AVOID Common Conclusion MISTAKES (FIX THEM NOW)!

Summary

In this video by Garden of English, Tim Freitas offers insightful tips on how to craft sophisticated conclusions for rhetorical analysis essays. Instead of merely rephrasing thesis statements or summarizing essays, he advocates for an effective three-step approach that emphasizes the learning process, which includes knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. By focusing on identifying universal ideas, moving towards a timeless perspective, and imparting applicable wisdom, writers can enhance the impact of their conclusions. Freitas also introduces practical examples using Cesar Chavez's piece from the 2015 AP English Language Exam, making this a comprehensive guide for students aiming to refine their essay-writing skills.

Highlights

• Ditch traditional conclusion methods; focus on articulating the learning process. 🎓
• Break down your conclusion into three components: knowledge, understanding, wisdom. 🚀
• Knowledge involves identifying universal ideas within the text. 🌍
• Use metaphors for a stylish introduction to your conclusion. 🎨
• Shift to a universal perspective, making the conclusion applicable to any time period. ⏰
• Conclude with a wisdom-rich sentence incorporating text elements. 🦉
• Garden of English's tips are handy for refining AP exam essays. 🌟

Key Takeaways

• Conclusions are not just about rewording thesis statements or summarizing the paper. 🧠
• Focus on the learning process: knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. 📚
• Identify universal ideas within the text to craft the first part of your conclusion. 🌐
• Use metaphors related to the rhetorical situation for a stylish conclusion start. 🌾
• Move from specific to universal ideas in your conclusion. Timelessness is key! ⏳
• Include direct text references in your final wisdom-infused sentence. ✨
• Practice makes perfect; try applying these steps in your next essay. 📝

Overview

Are you tired of rehashing your thesis or summarizing your paper in a lackluster conclusion? Well, Tim Freitas from the Garden of English is here to shake things up! In this engaging tutorial, Tim presents a dynamic and effective approach to writing conclusions for your rhetorical analysis essays. Say goodbye to the old ways and embrace a method focused on illustrating the learning process through your writing.

With a focus on the components of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, Tim guides you through the creation of impactful conclusions. By identifying the universal ideas that emerge in your analysis, you craft a beginning that immediately engages the reader. Using Cesar Chavez's work as an example, Tim shows how to delve deeper into your analysis by moving from the specifics of the piece to more timeless, universal insights.

