your paper, and you will want to include them. In other situations, your peers’ ideas will not really work into the plan you have for your paper. It is not unusual for peers to offer ideas that you may not want to implement. Remember, your peers’ ideas are only suggestions, and it is your essay, and you are the person who will make the final decisions. If your peers happen to be a part of the audience to which you are writing, they can sometimes give you invaluable ideas. And if they’re not, take the initiative to find outside readers who might actually be a part of your audience.
When you are reviewing a peer’s essay, keep in mind that the author likely knows more about the topic than you do, so don’t question content unless you are certain of your facts. Also, do not suggest changes just because you would do it differently or because you want to give the impression that you are offering ideas. Only suggest changes that you seriously think would make the essay stronger.
Your Turn
Here are some activities to work through different kinds of drafting. Remember, drafts are about not perfection but practice and process/production. In the same vein, you might need to practice several different strategies and tactics in order to find the best way to reach that draft that is ready for peer review and revision.
- Prepare for writing a 75-minute fast draft by doing several prewriting activities, including brainstorming, focused writing, outlining, and perhaps reading and researching, depending on the assignment. Then, in an intense, 75-minute time span, write your entire essay as quickly as possible, including the introduction and conclusion. Don’t stop to concern yourself with word choice, citations, or grammar. Just get into the flow of ideas and write your essay all the way to the end. Remember: You can go back and revise and edit all you want, but that is much easier to do once you have a draft.
- What kind of writer are you? Look at the following list. Thinking about your past writing experiences, pick out both what kind of writer you think you are and what kind you want to be—how are the draft processes similar to and different from these two choices of writers? (Try to choose two different kinds of writers!)
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- Are you a sprinter?
Do you have lots of ideas and want to get to them quickly?
If so, you probably skip to drafting and spend a lot of time on revising. Try spending more time on the start of the writing process. Spend more time on defining the audience and purpose and on exploring and planning. Then revising might not be a Herculean task. - Are you a jogger?
Do you try to go through the writing process one step at a time? Maybe some parts are harder than others, like the organization or writing a thesis? Try new strategies for those parts of the writing process that are most difficult. If revision is hard, get lots of feedback and learn to critique others. If the audience and purpose make no sense, spend some time looking at how other writers bend their writing to their audiences and purpose. - Are you a tightrope walker?
Do you want everything to be perfect before you set it down on paper? - Are you a perfectionist?
If so, you probably spend a lot of time at the start of the writing process but have more trouble with revising. Try being willing to make changes in revision based on looking at the organization, audience, and purpose. Is everything in the paper really working together? Don’t be afraid to get rid of parts and start over.
- Are you a sprinter?
Key Terms
- Brainstorming
- Fast drafts
- Reverse outlines
- Recursive
Summary
Drafting and revising are important parts of the writing process and not optional activities. Drafting and revising are ongoing parts of the writing process, and like most of the process, drafting and revising are activities that are often helped by assistance from peers or your instructor.
Reflective Response (Optional)
Think back to a paper you’ve written: What were its weaknesses? What kind of revisionary strategy would have improved those weaknesses?
Additional Chapter Sources
This chapter has been adapted and remixed by Will Rogers from the following textbooks and materials: English Composition licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License; http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/writers-handbook/s12-revising.html licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License; and You, Writing!, also licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This remixed chapter in Writing Rhetorically is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, as well.
CONTENT FOCUS
- LibraText Module explains thesis statements, topic sentences, developing paragraphs, quoting and paraphrasing, introductions and conclusions
Essay Organization is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.
CHAPTER DESCRIPTION
Discusses how thesis statements organize information
To be effective, all support in an essay must work together to convey a central point; otherwise, an essay can fall into the trap of being out of order and confusing. Just as a topic sentence focuses and unifies a single paragraph, the thesis statement focuses and unifies an entire essay. This statement is like a signpost that signals the essay’s destination; it tells the reader the point you want to make in your essay, while the essay itself supports that point.
