writing a conclusion essay

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Conclusions

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Conclusions wrap up what you have been discussing in your paper. After moving from general to specific information in the introduction and body paragraphs, your conclusion should begin pulling back into more general information that restates the main points of your argument. Conclusions may also call for action or overview future possible research. The following outline may help you conclude your paper:

In a general way,

• Restate your topic and why it is important,
• Restate your thesis/claim,
• Address opposing viewpoints and explain why readers should align with your position,
• Call for action or overview future research possibilities.

Remember that once you accomplish these tasks, unless otherwise directed by your instructor, you are finished. Done. Complete. Don't try to bring in new points or end with a whiz bang(!) conclusion or try to solve world hunger in the final sentence of your conclusion. Simplicity is best for a clear, convincing message.

The preacher's maxim is one of the most effective formulas to follow for argument papers:

Tell what you're going to tell them (introduction).

Tell them (body).

Tell them what you told them (conclusion).

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How to Write a Conclusion

Students at all levels of education, like school, graduation, post-graduation or even doctoral, are burdened with many essays and assignments to complete at home. The essays you get in these assignment papers will always carry a lot of significance in your academic as well as professional life in the future. A conclusion is a very essential part of your essay. It basically summarises the essential points already covered in your essay.

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Why a Strong Conclusion is Essential

A strong essay conclusion paragraph is always essential since it makes a lasting impression on your assessors. Since it is the last part of your essay, if the assessor is impressed by the concluding part, he will reward you with good grades.

Understanding the Purpose of a Conclusion

The real purpose of a conclusion is to summarize all the major points in your essay. It is your terminal chance to bring together your previous writings and make your own opinion and understanding of the topic. Thus, it is always a very important part of your essay. As per the Write an Essay Expert , a conclusion always needs to:

• Highlight the key argument in your essay
• Summarize the essay answer as put in the introductory part
• Refer back to your essay question to show how it was answered
• Reinforcing the main theme which has been established in the introduction

Common Mistakes to Avoid in a Conclusion

According to the Paper Writing Service , the following mistakes are to be avoided while writing your concluding part:

• A conclusion should include any new information that has yet to be mentioned in your essay body.
• Always avoid using the in-text references
• Your conclusion needs to confirm your own understanding of the essay topic
• While writing the conclusion, do not copy-paste anything from the essay body

How to Write a Conclusion for an Essay – Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Restate The Thesis: While writing your conclusion at the end of your essay, as an insightful note, restate your thesis. Include your thesis, which is the main idea of your whole essay; you need to remind your reader regarding the main purpose of your essay paper. After resetting your thesis, you need to reiterate the supporting point.

Step 2: Reiterate the supporting points: Here, you need to extract the major points from each of your essay’s supporting paragraphs or arguments. Then, wrap up all these points in a way that demonstrates the significance of the ideas. Depending on the length of your essay, you may not want to summarize your previous writing in the essay paper. Instead, your conclusion needs to convey a closure sense along with the greater meaning and exploring the topic possibilities.

Step 3: Ask yourself, “So what?”: Your teacher must have taught you that at the end of your essay, you need to answer the question, “So what.” It is a good advice. It is always helpful for you to ask yourself this question at the beginning of drafting your thesis and keep a constant tune with the purpose of your essay.

Step 4: Add the perspective: If you choose a very good quote in your research, you can always include it in your essay conclusion. You can always enhance your thesis by writing a quote from any of your primary or secondary sources. This will add more specificity to your main argument.

Step 5: At the end part of your essay , you need to come up with your closing sentence or the clincher. This clincher can always help you to write a good conclusion. The final sentence will help your readers to feel a real sense of closure. Thus, this should always end with a positive note so that your readers feel good after reading your essay paper and feel that they have learnt really good stuff.

What to Include In a Conclusion

As per the Essay Writing Service experts, a conclusion should always be:

• Focus on the key argument of your essay
• Summarize the essay question answer as touched on in the introduction
• Refer back to your essay question to show it has been answered
• Restate the main theme of your essay, which has been mentioned in your introduction
• Keep your concluding part precise but interesting

Conclusion Examples of Different Types of Writing

According to the Good Conclusion Starter experts, a conclusion paragraph example is the very final section of your essay. It includes a summary of the main points and provides a meaningful closure to the readers.

