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How to Conclude an Essay (with Examples)
Last Updated: July 22, 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. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. 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 3,230,931 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
- ↑ http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/conclude.html
- ↑ https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/ending-essay-conclusions
- ↑ https://www.pittsfordschools.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=542&dataid=4677&FileName=conclusions1.pdf
- ↑ https://www.cuyamaca.edu/student-support/tutoring-center/files/student-resources/how-to-write-a-good-conclusion.pdf
- ↑ https://library.sacredheart.edu/c.php?g=29803&p=185935
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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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
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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- Writing Tips
How to Write an Essay Conclusion
4-minute read
- 1st October 2022
Regardless of what you’re studying, writing essays is probably a significant part of your work as a student . Taking the time to understand how to write each section of an essay (i.e., introduction, body, and conclusion) can make the entire process easier and ensure that you’ll be successful.
Once you’ve put in the hard work of writing a coherent and compelling essay, it can be tempting to quickly throw together a conclusion without the same attention to detail. However, you won’t leave an impactful final impression on your readers without a strong conclusion.
We’ve compiled a few easy steps to help you write a great conclusion for your next essay . Watch our video, or check out our guide below to learn more!
1. Return to Your Thesis
Similar to how an introduction should capture your reader’s interest and present your argument, a conclusion should show why your argument matters and leave the reader with further curiosity about the topic.
To do this, you should begin by reminding the reader of your thesis statement. While you can use similar language and keywords when referring to your thesis, avoid copying it from the introduction and pasting it into your conclusion.
Try varying your vocabulary and sentence structure and presenting your thesis in a way that demonstrates how your argument has evolved throughout your essay.
2. Review Your Main Points
In addition to revisiting your thesis statement, you should review the main points you presented in your essay to support your argument.
However, a conclusion isn’t simply a summary of your essay . Rather, you should further examine your main points and demonstrate how each is connected.
Try to discuss these points concisely, in just a few sentences, in preparation for demonstrating how they fit in to the bigger picture of the topic.
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3. Show the Significance of Your Essay
Next, it’s time to think about the topic of your essay beyond the scope of your argument. It’s helpful to keep the question “so what?” in mind when you’re doing this. The goal is to demonstrate why your argument matters.
If you need some ideas about what to discuss to show the significance of your essay, consider the following:
- What do your findings contribute to the current understanding of the topic?
- Did your findings raise new questions that would benefit from future research?
- Can you offer practical suggestions for future research or make predictions about the future of the field/topic?
- Are there other contexts, topics, or a broader debate that your ideas can be applied to?
While writing your essay, it can be helpful to keep a list of ideas or insights that you develop about the implications of your work so that you can refer back to it when you write the conclusion.
Making these kinds of connections will leave a memorable impression on the reader and inspire their interest in the topic you’ve written about.
4. Avoid Some Common Mistakes
To ensure you’ve written a strong conclusion that doesn’t leave your reader confused or lacking confidence in your work, avoid:
- Presenting new evidence: Don’t introduce new information or a new argument, as it can distract from your main topic, confuse your reader, and suggest that your essay isn’t organized.
- Undermining your argument: Don’t use statements such as “I’m not an expert,” “I feel,” or “I think,” as lacking confidence in your work will weaken your argument.
- Using generic statements: Don’t use generic concluding statements such as “In summary,” “To sum up,” or “In conclusion,” which are redundant since the reader will be able to see that they’ve reached the end of your essay.
Finally, don’t make the mistake of forgetting to proofread your essay ! Mistakes can be difficult to catch in your own writing, but they can detract from your writing.
Our expert editors can ensure that your essay is clear, concise, and free of spelling and grammar errors. Find out more by submitting a free trial document today!
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How to write Essay Conclusions – The 5 C’s Method
Chris Drew (PhD)
Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]
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Here’s the question you’ve probably got: what’s the difference between an introduction and a conclusion?
My advice is to use my two frameworks on how to write and conclusion and how to write an introduction:
- Write an introduction with the Perfect Introduction INTRO method ;
- Write a conclusion with the Perfect Conclusion FIVE-C method that I outline below.
As a university teacher, I have marked well over a thousand essays.
In my time, the best conclusions I’ve seen have tended to sum-up a topic by showing-off how well the writer knows the topic and how effectively they have come to their conclusions.
