Conclusions

What to avoid

Before you can write your conclusion you should know what to avoid. Here are some common errors.

• Don't introduce a new topic. For example, if your essay has been about the loss of forests and possible solutions for the high consumption of wood products, don't end with a paragraph about another environmental concern, such as the disappearance of the California condor.

• Don't trail off with a weak statement or a statement leaving your reader up in the air.

  • The Internet, free of regulation, has opened a world of information and ideas to everyone. Children enjoy learning at the computer.

• Don't simply repeat your thesis or main idea in the same words.

  • Thus, as stated earlier, clothing imagery shows the changes in King Lear throughout the play.

• Don't apologize for or suggest doubts about your thesis.

  • For a variety of reasons, middle-class expectations in the 1990s differ from those in the 1970s. It is possible, however, that the difference is not particularly illuminating about life in the United States.

You may use a brief concluding sentence instead of a formal conclusion in a simple or short paper (up to five pages, for example). Formal conclusions can sometimes be superfluous and even insulting to the reader's intelligence, particularly if the conclusion is a long summary of what he or she just read. Instead, end your paper with your best point, using a strong final sentence.

Suggestions for conclusions

The two most important things a conclusion should do is give your readers a sense of completion and leave them with a strong impression. You can do this with a single statement or with a paragraph. If you do write a concluding paragraph, consider these possibilities.

End with an appropriate quotation:

• Throughout the novel the characters suffer both from their isolation and from their attempts to end it. Kerewin burns her tower, Joe beats his son and goes to prison, and Simon—who barely survives the beating—must painfully find his way back to those he loves. Recurring images dramatize their journeys, which end in a reconciliation between being alone and being part of a community. Kerewin describes the home that will now take the place of her lonely tower: “I decided on a shell-shape, a regular spiral of rooms expanding around the decapitated Tower … privacy, apartness, but all connected and all part of the whole.”

Notice that in this example the writer also pulls loose ends together and briefly refers to the thesis.

Without directly repeating your thesis, come full circle by relating the final paragraph to a point you made in your introduction.

• Preserving old-growth forests and finding substitutes for wood should concern everyone who cares about the environment. The days when Americans could view this country as an unlimited provider of resources are as gone as roaming herds of buffalo and pioneers in covered wagons.

End with a story related to your thesis.

• On a recent trip to the airport, I stood at the ticket counter behind an angry woman. It seems she'd forgotten her photo ID and was being told by the attendant that she couldn't fly without it. After calling the clerk a storm trooper and threatening to sue the airline, she turned to me indignantly. “You tell me. Do I look like the kind of person who would blow up a plane?” I didn't answer, since the question seemed rhetorical. I wondered, though, how in the future this woman would react to a fifteen-minute interview about herself, or to a uniformed attendant patting her down.

Another way to conclude a paper is to summarize your points. But because summaries aren't particularly interesting conclusions, consider one only if your paper is fairly long and if one would be helpful to your reader. Keep summaries brief and avoid wishy-washy final sentences, such as For all these reasons, the Internet should not be regulated.