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Week 8 of 10 · about 20 minutes

Land the argument, then sharpen the sentences

"Not a new point. A tight fist around the one you already made."

The 20 minutes

Two jobs, one sitting

First we land the conclusion. Then we take real sentences from your own Week 4 and Week 7 paragraphs and make them sharper, using the craft.html toolkit by name.

Warm in · about 3 min

What a conclusion actually does

No new evidence. No new quote. It proves the thesis is settled, in maybe three sentences.

The work · about 12 min

Model, then upgrade

  • Write one quick conclusion using the model below
  • Open your Week 4 paragraph, apply 2 craft moves
  • Open your Week 7 paragraph, apply 1 more move

Rough day? Do the conclusion OR the craft polish, not both. Either one moves the essay forward.

Close it · about 5 min

Say it back

Tell me in your own words what a conclusion is not allowed to do, and name the two craft moves you used. Then I set your phone task.

Job one

The conclusion: land it, do not build it again

A conclusion is not a fourth body paragraph. It has already won its marks in the body. Its job now is to sound certain.

rebuilding

In conclusion, Iago manipulates Othello through lies and jealousy is shown as a monster and Othello is a victim of circumstance and this shows Shakespeare's message about trust.

landing it

Othello is both victim and author of his fall. He is neither pure victim nor pure villain, and that doubleness is the tragedy Shakespeare leaves us with.

The habit: pull the thread tight. State the thesis as proven, not as a new idea. Stop. See essay.html, how the whole essay is shaped for where the conclusion sits against the intro and body.
Job two

Craft polish, using the toolkit

Craft is 11 of the 45 marks, and this is where they live: inside sentences you have already written. We are not writing new paragraphs today, we are upgrading two you already built. Open craft.html next to your Week 4 and Week 7 work and try these moves.

Week 4, beforeIago is dishonest. "I am not what I am." He tricks Othello a lot.
Applying Move 1Embed the quote. Iago admits his own dishonesty when he says "I am not what I am," confessing his two faces to us.craft.html, Move 1: embed your quotes
Week 7, beforeShakespeare uses a metaphor. Iago says jealousy is a green-eyed monster. This shows jealousy is bad.
Applying Move 3By personifying jealousy as a "green-eyed monster," Shakespeare exposes it as a predator rather than naming it plainly.craft.html, Move 3: verbs that think
Third move, your choice: pick either Move 4, linking words that build the argument or Move 5, vary your sentences from craft.html, and apply it to whichever of your two paragraphs still reads flat once the first two moves are in.
On your phone this week

One craft micro-drill

5 to 10 minutes, no book needed

Open craft.html and run the Move 1 embed-the-quote drill: take one dropped quote from any of your paragraphs so far and rewrite it embedded, the way this week showed you. Bring it next session.

The spine

Where this week's marks live

Ideas 18
Structure 16
Craft 11 of 45, this week's focus
plus genre conventions and role/audience

Same 3 things, a different costume each time.

from Nat

You already built these two paragraphs. Today is not about writing more, it is about noticing the small moves that make good ideas read as sharp writing. Two or three habits, done on purpose, is plenty.