Opinion essay — part five: CONCLUSIONS
Although the conclusion is a small part of the essay, it is a very very important part of the essay. It would be a real shame if you thought of really good ideas, developed those ideas, wrote a good introduction and main body paragraph but finished the essay with a bad conclusion.
WHAT IS A CONCLUSION?
- It is where you state your opinion
- where you summarize your main ideas
- In any academic paper, you are able to find the main points in the introduction and the conclusion.
WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF A GOOD CONCLUSION?
- A cohesive device (a linking word):
- Examples: ‘In conclusion,’ or ‘To conclude,’
2. Reiterate your opinion:
- Do NOT worry about repetitions at this point! Do not worry about repeating your opinion again in the conclusion, HOWEVER, this does not mean that you can use all the same words to describe it. You MUST paraphrase.
- The official IELTS marking criteria states that the essay must 1) addresses all parts of the task, 2) present a clear position throughout the response, and 3) present, extend and support main ideas, but there may be a tendency to overgeneralize and/or supporting ideas may lack focus.
- Here we take our main ideas from the introduction and paraphrase them.
3. Summary of main ideas
- Someone should be able to read your conclusion only and tell what your main ideas are.
- Paraphrasing your main ideas will make the conclusion easy to write and ensure you properly summarize your opinion.
DEMONSTRATION
“Parents of obese children should be punished for making them fat”
Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Introduction: “It is argued that the mothers and fathers of overweight children should be penalized for allowing their offspring to become obese. This essay disagrees with this statement because parents do not control what children eat at all times and genetic factors are also to blame”.
Opinion: disagree
Main idea #1: parents do not control what children eat at all times.
Main idea #2: Genetic factors to blame.
Conclusion: In conclusion, parents should not be sanctioned if their sons or daughters are too heavy because they are unable to supervise their diet for most of the day and genes play a role in determining the weight of a human being.
CHALLENGE: WRITE A FULL ESSAY
Here is an example for you to practice:
“Wealthy nations should assist poorer countries with humanitarian relief during natural disasters”.
Do you agree or disagree?
