Planning and writing the conclusion of an essay | English

Starter quiz

Which logical step of our essay has not yet been written?
- Deforestation is affecting the Amazon a great deal.
- Deforestation in the Amazon is driven by agriculture and logging.
- Deforestation contributes to climate change.
- Reducing deforestation will help us to reduce the impacts of climate change. ✓
Put the questions answered in each paragraph of our essay in the correct order.
- 1
  
  ⇔
  
  What is deforestation, how does it happen and how does it affect the Amazon?
- 2
  
  ⇔
  
  Why has deforestation happened in the Amazon rainforest?
- 3
  
  ⇔
  
  How does deforestation drive climate change?
- 4
  
  ⇔
  
  How would reducing deforestation help reduce the impacts of climate change?
Why was it so important for us to establish that deforestation is linked to climate change?
- because this is a serious issue everyone should know about
- because it helps us explain that reducing deforestation would help the climate ✓
- because the essay is all about climate change
Which of the following are impacts of climate change?
- more extreme weather ✓
- forced migration of people ✓
- sea level rise ✓
- deforestation
Match the subject-specific vocabulary to its meaning.
- atmosphere
  
  ⇔
  
  the layer of gases that surrounds Earth ✓
- greenhouse gases
  
  ⇔
  
  gases that trap heat, warming the earth ✓
- carbon dioxide
  
  ⇔
  
  one particular greenhouse gas ✓
- emissions
  
  ⇔
  
  gases given out by human activities ✓
Which linguistic feature is used here? 'When trees are burned, carbon dioxide is released.'
- adverbial complex sentence ✓
- relative complex sentence
- non-finite (-ing) complex sentence
- compound sentence

Exit quiz

What is the purpose of the conclusion of our essay?
- to give reasons why climate change is bad
- to give reasons why deforestation is bad
- to explain how reducing deforestation could lessen the impact of climate change ✓
Which type of fronted adverbial is used here? 'Governments in the Amazon have lots to do. However, we can also help.'
- formal fronted adverbial ('and')
- formal fronted adverbial ('but') ✓
- fronted adverbial of cause
- fronted adverbial of time
Which of the below might be considered subject-specific vocabulary in our essay?
- sea-level rise ✓
- atmosphere ✓
- increase
- greenhouse effect ✓
Which word in this sentence is the modal verb? 'Our government must take responsibility too and agree to plant more trees.'
- must ✓
- take
- agree
- plant
Which of these are commonly used as modal verbs?
- should ✓
- must ✓
- help
- could ✓
- would ✓
Why were modal verbs useful in our conclusion?
- because we were talking about future possibilities ✓
- because we weren't sure what we were talking about
- because we were talking about things that are both certain and possible ✓
- because we wanted to show the reader we weren't confident

Worksheet

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Presentation

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Lesson Details

Key learning points

In our essay, the conclusion reflects the essay title, bringing the information from previous paragraphs together.
The conclusion explains how reducing deforestation will help reduce the impacts of climate change.
We will include subject-specific vocabulary and a range of linguistic features.
Because the conclusion looks at possible future actions and outcomes, we will often use modal verbs.
Modal verbs are auxiliary ('helping') verbs that are paired with a main verb.

Common misconception

Pupils may not understand that a modal verb 'helps' another verb.

Draw attention to the fact that a modal verb comes before a main verb to modify it, e.g. 'will show', 'might help', 'should do' or 'would lead'.

Keywords

Conclusion - the closing paragraph of a non-fiction text
Subject-specific vocabulary - vocabulary that relates to a particular subject
Modal verbs - a type of auxiliary verb that expresses the degree of possibility, intent, ability or necessity of a clause
Linguistic features - the language structures that are used within a text