Introductions and Conclusions

Join the Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode, Academic Skills Advisers, Lisa, Stefan, and Emma chat about introductions and conclusions. We discuss what makes a good introduction and conclusion, how they differ in assignments and bigger projects such as dissertations, and share our strategies for writing them. 

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Transcript

Emma 0:04

Hi, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Skills Pod. I'm Emma and I'm one of the Academic Skills Advisors at the University of Chester. And today I'm joined by my colleague.

Lisa 0:16

Hi, I'm Lisa. I'm the Senior Academic Skills Advisor. Nice to be here today. I'm very excited.

Why Start With The Conclusion;

Stefan 0:21

And I'm Stefan, and I'm an academic skills advisor here at Chester as well.

Emma 0:25

And today we are going to talk about introductions and conclusions. So, well, let's start with introductions. That's a good starting point, isn't it?

Lisa 0:34

I think it's intro to the intros. Although I would always say that actually intros, and I'm sure you you guys would agree that intros actually should be the last thing you write. So maybe we should be controversial and start with conclusions. Because in it, that's one of the things I do always say to students, though, that actually before you start writing, you should know what your conclusion is. You might not be able to write your introduction, but you should know your endpoint because that helps you in producing that kind of logical, coherent flow to your writing. So it's a weird one, isn't it? You naturally want to start with talking about how to do introductions, but weirdly, it should be how do you do conclusions and then how do you do introductions? Whoa. Big thoughts for the day.

Stefan 1:19

So I think you can, and I think it differs between person, right? Because I myself found absolutely during the introduction last to be the best thing, like the most efficient thing. Um, but I've definitely spoken to a lot of students over the years who kind of need to do some sort of introduction just to frame their thinking. So even if it's just a matter of like, okay, I'm gonna jot down like four or five bullet points, whatever it might be. Just do like just do a skeleton intro, but don't get bogged down in it, because when you come to the end of the essay, you're you'd probably be rewriting what you've written.

Emma 1:57

Absolutely.

Stefan 1:58

A few bullet points just to kind of center your thinking and frame, frame your mind, I think, could be could be useful.

Lisa 2:04

Yeah, I what I say as well. I yeah, I completely agree because I I think sometimes a lot of students particularly worry, and I I was the same, I'm still the same now, and I've got a blank document in front of me. I'm like, I I sort of I want to start, and for me, I can't get past that the introduction is the first thing, so I need to say something about it because I can't get past that. That's the first thing. So I often do bullet points if I'm trying to write anything, or I I often advise students to do it and just say, just park them there, know that you're gonna go back to it, but at least you've put something there and you can you can move on. Um, so yeah, I think bullet points are a great way to kind of just break the ice, sort of break the ice of the essay or the the assignment that you're doing.

What Good Introductions Actually Do;

Emma 2:53

Break the ice of the essay. I like that.

Lisa 2:55

And then with introductions, they're such they can be I think people don't always know kind of what they should include and what they shouldn't include in introduction. Because we quite often guess get asked questions about, oh, do I need references in my introduction? You're like, well, with ref you know, it's if you have taken an idea from somewhere, then whether it's in your introduction, a paragraph in the main body, or it should be referenced because that's good academic practice. But the purpose of your introduction, it's not the same as the paragraphs that you have in the main body of your assignment, that the introduction isn't there to be to necessarily draw on lots of different perspectives. It's not necessarily to be critical and in in draw on bring in your analysis. I kind of describe introductions as an essential part of writing, but a functional part of writing that they serve a very specific purpose in that it's there to for me answer sort of three questions really. What's the broad topic? What's the specific focus? And then how are you going to structure your writing? What can the reader expect to come across for you to kind of address the topic that you've you've identified you're going to focus on? So whenever I have a student who asks me about how how should I write my introduction, they're the three questions I kind of put out to them. What's the broad topic, your specific focus, and how are you going to structure your writing? How are you actually going to tell me about that particular thing?

Stefan 4:23

Like those, so those are very, very similar to the things that I tend to say. Again, focusing around like three uh three key questions, and it's like a good introduction should answer these questions, and it's very, very similar to that. It's like, why is this an interesting topic? Why is this an interesting essay? And what can you expect to find within this essay? Right. Just to kind of like uh prepare your reader for for what they're about to what they're about to read, what they're about to see, like whether it's uh kind of outlining your argument or outlining the sections. Ideally, you never want to kind of be surprising your reader in the main body, and you can take your introduction. Exactly. No jumping out of boxes. Um and yeah, you can take the introduction as an opportunity to kind of foreshadow and foreground um the yeah, the takes that you're going to be making, the key message, the key argument, but then also like a general idea of the structure that you're gonna take.