The best conclusions also convincingly show why the topic is important.
In this post, I will show you how to write a conclusion that will amaze your teacher.
This formula is called the FIVE-C’s method and works for nearly every essay.
This method walks you through five potential strategies that you can use in your conclusion. I will show you all five steps and give examples for each to model how to go about writing a good quality conclusion.
How to write a Conclusion: The Five-C Conclusion Method
1 Close the loop. Return to a statement you made in the introduction.
2 Conclude. Show what your final position is.
3 Clarify. Clarify how your final position is relevant to the Essay Question.
4 Concern. Explain who should be concerned by your findings.
5 Consequences. End by noting in one final, engaging sentence why this topic is of such importance.
For each of these steps, I recommend between one and two sentences to create a full detailed conclusion paragraph . You do not have to use each and every one of these steps every time.
Remember, once you’ve written your ideas, make sure you edit the conclusion to make sure it flows the way you want it to. Don’t feel like you have to stick exactly to these rules.
Here’s each step broken down one by one:
1. Close the Loop: Refer back to a statement from the Introduction
Have you ever noticed that comedians often start and end a show with the same joke? This method is called a “ Callback ” in stand-up comedy and is widely considered to be a very effective way to end on a high. I use this as an advanced form of transitioning to a conclusion .
Well, you can do this in your essay, too. Try to find a key statement you made in the introduction and return to it. In this way, you’re closing the look and ending your essay by tying it up in a thoughtful, memorable way.
Here’s a Tip: Forget about starting your conclusion with the tired old statement “In conclusion, …” and instead start it with “This essay began by stating that …” and continue from there.
Imagine you have an essay on “Should Fake News on Facebook be Regulated?” You might state an interesting ‘hook’ statement in the introduction such as:
- Intro Hook : “Mark Zuckerberg faced US congress in late 2018 to defend Facebook’s record of regulating Facebook News. He claimed that Facebook needs to do a better job of verifying the identities of Facebook users.”
You can return back to this interesting statement in the conclusion. For example:
- Close the Loop in the Conclusion: “This essay began by noting that Mark Zuckerberg accepts that Facebook needs to do a better job at regulation on the platform. As this essay has shown, it appears Facebook continues to be incapable to regulating content on its platform. Therefore, governments should step-in with minimum benchmarks for Facebook to adhere to for all advertising and news content.”
Closing the loop is a great literary strategy to tie up your essay and memorably conclude your argument.
2. Conclude: Provide a Final Evaluation by Referring back to your Arguments
Of course, a conclusion needs provide a final evaluative statement. If your essay is a persuasive or argumentative essay that asks you to take a stand, this is even more important.
The risk students run here is making their writing sound like propaganda. To prevent this, ensure your statement is balanced.
I like to use the formula below:
- Refer to evidence. In the first third of the sentence, refer back to the arguments in the essay.
- Use a hedging statement. Hedges when writing analysis verbs make your work sound more balanced and contemplative, and less biased. Hedges make you sound wise. A hedging statement withholds from being overly confident and unequivocal and softens your claims. Common hedges are: “it appears”, “it seems”, “the best current evidence is”, and “it is likely the case that”. These are the opposite of Boosters, which you should avoid. A booster is a statement like: “the data confirms”, “the truth of the matter is” and “it is undoubtedly true that”.
- State your conclusion. Conclude the sentence with your final evaluation.
Let’s have a look at how to use this formula of: Refer to evidence + Use a hedging statement + State your conclusion. See below:
Here’s an example. Imagine your essay question was “Should all recreational drugs be decriminalised?” You could state in your final evaluation:
- (1) The evidence from both population data and criminological studies that were presented in this article (2) appears to indicate that (3) decriminalization of drugs would both save money and decrease drug overdoses.
This is far better than a propagandizing statement like:
- This essay has totally debunked the idea that the war on drugs has done any good for society. Decriminalizing drugs will save money and lives, and it should be done immediately.
The first example sentence above would almost always get a higher grade than the second. It shows balance and reduces the chance your reader will accuse you of bias. This is a secret sauce for top marks: hedge, hedge and hedge some more!