Because writing is not a linear process, you may find that the best thesis statement develops near the end of your first draft. However, creating a draft or working thesis early in the writing project helps give the drafting process clear direction. You should form your thesis before you begin to organize an essay, but you may find that it needs revision as the essay develops.
A thesis is not just a topic, but rather the writer’s comment or interpretation of the question or subject. For whatever topic you select (for example, school uniforms, social networking), you must ask yourself, “What do I want to say about it?” Asking and then answering this question is vital to forming a thesis that is precise, forceful, and confident.
In the majority of essays, a thesis is one sentence long and appears toward the end of the introductory paragraph. It is specific and focuses on one to three points of a single idea—points that are able to be demonstrated in the body paragraphs. It forecasts the content of the essay and suggests how you will organize your information. Remember that a thesis statement does not summarize an issue but rather dissects it.
Working Thesis Statements
A strong thesis statement must have the following qualities:
- It must be arguable. A thesis statement must state a point of view or judgment about a topic. An established fact is not considered arguable.
- It must be supportable. The thesis statement must contain a point of view that can be supported with evidence (reasons, facts, examples).
- It must be specific. A thesis statement must be precise enough to allow for a coherent argument and remain focused on the topic.
Examples of Appropriate Thesis Statements
- Closing all American borders for a period of five years is one solution that will tackle illegal immigration.
- Compared to an absolute divorce, no-fault divorce is less expensive, promotes fairer settlements, and reflects a more realistic view of the causes for marital breakdown.
- Exposing children from an early age to the dangers of drug abuse is a sure method of preventing future drug addicts.
- In today’s crumbling job market, a high school diploma is not significant enough education to land a stable, lucrative job.
- The societal and personal struggles of Troy Maxson in the play Fences symbolize the challenges of black males who lived through segregation and integration in the United States.
Pitfalls to Avoid
A thesis is weak when it is simply a declaration of your subject or a description of what you will discuss in your essay.
Weak Thesis Statement Example
My paper will explain why imagination is more important than knowledge.
A thesis is weak when it makes an unreasonable or outrageous claim or insults the opposing side.
Weak Thesis Statement Example
Religious radicals across America are trying to legislate their Puritanical beliefs by banning required high school books.
A thesis is weak when it contains an obvious fact or something that no one can disagree with or provides a dead end.
Weak Thesis Statement Example
Advertising companies use sex to sell their products.
A thesis is weak when the statement is too broad.
Weak Thesis Statement Example
The life of Abraham Lincoln was long and challenging.
Ways to Revise Your Thesis
Your thesis statement begins as a working thesis statement, an indefinite statement that you make about your topic early in the writing process for the purpose of planning and guiding your writing. Working thesis statements often become stronger as you gather information and develop new ideas and reasons for those ideas. Revision helps you strengthen your thesis so that it matches what you have expressed in the body of the paper.
You can cut down on irrelevant aspects and revise your thesis by taking the following steps:
- Pinpoint and replace all non specific words, such as people, everything, society, or life, with more precise words in order to reduce any vagueness.
Pinpoint and Replace Example
Working thesis: Young people have to work hard to succeed in life.
Revised thesis: Recent college graduates must have discipline and persistence in order to find and maintain a stable job in which they can use, and be appreciated for, their talents.
Explanation: The original includes too broad a range of people and does not define exactly what success entails. By replacing those general words like people and work hard, the writer can better focus their research and gain more direction in their writing. The revised thesis makes a more specific statement about success and what it means to work hard.
- Clarify ideas that need explanation by asking yourself questions that narrow your thesis.
Clarify Example
Working thesis: The welfare system is a joke.
Revised thesis: The welfare system keeps a socioeconomic class from gaining employment by alluring members of that class with unearned income, instead of programs to improve their education and skill sets.
Explanation: A joke means many things to many people. Readers bring all sorts of backgrounds and perspectives to the reading process and would need clarification for a word so vague. This expression may also be too informal for the selected audience. By asking questions, the writer can devise a more precise and appropriate explanation for joke and more accurately defines their stance, which will better guide the writing of the essay.