The usual purpose of writing a conclusion paragraph example is to reinforce the main essay arguments. This needs to restate your central thesis statement.  The conclusion examples for different types of writing are as follows:

High School Essays:

• Length: 50-100 words
• Description: These types of essays are usually short, and the closing of such essays reiterates the main points.

College Essays:

• Length: 100-150 words
• Description: The college essay papers are more detailed and need an ending that summarizes the main arguments but also binds them together to show their significance.

University Essays:

• Length: 150-200 words
• Description: The university-level essay papers need a more complex analysis. The concluding part needs to summarize the key findings and reflect their implications to pave the way for future research.
• Length: 200-250 words
• Description: The master’s degree or the post-graduation degree education level dissertations or thesis need a good and comprehensive conclusion. It needs to encapsulate your study’s contributions and give better implications for future research.
• Recommended Length: 250-300 words
• Description: The Ph.D. level dissertations are more extensive and need a thorough concluding paragraph. This final Para needs to include a good summary of the whole research paper. It also contains a significant discussion, study limitations, and future research recommendations.

Quick Tips for Crafting Impactful Conclusions

As per the Write My Paper Help experts, the following are some useful tips for writing a reasonable conclusion:

• Restate The Thesis: To make your conclusion more effective, you need to bring your reader back to your main point to remind them of the real purpose of your essay. Here, it would help if you also avoided a repetition of your thesis. Rather, you need to paraphrase your argument effectively and practice your main argument.
• Reiterate The Supporting Points: Your conclusion needs to restate your thesis and reiterate the points made to support your arguments throughout the paper. Always avoid repeating the argument mentioned in the essay; instead, summarize your ideas.
• Make a connection between your essay’s opening and closing statement: It is always advisable to return to your introductory part to give your order to get a good sense of the conclusion. You can also accomplish it here by using the same concepts while retaining the original scenario.
• Provide A Good Insight: Your conclusion always needs to leave the reader with a good impression, an insight, the question, and a call to action. Always articulate all your argument’s implications and explain their significance. You always need to answer this entire question in his part and leave the audience to think about your creativity. Your conclusion also needs to help the reader to understand your paper’s closure clearly. If you want to prove your argument or add insight to your argument, summarize all those points to ensure your statement.

Final Thoughts: How a Strong Conclusion Strengthens Your Writing

• Play a “so what game”: If you are stuck at the point that your conclusion is not very interesting, read it out to any friend; she will say, “So what?” in this way, you will get perfect guidance on your writing.
• Return to The Themes of Your Introduction: This strategy will bring your reader to a full circle. Ex: if you begin by describing the scenario, you can also end with the same scenario as proof that your essay is really helpful in making a new understanding. Here, you can refer to your introductory paragraph using some parallel concepts.
• Always Synthesize and Do Not Summarize: Here, you need to include a brief summary of the main points of your paper, but do not simply repeat things already mentioned in your essay body. Rather, it would help show your reader how your points fit together with the support and examples.
• Include A Very Provocative Insight: It can be a question from your research.
• Course of Action: It is a solution to any issue that may require further studies. This can redirect your reader’s thought process and help them practically apply those in their own lives.

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A Complete Guide to Writing an Essay

How to write a personal essay, how to write a persuasive essay – 5 easy steps, 7 useful tips on how to write a short essay, what is a case study.

In a short paper—even a research paper—you don’t need to provide an exhaustive summary as part of your conclusion. But you do need to make some kind of transition between your final body paragraph and your concluding paragraph. This may come in the form of a few sentences of summary. Or it may come in the form of a sentence that brings your readers back to your thesis or main idea and reminds your readers where you began and how far you have traveled.

So, for example, in a paper about the relationship between ADHD and rejection sensitivity, Vanessa Roser begins by introducing readers to the fact that researchers have studied the relationship between the two conditions and then provides her explanation of that relationship. Here’s her thesis: “While socialization may indeed be an important factor in RS, I argue that individuals with ADHD may also possess a neurological predisposition to RS that is exacerbated by the differing executive and emotional regulation characteristic of ADHD.”

