Now that you have an understanding about what makes introductions important, effective, and ineffective, it’s time to think about conclusions. A conclusion is typically the final paragraph of a work of writing. Despite the name, conclusions are not traditionally the places where writers arrive at new conclusions not developed earlier in the essay. Instead, conclusions bring the essay full circle by returning to the big ideas set up in the essay’s introduction, but with a fresh, refined perspective developed over the course of the essay’s supporting body paragraphs, ideas, and claims.

Described below are conceptual and structural elements of effective conclusions. These are things that an effective conclusion can do in order to wrap up an essay and leave a reader with something to think about.

Conceptual Elements

Below are descriptions of conceptual elements common in effective conclusions.

Revisit the Thesis

A conclusion paragraph can begin by revisiting the essay’s thesis, reestablishing the overall argument while relying on the new refined perspective supported by the information in the essay’s body paragraphs. The first sentence of a conclusion paragraph can reintroduce the thesis, but the rest of the paragraph should try to move beyond a reproduction of the introduction. Avoid simply restating your thesis and all of your main points. Your conclusion should do something more than just this. Think about it from this perspective: what was the point in reading your entire essay, if you were just going to sum it all up in the conclusion? Your essay is doing more than can be held within a paragraph, so your conclusion should do more to match.

Recontextualize the Point

Your conclusion can help bridge the gap between the ideas you’re writing about in your essay and your readers’ real lives. This means that your conclusion can emphasize a context for your ideas that makes them relevant, important, or meaningful for your reader. How can your big ideas connect with your reader? Sometimes, this context can look different than that in the introduction because your essay might’ve moved through a series of points to arrive here at this recontextualized space.

Structural Elements

Below are a few common structural elements in effective conclusions.

Evolved Thesis

Effective conclusions can begin by revisiting the thesis in different language from the introduction. This allows the concluding paragraph to build something more than the introduction in which the thesis is usually stated near the end. Revisiting the thesis at the beginning of the conclusion allows you to explore the context and broader implications of your essay in the rest of the paragraph, because now the reader has a deep understanding of how your thesis or main point is supported, so they are better prepared to envision the implications and context you might discuss here.

Motive

You don’t want your readers to leave your essay thinking “so what?” You can prevent this by reestablishing the significance and relevance of your thesis or main point: show the reader why what you wrote is important.

Limitations

Sometimes your thesis or main point has limitations. This is especially prevalent when you’re proposing a possible solution to a complicated problem, or if you’re making an analytical argument that could be developed beyond the scope of your writing project. If any of these are the case, your conclusion could acknowledge your essay’s own limitations. Perhaps you could describe how further research is needed, or you could briefly mention some of the weaknesses in your solution to a problem, ideally, weaknesses that you covered in more detail during the essay proper. Your conclusion could acknowledge that your claim or claims are ambitious, and that more work would be needed to realize them to their fullest potential. You could even acknowledge how your argument might not convince people who approach the topic with vastly different assumptions. All of these strategies could potentially improve your credibility as well.

Look Ahead

Your essay is a small part of a larger discourse on a topic. After all—your essay is entering into an ongoing conversation of ideas. Your essay cannot tackle every conceivable angle of your topic, and even if it could, it’s possible that your topic could evolve over time. Your conclusion, therefore, could point the reader toward work that still needs to be done. For example: perhaps you’ve proposed a solution to a local environmental problem by outlining how tax dollars can be spent to address the issue. This will not automatically result in tax dollars going toward that issue. So, you conclusion could describe the next steps: perhaps this issue could be brought to a local governmental body for debate. Alternatively, maybe your essay’s argument answers some question or questions, but in doing so opens up new questions that must be answered outside the scope of your work. Looking ahead is similar to acknowledging an essay’s limitations, but it can leave the reader with a sense of the future, and even ideas to respond to or continue your conversation.