Chapter 5: Writing the Beginning and Ending

What You Will Make

You will draft an introduction, a conclusion, and a working title for your essay. Use the Introduction and conclusion planner in the printable worksheets or fillable worksheets, then write the paragraphs in your working document.

This lesson continues the analytical essay about “The Empty Chair” in Chapter 3. The passage and the essay models are fictional teaching material created for these lessons. They are not examples to submit as your own work. Follow your teacher’s instructions about structure, length, and citation.

Give the Opening a Clear Destination

For this exercise, try an introduction that answers three reader questions: What are we examining? What is worth explaining about it? What answer will the essay develop?

You can write a provisional opening from your plan. Return to it after drafting the body: if your interpretation changes, the introduction needs to promise the argument you actually make.

An opening that stays too general

Friendship has been important throughout history. Everybody needs friends. This essay will discuss friendship and a chair.

These sentences do not identify a particular text or a question about it. The claims about history and everybody’s needs also reach beyond the evidence in our short passage.

An opening with a specific question

In the fictional passage “The Empty Chair,” Mina first blocks the seat beside her and later invites a new student to join her. Her changing use of the chair raises a question: does making room for someone mean that she is entirely at ease? The chair changes from a barrier into an invitation, showing Mina becoming willing to connect even though she still seems hesitant.

Notice the sequence: The first sentence names the passage and supplies the relevant situation. The second identifies a tension that gives the essay something to investigate. The third offers the working thesis developed in Chapter 3. The body must now explain both the invitation and the possible hesitation.

The question works here because it leads directly into the interpretation. You do not need a rhetorical question in every introduction. A precise statement of the problem can do the same job.

Choose Context That Your Reader Needs

For this short reading, the reader needs to know who Mina is in the passage and what changes about the chair. A history of chess or a general definition of friendship would delay the analysis without helping establish its point.

Apply this test to each background sentence in your draft: What would the reader struggle to understand if I removed it? Keep context that helps explain the subject, question, or stakes. Move detailed evidence into the body when it needs analysis there.

With an assigned literary work, identify its title and author accurately. With a research question, define essential terms and the case or situation under discussion. Record citations for borrowed background information as you write; an introduction still needs accurate attribution.

Let the Ending Develop the Result

The Harvard College Writing Center explains that a conclusion can return to the central idea, show its significance, and clarify what readers can now understand. It also cautions against simply repeating the whole paper or introducing a substantial counterargument too late to address it. (Harvard College Writing Center)

For our example, assume the body has examined the backpack as a barrier, the later invitation, and Mina’s hand remaining on the chair. It has also considered that the chessboard may help explain her interest in the student. The conclusion should follow that analysis.

An ending that repeats the starting point

In conclusion, the chair is a barrier and then an invitation. Mina changes. This proves my thesis.

The ending names the result but does not explain what the comparison helps us understand. “This proves my thesis” asks the reader to accept a verdict in place of a final insight.

An ending that draws the ideas together

Mina’s invitation changes the meaning of the chair without settling everything about her feelings. The seat once kept the student away; it now gives him a place beside her. Her remaining hand on the chair complicates an ending of effortless confidence. Read together, these details suggest that, for Mina, beginning a connection can involve acting while hesitation remains.

The final sentence offers an implication of this reading. It stays with Mina rather than claiming that the passage proves how everyone makes friends. The ending also avoids deciding exactly why she was hesitant, which the passage leaves open.

If your body has not yet examined the hand on the chair, develop that evidence there first. A conclusion cannot repair a missing part of the argument by announcing it for the first time.

Choose a Title That Fits the Essay

Try “From Barrier to Invitation: The Chair in ‘The Empty Chair’.” It names the focus and suggests the interpretation. Compare it with “My Essay,” which gives the reader no information, or “How Everyone Overcomes Fear,” which promises more than this analysis supports.

For your own draft, write one title naming the subject and another naming your interpretation. Combine them if the result is clear, or choose the more useful one. Check the final title after revising the essay, and follow any title format your teacher requires.

Try It Yourself

Revise this proposed final sentence:

Mina’s story proves that anyone can solve loneliness by joining a chess club.

1. Identify what the sentence claims that the passage never establishes.
2. Return to the invitation and the hand on the chair.
3. Write a final sentence about what those details suggest about Mina.

One possible answer: “Mina’s invitation suggests that her willingness to connect has changed, even though her feelings remain partly uncertain.” The revision removes an invented chess club, a universal claim, and a promised solution. Another interpretation can work if it stays answerable to the passage.

Now draft your own opening and ending. Read them together, then compare them with the body. If the conclusion gives a different answer from the introduction, decide whether your thinking has improved or your argument has drifted. Revise the appropriate part rather than forcing the ending to repeat an outdated thesis.

Check Before You Continue

• Opening: Have I identified the subject and given the reader a focused question or problem?
• Promise: Does the thesis match the argument developed in the body?
• Context: Does each background sentence help the reader understand that argument, with attribution where needed?
• Ending: Have I explained the result’s significance without claiming more than the evidence supports?
• Title: Does the title describe this particular essay and follow the assignment’s requirements?

Keep both paragraphs provisional until your revision of the whole essay is complete.