In her final paragraph, Roser reminds us of where she started by echoing her thesis: “This literature demonstrates that, as with many other conditions, ADHD and RS share a delicately intertwined pattern of neurological similarities that is rooted in the innate biology of an individual’s mind, a connection that cannot be explained in full by the behavioral mediation hypothesis.”  

Highlight the “so what”  

At the beginning of your paper, you explain to your readers what’s at stake—why they should care about the argument you’re making. In your conclusion, you can bring readers back to those stakes by reminding them why your argument is important in the first place. You can also draft a few sentences that put those stakes into a new or broader context.

In the conclusion to her paper about ADHD and RS, Roser echoes the stakes she established in her introduction—that research into connections between ADHD and RS has led to contradictory results, raising questions about the “behavioral mediation hypothesis.”

She writes, “as with many other conditions, ADHD and RS share a delicately intertwined pattern of neurological similarities that is rooted in the innate biology of an individual’s mind, a connection that cannot be explained in full by the behavioral mediation hypothesis.”  

Leave your readers with the “now what”  

After the “what” and the “so what,” you should leave your reader with some final thoughts. If you have written a strong introduction, your readers will know why you have been arguing what you have been arguing—and why they should care. And if you’ve made a good case for your thesis, then your readers should be in a position to see things in a new way, understand new questions, or be ready for something that they weren’t ready for before they read your paper.

In her conclusion, Roser offers two “now what” statements. First, she explains that it is important to recognize that the flawed behavioral mediation hypothesis “seems to place a degree of fault on the individual. It implies that individuals with ADHD must have elicited such frequent or intense rejection by virtue of their inadequate social skills, erasing the possibility that they may simply possess a natural sensitivity to emotion.” She then highlights the broader implications for treatment of people with ADHD, noting that recognizing the actual connection between rejection sensitivity and ADHD “has profound implications for understanding how individuals with ADHD might best be treated in educational settings, by counselors, family, peers, or even society as a whole.”

To find your own “now what” for your essay’s conclusion, try asking yourself these questions:

• What can my readers now understand, see in a new light, or grapple with that they would not have understood in the same way before reading my paper? Are we a step closer to understanding a larger phenomenon or to understanding why what was at stake is so important?  
• What questions can I now raise that would not have made sense at the beginning of my paper? Questions for further research? Other ways that this topic could be approached?  
• Are there other applications for my research? Could my questions be asked about different data in a different context? Could I use my methods to answer a different question?  
• What action should be taken in light of this argument? What action do I predict will be taken or could lead to a solution?  
• What larger context might my argument be a part of?  

What to avoid in your conclusion  

• a complete restatement of all that you have said in your paper.  
• a substantial counterargument that you do not have space to refute; you should introduce counterarguments before your conclusion.  
• an apology for what you have not said. If you need to explain the scope of your paper, you should do this sooner—but don’t apologize for what you have not discussed in your paper.  
• fake transitions like “in conclusion” that are followed by sentences that aren’t actually conclusions. (“In conclusion, I have now demonstrated that my thesis is correct.”)
• picture_as_pdf Conclusions

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How to Conclude an Essay (with Examples)

Last Updated: December 10, 2024 Fact Checked

Writing a Strong Conclusion

What to avoid, brainstorming tricks.

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams and by wikiHow staff writer, Aly Rusciano . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 3,234,543 times.

So, you’ve written an outstanding essay and couldn’t be more proud. But now you have to write the final paragraph. The conclusion simply summarizes what you’ve already written, right? Well, not exactly. Your essay’s conclusion should be a bit more finessed than that. Luckily, you’ve come to the perfect place to learn how to write a conclusion. We’ve put together this guide to fill you in on everything you should and shouldn’t do when ending an essay. Follow our advice, and you’ll have a stellar conclusion worthy of an A+ in no time.

Tips for Ending an Essay

• Rephrase your thesis to include in your final paragraph to bring the essay full circle.
• End your essay with a call to action, warning, or image to make your argument meaningful.
• Keep your conclusion concise and to the point, so you don’t lose a reader’s attention.
• Do your best to avoid adding new information to your conclusion and only emphasize points you’ve already made in your essay.

