Have you ever read an article that simply starts right in without an introduction or seems to end abruptly? If so, the article likely lacked an introduction or conclusion (or both). Sometimes as writers we get so caught up in our research that we fail to give the article’s introduction and conclusion the attention that they deserve. We may even think that we wrote an introduction and conclusion only to realize later that we just jumped in and started writing and then stopped once everything was covered. I believe it was Churchill who said something along the lines of “Tell them what you’re going to say, say it, and then tell them what you just said.” That’s the basic formula for writing articles for the Web. The introduction tells your readers what you’re going to say. The body of the article is where you expand on your topic. Finally, the conclusion summarizes what you just said.
An article’s introduction lets readers know what’s coming. If you skip the introduction, you run the risk of sounding unorganized. For example, if you have three key points that you’re going to write about and you don’t introduce them properly, the three concepts in the article may seem unrelated or your reader may wonder what they have to do with each other. While some readers will figure out what you’re trying to say, as a writer, it’s your job to make sure that your readers do not need to work that hard. A solid introduction that says the article is going to explore this, this, and this (more eloquently written, of course) introduces the reader to what you will be explaining in greater detail.
The body of the article contains your key points.It’s helpful to identify each key point and then make sure that the introduction and conclusion paragraphs address them on some level. For example, if your article covers the top three dog training challenges and your key points deal with: barking, jumping, and digging, then your introduction should mention each one. The body of the article would then be broken down into three sections covering barking, jumping, and digging with each section going into detail about these topics.
After you’ve written the introduction and the body of the article, write a conclusion summarizing what you just said. Just as starting an article without an introduction is jarring, so too is ending it without a conclusion. Your readers may wonder if there’s more to your article or simply feel unsatisfied because it didn’t come to a neat ending. Skipping a conclusion is also skipping a chance to wrap up your thoughts and reinforce your key points. The conclusion doesn’t need to be a point-by-point summary of the article. It can be as simply as saying, “If you’re dealing with a dog that barks, jumps, or digs, you can overcome these challenges. Get started by trying these tips today.”
An article’s introduction and conclusion are critical to your article’s success. Without these two crucial structural elements, your readers must work harder than they should. Let your readers know what you’re going to say, say it, and then summarize what you just said.
