The Conclusion

The conclusion needs to end your essay in a satisfactory way. It needs to round off the paper by reiterating the major points. Therefore, the conclusion needs to restate the main ideas or argument from the thesis statement in the introductory paragraph. These ideas or this argument should have been well proven throughout the body of the essay and the concluding paragraph is there to enhance the fact that your position has been achieved.

This is the summary part of the conclusion, but a conclusion needs to be more than that. It needs to forcefully persuade the reader and make her ponder the results of your research or argument. If the reader can finish the essay and be left thinking about the writer’s point then usually it is because of a strong conclusion.

Some techniques to achieve a powerful conclusion include:

Ending with a question that leaves the reader wanting to find out more or just makes them think about the inherent possibilities.
Showing how your stance applies to other issues.
Showing how your research can affect day to day life.
Showing how your result is part of something larger.
Making a recommendation if it is called for.
Ending with a stimulating quotation.
Ending with a surprising statistic (or restating a statistic in a more compelling way.)
Very occasionally an exclamation, clever pun, well known joke or slogan can be used.
If an anecdote, analogy or scene from a book or movie was used in the introduction, another reference to this would give the paper unification.
Ask or demand that something be done about a problem or that further study is necessary.

Whilst it is common for a transition device to be used to introduce the conclusion, this is not always necessary as a good concluding paragraph can follow on from the body of the essay smoothly and be made more potent by the absence of such a linker. A good idea is to read the last two paragraphs of the paper out loud, with the discourse marker, and again omitting it, and decide which sounds better.

Some transitional markers and phrases which can be used to conclude are:

In short, To sum up, In summary, In conclusion, All in all, It can therefore be seen that…, The evidence clearly shows…, The statistics suggest that…, If this evidence is to be taken into account, then…..

HINTS!

Do not just copy the thesis statement exactly!
Do not add any new arguments into a conclusion. You are summing up a presentation and any new piece of information would need to be justified.
If you write the conclusion but it does not reflect your thesis statement, check your essay to see what has happened. Maybe you changed the direction of your essay in the middle. If this is a good thing, you’ll need to go back and change your introduction to reflect your new arguments. If many arguments of the essay are irrelevant, take a good look at the thesis statement and rewrite the parts of the essay that are unrelated.

Example Conclusion

To conclude an essay on the topic mentioned above in the Introduction Section about John Howard having done the most for his country in the 20th century, the final paragraph could re-mention “Little Johnnie” as a means of tying the whole essay together. It would also need to mention again what he has done for his country and could conclude by extrapolating his deeds to future benefits and results. Example:

For John Howard to have accomplished such major goals in his time in office has been a major coup, but politics should not be a short term venture. Decisions should be made which will have long lasting positive effects for future generations, such as his environmental and anti-terrorist plans. To have risked his image and popularity by persevering with a number of stances including the goods and services tax showed that he was truly thinking of the future health of the country’s economic situation. “Little Johnnie” has come far in his time as Prime Minister, but he has propelled Australia even further. In what other fields will he now take the country forward in his new four year term, and how much more extensive will be the future inheritance for following generations from his determination and vision?