Emma 5:23

I always see it as um situating your reader within the world of your assignment.

Lisa 5:28

So kind of like you can tell someone's a writer, but like very poetic.

Emma 5:35

Giving them kind of the, I don't know, directions, tools, whatever they need in order to navigate that kind of main body.

Stefan 5:42

100%.

Hook The Reader Without Clichés;

Lisa 5:43

And it's interesting, one of the things you said, Stefan, was outlining or kind of giving an indication of what your argument might be or where you're gonna go with that writing, kind of what's the I'm I'm a geographer, so if I can talk about destinations and routes and journeys, I'm all over that. So hinting at what that or kind of being not even hinting at it, but saying what that destination's going to be. And one of the things I often see in uh in assignments we look at is students have obviously been told to give an overview of how they're gonna structure their writing, and there's there's two things in it. One, it's one of the places where students feel most that they they feel they have to say, in this essay, I am going to, it's one of the places they often most struggle to not use the first person, where they could replace that with signposting, like firstly, this essay will whatever it's gonna do, secondly, it will do this, then whatever. But they I've over the all the years I've worked here, I often see introductions finishing with this essay will finish with a conclusion. And it's one, it's one of those sentences which whenever I read it in an assignment and I sp and if I speak to a student, I always try and say, rather than tell me there's going to be a conclusion, tell me what that conclusion is. This essay will argue whatever, or yeah, rather than just stating it's kind of like saying this essay will begin with an introduction, which you're currently reading, which is an odd. So um, yeah, that's one of the things I always look not look for, but it's I see it so many times, and I know why students do it, because it is part of that this is the structure of my writing, but it's one it just feels such a redundant, and this essay will finish with a conclusion.

Avoid Empty Signposting And First Person;

Stefan 7:26

Exactly. And it's also about like it's also about keeping it interesting, right? Like while we talk about these things that you want to include in an introduction, you don't want it to come across as sort of like a formulaic and forced and stuff like that. You want like your introduction is the first impression that you make on your readers. So you want it to be the hook, you want it to be, okay, this is why it's going to be worth your time to read the rest of this thing, right? So you want to kind of hook them in with the the again, why is this going to be interesting and why is it worth your time reading it, right? Um, even when it comes to that kind of outline of the structure, the core arguments, try and do it in an interesting way that's kind of capturing your reader rather than just kind of laundry listing things just because you feel like you have to.

Intros For Dissertations: Go Deeper;

Lisa 8:17

Yeah, often I see students using their learning outcomes as a way of saying this essay will do this, this, and this. Um and I think, like you say, Stefan, it's kind of in telling us the specific interesting things you're going to write about, that will in itself help you be showing that you are going to be addressing those learning outcomes as you go through the writing rather than just repeating what the learning outcomes are. Because actually, you might not address the learning outcome explicitly in that way. It might be addressed through different aspects of the writing. So just reiterating this is the learning outcomes isn't necessarily going to show us that really interesting approach that you're going to take to answering that overall assignment question or giving your perspective on that title or putting forward what your argument is. So they are tricky little things, introductions, but I think you know, the idea that we've all come up with is that like those three questions, or that structuring it around that sort of funneling it down to that kind of this is yeah, this this specific thing that I'm gonna argue or I'm gonna put forward. So

Emma 9:24

in terms of um, so we're so excited to start talking about introductions that we got to say that typically your introduction is about 10% of your word count and the same for your conclusion, it's about 10%. So we kind of looked at kind of three questions that your answer introduction in your introduction put my teeth in. Um is that the same for you know dissertations where you've got a bigger space to um introduce your assignment? What what what might be kind of like the the differences there?

Lisa 10:00

I think for me in an introduction, you've maybe got that, you've got a little bit more room. It's obviously it it potentially a standalone, yeah, a standalone chapter. So you've got a little bit more opportunity to give a bit more of the background, literature that might not appear in a normal introduction to a 3,000-word essay or a 3,000-word report. So potentially, I I still think you I would encourage that sort of funneling approach to the introduction chapter, but rather than two or three lines, which you might have in a shorter assignment, you have got a little bit more luxury to kind of maybe identify what key theories you're going to be be drawing on, what what some of the kind of the importance of that research topic in within the context of of your discipline. Um so I suppose my answer is uh my advice would still be the same, but it's kind of like bigger. Bigger, yeah.

