ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

What Not to do in a Conclusion 6994 Views


Share It!


Description:

Even the best essays can go wrong in the conclusion—this video covers what not to do in a conclusion to help avoid any essay-ending problems. The tips in this video help sort out what should go in a conclusion (and what might be better in a body paragraph) and will help any essay from going down like the Hindenburg.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Thank you We sneak What not to do in a

00:05

conclusion eyelash shmoop lou you just finished an essay It's

00:10

good really good You don't even have to fudge the

00:14

margins or line spacing kind of good This kind of

00:17

essay is the hindenburg it's a smooth ride but how

00:20

are you gonna land this thing Oh harder harder Here

00:25

are a few things you should absolutely not do to

00:27

keep your essay from crashing and burning at the last

00:30

second so don't simply restate your thesis Your paper should

00:34

have been a journey you should be re exploring your

00:38

thesis if you simply cut and pasted from your intro

00:41

your teacher is going to cut and paste you We're

00:43

not sure exactly what that means but it won't be

00:45

pleasant Don't try it Don't bring up anything new in

00:48

the conclusion If you remember a hilarious louis ck routine

00:52

that would fit perfectly with your essay go back and

00:55

put it in your essay don't put it in the

00:57

conclusion all that's going to do is leave your reader

01:00

wanting more and in the wrong way in the my

01:03

roommate ate all but one of the cookies kind of

01:06

way it is also remember that you don't need to

01:09

come up with a definitive answer is just an essay

01:12

you're not trying to solve the world's problems If you

01:14

try to tell people exactly what to think tired mr

01:18

prez you're just going to make them that instead show

01:22

them what conclusion you came to but leave the door

01:25

open for them to argue with You don't end with

01:29

a quote from someone else Your reader has stuck with

01:31

your essay until the end They want to know what

01:34

you think not what some other dope has to say

01:37

way say other dope We weren't implying that you're a

01:41

dope not on last You end up with a quote

01:43

from someone else and you're totally a dope Finally transitions

01:47

are great We love transitions almost as much love ice

01:50

cream sandwiches but as with ice cream sandwiches i don't

01:54

want to overdo it Your transition shouldn't be the tired

01:57

old in conclusion or similar make it snappy Here's a

02:02

quick recap of what not to do in your conclusion

02:05

don't restate your thesis Don't bring up anything new don't

02:09

come up with a definitive answer to life's problems don't

02:12

end with a quote from someone else Don't use cliche

02:14

transitions In conclusion there are many things you should not

02:18

do to keep your essay from crashing and burning at

02:20

the last second By working to decrease meat consumption and

02:24

redirecting corn production of countries in need of food world

02:27

hunger will be solved As dorothy parker said A little

02:31

bad taste is like a nice dash of paprika there

02:35

We've just written the worst conclusion ever You can at 00:02:39.05 --> [endTime] least do better than that

Up Next

Wordiness
15156 Views

Want even more deets on wordiness? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.

Related Videos

Tenses
4936 Views

Want even more deets on tenses? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.

Semicolons
10238 Views

Want even more deets on semicolons? Click here to review. Or take a look at our entire grammar section for all the goods.

Ratio of Asking Questions Versus Giving Answers
718 Views

Asking questions can help spice up an essay. Just make sure you don't get too spicy and forget to answer those questions. You don't want to leave y...

Parallel Structure
16037 Views

This video defines parallel structure and analyzes what makes it powerful (spoiler alert: sticking to a consistent part of speech, like infinitives...