2.12 Step 7: Write Your Concluding Sentences
Link your concluding sentences to pairs of topic sentences.
| Table 2-2G. The scaffolding steps covered so far in Chapter 2. | |
|---|---|
| Step 1 | Generate broad topics: Write each topic on the blank side of an index card |
| Step 2 | Organize and evaluate topics: Manipulate index cards into a plausible order |
| Step 3 | Enhance existing topic cards: Convert broad topics into finer detailed subtopics and write each subtopic on its own index card |
| Step 4 | Convert subtopic cards into paragraph topic cards: Each index card represents a paragraph?s topic |
| Step 5 | Organize your paragraph topics |
| Step 6 | Write a topic sentence for each paragraph topic: Write it on the reverse side of a paragraph topic?s index card |
| Step 7 | Write a concluding sentence for each paragraph topic: Write it on the reverse side of a paragraph topic?s index card |
In Step 6, you wrote a topic sentence on each paragraph topic’s index card. In Step 7, you add concluding sentences (Table 2-2G). Again, you exploit your scaffold because the topic sentences you created in Step 6 guide the concluding sentences you write in Step 7. Make sure you write the concluding sentence well below an index card’s topic sentence, leaving space between them on the index card (Figure 2-6). You will use the space to add additional notes later in the scaffolding process.
Recall a concluding sentence relates to two different topic sentences: the topic sentence which begins the paragraph containing the concluding sentence and the topic sentence which begins the next paragraph (Figure 2-3). You need to establish the two links for each concluding sentence you write. Accordingly, you need to complete Step 6 before you begin Step 7: you cannot write concluding sentences without already having both topic sentences available.
How do you write a concluding sentence for a paragraph? First, you read the topic sentence which starts the paragraph. Second, you read the topic sentence which starts the next paragraph. Third, you write a sentence which relates to both topic sentences.
To link a concluding sentence to the topic sentence in the same paragraph, you write a sentence which restates the topic in different, usually more specific, terms. To link a concluding sentence to the next paragraph’s topic sentence, you use the concluding sentence to segue to the next topic sentence. You can build a bridge between a concluding sentence and the next topic sentence by ensuring both sentences make similar points; often, both sentences will share words.
To illustrate, Table 2-4 provides the concluding sentences for each paragraph presented earlier in Table 2-3. Note how the concluding sentences try to connect to two different topic sentences. For instance, the first concluding sentence restates the first topic sentence’s point; the same concluding sentence links to the second topic sentence because both sentences use the word ‘skeleton’, and both refer to ‘writing puts flesh on a skeleton’.
Again, you shouldn’t spend much time trying to make your concluding sentences perfect. Jot them down quickly; shitty concluding sentences are just as liberating as are shitty topic sentences. You will clean up your mess when you revise and polish your manuscript.
Step 7 ends when you have a concluding sentence on each paragraph card in your scaffold. When you complete Step 7, you have finished building your outline’s core (Figure 2-5). You possess a set of index cards; you have a paragraph topic written on one side of each card; you have a topic sentence and a concluding sentence written on the other side. After one more evaluative step, you can move your scaffold into a word processing document.
| Table 2-4. Examples of pairs of topic sentences and concluding sentences for the first eight paragraphs of the previous book section. | |
|---|---|
| First Draft of Topic Sentence | First Draft of Concluding Sentence |
| Adler and van Doren (1972) describe writing as beginning with a skeleton which the author works to hide. | The author’s aim “is to conceal the skeleton artistically or, in other words, to put flesh on the bare bones”. |
| Enhance existing topic cards: Convert Our scaffold now has taken the form of a highly structured skeleton. | We can now begin to put flesh on the skeleton by converting it into a partial manuscript: an outline. |
| flesh to the skeleton we have created by adding topic sentences to each paragraph. | Remember, a topic sentence’s purpose is to state the topic of a paragraph. |
| Step 6 is easily accomplished because of all our earlier work creating our scaffold. | Step 6 is easily accomplished because of all our earlier work creating our scaffold. |
| Write a topic sentence for each To illustrate the ease of converting topics into topic sentences, Table 2-2 provides some examples for the current section of the book. | Note the topic sentences in the table may not match the topic sentences in the section perfectly, because my topic sentences will change during multiple revisions of my manuscript. |
| Write a concluding sentence for each Importantly, Step 6 requires us to write a topic sentence for each paragraph topic; we need not do anything else. | We need to have our topic sentences in place before we begin to write concluding sentences. |
| In Step 6 we are finally writing sentences. | How good should our topic sentences be? |
| should write the best topic sentences we can in a fairly short period of time. | We should not waste time or effort trying to write perfect sentences. |