• “All in all”
• “Ultimately”
• “Furthermore”
• “As a consequence”
• “As a result”

• Make sure to write your main points in a new and unique way to avoid repetition.

• Let’s say this is your original thesis statement: “Allowing students to visit the library during lunch improves campus life and supports academic achievement.”
• Restating your thesis for your conclusion could look like this: “Evidence shows students who have access to their school’s library during lunch check out more books and are more likely to complete their homework.”
• The restated thesis has the same sentiment as the original while also summarizing other points of the essay.

• “When you use plastic water bottles, you pollute the ocean. Switch to using a glass or metal water bottle instead. The planet and sea turtles will thank you.”
• “The average person spends roughly 7 hours on their phone a day, so there’s no wonder cybersickness is plaguing all generations.”
• “Imagine walking on the beach, except the soft sand is made up of cigarette butts. They burn your feet but keep washing in with the tide. If we don’t clean up the ocean, this will be our reality.”
• “ Lost is not only a show that changed the course of television, but it’s also a reflection of humanity as a whole.”
• “If action isn’t taken to end climate change today, the global temperature will dangerously rise from 4.5 to 8 °F (−15.3 to −13.3 °C) by 2100.”

• Focus on your essay's most prevalent or important parts. What key points do you want readers to take away or remember about your essay?

• For instance, instead of writing, “That’s why I think that Abraham Lincoln was the best American President,” write, “That’s why Abraham Lincoln was the best American President.”
• There’s no room for ifs, ands, or buts—your opinion matters and doesn’t need to be apologized for!

• For instance, words like “firstly,” “secondly,” and “thirdly” may be great transition statements for body paragraphs but are unnecessary in a conclusion.

• For instance, say you began your essay with the idea that humanity’s small sense of sense stems from space’s vast size. Try returning to this idea in the conclusion by emphasizing that as human knowledge grows, space becomes smaller.

• For example, you could extend an essay on the television show Orange is the New Black by bringing up the culture of imprisonment in America.

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• ↑ https://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/support/helps/self-help-resources/grammar/transition-signals
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/argument_papers/conclusions.html
• ↑ https://www.pittsfordschools.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=542&dataid=4677&FileName=conclusions1.pdf
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About This Article

To end an essay, start your conclusion with a phrase that makes it clear your essay is coming to a close, like "In summary," or "All things considered." Then, use a few sentences to briefly summarize the main points of your essay by rephrasing the topic sentences of your body paragraphs. Finally, end your conclusion with a call to action that encourages your readers to do something or learn more about your topic. In general, try to keep your conclusion between 5 and 7 sentences long. For more tips from our English co-author, like how to avoid common pitfalls when writing an essay conclusion, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Conclusions

What this handout is about.

This handout will explain the functions of conclusions, offer strategies for writing effective ones, help you evaluate conclusions you’ve drafted, and suggest approaches to avoid.

About conclusions

Introductions and conclusions can be difficult to write, but they’re worth investing time in. They can have a significant influence on a reader’s experience of your paper.

Just as your introduction acts as a bridge that transports your readers from their own lives into the “place” of your analysis, your conclusion can provide a bridge to help your readers make the transition back to their daily lives. Such a conclusion will help them see why all your analysis and information should matter to them after they put the paper down.

Your conclusion is your chance to have the last word on the subject. The conclusion allows you to have the final say on the issues you have raised in your paper, to synthesize your thoughts, to demonstrate the importance of your ideas, and to propel your reader to a new view of the subject. It is also your opportunity to make a good final impression and to end on a positive note.

Your conclusion can go beyond the confines of the assignment. The conclusion pushes beyond the boundaries of the prompt and allows you to consider broader issues, make new connections, and elaborate on the significance of your findings.

Your conclusion should make your readers glad they read your paper. Your conclusion gives your reader something to take away that will help them see things differently or appreciate your topic in personally relevant ways. It can suggest broader implications that will not only interest your reader, but also enrich your reader’s life in some way. It is your gift to the reader.

Strategies for writing an effective conclusion

One or more of the following strategies may help you write an effective conclusion:

• Play the “So What” Game. If you’re stuck and feel like your conclusion isn’t saying anything new or interesting, ask a friend to read it with you. Whenever you make a statement from your conclusion, ask the friend to say, “So what?” or “Why should anybody care?” Then ponder that question and answer it. Here’s how it might go: You: Basically, I’m just saying that education was important to Douglass. Friend: So what? You: Well, it was important because it was a key to him feeling like a free and equal citizen. Friend: Why should anybody care? You: That’s important because plantation owners tried to keep slaves from being educated so that they could maintain control. When Douglass obtained an education, he undermined that control personally. You can also use this strategy on your own, asking yourself “So What?” as you develop your ideas or your draft.
• Return to the theme or themes in the introduction. This strategy brings the reader full circle. For example, if you begin by describing a scenario, you can end with the same scenario as proof that your essay is helpful in creating a new understanding. You may also refer to the introductory paragraph by using key words or parallel concepts and images that you also used in the introduction.
• Synthesize, don’t summarize. Include a brief summary of the paper’s main points, but don’t simply repeat things that were in your paper. Instead, show your reader how the points you made and the support and examples you used fit together. Pull it all together.
• Include a provocative insight or quotation from the research or reading you did for your paper.
• Propose a course of action, a solution to an issue, or questions for further study. This can redirect your reader’s thought process and help them to apply your info and ideas to their own life or to see the broader implications.
• Point to broader implications. For example, if your paper examines the Greensboro sit-ins or another event in the Civil Rights Movement, you could point out its impact on the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. A paper about the style of writer Virginia Woolf could point to her influence on other writers or on later feminists.

Strategies to avoid

• Beginning with an unnecessary, overused phrase such as “in conclusion,” “in summary,” or “in closing.” Although these phrases can work in speeches, they come across as wooden and trite in writing.
• Stating the thesis for the very first time in the conclusion.
• Introducing a new idea or subtopic in your conclusion.
• Ending with a rephrased thesis statement without any substantive changes.
• Making sentimental, emotional appeals that are out of character with the rest of an analytical paper.
• Including evidence (quotations, statistics, etc.) that should be in the body of the paper.

Four kinds of ineffective conclusions

• The “That’s My Story and I’m Sticking to It” Conclusion. This conclusion just restates the thesis and is usually painfully short. It does not push the ideas forward. People write this kind of conclusion when they can’t think of anything else to say. Example: In conclusion, Frederick Douglass was, as we have seen, a pioneer in American education, proving that education was a major force for social change with regard to slavery.
• The “Sherlock Holmes” Conclusion. Sometimes writers will state the thesis for the very first time in the conclusion. You might be tempted to use this strategy if you don’t want to give everything away too early in your paper. You may think it would be more dramatic to keep the reader in the dark until the end and then “wow” them with your main idea, as in a Sherlock Holmes mystery. The reader, however, does not expect a mystery, but an analytical discussion of your topic in an academic style, with the main argument (thesis) stated up front. Example: (After a paper that lists numerous incidents from the book but never says what these incidents reveal about Douglass and his views on education): So, as the evidence above demonstrates, Douglass saw education as a way to undermine the slaveholders’ power and also an important step toward freedom.
• The “America the Beautiful”/”I Am Woman”/”We Shall Overcome” Conclusion. This kind of conclusion usually draws on emotion to make its appeal, but while this emotion and even sentimentality may be very heartfelt, it is usually out of character with the rest of an analytical paper. A more sophisticated commentary, rather than emotional praise, would be a more fitting tribute to the topic. Example: Because of the efforts of fine Americans like Frederick Douglass, countless others have seen the shining beacon of light that is education. His example was a torch that lit the way for others. Frederick Douglass was truly an American hero.
• The “Grab Bag” Conclusion. This kind of conclusion includes extra information that the writer found or thought of but couldn’t integrate into the main paper. You may find it hard to leave out details that you discovered after hours of research and thought, but adding random facts and bits of evidence at the end of an otherwise-well-organized essay can just create confusion. Example: In addition to being an educational pioneer, Frederick Douglass provides an interesting case study for masculinity in the American South. He also offers historians an interesting glimpse into slave resistance when he confronts Covey, the overseer. His relationships with female relatives reveal the importance of family in the slave community.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Douglass, Frederick. 1995. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. New York: Dover.

Hamilton College. n.d. “Conclusions.” Writing Center. Accessed June 14, 2019. https://www.hamilton.edu//academics/centers/writing/writing-resources/conclusions .

Holewa, Randa. 2004. “Strategies for Writing a Conclusion.” LEO: Literacy Education Online. Last updated February 19, 2004. https://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/conclude.html.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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How to Write a Conclusion for an Essay: 10 Examples of Conclusion Paragraphs

How to write a conclusion for an essay? When it comes to writing an essay, the conclusion is often overlooked as just a summary of the main points. However, a strong conclusion can leave a lasting impression on the reader and tie together all the ideas presented in the essay. In this article, we will explore different strategies for writing an effective conclusion and provide some examples to help you get started.

How To Write a Conclusion for an Essay

Understanding the Purpose of a Conclusion

A conclusion is an essential part of any essay, and it serves a crucial role in summarizing your arguments and providing closure to your readers. In this section, we will discuss the role and importance of a conclusion in an essay.

Role of a Conclusion

The primary role of a conclusion is to bring closure to your essay by summarizing your arguments and restating your thesis statement. It is the final opportunity to leave a lasting impression on your readers and persuade them to take action or think differently about the topic.

Additionally, a conclusion can also provide a sense of completion to your essay by tying up any loose ends and addressing any counterarguments or opposing viewpoints. It should leave your readers with a clear understanding of your position and the significance of your arguments.

Importance of a Strong Conclusion

A strong conclusion can make a significant impact on the overall effectiveness of your essay. It can leave a lasting impression on your readers and persuade them to take action or think differently about the topic.

A weak or poorly written conclusion, on the other hand, can undermine the credibility of your arguments and leave your readers with a sense of confusion or dissatisfaction. It can also fail to provide closure to your essay and leave your readers with unanswered questions or unresolved issues.

To ensure that your conclusion is strong and effective, you should consider the following tips:

• Restate your thesis statement in a new and compelling way.
• Summarize your main arguments and provide a clear and concise summary of your essay.
• Address any counterarguments or opposing viewpoints and explain why your position is the most valid.
• Provide a call to action or suggest further research or exploration on the topic.

In conclusion, a conclusion is an essential part of any essay, and it serves a crucial role in summarizing your arguments and providing closure to your readers. A strong conclusion can leave a lasting impression on your readers and persuade them to take action or think differently about the topic. By following the tips provided in this section, you can ensure that your conclusion is strong and effective.

How to Write a Conclusion for an Essay

Restating the thesis.

One of the most important elements of your conclusion is restating your thesis. This means that you should rephrase your thesis statement in a way that reminds the reader of the main point of your essay. By doing so, you can help ensure that your reader leaves with a clear understanding of your argument.

Summarizing Main Points

In addition to restating your thesis, it can be helpful to summarize the main points of your essay. This can help tie together any loose ends and ensure that your reader understands the full scope of your argument. When summarizing your main points, be sure to be concise and avoid repeating information that you have already covered.

Closing Statement

Finally, you should include a closing statement in your conclusion. This should be a sentence or two that leaves a lasting impression on your reader. You may want to consider ending with a thought-provoking question, a call to action, or a memorable quote. Whatever you choose, make sure that it is relevant to your essay and leaves a lasting impression.

Writing Techniques for Effective Conclusions

Using a quote.

One way to add impact to your conclusion is to use a relevant quote. This can be a quote from a famous person, a line from a poem or song, or even a quote from one of the sources you’ve used in your essay. The key is to choose a quote that adds depth and meaning to your conclusion.

For example, if you’re writing an essay about the importance of education, you might conclude with a quote from Nelson Mandela : “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” This quote not only reinforces the importance of education but also adds a powerful emotional element to your conclusion.

