Writing Conclusions

Conclusions:

Your conclusion should do more that simply summarize your argument. Ideally, your conclusion looks beyond your thesis, raising some interesting new idea based on your essay. That is to say, you don't embark on a new topic in your conclusion but you suggest the implications or questions that your thesis raises.

• • don't repeat argument verbatim

  • don't start new argument

  • think of your conclusion as a "reverse funnel"

  • can be nice (but not necessary) to end with a bang: quotation, quip, pun, striking excerpt, detail from work, question

  • can be nice (not not necessary) to end with a striking image

  • can be nice (not not necessary) to end with an emphatic and memorable sentence

  • OR . . . try re-calling your opening paragraph in your closing one:

    • • re-read opener and see whether it contains some hint that you can now develop more amply

      • look beyond your thesis in the closing paragraph (but do not embark on new topic)

  • don't pretend to have proven more than you have

  • do not apologize or bring your thesis into doubt. If you find anything that requires apology, fix it!!

  • avoid the deadly conclusion

  • avoid: "That's my story and I'm sticking to it!"

  • avoid "Sherlock Holmes"

  • avoid "I am a Woman/We Shall Overcome"

  • avoid the grab-bag conclusion with an assortment of possible ideas that don't really relate to one another, or that aren't thought through carefully

Info based on Elements of Style (Strunk and White).