1. An interesting and thorough introduction gives the audience a reason to read your essay and consider your arguments. WRITING AN INTRODUCTION

2. Introductions: The Inverted Pyramid Style Inverted Pyramid style follows a format that looks like an upside-down pyramid.

3. The base represents the attention grabbing opening sentence. This sentence should be a general or broad idea that is related to your essay topic. The Inverted Pyramid: The Base

4. How To: “I never know how to start an intro. How do I write an attention grabber?” “I’m so bad at writing attention grabbers!” “My 8 th grade teacher told me to start my essays with a definition from Webster's dictionary.” There are a number of ways to begin a introduction. Make sure the opening sentence is constructed in such a way that the reader is aware that it relates to the overall topic of the essay.  A personal story or anecdote  Paint a picture for the reader’s mind  A quote that relates to the topic  A thought provoking question or statement that relates to the overall topic

5. The Inverted Pyramid: The Center The center of the pyramid contains more specific information relating to the novel. As the pyramid narrows, lead into the thesis statement with a solid transitional sentence.

6. The Inverted Pyramid: The Point The point of the pyramid represents the last sentence in your introduction, the thesis statement.

7. THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO LEAVE THE READER WITH A LONG-LASTING IMPRESSION ABOUT THE TOPIC YOU WROTE ABOUT. MAKE IT MEANINGFUL! Writing your Conclusion

8. The point represents the first sentence of the conclusion, and should remind reader of your thesis statement. Concluding Your Essay: The Point

9. Concluding Your Essay: The Center Review your main points, but don't summarize everything you wrote. Lead into your final conclusion and thoughts regarding the topic.

10. Concluding Your Essay: The Base The base represents the last sentence of your essay that should leave an impact on the reader.

11. When procrastinating, the writer is racing to finish the essay and does the bare minimum in terms of ending the writing piece. The reader, in this case the teacher, wants to finish reading quickly in order to assign a grade and move on; therefore ignores the conclusion. That's all folks... the essay stops here! Conclusion should leave the reader with a clear understanding of the importance of your topic. Review your main points, but don't summarize everything you wrote. Take a more personal approach and discuss how this process changed your thinking. Reveal to the reader the significance of studying literature about heroes. Why do we Neglect Conclusions?

12. Someone told you to restate the thesis and introduction, so there is nothing new in the conclusion anyway. In the publishing world of journalism, the final paragraphs are often cut off completely, to make room for more advertising space. Why should the reader care about your topic? What is the most important thing the reader should take away from your essay? End with a cliffhanger; now that you've explored this topic, what do you want to further investigate. Take a risk, this is the LAST thing I will read, so make it memorable—what sort of grade do you want? End the paper with A+ quality writing.