Read Also: 39 Better Ways to Write ‘In Conclusion’ in an Essay
3. Clarify: Clarify the relevance of your statement to the Essay Question.
Read back through your conclusion and make sure that it directly answers the essay question. Too often, students write a few thousand words and end up talking about something completely different to what they began with.
Remember: you’re being marked on something very specific. It doesn’t matter how great and well formulated your argument is if it doesn’t answer the specific essay question.
To ensure you conclusion clearly addresses the research question, you might want to paraphrase some phrases from the essay question.
Here are some examples:
- If your essay question is about Nurses’ bedside manner, you’re probably going to want to use the phrase “bedside manner” in the conclusion a few times.
- If your essay question is about comparing renaissance and classical art, you better make sure you use the terms “renaissance art” and “classical art” a few times in that conclusion!
It is important to use paraphrasing here rather than explicitly stating the essay question word-for-word. For my detailed advice on how to paraphrase, visit my 5-step paraphrasing post .
4. Concern: Who should be concerned with this topic?
One of the best indicators that you know a topic well is to show how it relates to real life. The topic you have discussed is likely to have some relevance to someone, somewhere, out there in the world.
Make sure you state who it is that should be paying attention to your essay. Here’s my top suggestions for people who may be concerned with the topic:
- Policy makers. Is this a topic where new laws or regulations need to be introduced that could improve people’s lives? If so, you could provide a statement that explains that “Policy makers should …” do something in light of the evidence you have provided.
- Practitioners. If you’re doing a university degree that ends with a specific career, chances are the topic is relevant to that career. If you’re writing an essay on teaching methods, the essay is probably going to be something that teachers should be concerned about. Here’s an example: “Teachers need to know about children’s different learning styles in order to make sure their lessons are inclusive of all learning styles in the classroom.”
You’re in the best position to know who should be concerned with your topic. I can be any key stakeholder at all: parents, children, new immigrants, prisoners, prison guards, nurses, doctors, museum curators … you name it! It really depends on your topic.
5. Consequences: End by stating why the topic is important.
Your final statement can be something inspiring, interesting and relevant to real life. This is the opposite to the ‘hook’ in the introduction. While the hook draws your reader into the essay, your closing sentence sends your reader back out into the world, hopefully utterly convinced by you that this is a topic worthy of reflecting upon.
Here are some examples of a final sentence:
- “The sheer number of Shakespearian words and phrases that are common in the English language should show why Shakespeare remains the most significant literary figure in British history.”
- “The disastrous consequences of American regime change wars in the middle east that have been outlined in this paper highlights the case that the United States should not intervene in the Venezuelan political crisis.”
Remember when I said earlier that using hedges is good for your argument? The final sentence in the essay is the one place where maybe, just maybe, you can use the opposite: a Booster.
How to write a Conclusion with the 5C’s Method: Sample Conclusion Paragraph
Writing conclusions for your essay can be hard. With the 5 C’s paragraph model you can get a bit of an idea about how to write a conclusion that will amaze your teacher. Here’s the model one last time:
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5 key details for writing a conclusion. Restate your thesis. Reiterate supporting points. Ask yourself: “So what?” Add perspective. Consider the clincher. What your conclusion should not include. How to write a conclusion. Learning how to write a conclusion for an essay doesn’t need to feel like climbing Everest.
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.
A good conclusion will tie together all the key points you made in your essay and forcefully drive home the importance or relevance of your argument, thesis statement, or simply your topic so the reader is left with one strong final point to ponder.
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.
The conclusion is the final paragraph of your essay. A strong conclusion aims to: Tie together the essay’s main points. Show why your argument matters. Leave the reader with a strong impression.
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.
1. Return to Your Thesis. Similar to how an introduction should capture your reader’s interest and present your argument, a conclusion should show why your argument matters and leave the reader with further curiosity about the topic. To do this, you should begin by reminding the reader of your thesis statement.
Learn how to write a conclusion for an essay with our comprehensive guide. Find some examples to help you draft your own essay conclusion.
1 Close the loop. Return to a statement you made in the introduction. 2 Conclude. Show what your final position is. 3 Clarify. Clarify how your final position is relevant to the Essay Question. 4 Concern. Explain who should be concerned by your findings. 5 Consequences.
Many successful essays end by looking forward to the future. These endings are generally hopeful and positive—always great qualities in an admissions essay—and often connect the student to the college or their academic goals.