This document provides strategies for writing strong opening and concluding paragraphs. It recommends engaging the reader in the opening with techniques like using a general statement and narrowing the focus, striking assertions, anecdotes, or interesting details. For conclusions, it suggests satisfying the reader by restating the main idea, asking rhetorical questions, providing a summary, or calling readers to action. Strong openings should catch interest, introduce the topic and thesis, while conclusions should tie everything together and leave readers thinking.

1. Opening and Conclusions
the first word of your paper may be the most important. Your
opening must engage your readers, introduce your topic and
your thesis or main idea, and provide an idea of what you
intend to say.
your conclusion is equally important because what it says
will linger in the reader´s mind. Here you tie together
everything you have covered into a tidy package. without
strong opening and conclusions. Your ideas can be lost.

2. Whenever you are ready to work on your opening and
conclusions, consider the following strategies:
• Engaging opening:
• You want to catch the reader´s interest, but how much space can you
afford to spend doing so? In an essay of two or three pages, one
paragraph is the standard length for a opening in most college writing. In
longer papers, you may want to use two paragraph, the first paragraph
for an attention-grabbing quotation, anecdote, or fact and the second for
commenting on it and introducing your thesis.

3. Several techniques can make opening more engaging
General to specific pattern:
many opening paragraph in college papers start with a broad general
statement, narrow the focus, and en by stating the thesis.
e.g. Anxiety, stress and tension exist in us all. At worst, too much stress can
cost us our lives. At the very least , it jeopardizes our health. The most
effective way to control stress and live more comfortable lives is to use
techniques for relaxation.

4. striking assertion:
You may want to open with statement so improbable, eye-opening, or
far-reaching that the reader will demand to see proof. After grabbing his
reader´s attention, this writer directly state his thesis.
e.g. John Milton was a failure. In writing paradise lost , his stated aim was to
“justify the ways of God to men”. Inevitably. He fell short of
accomplishing that and only wrote a monumental poem. Beethoven.
Whose music was conceived to transcend fate. Was a failure, as was
Socrates, whose ambition was to make people happy by making them
reasonable and just. The inescapable conclusion seems to be that the
surest. Noblest way to fail is to set one´s own standards titanically high.

5. • Anecdote :
• Try telling a brief story about someone or something that introduces the
topic and illustrates the thesis.
• E.g. Once I met a woman who grew up in the small North Carolina town to
which chang and eng, the original Siamese twins, retired after their circus
careers. When I asked her how the town reacted to the twins marrying
local girls and setting up adjacent household, she laughed and said:
“honey, that was nothing compared to what happened before the twins
got there. “ Get the good gossip on any little mountain town, scratch the
surface and you´ll find a snake pit !

6. Stronger opening
• Be direct
• Sharpen your focus
• Emphasize the main idea

7. Interesting detail, statitistic, or quotation:
With this technique, you plunge your readers into an unfamiliar situation
to pique their curiosity.
e.g. “Mrs. Tolstoy is your basic L.O.L. in N.A.D; admitted for a soft rule-out
M.I.,” the intern announces, I scribble that on my patient list. In other
words, Mrs., Tolstoy is a little old lady in No Apparent Distress who is in
the hospital to make sure she hasn´t had a heart attack ( rule out a
myocardial infarction). And we think it´s unlikely that she has a heart
attack( a soft rule-out ).
If a had learned nothing else during my first three month of working in the
hospital as a medical student. I learned endless jargon and abbreviations.
Perry klass.

8. • Satisfying conclusion:
An effective conclusion leaves satisfied with the discussion and gives them
something to think about. In also remind readers of your main idea or
thesis. You can develop a statement or restatement of the main idea in
one of several ways.( if you have not yet explicitly stated your main idea,
do so now)
Reotherical question:
a rhetorical question is asked only for effect, it is meant not to be
answered but to persuade the reader to agree with you.

9. • Summary:
• a concise summary of the important point in paper usually concludes with
an assertion based on them.
• Call to action:
• In argument papers, you use your power of persuasion to make your case.
the conclusion is one place to mobilize readers to action.

10. • Speculation :
You might close your paper with some speculation about what the future
will be if the action you propose is-or is not- taken. This can have a
powerful impact on your readers.
e.g. someday, perhaps, a democratic account the physiology of sex will be
written, an account that will stress both the functional and organic aspect
of reproduction.
Ruth Herschberger,Adam´s Rib

11. • Johnny Villadiego Guillen