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“…and they lived happily ever after,” is a well-known kind of conclusion for most fictional pieces for children. As we advance in age, education, and career, we find that such conclusions do not serve our purpose any longer. There is the need to be more intentional and purposeful with respect to the kind of conclusions we give to our essays or to any other kind of write-up.
Why are conclusions necessary for every write-up? For one thing, your reader can find in the concluding paragraph a summation of what the entire essay has been about. For another thing, it gives you an opportunity to reiterate the salient points that you want to be noted by your reader. In other words, your stance on the subject you have written about will be clearly inferred from your conclusion.
How can you ensure that your concluding paragraph serves its purpose as earlier identified? By using the right approach that conforms to your goal in writing the piece. I will share with you different approaches you can deploy to make your conclusions come off as powerful and effective.
One way to powerfully conclude your essay is to issue out a call for action (CFA). Depending on the purpose of your essay, you may want to get people to side with you on an argument, buy a product you are selling, or accept a service you are rendering. Whatever the case is, CFAs are a powerful tool for conclusion; they get your reader to know exactly what you would have them do with the information you have shared in the body paragraphs resulting from your thesis statement.
Could you also ask a question or several questions in your concluding paragraph? This will serve to stir the mental capacity of your reader and lead them to think more about your propositions in the essay. This approach of asking questions has to be engaged strategically in order for you to come up with the right kind of questions related to the argument developed in the essay.
Additionally, you may simply choose to do a recap of the main points that were discussed in the essay. This is most effective for readers who simply scan through the introductory and concluding parts of an essay.
Would you like to leave a lasting impression in the minds of your readers when they get to the concluding paragraph? Then consider using statistics that echo the validity of the stance you have adopted in your work. This enhances and promotes your credibility as a writer because numbers don’t lie! Be sure to do sufficient research so that, when your statistics are checked out, they are authentic and credible.
Powerful quotations by reputable persons can also be used to conclude an essay. Since the individuals are forces to be reckoned with, chances are that people would like to listen to their sayings, and it would be a lot easier for the main point of the essay to be connected with such quotes.
What approaches have worked for you to deliver a powerful conclusion in your essays? Feel free to share them with me so that others can take a cue.
Vocabulary lesson
Our lesson this week emphasizes alternative ways of saying things. Oftentimes, when we want to ask someone to get things done for us, we usually use the word ‘please’ to convey our request and to show that we are not imposing our request on them. No one likes an imposition! There is, therefore, a need to know how to ask for help when we genuinely need it. What other phrases can be used instead of ‘please’?
For one thing, you could ask someone, ‘Would you mind holding the door for me?’ Framing your request this way should make it easier for the other party to oblige you. And I hope you remember the right response to give when asked this question by someone. Please, note that if you would like to oblige someone their request when they use the expression ‘would you mind’, you would need to say, ‘No, I don’t mind’. Suppose someone said to you, ‘Would you mind taking care of my dog?’ You could respond in two ways: ‘Yes, certainly’ – and this would mean that you are never going to oblige them the request. You would never take care of their dog! But if you said, ‘No, I don’t mind’ it would mean that you are very much at home with taking care of the dog.
Now, let’s get back to how else you can say ‘please’. You could say, ‘Would you be able to look after this for me?’ OR ‘I’d appreciate it if you could look after this for me.’ I suppose that the two examples just listed here could be used more with persons you are familiar with. At the workplace or in other formal settings, you could choose to say, ‘I don’t suppose you could lend me your flash pen?’ This, when said, implies that you are kindly asking for help with their flash pen. Additionally, you could put it differently – ‘I wonder if you might be able to postpone this meeting given my current predicament.’ Such usages make your writing and speaking apt and better appreciated, I think.
How many of you dear readers are familiar with Broda Shaggi on social media? Even though he presents comedy skits, he uses a particular expression often, which is relevant to our lesson this week: ‘I take full responsibility for this’. This is one beautiful expression to use in place of ‘I’m sorry’. In a previous edition I shared a lot more on what to say instead of using ‘I’m sorry’ all the time. You may way to check out the previous post.
When you are sad, how do you express your feelings to others without necessarily saying, ‘I’m sad’? An expression like, ‘I’m feeling really down about what has just happened’ could suffice, or ‘I’m not doing so great’. You could even say, ‘I’m a bit down in the dumps’ or ‘I’m totally worn out’. ‘I’m gutted’ and ‘I’m absolutely devastated’ are other expressions that can serve your purpose in place of ‘I’m sad’.
What’s your specific response to ‘How are you?’ Most times the generic response spans from ‘I’m fine’ to ‘I’m good’ or ‘I’m great’. How about we switch things up? Check out the following responses and save the ones that work best for you: ‘I couldn’t be better!’ ‘I’ve been terrible!’ ‘I’m really doing well/great’ ‘Not too bad, thanks!’ ‘I’m as fit as a fiddle!’
Does boredom sometimes strike and you need to say how you feel? Consider using any of the following expressions rather than just saying ‘I’m bored’: ‘I’m bored to death’ – depending on the intensity of the boredom; ‘This is a bit of a snore’ – depending on your experience with what causes you the bore; ‘I’m bored to tears’; ‘I’m bored stiff’; ‘They are a total bore!’
Finally, I’ll share with you vocabulary tips for replacing ‘I’m tired’. One is ‘I’m completely sapped’; another is ‘I’m completely knackered!’ Several others include: ‘I’m absolutely exhausted’ ‘I’m worn out’ ‘I’m done in – or I’m totally done in’ ‘I’m completely drained’. I’ve once heard someone say ‘I’m cream-crackered!’ (Makes me feel like cream crackers!)
There you go! Practice and become perfect. Use these expressions in relation to your appropriate context.
Dr. Ruth K. B. Oji