As you wrap up your essay, Tim suggests adding a slice of wisdom—a concluding sentence that resonates with truth and is backed by elements from the text. This final touch is akin to a mic drop moment, leaving your audience with something to ponder. Whether you're preparing for an AP exam or simply looking to enhance your essay writing, the Garden of English provides practical, easily applicable advice to take your conclusions to the next level.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Conclusion Writing This chapter introduces the concept of writing effective conclusions for rhetorical analysis essays. It mentions the importance of previous videos that cover reading rhetorically, breaking down prompts, and crafting sophisticated thesis statements. The video promises a step-by-step approach using a specific example from the 2015 AP English Language exam.
• 00:30 - 01:30: Common Conclusion Mistakes The chapter 'Common Conclusion Mistakes' focuses on guiding readers to avoid basic errors often taught in writing classes, like merely rewording thesis statements or summarizing the entire paper in conclusions. Instead, it emphasizes learning from professional authors who typically avoid such practices. The aim is to help readers write more sophisticated conclusions by articulating the learning process. This involves focusing on the components of knowledge and understanding throughout the ending of their papers, fostering a deeper reflection on what has been learned.
• 01:30 - 02:30: The Learning Process in Conclusions In this chapter titled 'The Learning Process in Conclusions,' the focus is on the three key components to include when crafting the final paragraphs of any paper. As you learn and are exposed to new information, you should be able to identify and understand key knowledge and its application in the real world. This understanding then positions you to impart wisdom to others. The chapter guides you on how to apply this process specifically when writing conclusions, starting with the identification of knowledge within the piece.
• 02:30 - 03:30: Using the Ultimate Review Packet This chapter discusses the Ultra Review Packet, designed to aid students in their AP classes. It highlights the features of the packet, including unit 4 and unit 7 reviews, video reviews, notes, guides, and practice tests complete with rationales and self-guided scoring rubrics. The ultimate goal is to help students achieve high grades and top scores on their AP exams. The chapter ends by suggesting students check the link in the video description to access the Ultimate Review Packet.
• 03:30 - 04:30: Step 1: Identifying Universal Ideas The chapter 'Step 1: Identifying Universal Ideas' outlines the initial step in crafting a conclusion for a speech or written piece. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing universal ideas, which are essentially abstract nouns that the speaker or writer wants the audience to grasp. To effectively prepare a conclusion, it is suggested to list out four or five universal ideas that are pertinent to the essay or speech in question. The transcript implies a visual aid is utilized to list these abstract nouns as examples.
• 04:30 - 05:30: Step 2: Moving to Universal Understanding In this chapter, the speaker guides us on how to analyze ideas related to non-violence, justice, human rights, democratic change, power, and patience in the context of a specific piece, likely written by Chavez. The goal is to use these concepts to construct the first sentence of a conclusion by describing the relationship between them. This involves contemplating what the speaker intends for the audience to understand about these themes.
• 05:30 - 06:30: Step 3: Imparting Wisdom In Chapter 3: Imparting Wisdom, the chapter focuses on the pivotal role of patience in achieving sustainable democratic changes, especially in times of civil unrest. Chavez's teachings emphasize imparting wisdom that is aimed at fostering long-term transformation rather than immediate reforms. The chapter begins with an exploration of different ways in which a first sentence can set the stage for discussing these themes, highlighting how one might connect the initial ideas to the broader message conveyed in Chavez's work.
• 06:30 - 07:30: Conclusion Examples The chapter discusses different methods to write compelling introductory sentences. It emphasizes the importance of selecting a sophisticated approach when possible, encouraging experimentation with metaphorical expressions to establish a connection between ideas. The text suggests that even if one method seems challenging, sticking to simpler methods is also effective, as both approaches have their unique strengths.
• 07:30 - 08:30: Final Thoughts and Next Steps The chapter delves into the legacy of Chavez as a civil rights leader, particularly focusing on his contribution to the farmworkers' movement. It begins by highlighting a creative sentence that metaphorically describes Chavez's approach to the movement, emphasizing patience and potential growth in the face of unrest. This sentence serves as a representation of Chavez's role and broader struggle for human rights. The narrative also underscores the importance of inferential reading skills to truly grasp the depth of Chavez's leadership and impact.