- Replace any linking verbs with action verbs. Linking verbs are forms of the verb to be, a verb that simply states that a situation exists.
Replace with Action Verbs Example
Working thesis: Kansas City school teachers are not paid enough.
Revised thesis: The Kansas City legislature cannot afford to pay its educators, resulting in job cuts and resignations in a district that sorely needs highly qualified and dedicated teachers.
Explanation: The linking verb in this working thesis statement is the word are. Linking verbs often make thesis statements weak because they do not express action. Rather, they connect words and phrases to the second half of the sentence. Readers might wonder, “Why are they not paid enough?” But this statement does not compel them to ask many more questions.
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- Asking questions will help you replace the linking verb with an action verb, thus forming a stronger thesis statement that takes a more definitive stance on the issue:
- Who is not paying the teachers enough?
- How much is considered “enough”?
- What is the problem?
- What are the results?
- Asking questions will help you replace the linking verb with an action verb, thus forming a stronger thesis statement that takes a more definitive stance on the issue:
- Omit any general claims that are hard to support.
Omit General Claims Example
Working thesis: Today’s teenage girls are too sexualized.
Revised thesis: Teenage girls who are captivated by the sexual images on the internet and social media are conditioned to believe that a woman’s worth depends on her sensuality, a feeling that harms their self-esteem and behavior.
Explanation: It is true that some young women in today’s society are more sexualized than in the past, but that is not true for all girls. Many girls have strict parents, dress appropriately, and do not engage in sexual activity while in middle school and high school. The writer of this thesis should ask the following questions:
- Which teenage girls?
- What constitutes “too” sexualized?
- Why are they behaving that way?
- Where does this behavior show up?
- What are the repercussions?
Practice Activity
This section contains material from:
Crowther, Kathryn, Lauren Curtright, Nancy Gilbert, Barbara Hall, Tracienne Ravita, and Kirk Swenson. Successful College Composition. 2nd ed. Book 8. Georgia: English Open Textbooks, 2016. http://oer.galileo.usg.edu/english-textbooks/8. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Archival link: https://web.archive.org/web/20230711203012/https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/english-textbooks/8/
Article links:
"How to Write an Engaging Introduction" provided by Writing Commons
"How to Write a Compelling Conclusion" provided by Writing Commons
CHAPTER DESCRIPTION
- Explain how to use a hook, transition, and thesis in an introductory paragraph.
- Explain the purpose of a conclusion paragraph.
- Explain how to use a call to action, a contextualization, a twist, or a suggestion in a conclusion paragraph.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPkwnf_PheM&feature=youtu.be
How to Write an Engaging Introduction
Provided by Writing Commons
In what ways does your opening engage your reader?
Writers who produce engaging openings keep their audience in mind from the very first sentence. They consider the tone, pace, delivery of information, and strategies for getting the reader’s attention. Many teachers generally recommend that students write their introductions last, because oftentimes introductions are the hardest paragraphs to write.
They’re difficult to write first because you have to consider what the reader needs to know about your topic before getting to the thesis. So, I, like other instructors, suggest writing them last—even after the conclusion—though it’s always a good idea to write with a working thesis in mind. Here are some general principles to consider when writing an introduction.
Avoid opening with cosmic statements
Think about the term “cosmic.” What does it mean? “Far out.” Do you want your introductions to be “far out” (in a bad way)? Then avoid beginning your papers with a cosmic statement—a generalization, an overly broad idea. Publishers say that the first one or two sentences make or break a submission: if the first two sentences are poorly written or are uninteresting, they won’t keep reading. Consider what your target audience would think if the first two lines were so broad that they really meant nothing at all. Here is a list of a few phrases that signify cosmic statements and that are often seen in the emerging level of student writing:
- From the beginning of time . . .
- Ever since the dawn of time . . .
- Since man first walked the earth . . .
- There are two sides to every issue.
- There are many controversial issues over which people disagree.
That’s just a short list; there are many more cosmic phrases. But you can see from these examples that they preface statements that are so broad they will either lead into an incorrect or bland statement or will disconnect the reader from the real point that you want to make. Let’s take the first cosmic phrase from this list and finish it:
From the beginning of time, people have been tattooing each other.
