“Sometimes it’s good to look back, even when you’re at the beginning.”
The closer is a sentence or two that concludes the introduction and makes it feel completed. Without it, your reader might just feel like you forgot to finish your thoughts and left them hanging.
Done and Done
You’ve spent a lot of time crafting the perfect introduction with an engaging hook, a concise thesis statement and several POPs, but now you want to make sure that the paragraph feels finished. That’s where the intro closer comes in. The intro closer is a sentence or two that concludes the introduction and makes it feel completed. Without it, your reader might just feel like you forgot to finish your thoughts and left them hanging.
Introduction closers don’t need to be long or fancy, their job is simply to provide a finished feel to the paragraph. There will be other closers in your essay. Specifically, they will appear at the end of each body paragraph. And in the conclusion of the essay, there will be a more elaborate closer that we call the reflection. Details about these various closers will come later.
So, How do the Intro Closers Work?
As with the other essay elements, essaypop provides you with a number of sentence starters that will allow you to start your introduction closer in unique and different ways. These starters are all easily accessed from the pulldown curtain in the bottom-left icon of each intro closer writing frame.
Introduction starters will sometimes look and feel a little different than other closer sentence starters in the essay, and this is because of where they appear in the essay. Because they appear near the beginning of your writing, they express a tone of anticipation as though there is a lot to be discussed and discovered in the essay.
So instead of saying, “As you can see,” (which would be an appropriate way to close a body paragraph), a writer might instead begin the introduction closer with the phrase, “As you will soon see”. The difference is very subtle, but the second starter provides the reader with the notion that there is important information to come.
Thesis Statement, We Remember Thee Well!
Note that the introduction closer usually refers back to the thesis statement, albeit in a summary way. Think of it as another chance to remind the reader what the entire essay is going to be about before you launch into your body paragraphs. So if the thesis statement in a response-to-literature essay is, In the short poem, “Moon Tiger”, Denise Levertov explores this theme of the fantastic, and sometimes even delusional nature of childhood imagination, the closer might read, Through skillful verse, Levertov conveys the acute creativity of youthful fancy.
Or if the thesis of a how-to essay is, The fact is, creating the perfect PB & J is more challenging and artful then one might think, and the chef who constructs this simple delicacy must pay close attention to the little details. The closer could read In the end, making this underappreciated delicacy is more difficult than one might think. As you can see, the thesis statement and intro closer are closely related.
Introduction Closer Models
The following are examples of good introduction closers. Here you will see the closer as it appears following the POPs. All closers are highlighted in light yellow.
Model 1
Type of essay: response to literature
The prompt: In a text-evidence-based, multiple-paragraph essay, give your reaction to Denise Levertov’s short poem, “Moon Tiger”.
In the nighttime world she creates, the moonlight that enters a child’s bedroom is transformed into a prowling tiger in a manner that only a child’s imagination can do. Through skillful verse, Levertov conveys the acute creativity of youthful fancy.
Model 2
Type of essay: response to literature
The prompt: In a text-evidence-based, multiple-paragraph essay, discuss how the opinions expressed in the literature of Walt Whitman, Pink Floyd, Albert Einstein and the bloggers of Quora all present similar criticism of education, educational reform and learning in general.
I will also show how Whitman’s wandering, wondering pupil probably would have had much to talk about with the children in Pink Floyd’s, “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”, as these students also seem very disillusioned with their teachers. Finally, I will review Whitman’s poem in the light of Albert Einstein’s famous quote about the fish who thought he was stupid, but really wasn’t, and bring in the expert opinions of the bloggers from the website Quora who took the time to analyze that quote. As you will soon see, Walt Whitman’s rebellious student is not alone in his dissatisfaction with the educational system.
Model 3
Type of essay: Argumentative
The prompt: In a multiple-paragraph essay explore a factor or several factors that led to the sinking of the RMS Titanic and the deaths of over 1,500 passengers.
Afterall, It was Andrews who made the decision to remove many of the bulkhead walls which caused the water to leak uncontrollably into the ship. He also made the ill-fated decision to eliminate many of the necessary lifeboats so that the cruise ship’s deck wouldn’t appear cluttered. Finally, to save money, Mr. Andrews purchased substandard materials, including rivets and steel for the hull that made the Titanic weaker than it should have been. In the final analysis, it was the the bad decisions of the man who oversaw the construction of the Titanic who must be credited for the ship’s demise.
Model 4
Type of essay: persuasive / argumentative
The prompt: Pit Bulls are commonly considered to be unpredictable and even vicious animals. They are frequently portrayed in the media as enough of a societal threat that they should be subject to stringent leashing requirements and prohibited from public spaces such as playgrounds and dog parks. Do you believe that pit bulls should be singled out and restricted because of their vicious natures?
This paper will show that despite popular conceptions, pitbulls are statistically not more prone to bite or attack humans than other dogs. Additionally, it will be shown that pit bulls are demonstrably more likely to protect people than harm them. Finally, we will see that pitbulls are more intelligent and trainable than many other canine breeds. As Camryn Rogers rightly contends pitbulls really are a misunderstood and falsely maligned breed.
Model 5
Type of essay: persuasive / argumentative
The prompt: People have a natural, almost primal fear of rattlesnakes. Often the first reaction to seeing a rattler in a residential area is panic and fear. In areas such as such as suburban Southern California, is it possible for rattlesnakes and humans to coexist with one another?
This paper will focus on examples of people coexisting peacefully with deadly snakes. It will also focus on ways in which rattlesnakes are actually beneficial to suburban environments. It will go on to explore the activities of local snake preservation societies that exist for the sole purpose of protecting these snakes from those who might do them harm. Finally, this paper will transition to a discussion of ways that people living in rattlesnake country can keep themselves and their families safe from these deadly, but necessary, creatures. Soon you will see that rattlesnake and human coexistence is quite possible.
Model 6
Type of essay: response to literature
The prompt: In a multiple-paragraph essay discuss a recurring theme that is addressed in Smokey Robinson’s two songs, “The Tracks of My Tears” and “The Tears of a Clown”.
This paper will focus not only on not only on these songs show the way lovelorn men often hide their emotions, but delve into the symbols, allusions, and figurative language each tune implements to help drive this theme home. Who knew that love could hurt in so many literary way?
Model 7
Type of essay: Narrative procedure (how to)
The prompt: In a text-evidence-based, multiple-paragraph essay, explain how to prepare a favorite food item of yours.
For instance, the choice of peanut butter is critical and most folks would be surprised at how commonly available the perfect nut spread is. Jelly choice is also important, and, in the case of this ingredient, a little more effort and discernment is required. Finally, the bread that frames the aforementioned ingredients must be carefully considered (and here’s a hint — healthy grains need not apply). Ultimately, making this underappreciated delicacy is more difficult than one might think.
Model 8
Type of essay: response to literature
The prompt: In a multiple-paragraph essay, compare the recurring themes found in William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” and Chet Baker’s version of Rodgers and Hart’s song, “My Funny Valentine”.
Both works are notable in that they seem to denigrate the very women whom they supposedly love. In one sense they can be said to be cruel “anti-love” poems. But they can be compared in other ways as well. An alternative way of understanding these works is that they both are advocating honesty as the deepest form of romantic expression; they assert that that everyone has flaws and that beauty is, after all, only skin deep, and that only true honesty can equate to true love. Another, equally valid, theory states that the women being described are not flawed or unattractive, but very ill and at the end of their days. In this context, the descriptions are not mean-spirited, but rather the literal physical descriptions of heartbroken men who are about to lose their dearest partners. Each of these theories will be thoroughly analyzed in this paper.