AVOID Common Conclusion MISTAKES (FIX THEM NOW)! Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 i'm happy to welcome you back to the garden of english i'm tim freitas and today we're going to be focusing on how you can make conclusions for your rhetorical analysis essay we're going to do this in about three steps if you haven't watched all our other videos in this series about how to read rhetorically break down the prompt and write sophisticated thesis statements topic sentences and commentary you're going to want to check them out all these videos are linked right in the description right down below also just like with all the other review videos in this series we're going to use the cesar chavez piece from the 2015 ap english language exam that too is linked in the description okay folks when it comes to
• 00:30 - 01:00 conclusion i know that many people are often told to reword their thesis statements and summarize their papers but i want to teach you to do something incredibly more effective you see if you ever look at professional authors or really consider any of the essays you read in class you're going to notice rather quickly that almost no excellent writer embraces either technique that i just mentioned so i don't think that you'll want to either especially if you want to become a better writer to write a sophisticated conclusion you're going to want to think about how you can articulate the learning process throughout the ending of your paper the learning process is made up of three components knowledge understanding and
• 01:00 - 01:30 wisdom it just so happens that these three components will make up the three moves that you want to make as you produce your final paragraphs of any paper that you ever write you see as you learn you're exposed to things that you should be able to identify and know once you can identify and know these things you'll be able to understand how this knowledge applies and functions in the real world and as you consider your understandings you'll be moved to impart some wisdom that you have about those understandings to others and so with this in mind let's consider how to go through this process for your conclusions we'll start with identifying the knowledge in the piece by the way
• 01:30 - 02:00 did you know that this video actually works in conjunction with my unit 4 and unit 7 reviews that are part of my ultra review packet this pack is a complete exam review series that you should check out if you want an a in your ap class and a five on your exam this packet provides you with video reviews notes guides answer guides practice multiple choice questions with rationales and practice exams that have self-guided rubrics and essay models so you can actually self-score what could be better nothing so check out the ultimate review packet for your ap lane exam right at the top link in the description down below this video you can also check it out here okay back to business your
• 02:00 - 02:30 first step in writing a conclusion is identifying the universal ideas that a speaker wants his or her audience to know about as he or she delivers the piece get it knowledge no okay good universal ideas are just abstract nouns and if you'd like some examples to see what they are you're going to notice that some will show up on your screen right about now okay well what you want to do when you're getting ready to write the first part of your conclusion is to first list out four or five universal ideas that your essay or the essay that you're
• 02:30 - 03:00 reading that you're actually analyzing explores so if we were to search for these ideas in the chavez piece we're going to look for things like non-violence justice human rights democratic change power and patience now once we have these nuggets of knowledge at our fingertips we're going to create the first sentence of our conclusion you can do this in one of two ways first simply articulate the relationship between any and all of the ideas that we just identified before when you write this sentence just think about answering this question what does the speaker want his or her audience to know about these
• 03:00 - 03:30 ideas once they've experienced the whole piece so what a first sentence could look like in relation to the shabbos piece would be something like this and don't forget i'm just connecting the ideas in the midst of civil unrest chavez emphasizes the incredibly important role that patience plays in ushering in powerful lasting democratic change hey that's pretty good i didn't just reword my thesis instead i began expounding upon it focusing on the knowledge that chavez was imparting to those who were listening remember though i said that there are two ways to write
• 03:30 - 04:00 this first sentence and i'm going to show you a second option that is way more sophisticated if you can do it right so pay attention and try it out and if you realize this is too hard for you then just stick with the first way and that's not a problem because they're both good but the other way to write a strong first sentence is to express the relationship between the ideas that we're trying to create but we want to do it with a pertinent metaphor this will lead to your first sentence having a bit more style but you can't just make up any random comparison it has to be one that directly relates to the rhetorical situation or the reading in some way so let me give you an example of this in relation to this prompt since cesar
• 04:00 - 04:30 chavez was a civil rights leader for the farmworkers movement i'm going to use that to create my first sentence check it out throughout his piece chavez plants the seeds of patients throughout the fields of potential unrest in hopes of growing a movement based on the power of human rights look at how well that comparison fits into the role that chavez has that's a really cool sentence it not only expresses what the piece is about but it also applies to it a greater knowledge of chavez and his struggle it really highlights inferential reading skills because you could actually pick up from reading through the piece that he was the leader
• 04:30 - 05:00 of the farmworkers movement okay let's shift to step two we need to go to the understanding phase and this phase can be completed in about one to three sentences in step two what we're gonna do is move the conclusion to be more universal we're going to separate a little bit from chavez and his intended audience and make it a bit more timeless when we take chavez and his audience out of the picture we're going to replace them with more universal terms like people and individuals and leaders this is because we're trying to demonstrate that we understand what we know from chavez and his words back in the 1970s actually applies universally whether in
• 05:00 - 05:30 the past present or future so if i were to write this section of my conclusion i'm going to say something along the lines of this by embracing his role as a public figure with a positive message chavez provides a model to those who seek to challenge and upend the oppressive status quo individuals and civil leaders must always hold the right to life and involvement of the masses as their premier principles behind any moral cause notice how i moved from chavez to individuals and civil rights leaders you can see that i'm shifting towards the universal and now i could be talking about anyone in any time period
• 05:30 - 06:00 that's how you complete this stuff but now we have to move to the final stage of the learning process and that is the wisdom stage and that's going to be the third step for how we write our conclusion in this particular section you're going to want to write a final sentence that is still universal in nature but it's meant to impart some wisdom that someone should gain after being able to experience the knowledge and understanding of the piece as a whole the absolute best way to do this is by including at least one three to five word piece of text from the reading in this final sentence and picture this kind of like writing a sentence that reads like a fortune cookie but not a
• 06:00 - 06:30 lame one so i'm gonna model this here and i'm gonna finish my conclusion with a sentence like this though when those seeking change forget these goals they not only risk damaging their reputations but also lose their sense of justice as they seek a shortcut to change and that's not worth it no matter how just their cause may be so now that we've gone through these three steps here's what the traditional conclusion would look like if you didn't use the stylize for a sentence it's going to show right up on your screen [Music]
• 06:30 - 07:00 and here's what the stylized conclusion would look like [Music] a good conclusion is a lot like a mic drop you set it and let it sink in all right folks thanks for hanging in there throughout this video and throughout this entire review series for rhetorical analysis now that you've experienced how
• 07:00 - 07:30 to make it all the way through this type of essay you're going to want to check out what's over here and that's so that you can review for your apa exam and move on to conquering the argument essay