Introductions Guidelines: The scope of your introduction should be only slightly broader than the scope of the body of your essay. Your introduction should be appropriate for your essay and your essay only. Your introduction should lead directly to your thesis statement. Your thesis statement should be at the end of your introduction. Do not use a cheap “hook.” You should not view your readers as people you will manipulate. It is likely that a story will be appropriate for your introduction. You might have more than one story in your essay. It might also be appropriate to begin with a brief history of the problem you are addressing in your essay or with a brief history of the group most affected by the policy, rule, or law that you are writing about.

Conclusions Guidelines: The scope of your conclusion can be significantly broader than the scope of the body of your essay. The conclusion should be appropriate for your essay and your essay only. Your conclusion should aim to give a sense of completeness to your essay. Your conclusion should reinforce your thesis. Do not introduce material that should have been more fully elaborated in the body of the essay. In particular, do not introduce material that would distract from your thesis. It is possible that you will need to move material from your conclusion to the body of your essay.

Research Remember that you will be graded for documentation. You are required to use MLA-style documentation for this essay. Your documentation should consist of MLA-style in-text citations and an MLA-style Works Cited page.