In this installment of the EazyPaper newsletter, Professor Randy continues his series on general writing tips, and Michael writes further on Word's document collaboration features.

Writing the Conclusion

by Professor Randy

Last month, we looked at how "Writing a Great Introduction" will grab and focus your reader's attention. In this month's installment, we will see how a well-written conclusion is instrumental in leaving a positive final impression in the minds of your readers.

A great conclusion will accomplish three functions. It will summarize your main points, show why they are important in light of the purpose or thesis of your paper, and challenge readers to apply what they have read.

By the time your readers have worked their way through your paper, they will likely need some help in remembering your main points and how they fit together. Your summary of these main points should be consistent with the ones you listed in your introduction and should show their interconnectedness. How did your main ideas build on each other? As you summarize and synthesize your main points, make sure that you do not add new information.

As you summarize your main points, show how they have contributed toward accomplishing the purpose of your paper. Convince the reader, who may also be assigning a grade to your paper, that you have accomplished what you set out to do.

The final part of your conclusion is a call to action. What difference could your claims make in the life of the reader? Sometimes, using a question can push the reader in a particular direction. Other times, it is appropriate to clearly assert how you believe that your ideas can impact others.

In this article, we have seen how a strong conclusion can help your paper end well and leave your readers with a favorable impression. After reading the conclusion, readers should have a clear sense of the main points of the paper. They should understand how your assertions accomplish the purpose of your paper. Yet, a good conclusion goes beyond summarizing your content; it calls your readers to action. As you follow these guidelines, I am convinced that you will be in a better position to write solid conclusions that make a difference in the lives of your readers.

Accepting Track Changes

by Michael Hu

Last month, we looked at how a reviewer could track her changes to a document so that the author knows what has changed. Now we'll look at the flip side of process, where the author reviews the changes.

The first step you should do when you receive a document with tracked changes is to click the Track Changes button on the Review tab to turn it off as shown in Figure 1:

Figure 1: Accepting Track Changes on the Word ribbon

Then move from one change to another by clicking Previous and Next to highlight the proposed change. Alternatively, just select the change(s) with your mouse, and click the Accept or Reject buttons. Clicking the down arrow of the Accept or Reject buttons gives you the option to accept or reject all the changes in the document as shown in Figure 1.

Responding to comments

Right mouse click a comment and click Delete Comment to delete it as shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2: How to delete a comment

Alternatively, click the comment and then click New Comment on the Review tab to reply to the reviewer's comment with your own.

This article showed you the tools you have to respond to Tracked Changes. Next month's article will go over the Comparing and Merging features of Word to compare two documents.