“I can’t figure out how to end essays,” a high school freshman told me. He wanted a formula, an approach that would work when he was stuck.
I suggested he keep in mind two approaches: full-circle and looking-to-the-future.
Full-circle conclusions go back to the introduction, pick up a strand mentioned there, and continue with that strand.
Looking-to-the-future conclusions go beyond the time frame of the essay and suggest what will happen next, or what could have happened next.
For example, suppose an essay concerns the crucial help France gave the US during the American Revolution. A full circle conclusion could repeat that idea and add that the US returned the favor by aiding France to win World Wars I and II. A looking-to-the-future conclusion could have looked to the future of US-French relations in 1783 and questioned the US absence during the French Revolution. Or a looking-to-the-future conclusion could look at French-American relations now, more than 230 years after the American Revolution, and mention how the US and France are still allies working together, this time to protect revolutionaries trying to overthrow a dictator in Syria.
Or, for example, suppose an essay proposes that it was the parents of Romeo and Juliet who are ultimately responsible for their son’s and daughter’s deaths. A full-circle-conclusion could pick up the idea that Juliet’s mother was a “hands-off” mother, and question how much she would miss a daughter she had left to a nurse to raise. A looking-to-the-future conclusion could mention that Juliet’s mother is about 27 years old, still young enough to bear another child and marry that child into the social elite of Verona as Juliet had been expected to do.
Full-circle conclusions and looking-to-the-future conclusions save a student time coming up with an approach to end an essay. And they do the job. Win-win.
English Writing Teacher 