Though the writer might think this is a good broad statement to introduce a paper on tattooing practices, it’s too broad—not to mention historically incorrect. How might we revise this cosmic statement so that it’s more engaging?
Tattooing practices have widely varied over the past few centuries.
Though still pretty broad, this statement is at least accurate. Consider, though, how we might draw the reader in even more:
Imagine you’re in a tattoo parlor, and you’re about to get a tattoo for the first time. You look over and see the tattoo artist coming at you with a piece of glass. How would you feel? Well, tattooing practices have only become standardized in the last two centuries.
By incorporating narrative into the introduction, the writer can engage the reader and entice him or her to continue reading. Note that narrative doesn’t suit all genres of writing, though. See "Employing Narrative in an Essay" for more information. More formal assignments may ask you to construct an introduction without figurative language or narrative. Think about the requirements of your assignment and your rhetorical situation when crafting your introduction.
Avoid opening with a dictionary definition
Just like it’s important to avoid using cosmic statements in your introductions, it’s also important to avoid starting your papers with a dictionary definition. If your paper topic is abortion, for instance, your reader doesn’t need to know what Merriam Webster considers abortion to be; he or she needs to know what broader idea will lead him or her to your thesis. So don’t look to dictionary.com for a snazzy opener; you won’t find one there.
Before writing the first line of your introduction, it’s a good idea to write out the thesis. You will need to build up to that thesis statement: the purpose of the introduction paragraph is to give the reader the information he or she needs to understand the thesis statement.
Wade your reader into your paper.
Why is it important to gradually move your reader through your introduction toward your thesis? Let's say that you’re showing your friend this great new lake you’ve discovered. When you reach the edge, do you push your friend in or do you wade into the lake with him? Perhaps you’d push your friend in, but you don’t want to shove your reader into your paper. You want to wade him or her into your paper, gradually taking him or her to the thesis statement.
If you write your introduction paragraph last, you will be familiar with your argument and its direction. You can then use this knowledge to structure your introduction paragraph, asking yourself questions like, "What details do I include in my body paragraphs (so that I avoid bringing them in to the paper too soon)?" and "What background information, either about the greater conversation surrounding this topic or about the topic's historical context, might my reader need to appreciate my thesis?"
Let’s take a look at an example of an introduction paragraph that shoves the reader into the paper:
Tattooing practices have varied widely over the past few centuries. Indeed, tattooing has become much safer. Whereas in the nineteenth century tattooing was performed with sharp instruments like glass in countries such as Africa, in the twenty-first century tattooing is performed with sanitary needles.
This introduction can’t really stand on its own as a paragraph, anyway; it’s far too short. How might we add material to this paragraph (revise it) so that it gradually brings the reader to the thesis?
Imagine you’re in a tattoo parlor, and you’re about to get a tattoo for the first time. You look over and see the tattoo artist coming at you with a piece of glass. How would you feel? Well, tattooing practices have only become standardized in the last two centuries. In fact, in the nineteenth century, some tattoo artists used sharp instruments like shards of glass to mark the skin. Yet with the public focus in the modern world on health and healthful practices, tattooing practices have evolved accordingly. Whereas in the nineteenth century tattooing was performed in unsanitary, dangerous ways, in the twenty-first century tattooing is performed with sanitary needles, demonstrating a shift in ideas regarding health in public opinion.
Whereas the first introduction galloped into the thesis statement, this paragraph wades the reader into the paper. Guiding the reader toward your thesis statement will also help him or her better understand the context for your particular topic, thereby giving him or her a greater stake in your writing.
Ultimately, then, I suggest you practice writing your introduction last. If it doesn’t work for you, then switch back to writing it first. But writing it last may help you avoid writing two introduction paragraphs or foregrounding your argument too much. Overall, consider the progression of ideas in your introduction: you should move from global to local, from the general (but not over-generalized) to the specific (your thesis statement).
https://youtu.be/Vu76Ceag4cE
How to Write a Compelling Conclusion
provided by Writing Commons
In what manner have you reiterated your ideas? What have you left your reader to think about at the end of your paper? How does your paper answer the “So what?” question?
