A conclusion paragraph should provide a quick summary of your paper. A proper conclusion paragraph should include your main points. It should also contain your thesis statement, which makes this paragraph somewhat similar to the introductory paragraph. However, you shouldn’t repeat what you’ve already said in the introduction. Try to find different wording and use the tips at writers-house.com.
- If your paper is long, take a look at each paragraph and think of its main point. For example, each of your body paragraphs may address a certain subtopic. You can list the main points in your conclusion or just remind your readers of the main subtopics.
- Check your introduction and use it as a guide. The main thing is to try to say the same things in a completely different way. Another approach is answering a question from the introduction.
- Let your readers think about something. Tell your readers what they should do after reading your work in order to solve the problem. You can also ask a question so that your audience could think about it and find the answer.
Don’t forget that one of the main functions of the conclusion is to summarize the whole paper and your main idea. You can make your conclusion cohesive and impressive by summarizing your thoughts properly.
What Is a Conclusion?
- It summarizes the whole essay;
- It leaves readers with something to think about;
- It explains how you’ve proved your thesis;
- It proves that you’ve accomplished the main goal of your paper;
- It makes the topic look complete.
Structure
The introduction and the conclusion are completely different. When you write the introduction, you start with general thoughts and then narrow down your topic. In the conclusion, you should do the exact opposite, being more specific at the beginning, and moving to general ideas.
What You Should Include
- Summarize your essay and explain it briefly to your readers.
- A topic sentence should include your thesis statement.
- It helps you prove that you’ve accomplished what you wanted.
- Don’t rephrase your thesis statement.
- Rewrite it and look at it from a new angle or provide a broader view.
- Don’t provide any new facts or ideas in your conclusion.
- Write supporting sentences related to the content of the body of the essay.
- If you feel like you should include some idea in the last paragraph, make a new paragraph in the body for it or just leave it out.
- All your paragraphs should be summarized in the conclusion. Provide all your key points.
- The closing sentence should leave your readers with a feeling of closure.
- In your last sentence, stress the importance of your main idea, and provide a new perspective. Don’t forget to be positive.
Strategies for Writing a Good Conclusion
- Once you’ve finished writing your conclusion, ask yourself the most difficult question: “So what?” Think of this question and try to explain why your readers should care about the things you wrote.
- I think that my readers should care about climate change.
- Why?
- Well, climate change has terrible consequences for many species and causes natural disasters.
- So what?
- People should prevent greenhouse gas emissions.
- Return to things you wrote about in the introduction.
- Let your readers go a full circle from the thesis statement back to it.
- Mention your important ideas and explain why they are helpful.
- Use keywords from your introduction or the same images.
- Summarize the main points from the body but avoid repeating them word-by-word.
- Explain how your key points are connected to each other.
- Include a quote or an insight that will motivate your readers to take action or to think about the topic in the future.
- Suggest implications.
Bad Concluding Strategies
- Starting with an unnecessary information.
- Starting with clichés (“as you can see,” “in summary,” “in closing,” “in conclusion”).
- Writing about new ideas or subtopics.
- Mentioning your thesis statement for the very first time.
- Making the conclusion too emotional.
- Providing evidence that should be in the body section.
Conclusions Which Are Not Effective
- “This is my point and I’m sticking to it.”
- It’s too short and simply restates the thesis.
- It doesn’t provide new ideas.
- It looks like the writer couldn’t write any better.
- “Look at me, I’m a detective”
- It’s the first time when you mention the thesis statement.
- The writer tries to create a sort of suspense, leading readers to the culmination at the end of the paper.
- The academic style implies building an analytical discussion. Your thesis statement should be mentioned in the introduction.
- “Grab Bag”
- The conclusion provides new information because the author failed to write about it in the body of the essay.
- This sort of conclusion is confusing.
Outline
Here’s a short outline of a proper conclusion:
- The topic sentence
- The rephrased and re-written thesis statement
- Supporting sentences
- A brief summary of the main points of the paper
- Explanation of how these points are connected to each other.
- The final sentence
- Final thoughts
- Reference back to the introductory paragraph
- The topic is concluded.