Stefan 11:02

Yeah, I think with dissertations in particular, I think one of the pitfalls that I've tended to see with dissertation introductions is that they don't pull back often enough to this to the research itself, isn't to the dissertation itself. Like I've often seen it with dissertation introductions, yeah, we'll start talking a lot about the literature, but it doesn't then say how the dissertation is engaging with that literature or yeah, or what its relationship to that literature is. Uh if you're reading a dissertation introduction, you should be consistently reminded of, and this is what this dissertation does, or this is what this dissertation is going to do, right? Um, whereas I've read lots of dissertation introductions where I've been like, okay, yeah, that was really interesting, but it's given me no greater sense of what this research is, what the dissertation's main claims are. I've heard a bunch of interesting things about uh particular uh methodologies that are going to be used, or particular bits of literature, or kind of setting the scene, but no, I don't feel any greater knowledge on the specific dissertation itself. So I think in terms of dissertation introduction chapters, yeah, always be pulling it back to, and this is how this dissertation does this particular thing or engages with this particular thing.

Mini Intros And Cohesion Across Chapters;

Lisa 12:25

I always like to think of, I mean, I say this to to students a lot, like whenever I'm trying to prompt critical analysis, like I always use that so what. Um, but the other question, particularly in most what you were just saying, Stefan, is that, and why do I care or why should I care about it? I mean, it's not I wouldn't ever say it in sort of certainly in a in a written feedback, I wouldn't necessarily phrase it in a why should I care about this? Because it could come across maybe not very nice in written feedback, but that's essentially what you're trying to prompt is how does this relate to what I'm about to spend? Why is it important? Yeah. Yeah, how long of my life reading this is I want to know why this matters in relation to what I'm gonna what's gonna follow. Um definitely. Yeah. I think you've also got with bigger projects like dissertations, as well as the introduction chapter, there's also the mini introductions that then come at the start of each chapter as well. And they serve their own. Again, it's that they're essential and functional part of that. What is something? Yeah, they're signpost, absolutely. So if you're writing introductions to your lit review chapter or your methodology chapter, potentially in those, I always think to tell me what the purpose of this chapter is, and again, signpost to the structure of it. You might not necessarily to the same extent have those three questions. It's a much more here's what this next chapter is, and yeah, this is what this is what it includes, kind of kind of thing. It's a minefield of introductions dissertations,

Stefan 14:04

and it's also about in terms of those mini introductions at the start of each chapter, it's also about making it clear how that chapter fits in with the rest of the dissertation, and so that each chapter doesn't just read as an island in in and of itself, but that actually reads as part of a wider project, wider story, rather than leaving it to the reader to make those connections between the chapters and yeah, to see it as a whole project in and of itself rather than a section of um sorry, rather than a collection of individual pieces of writing.

Emma 14:38

I think it is time to move to conclusions.

Lisa 14:41

I always think with conclusions that, or one of the first pieces of advice that I often give, or when I if I was writing conclusions myself, is someone should be able to read my conclusion and get a sense of what my question was. What question was I trying to answer, or what my assignment title was based on my conclusion. That's often how I start thinking about, and there's there's there are you know parts to what you include in a conclusion, but that's the that's for me how I often think about it. This is where you're giving your overall answer to the question that you were asked, or your overall response to the title you were given, your overall argument, which you've built through the writing. Um, as we sort of said, you know, you don't want to surprise your reader through your writing, which is why you signpost to what the writing is going to include. And then you build that through the main body and then the conclusion. I shouldn't never read a conclusion and be like, whoa, that was a bit of a shock. Didn't see that coming. It should almost be like a, oh yeah. I'm on, yeah, that's yeah, I was expecting that. I can see why we've come to that conclusion, and I know where you now sit in response to the thing that you were asked to do. So I suppose for me it, yeah, I should be able to read a conclusion and have a sense of not exactly the the exact phrasing of the question, but roughly what were you broadly asked in some way. I don't know if that's how other people think of it, but that's always my starting point.

Emma 16:07

Yeah, and just jumping onto what you said about no surprises, often students will go, you know, will put something in that that they've not covered in their assignment because they just want to show their tutor that they thought of it. Um, but what that says to your tutor is that you've not planned your assignment properly. Because if it's worth mentioning in your conclusion, then you likely should have given that space in your the main body of your assignment. So don't kind of include any points that you've not explored. If relevant, particularly dissertations, you might discuss where the research could go next or what else could be done. But we don't want kind of any surprises in terms of points that you've not thoroughly discussed in your conclusion, if that makes sense.

Lisa 16:51

And I think sometimes it's because it there's often that thing of I've got to show I'm addressing these learning outcomes, and I've maybe only talked about, I don't know, two m two change model theories, and it says I need to talk about models. So in the conclusion, I'm gonna throw in all these other models which I could have talked about, but actually that it's an it that it's that idea that your tutors aren't expecting you to cover everything necessarily. What they would rather is that narrow they they want to see what you're picking out that and going into depth on maybe fewer. So as long as you've signposted, you know, in your introduction, what models you might consider, you might show an awareness that there are others, but you're only going to consider these two, then yeah, in your conclusion, you don't then see, but I've looked at these two, but there's loads of others. Well, why are you telling me that now? Like that. So I think sometimes it's that worry of I need to show I know, like you said, I'm at all of the things, rather than having the confidence to say, no, I have shown that I've got an understanding of change models by going into these two.

Synthesis Over Summary;

Stefan 17:59

And I think as well. So I mean, I know we mentioned this uh a bit in the in the structure podcast, where it's like when we're thinking through that kind of hourglass sort of shape, where it's like the introduction starts out broad, main body gets really specific and gets into the detail, and then the conclusion comes out broad again, connecting that specific detail back to that kind of broad context which you've outlined in the introduction. So it really is an opportunity to kind of like round off almost the conversation that you've had throughout the essay.

Emma 18:33

Like that.

The Finale: Lasting Impression And Impact;

Stefan 18:33

Um, there we go. Um, and to link back to that again, if we're to think back to those kind of the those questions that we ask ourselves about the introduction, it's the the conclusion is your opportunity to kind of yeah, circle back to those. So again, why is all of this detail that I've just got into in the main body, why is that interesting in its own essay form? But also why is that then interesting in terms of these broader discussions, either theoretical discussions or perhaps kind of real-world political, social situations, whatever it might be. Again, rounding it off showing, and this is why this has been an this should have been an interesting thing to read. You know what I mean? Um, but I think as well, it's about I think one of the big pitfalls that I see with conclusions is when people might just think that you're just summarizing what you've already said. It's like, well, there's an element of that, but it's also about, yeah, kind of pulling these things together to be creating that wider story, that wider response. And again, how does all of this specific detail, these small things which you might just be tempted to summarize, how do they come together collectively to craft a particular response to the essay question or topic, whatever it might be?

Dissertation Conclusions And Future Research;

Lisa 19:59

Linking in with that idea of sometimes people think it is just a summary. Again, I've seen over the years, I've been in the team conclusions where it's in conclusion, this essay has provided an overview of the reason for this particular thing. It has considered, and I always think I know, because I've just read the assignment that goes with it. So I know it the conclusion is not about telling the reader what you've done, it's about showing the reader what you're you've what you've kind of learned by doing what you've done and sort of linking up, thinking about how all those things link together. So if I think about the change model kind of idea and essays we're seeing uh you know at the moment, I don't want to know in your conclusion that there's two change models that could be used to implement this. There's also two different leadership styles that could be used. Actually, in your conclusion, what I'm more interested in is how those things start to link together. It's it's synthesizing things from the main body, not summarizing them. So, yeah, that's one, like I say, make sure your conclusion doesn't just read as this is what I have done in my essay or my report or whatever it is. That's not the purpose of the conclusion. We know what you've done because we've read it. We need to see what you've learned by doing it and how those things link together to give that overall argument that, as we've said, won't be a surprise to us, but it it it's ultimately like say answering that that question that you were set out to answer.

Emma 21:32

I like to see conclusions as like an encore at a concert. Like everything's led up to that moment of you know the big finale. Um and yeah, like drawing it all together, like really kind of hitting the reader over the head, but really kind of showing the I've argued all these points, and this is what it's led to. This is the impact of it. Yeah.

Stefan 21:56

And it's it's like if if your introduction is your first. impression, then your conclusion is your lasting impression, right? And you don't want to leave exactly you don't want to leave it flat. You don't want to leave your reader thinking, oh right, is that it? Like like you say, is that the grand finale? All right. Yeah, you want to kind of keep the almost like the intellectual energy up. And yeah, round it off in a way that your reader's going to be thinking, yeah, that was that's genuinely interesting. Right?

Emma 22:27

It's a mic drop moment.

Lisa 22:32

Yeah. It definitely is. And I feel like that's the moment. Not that I don't obviously want to rush to finish our podcast on introduction, but I feel that is the mic drop moment for the introductions and conclusions. Like leave it on a mic drop moment so people yeah feel I I want to feel having read your introduction, your essay, your conclusion that I've I've learned something, I've got insight into something I didn't have before. Yeah. So I suppose that's yeah.

Emma 23:00

In terms of um dissertations, obviously they have a bigger space for conclusion if we're taking uh 10% and obviously they're a bigger project to conclude. Does anybody have any tips for dissertation conclusions?

Why Openings And Endings Boost Marks;

Stefan 23:12

I mean in terms of and again touched on this a little bit when we were speaking about structure but just about making sure that the multiple levels of your argument are kind of strung together. So in your dissertation conclusion in the chapter you want to make sure that you are tying together the individual conclusions from each chapter but then also showing how those smaller level conclusions are then also indicative and reflect the overall conclusion of the whole dissertation, right? So seeing that kind of uh multi-level structure where say if you have the different chapters and the different conclusions of the chapters being the pillars that hold up the structure and then you have the overall

Emma 24:02

conclusion of the dissertation um as being sort of like the the house or the building whatever it might be. I think yeah what do we speak about? We spoke about the umbrella didn't we in the structure so and it's about just seeing ultimately what it comes down to is just seeing how the individual arguments or individual conclusions combine together to support the the the kind of broader grander narrative or grand conclusion of the whole thing, right? And if you can be doing that in a dissertation conclusion then you're in pretty good shape.

Lisa 24:34

I think potentially in a dissertation conclusion unless it's a separate section which I haven't seen it in many disciplines here is you know recognizing that you know you've found a a gap you found a very you know a gap in the research that your research is aimed to fill and it it's okay that your research doesn't answer every single question or if your research has raised other questions that you haven't been able to cover in the scope of that research. So the other part of a conclusion is I suppose it is sitting it back within the wider context and thinking well actually this is what my research or this research has contributed to the academic conversation on this topic but there's other things that could take this forward. This has highlighted there is a gap in this but this isn't there's a further gap in this area of the research or actually within the scope of this research it's only looked at I don't know this particular cohort or it's only considered it within this particular context and almost signposting opportunities for what could come next whether it's your own research or other people reading this and thinking actually yeah what they did was really interesting. It would be interesting to see if I replicated that in a different context so that further research also might filter in uh also comes into a conclusion dissertation conclusion couldn't get the words in the right order there. Dissertation conclusion chapter kind of and for me it's that you know we talk about the funnel in the introduction coming down to the specific in your conclusion you're doing as Stefan said you've got all those individual conclusions and you're zooming back out bit by bit with that overall and this is this is where it could go next I suppose um yeah it's is is often what I like to see at the end of a dissertation conclusion.

Stefan 26:22

Introductions and conclusions are sometimes there's some of those things which people don't necessarily recognize their significance. But I think what we've shown today is just really how important they can be in terms of uh kind of what they do for your reader in terms of being the first impression, the last impression but also just how they really kind of bookend your essay and ultimately like a good introduction and a good conclusion can end up lifting you up by another couple of marks because if you show to your reader that you've done kind of what you really need to do and you really spell that out to them then yeah if if they've maybe been questioning that slightly throughout the reading the main body and they're thinking oh well I'm not so certain here not so certain here but then if the conclusion really rounds off those points makes it super clear how it's responded to the essay question then yeah you could end up unlocking yourself some some extra marks that you might not have done originally. So yeah don't don't leave the introductions and conclusions as just descriptive summaries or whatever they might be. They play a really important role in your academic writing.

Support And How To Get Help

Emma 27:36

Well thank you for joining me Lisa and Stefan it's been a really interesting uh discussion about introductions and conclusions. Thanks guys if you're a University of Chester student here are the ways you can access support from your academic skills team.

Anthony 27:53

On our Moodle pages we've got lots of interactive resources for you to use on our literacies Moodle page you'll find help with a range of skills from academic rating to revision. On our Maths and statistics Moodle pages you'll find help with different statistical tests, calculations and formulas.

Emma 28:10

You can also use our feedforward email assistance service. You can send 750 words which is around three paragraphs of your work to ask at chester.aseuk and we'll respond within three working days with generic and developmental advice on aspects such as paragraph structure, criticality and referencing you can also book a one-to-one with the Academic Skills advisor via our Moodle pages.

Anthony 28:34

These appointments typically last 30 minutes and are available online and in person. Be able to see the campuses we're at by looking at our working scheduler. You can send across an extract of your work for us to look at in preparation for the one-to-one or you can book a one-to-one to discuss a generic skill such as referencing or critical thinking.

Emma 28:54

If you and a group of your course mates are struggling with the same academic skill you can book an Ask Together session by emailing ask at chester.ac.uk with details of your availability, how many people are in your group what skills you want to cover and where you'd like the session to take place.

Anthony 29:11

You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook using the handle at skillsUOC where we post practical tips on a range of academic skills and it's also a great way to see what the team are up to.

Emma 29:23

And of course you've got the skills pod if you have a topic that you'd like us to cover or you'd like to be involved with our podcast please email ask at chester.ac.uk Ask supporting your success