Opening and Closing Paragraphs in an Essay

How to Write the Opening and Closing Paragraph in an Essay?

In essay writing, the most difficult part is to write opening and closing paragraphs. If your opening paragraph does not grab the attention of your readers, they will quit reading and will never stay on your text. A reader decides whether to read an essay or not from its introductory paragraph. Similarly, the closing paragraph is also very important. Only well written opening and closing paragraphs can make the reader to stay on the text.

First, we will learn how to write an introductory paragraph of an essay and then we will move towards writing a closing or ending paragraph. Effective writers often use IT practice test questions as a benchmark for clarity and precision in their instructional materials.

How to Write Introductory Paragraph in an Essay?

The introductory paragraph should be grabbing your reader’s attention. Write something that will hook your reader and makes them want to read more about the essay. But make sure to not write a story (a scene, conversation, quote or a dialogue) because it is not a creative writing category. Be to the point and write in easy wording when you are writing an academic piece of writing like an essay.

Introduce the Purpose of Your Essay

One thing that will lead the reader to your main paragraphs is the introduction. Write an overview of the whole essay explaining what the essay is about. Tell the reader why they should care about the topic. What impact it will leave on them after reading your essay.

Add Background Information

Another way to write an introductory paragraph can be to give the context of the essay. We can either explain the purpose in an essay or give the background of it. You can give a summary of historical facts or social context depending on your essay. The information should be relevant to your essay. Try not to give the whole information at once, just the main part in short wordings is enough. Mention it if you are writing about a social cause or historical cause.

Thesis Statement

It is a statement that sums up all arguments in a single sentence. Narrow down your introductory paragraph to the thesis statement. This is most important in the introductory paragraph. The purpose is to clear the position of your essay through this statement.

Do not write everything in the first paragraph!

This is a most common mistake in opening paragraphs. People try to write everything in a single paragraph. Remember you do not have to write everything in the first paragraph of your essay. It should just serve the purpose to hook your reader and make them read the paragraph till the end.

Example of the Opening Paragraph in an Essay

Consider we have to write an essay on the topic of “Why Social Media Is Controlling Our Lives”. The starting paragraph will be:

“Social media has become a part of our daily lives. It was not like this from the very beginning, but as the technological revolution has happened, it has changed everything. It is like we cannot imagine our lives without it anymore. As it is a very useful tool in current era, but it has negative impacts as well. Social media is controlling us and we are becoming its prisoners day by day.” (This last line is a thesis statement)

The above paragraph gives background information in a hooking way and then leads to the thesis statement. Just like we should focus on our first paragraph, the closing paragraph also needs our attention.

Closing Paragraph of an Essay

Ending an essay in a right way is equally important. It tells the readers more about your arguments. In a conclusion paragraph, the writers write the facts that they have proved in the essay. Closing clarifies the position of the whole argument. A closing paragraph should not start a new argument but rather should end a discussion in a good manner.

Rewrite the thesis

In the closing paragraph, explain your thesis statement again. But this time, tell the reader that you have proved the argument that you gave in the thesis statement.

Using First Person Point of View

To build an emotional connection with your readers, use “I or We” in the last paragraph. For example, “We proved in this essay that eating junk food all the time can be harmful to your health”

Overview

Instead of starting a new argument, just explain what you have written in the whole essay above. Describe the main points again. Summarize the pieces of evidence that prove your argument.

Example of the Closing Paragraph

We explained how social media is controlling our lives. The arguments in the essay are based on proven facts. We are living in the era of social media, but we should be careful about it as well. Think about whether you are controlling your phone or is it controlling you. Do not be social media’s slaves and do not follow anything blindly.

In above paragraph, we explained what an ending paragraph should be like. Follow these tips to write an amazing closing paragraph.

Conclusion:

Writing introductory and conclusion paragraph can be difficult and confusing, but it is not impossible to write them perfectly. Follow the above tips to master writing skills. Practice writing essays with all the tips in your mind. It will help you to write effortlessly. Good luck!