You should think twice about your concluding paragraph. At times it should include a careful summary of your whole composition. Now and then you may think of an anecdote that will give point to all you have said. If one topic has led up to another naturally, you may need no other conclusion than a forcible ending of your last topic. A good story-teller, with his fondness for dwelling on the parts that please him most, is apt to be a long time reaching the end of his journey, but once there he knows enough to stop. As you hear lectures and sermons, you will probably make up your mind that both introductions and conclusions are better for being brief.

Exercises

479. Examine several endings of chapters, magazine articles, books, and stories. Take notes, and give an oral report based on five of them.

480. Write the concluding paragraph of each of the themes for which you wrote introductory paragraphs.

481. In class, after a discussion of several themes, criticize your own with a view to making the conclusions as brief and as comprehensive as possible.

482. Give the substance of Chapters IV, VIII, and IX. Prepare as in Exercise 9, page 6.

488. Write in three connected paragraphs the substance of what you can find in this book concerning unity, coherence, and emphasis (1) in the long composition, (2) in the paragraph, (3) in the sentence. (See the index).

484. Tell the class briefly what you consider important to remember about (1) words in good use, (2) forcible words.