Here is an example of a conclusion for an argumentative essay:
The conclusion is the last thing your audience reads. This is a great place to restate your thesis and remind readers of what you are arguing and why. But remember, you don’t want to restate your thesis exactly, find a new way of saying it that ties in some of the evidence you’ve shared.
One goal of your conclusion should be to keep your readers thinking about your subject or argument. An excellent way to do this is to pose a question or questions about your topic. Remind your readers what the implications of your thesis are.
In a compelling conclusion, you will start specifically by restating your thesis statement and broaden by reviewing your article’s main points and touching on broader implications. Use your conclusion to reinforce and review each of the main points or supporting details of your essay.
Here is an example of a conclusion for an expository essay:
A satisfactory conclusion mirrors a good introduction. What do I mean by that? A conclusion is like a reverse of your introduction. To open your essay, you start by speaking broadly about your subject and narrow it down to a specific thesis statement.
Start your conclusion by taking that thesis and restating it like this: We’ve learned that giraffes are superior to other animals because of their long necks and spots.
Your thesis statement is an essential part of your essay, so it’s important to reinforce that thesis in your conclusion. The first thing you’ll do is restate your idea by using different phrasing. Let’s take a straightforward thesis and rephrase it for a concluding paragraph.
Below is a guide on how to write a conclusion in three easy to follow steps. If you adhere to this roadmap, you will thoughtfully conclude your essay, reinforce your argument, and leave your reader curious about your subject. So, let’s get started learning how to write a conclusion.
Here is an example of a conclusion for an analytical essay:
The primary functions of the introduction are to introduce the topic and aim of the essay, plus provide the reader with a clear framework of how the essay will be structured. Therefore, the following sections provide a brief overview of how these goals can be achieved. The introduction has three basic sections (often in one paragraph if the essay is short) that establish the key elements: background, thesis statement, and essay outline.
Here are two polished conclusion paragraph examples:
The introduction and conclusion are the strong walls that hold up the ends of your essay. The introduction should pique the readers’ interest, the aim or purpose of the essay, and provide an outline of how the essay is organised. The conclusion mirrors the introduction in structure and summarizes the main aim and key ideas within the essay, drawing to a logical conclusion. The introduction states what the essay will do and the conclusion tells the reader what the essay has achieved.
How to Write an Informative Essay: A Crash Course
Ultimately, you should devote as much time to writing your conclusion as you do to crafting your introduction. It is one of the set pieces of your argument, and the impression your conclusion makes will last long after your readers forget the middle of your essay. In real-world terms, you should realize, too, that lazy readers often skip to the conclusion when they get bored or frustrated. They look for the “so what?” This could happen to you. For this reason, your conclusion needs to have snap, or purpose. Use it to end your essay with a bang.
How To Write an Essay Conclusion (With Examples)
End with the questions raised by your paper. This, too, is tricky. It’s the “inconclusive conclusion”: the conclusion that illuminates the questions raised by your work without necessarily answering them, often because there are no easy answers. This can be a powerful way to leave your readers thinking, but it can also comes across as apologetic or annoying. It works best in papers that analyze some moral issue (what is truth? what is justice? what is honorable in war?) because these type of questions often do not have answers. It works least well for essays that point toward an obvious conclusion because essays that are strongly persuasive don’t leave these doors open. For this reason, a paper that explores why the world community did nothing about Pol Pot – why the atrocities in fact took place – might be able to end with some provocative questions. But a paper that analyzes Jimi Hendrix’s status as an anti-war icon would need a different type of conclusion, perhaps an anecdote or a quotation.
How to Write a Conclusion for an Essay
To be effective, a conclusion must mesh logically and stylistically with what comes earlier. A long, complex paper often ends with a summary of the main points, but any of several other options may be used for shorter papers with easy to grasp ideas. Most short essays have single paragraph conclusions, longer papers may require two or three paragraphs. Sources: