Essay Intro/Conclusion

Question

So as I start to write a couple of drafts, I feel myself sucked back into 5th grade and find myself strictly adhering to the intro/body/conclusion method, which is taking up some space.

Did anyone find that they weren't always necessary? Did anyone skip them? I feel like maybe I could end in such a way that I could skip one or the other, but years of english class makes me nervous about doing so :-D

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isa · Answer

My first drafts of nearly ALL my essays had no introduction - I'm lousy at writing those, and found I'd get stuck and couldn't move past the first few lines to write. So I had the opposite problem

Most of my essays ended up having no introduction or conclusion. Instead, I made the first/last sentence of each essay introductory or conclusion-esque. It saved space and prevented me from rambling on!

refurb · Answer

I'm the same as isa. Most of the time the word count is so restrictive that you can't afford to waste a whole paragraph on intro and conclusion.

What I did was a one sentence "intro" then went right into my career progression and finished off with "why school X" and a one sentence conclusion.

RF

Jerz · Answer

Same here. I still had a concluding sentence so it didn't seem like I had just reached the word limit and stopped writing, but generally just jumped right into the content at the beginning. For example, the "intro" to my career goals essay was my long-term career goals.

Pathfinder · Answer

Well, "intro/body/conclusion" is in b-school essay replaced by "set-up a stage/describe the situation/tell us what have you learned" concept. It depends on the situation, so one of these areas could be shorter or, on the other hand, given high priority, but I can't imagine the essay without one of these.

GoBruin · Answer

No intro persay. I just tried to use something that would draw them in. but it wasn't a "Tell them what you are gonna say, say it, summerize what you said" type thing. you don't reallly have much room.

garbus222 · Answer

Not only did I use 2-3 sentences of intro in all of my essays, but also I tried to make these sentences catchy/interesting/funny/etc - i.e. stand out. I read somewhere that in the US students write essays in a very schematic way so I thought that a catchy opening will be an easy way to differentiate myself.

Essay Intro/Conclusion

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