Posing a Question

Another effective technique for writing a conclusion is to pose a thought-provoking question. This can be a rhetorical question or a question that requires further exploration. The goal is to leave your reader thinking about the topic long after they’ve finished reading your essay.

For example, if you’re writing an essay about climate change, you might conclude with a question like: “What kind of world do we want to leave for future generations?” This question encourages your reader to consider the long-term implications of climate change and can leave a lasting impact.

Making a Prediction

Finally, you can use your conclusion to make a prediction about the future. This can be a prediction about the topic you’ve been discussing or a prediction about the impact your essay will have on the reader. The goal is to leave your reader with a sense of hope or inspiration.

For example, if you’re writing an essay about the importance of volunteer work, you might conclude with a prediction like: “As more people become involved in volunteer work, we can look forward to a brighter, more compassionate future.” This prediction not only reinforces the importance of volunteer work but also leaves the reader feeling inspired to make a difference.

Conclusion Paragraph Examples

Example from a literary essay.

In a literary essay, your conclusion should tie together the various themes and motifs that you’ve explored throughout your essay. Here’s an example of a strong conclusion from a literary essay:

“Overall, the use of symbolism in ‘The Great Gatsby’ highlights the stark contrast between the facade of the American Dream and the harsh reality of life in the 1920s. Through the use of the green light, the valley of ashes, and the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, Fitzgerald demonstrates the emptiness and corruption that lies at the heart of the American Dream. By exposing the hollowness of this ideal, Fitzgerald challenges us to consider what truly gives our lives meaning.”

Example from a Research Paper

In a research paper, your conclusion should summarize your findings and explain the implications of your research. Here’s an example of a strong conclusion from a research paper:

“In conclusion, our study provides evidence that regular exercise can have a significant impact on reducing the risk of heart disease. Our findings suggest that individuals who engage in regular physical activity are more likely to maintain healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels, as well as reduce their risk of developing other chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity. These findings have important implications for public health policy and highlight the need for increased efforts to promote physical activity.”

Example from an Argumentative Essay

In an argumentative essay, your conclusion should summarize your main argument and leave your reader with a clear understanding of your position. Here’s an example of a strong conclusion from an argumentative essay:

“Based on the evidence presented, it is clear that the use of performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports is both unethical and dangerous. While some argue that these drugs are necessary to remain competitive in today’s sports landscape, the risks associated with their use far outweigh any potential benefits. It is up to us as a society to take a stand against this practice and demand that our athletes compete on a level playing field, free from the influence of performance-enhancing drugs.”

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some effective ways to end a conclusion?

One effective way to end a conclusion is to restate the thesis statement in a different way. You can also summarize the main points of your essay and leave the reader with a final thought or a call to action.

How can I write a strong conclusion for a research paper?

To write a strong conclusion for a research paper, you should briefly summarize the main points of the paper and restate the thesis statement. You can also suggest avenues for further research or provide a final thought that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

What are some words or phrases that can be used to conclude an essay?

Some words and phrases that can be used to conclude an essay include “in conclusion,” “to sum up,” “therefore,” “thus,” “finally,” and “in summary.” However, it’s important to use these words and phrases appropriately and not overuse them.

Can you provide some examples of a conclusion paragraph for a project?

Sure, here’s an example of a conclusion paragraph for a project:

“In conclusion, this project has shown that renewable energy is a viable alternative to fossil fuels. By harnessing the power of wind, solar, and hydroelectricity, we can reduce our dependence on non-renewable resources and mitigate the effects of climate change. While there are still challenges to be overcome, such as cost and infrastructure, the potential benefits of renewable energy make it a promising option for the future.”

How do you write a conclusion for an argumentative essay?

To write a conclusion for an argumentative essay, you should summarize the main points of your argument and restate your thesis statement. You can also provide a final thought or call to action that encourages the reader to take a particular course of action or consider a different perspective.

What is the purpose of a conclusion paragraph in an essay?

The purpose of a conclusion paragraph in an essay is to provide a sense of closure and completeness to the reader. It should summarize the main points of the essay and restate the thesis statement in a different way. Additionally, it can leave the reader with a final thought or a call to action.

Last Updated on August 28, 2023

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