As the last part of the paper, conclusions often get the short shrift. We instructors know (not that we condone it)—many students devote a lot less attention to the writing of the conclusion. Some students might even finish their conclusion thirty minutes before they have to turn in their papers. But even if you’re practicing desperation writing, don’t neglect your conclusion; it’s a very integral part of your paper.
Think about it: Why would you spend so much time writing your introductory material and your body paragraphs and then kill the paper by leaving your reader with a dud for a conclusion? Rather than simply trailing off at the end, it’s important to learn to construct a compelling conclusion—one that both reiterates your ideas and leaves your reader with something to think about.
The Reiteration
In the first part of the conclusion, you should spend a brief amount of time summarizing what you’ve covered in your paper. This reiteration should not merely be a restatement of your thesis or a collection of your topic sentences but should be a condensed version of your argument, topic, and/or purpose.
Let’s take a look at an example reiteration from a paper about offshore drilling:
Ideally, a ban on all offshore drilling is the answer to the devastating and culminating environmental concerns that result when oil spills occur. Given the catastrophic history of three major oil spills, the environmental and economic consequences of offshore drilling should now be obvious.
Now, let’s return to the thesis statement in this paper so we can see if it differs from the conclusion:
As a nation, we should reevaluate all forms of offshore drilling, but deep water offshore oil drilling, specifically, should be banned until the technology to stop and clean up oil spills catches up with our drilling technology. Though some may argue that offshore drilling provides economic advantages and would lessen our dependence on foreign oil, the environmental and economic consequences of an oil spill are so drastic that they far outweigh the advantages.
Since the author has already discussed the environmental and economic concerns associated with oil drilling, there’s no need to be passive about the assertion; the author thus moves from presenting oil spills as a problem to making a statement that a ban on offshore drilling is the answer to this problem. Moreover, the author provides an overview of the paper in the second sentence of the conclusion, recapping the main points and reminding the reader that he or she should now be willing to acknowledge his or her position as viable. Though you may not always want to take this aggressive of an approach (i.e., saying something should be obvious to the reader), the key is to summarize your main ideas without “plagiarizing” yourself (repeating yourself word for word). Indeed, you may take the approach of rather saying, “The reader can now, given the catastrophic history of three major oil spills, see the environmental and economic consequences of oil drilling.” For more information about summary, please refer to the textbook piece on incorporating sourced material into your essays.
As you can thus see, reiteration is not restatement. Summarize your paper in one to two sentences (or even three or four, depending on the length of the paper), and then move on to answering the “So what?” question.
Leaving Your Reader with Something to Think About: Answering the “So what?” Question
The bulk of your conclusion should answer the “So what?” question. Have you ever had an instructor write “So what?” at the end of your paper? You might have been offended, but the instructor was not saying that he or she did not care about your paper; rather, he or she was pointing to the fact that your paper leaves the reader with nothing new to think about. You cannot possibly spend an entire paragraph summarizing your paper topic, nor does your reader want to see an entire paragraph of summary, so you should craft something juicy—some new tidbit that serves as an extension of your original ideas.
There are a variety of ways that you can answer the “So what?” question. The following are just a few types of “endnotes”:
The Call to Action
https://youtu.be/BWQ66MsjKaU
The call to action can be used at the end of a variety of papers, but it works best for persuasive papers, such as social action papers and Rogerian argument essays (essays that begin with a problem and move toward a solution, which serves as the author's thesis). Any time your purpose in writing an essay is to change your reader’s mind or you want to get your reader to do something, the call to action is the way to go. Basically, the call to action asks your reader, after having progressed through a brilliant and coherent argument, to do something or believe a certain way. Following the reiteration at which we previously looked, here comes a call to action:
We have advanced technology that allows deepwater offshore drilling, but we lack the advanced technology that would manage these spills effectively, As such, until cleanup and prevention technology are available we should, as gatekeepers of our coastal shores and defenders of marine wildlife, ban offshore drilling—or, at the very least, demand a moratorium on all offshore oil drilling.
