The process of concluding a paper is often the most challenging part of the entire work. A student must summarise the main ideas and arguments presented in the text, summarize them, and answer their thesis statement. It sounds somewhat easy, isn’t it? Well, your last paragraph carries a lot of meaning and importance for your work. So there are many aspects and rules to have a proper concluding paragraph. We present you an insight into what makes a great conclusion.
What Is a Conclusion?
It wouldn’t be right to call any last paragraph of your text a conclusion. The last section of your assignment must meet certain expectations to be called such. Overall, a conclusion must wrap up everything a writer has previously stated in the text above. It must include, analyze and summarize the main points of the main body. Based on that analysis, a writer should provide an answer to the question set in the introduction. It should not state anything that was not originally in the main body or introduction.
What’s more, beyond the technical aspects, a good conclusion should also give readers a sense of closure. It should leave no room for doubts or misunderstanding. A well-written concluding paragraph must demonstrate a writer's critical thinking, analytical skills, and logic. It should draw a line in the discussion and round up the text.
The Elements to Include
To know how to write a perfect ending to your academic paper, you should know what elements make it so good. So here are four elements that should be present in every conclusion.
Thesis Statement
Despite common belief, the place for your thesis statement is not only in the introduction. It should be restated at least several times during the test, including your conclusion.
Of course, you may feel free to paraphrase it if you want. However, at this stage, your goal is to answer it and, therefore, put a closure to your work. After all, your thesis carries the purpose of your paper. Hence, your whole text was focused on this one sentence. Your main task was to answer a thesis statement, and that’s how you should start your last paragraph.
Summary of Main Points
The summary of your main points should serve you as the support base for giving your answer. Overall, you have to draw the conclusion from the ideas and arguments that you expressed throughout the text. Hence, recap them to remind your audience about each of them. Then, explain why they were important and how they helped you reach the answer that you stated in the first sentences.
Explain the Purpose of It
It’s also a nice touch to elaborate on what way your work was meaningful and important for academia. Restate the theme of your paper and recall the importance of the given subject.
Closure
Now, closure is not exactly an element but rather a feeling. You have to give your readers a sense of closure. There is no one way to do it. However, as long as you have your main question answered and you give a proper explanation of why your answer is correct, you should feel like the purpose of your work is fulfilled.
How to Write a Conclusion Paragraph Outline?
As always, you better have a proper outline ready before you start writing that paper. So, once you know what elements you should include, you need to learn their order. Understanding how to structure your last paragraph can be tricky. For one, the layout of your conclusion will always depend on the type of paper you are writing. For example, a conclusion outline for an essay will be different from the one in a research paper. Secondly, you have to be comfortable with your text and know all your main points to write good conclusions. Thus, when doing a layout of your last paragraph, you should include all of them plus a thesis statement.
Let’s take a look at a classic version of a conclusion paragraph outline for essays:
- Topic sentence
- Restate your thesis statement and answer it
- Supporting sentences
- Recap your main points in the text
- Summarize them to support your topic sentence
- Closing
- Reconnect to the introduction
- Suggest further research if needed
Let’s see how such an outline can look using a real conclusion example.
- Topic sentence
- Meditation can help people with depression.
- Supporting sentences
- People with depression will have a better sleep, reduce their anxiety and stress levels, and feel more at peace with themselves, all due to meditation. Hence, meditation does help with depression.
- Closing
- We are yet to learn most of the benefits of meditation. Thus, this area needs further research, especially in relation to mental health.
Here you can see how a writer can draw a conclusion that can answer a thesis statement in a few simple sentences and give the reasoning for that answer. The given outline can be a good beginning to a well-written last paragraph of a research paper.
What to Avoid?
Knowing how to write a proper conclusion is one thing. However, there are many examples of a conclusion that repeats the same mistakes over and over again. So, to prevent that from happening to you, let’s see and try to avoid the two common but wrong patterns students are prone to make in their last paragraphs.
Novelties
The most common poor pattern here is introducing new ideas or theories for the first time. Your readers got to the final part of your paper thinking that it is time to wrap things up and have the main answer to your question. It’s not the best time to bombard them with anything that they have not seen in the main body. This section here is for concluding what has already been discussed above. Hence, bringing anything new out of sudden will surprise and confuse your readers.
If you feel like you missed out on any important argument or piece of evidence, you should include it in the main body. This section, however, is not the right place for any new arguments. Make sure to mention, restate, and summarise only elements and thoughts that you have already written down previously.
Inconsistency
Somehow, people tend to change their narration or tone by the end of their text. Maybe they are getting too tired to write or too excited to finish. Perhaps, the formal voice just drops when you feel like the hardest part of your research is over. Overall, the reasoning doesn’t play a big role here. You just shouldn’t let it happen in your work. Consistency is important.
Hence, keep your tone, pace, and general writing style till the very last moment. This paragraph is what will leave a long-lasting impression on your audience. They read it last, so they remember it the longest. So don’t confuse them with a sudden change of tone, and stay true to your narrative and style till the last dot.