Doyle Online Writing Lab

Conclusions

The conclusion of your paper should accomplish three things:

It should summarize your argument: This does not necessarily mean restating each and every point discussed in your paper. Such an approach can result in conclusions that run into the body of the argument; it can result in conclusions that seem to go on forever rehashing old points. You don't want summarizing to turn into "beating a dead horse." Summarizing an argument in your conclusion means: (1) restating a few general arguments using taglines, and (2) bringing the argument (your thesis) into sharp focus. For Example:

After his defeat and capture, Lear's transformation of character is complete. To be a prisoner of his daughters should be the most humiliating experience in a king's life, yet we find Lear expressing real happiness. Because he is with Cordelia, the longing for power and loyalty has been replaced with a desire for love and compassion. At last Lear sees a love without price and power. He actually looks forward to being a prisoner with Cordelia:

Come, let's away to prison.
We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage.
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down
And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies... (V.iii.8-13)

The kind of love that he now wants is the antithesis of the worship that his other daughters promised him. Lear has discovered a human love based on sharing and feeling, and found that it is worth far more than crowns or kingdoms. The tragedy of King Lear is that Lear's ideal universe discovers itself in a prison rather than in a kingdom. For when Lear had the power to preserve love he could not see it, and when he had the wisdom to see love he could not preserve it.

This conclusion is still a bit verbose, but it summarizes (what we must assume to be) the paper's central argument without falling into a cycle of recapitulation.

It should be distinct from the body of the paper: Usually this entails offering the reader some insight distinct from, but directly contingent on, the arguments made in the rest of the paper. You might mention (1) how the issues discussed are particularly important to consider (perhaps they affect the reader in a profound manner?), (2) the current status of the issue if your paper addresses some contemporary controversy (are things being done to resolve the issue? are they sufficient? Get your reader to ask these questions), or (3) how an academic argument can be applied to non-academic issues (e.g., what does Lear's revelation tell us about ourselves?)

It should provide the reader with a sense of closure: By the time a reader has finished a piece of writing he should both understand the argument put forth in that piece and be relatively well-equipped to reflect on the issue independently. The last sentence of your paper concludes your attempt to make an impression on him: the last sentence is what, in the words of F.L. Lucas, "reverberate[s] in the reader's mind." To give the reader a sense of closure, you might: (1) end with a clever turn of phrase (as in the above example) or reinvent a cliché, (2) end with an appropriate quotation that you find particularly eloquent (this can be extremely effective if it contains imagery that is important elsewhere in the paper and that is redefined or reemphasized by the quote), (3) return to your introduction (if you told an anecdote reinterpret it in light of what your paper has explained; if you described a scene demonstrate how the reader's perception of that scene has been changed by what he has just learned . . .).

In short, an effective conclusion seeks to solidify a paper's argument in the reader's mind as succinctly as possible. It provides a basis for further reflection on the issues addressed by the composition, but ensures that the reader is affected by it in such a way that when posed with a particular question or issue he will immediately hear the final sentence of your essay resounding in his head.

For more help see the Introductions and Conclusions page.

BIBLIOGRAPHY (for further information . . .)

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research. Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press, 1995. 250-54.

Trimble, John R. Writing With Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1975. 55-8.