This call to action requests that the reader—remember, you need to identify your audience/reader before you begin writing—consider a ban on offshore drilling. Whether the author wants the reader to actually enact the ban or just to come to his or her side of the fence, he or she is asking the reader to do or believe something new based upon the information he or she just received.
The Contextualization
The contextualization places the author’s local argument, topic, or purpose in a more global context so that the reader can see the larger purpose for the piece—or where the piece fits into the larger conversation. Whereas writers do research for papers so that they enter into specific conversations, they provide their readers with a contextualization in their conclusions so that they acknowledge the broader dialogue that contains that local conversation. For instance, if we were to return to the paper on offshore drilling, rather than proposing a ban on offshore drilling (a call to action), we might provide the reader with a contextualization:
We have advanced technology that allows deepwater offshore drilling, but we lack the advanced technology that would manage these spills effectively. Thus, one can see the need to place environmental concerns at the forefront of the political arena. Many politicians have already done so, including So-and-so and So-and-so.
Rather than asking the reader to do or believe something, this conclusion answers the “So what?” question by showing the reader why this specific conversation about offshore drilling matters in the larger conversation about politics and environmentalism.
The Twist
The twist leaves the reader with a contrasting idea to consider. For instance, if I were to write a paper that argued that the media was responsible for the poor body image of adolescent females, I might, in the last few lines of the conclusion, give the reader a twist:
While the media is certainly responsible for the majority of American girls’ body image issues, parents sometimes affect the way girls perceive themselves more than the media does.
While this contrasting idea does not negate the writer’s original argument (why would you want to do that?), it does present an alternative contrasting idea to weigh against the original argument. The twist is kind of like a cliffhanger, as it’s sure to leave the reader saying, “Hmm . . .”
The Suggestion of Possibilities for Future Research
This approach to answering the “So what?” question is best for projects that you want to turn into a larger, ongoing project—or, if you want to suggest possibilities for future research for someone else (your reader) who might be interested in that topic. This approach involves pinpointing various directions which your research may take if someone were to extend the ideas included in your paper. Remember, research is a conversation, so it’s important to consider how your piece fits into this conversation and how others might use it in their own conversations. For example, if we were to suggest possibilities for future research based on this recurring example of the paper on offshore drilling, the conclusion might end with something like this:
I have just explored the economic and environmental repercussions of offshore drilling based on the examples we have of three major oil spills over the past thirty years. Future research might uncover more economic and environmental consequences of offshore drilling, as such consequences will become clearer as the effects of the BP oil spill become more pronounced.
Suggesting opportunities for future research involve the reader in the paper, just like the call to action does. Who knows, the reader may be inspired by your brilliant ideas and may want to use your piece as a jumping-off point!
Whether you use a call to action, a twist, a contextualization, or whether you suggest future possibilities for research, it’s important to answer the “So what?” question so that your reader stays interested in your topic until the very end of the paper. And, perhaps more importantly, leaving your reader with something juicy to consider makes it more likely that the reader will remember your piece of writing. Why write just to end your paper with a dud? Give your conclusion some love: reiterate and then answer the “So what?” question.
Key Terms
cosmic statement
dictionary definition
so what question
call to action
contextualization
twist
Licenses and Attributions
CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL
Composing Ourselves and Our World, Provided by: the authors. License: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
CC LICENSED CONTENT INCLUDED
This chapter contains an excerpt from How to Write an Engaging Introduction by Jennifer Janechek,Writing Commons, and is used under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 license.
This chapter contains an excerpt from How to Write a Compelling Conclusion by Jennifer Yirinec,Writing Commons, and is used under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 license.
Video 1: License: Standard YouTube License Attribution: Writing an Introduction to a Research Paper by BMS LMC.
Video 2: License: Standard YouTube License Attribution: How to Write the Conclusion of an Essay by Howcast.
Video 3: License: Standard YouTube License Attribution: Damon Claus for a Cause - Water.org by Water.org.
