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Alice Dixon

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Many students, when preparing for Analysis of an Argument, assume that deficiencies in the main body of their essay are the main indicator for grading. But the introduction and conclusion play an important role and directly affect the result. Without a well-written introduction and conclusion, you could lose 0.5 to 1.5 points out of a possible 6 for the essay.

Introduction

The introduction is not only one of the most important papersmart of the essay, it shows your ability to think logically, your writing style, and the overall level of your work. Usually the introduction consists of two to four sentences. With the help of the introduction you can determine:

  1. The conclusion made by the author.
  2. What the author is guided by in reaching his conclusion. How did he come to that conclusion?
  3. Point out the flaws in the arguments.

As an example, consider part of an article from a brewers' magazine:

Magic Hat Brewery recently released the results of a survey of visitors to its tasting room last year. Magic Hat reports that the majority of visitors asked to taste its low-calorie beers. To boost sales, other small breweries should brew low-calorie beers as well.

From this example, the author concluded that small breweries should brew low-calorie beers as well in order to boost sales.

The author suggested that, according to Magic Hat Brewery's research, the bulk of tasting room visitors were interested in low-calorie beers.


Now that we have parsed the author's conclusion and the reasoning on which it is based, we can write our opening paragraph. The main thing is not to copy word for word the text you read. Instead, rephrase it:

In the argument, the author concludes that small breweries should offer a low-calorie beer to help increase overall sales. This is based on the premise that in a recent survey, conducted by Magic Hat Brewery, a preponderance of visitors to its tasting room requested to sample its low-calorie beer. However, on deeper analysis, it becomes apparent that certain relevant aspects have not been taken into account, leading to a number of mistaken assumptions and logical flaws.

This introduction begins with the author's conclusion. The next sentence describes what the author's conclusion is based on. And the third sentence points out the fallacy of the arguments, which allows the whole point of the error to be revealed in the next two to three paragraphs.

You can also use a rearrangement of sentences (but using your own words) with the erroneous conclusion and argument. Make sure you are not presenting your own point of view, so avoid "I" and "we."

Conclusion

Unlike the introduction, the conclusion should summarize the information that displays the author's erroneous opinion and your arguments about it. The conclusion can be short - 2 to 3 sentences - or, if time allows, you can point out again what you think is incorrect information.

There should not be any "I's" in the conclusion either. But the conclusion itself must be present, so you need to calculate the time so that you have time to write it. The conclusion is an uncomplicated part, be sure to include it in the essay. For example:

After closer examination of the passage presented, it is apparent that the argument presented holds several logical flaws. The recommendations in the essay show how the argument may be strengthened and made more logically sound.

On the other hand, if time permits, you can write in more detail about the results of your analysis. This will help improve the result. For example:

In conclusion, the argument in the magazine article contains several logical flaws, as there is not enough data to correctly compare small breweries generally with Magic Hat Brewery, specifically. Moreover, the argument does not give enough information to show why low calorie beers would indeed increase sales when there may be a host of other manners which can do so. The author's argumentation could certainly be strengthened by following the recommendations presented.

Now that the importance of the concluding and introductory part in the Analysis of an Argument is clear, you will definitely incorporate the above points into your essay, which will help you achieve a perfect score of 6!