How to Write Better Essays

acceptance or denial, to outright support with no qualifications. In a

genuine discussion it’s all up for grabs.

It’s well worth reminding yourself that firm, clear opinions have no

particular value in themselves. Anyone can express their opinions, and

almost everyone does. Down at your local bar you can find people with

opinions on just about everything from the reasons why your local

football team is doing badly this season to the ethical implications of

human cloning. But you’re not going to earn marks for your opinions.

Marks are earned by developing your analysis and discussion of the

issues, and then supporting them with relevant, well chosen evidence.

Most of us down at the local bar are rarely so scrupulous in our atten-

tion to the quality of our arguments.

Of course, if you do want to make clear your own opinions and, on

balance, they reflect the preceding discussion, then do so. Failing that,

if you are genuinely undecided, give a tentative conclusion couched in

the appropriate qualifications.

Pick up the theme raised in the introduction

Alternatively, you can summarise the main points in the essay, coming

to a measured judgement of what you believe to be the most impor-

tant issues the essay has raised. Or you could pick up the theme you

raised in your introduction, reflecting on this in the light of what you’ve

discussed since. Tying up the introduction with the conclusion in this

way lends greater cohesion to your work – it is satisfying to the reader

to know that you have come full circle and everything has found its

appropriate place.

For example, the essay that examined the possibility of stopping

progress began in the introduction by referring to the activities of the

Luddites in the nineteenth century during the British industrial revo-

lution. It suggested that in hindsight they might be viewed as naïve and

short-sighted. Given this, you could conclude the essay by picking up

this theme again. You might suggest that in the light of the discussion

in the essay, rather than the Luddites, it might be more appropriate to

accuse our own generation of naivety and short-sightedness in how

we define and measure progress.

The wider implications or future trends

As this suggests, the best conclusion is one that is as thought-

provoking as possible. As we’ve already seen, there are a number of

ways of doing this. You could just re-state the theme of the essay, or you

could summarise the main points of the arguments you’ve developed.

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