When we studied Introductions, we looked at a paper by Brackenbury (2019) as an example of how they are structured in academic writing. Below is the conclusion of the same paper. Can you notice any equivalent to the background, hook, thesis?
1 This study, whilst it does not resolve the controversy surrounding lecture capture usage in the literature, does have several important implications for my teaching practice and for others in the Department of Biology. 2 First, the findings suggest that in our cohort of bioscience students, lecture capture has neither a strong positive nor a strong negative effect on academic performance, with the caveat that there may be unidentified small effects within subpopulations of students. 3 The overall finding should allay concerns that lecture capture disadvantages student learning among our students. 4 Second, the finding that students with a disability perform slightly, but significantly worse than students without a disability, and that non-UK students perform slightly, but significantly worse than UK students, is interesting and warrants further investigation. 5 At the very least, this highlights that disabled and non-UK students are intrinsically disadvantaged and, although support is provided, careful consideration of the level of this support would be prudent. 6 Finally, this study raises a question over the rationale behind providing lecture capture at higher education institutions given the lack of a positive correlation with academic performance. 7 Even though students appreciate the provision (Elliott and Neal, 2016, Toppin, 2011, Settle et al., 2011, O’Callaghan et al., 2015), does lecture capture really represent value for money to institutions and departments paying for the service?
The word implication is similar in meaning to the word effect, except that it refers more to potential effects in the future, that may or may not happen. It's also usually used in the plural; we tend to talk about many possible implications rather than one specific implication. Because implications are less certain than effects, we mostly see them being used as the object of verbs in the present tense, to talk about the future. For example, one of the immediate effects of being in a car crash is damaging your car or being injured, which is stressful enough, but you'd also worry about the implications, such as not being able to get to work. Maybe you'll lose your job? Your insurance will probably become more expensive, so you might not be able to afford that new set of encyclopedias you've been wanting to buy. If you were driving dangerously, maybe the police will be involved? Will you have a criminal record?
Working in groups, come up with as many possible implications for the following situations:
Conclusions are a bit more flexible than introductions in terms of structure, and there is quite a lot of variation, especially between disciplines, in the order in which things appear. It's always a good idea to summarise (but not repeat) the original essay or research question, and what your answer is to that question. But after that, it's a space for the author to express her own views on what's been covered in the paper.
Writers and speakers often hedge their language when they're less certain, or when they don't want to commit themselves to a particular statement. For example:
In each of these three statements, adding certain words lowers the level of certainty, which is very useful for when we're talking about possible implications and future events.
There are many other ways of hedging statements aside from modal verbs and adverbs:
Notice that saying something has some benefits is less positive than saying something is beneficial.
Something that tends to happen is a lot less certain than something that happens.
Surely is a strange word. It sounds quite strong and certain doesn't it? Actually, it's a discourse marker that signals we're reading the author's considered opinion rather than an established fact. When we see the word in academic writing, and it tells us the author is drawing her own conclusions rather than citing a study. Therefore, it's a useful word for conclusions.
Notice the grammar here. We use the adverb to start the sentence, and the comma comes immediately after. Adverbs like this change the tone of the text that follows. Here, arguably indicates that the statement is possibly true but has not yet been proven. It indicates that the subject is still under discussion and that other people hold different view.
Hedging is a useful tool for conclusions because it's the part of the paper which allows us to speculate and offer opinions. Therefore, we want to be cautious with our language as we're never in any position to say for certain what future implications of studies will be.
In the reading classes we have been looking at texts which discuss average working hours across countries, the idea of work/life balance and the dangers associated with fatigue from overwork. Drawing on these texts, write a conclusion paragraph in response to the question: would a 48 hour working week be beneficial to society?
Upload your completed paragraph to Google Classroom, and then read one from somebody else. What feedback could you give?
Read and complete Unit 49 of Academic Vocabulary in Use - Summarising and Concluding