How to Conclude an Essay

A good quality essay is one that has flow all the way from the introduction to the conclusion. However, the majority of students tend to take the conclusion lightly. The same effort you put into the introduction and body of the essay should be put into doing the conclusion too. Writing conclusions is pretty easy because all you’re doing is restating the main points, and letting your reader know you’ve reached the end of your essay.

A good conclusion does the following:

• It gives an essay a neat finish
• It ties all points of an essay, making it complete

There are a couple of ways you can write a conclusion, which leaves your essay looking complete and rather polished.

Thinking About Your Essay Conclusion

Before you proceed with writing the introduction or body of your essay, you first have to brainstorm what information to include. You may have an outline, but it’s worth nothing without the “meat.” The same principle applies to writing the conclusion. At this stage you must do the following;

Highlight The Main Points

Your essay conclusion should include the main ideas. Well, you don’t necessarily have to recall every point, just the main points. It helps you focus on the conclusion and avoid introducing any new ideas that may only mislead and confuse your audience.

What Is The Significance Of Your Essay?

What was the point of the arguments that you made or the ideas that you wrote? You need to answer the “so what” question for your readers. A good paper conclusion gives your audience a reason to give your paper any attention. When an essay doesn’t have a reason to it, chances are that no one will pay attention to your work.

Give the Bigger Picture

Link your arguments to a broader perspective that will add more weight to your ideas giving your essay a strong sense of purpose. This makes it possible for your essay to leave a mark on your readers, plus it makes convincing your audience to a call of action easy.

What Themes Did You Introduce At The Beginning Of Your Paper?

To give your paper that polished finish, you can revisit the theme in your introduction. Broaden the theme more to help you nail the essay conclusion.

Writing Your Conclusion

The approach you take to write the essay conclusion, and that of the whole paper largely depends on the type of essay. While writing down your essay conclusion, there are specific factors that one must consider.

The Type of Essay

Take an example of a conclusion given to a persuasive essay, it’s quite different from that of an informative one and so on. Answering questions on issues such as;

The relevance of your topic

It’s significance to the broader perspective

Limitations of your methods, if it were a research paper

What implications your ideas may have in the near future and so on.

Your paper conclusion should reflect the same structure seen throughout the introduction and body of the essay. Base your conclusion on the type of essay, such that, if it’s an informative essay, you at this point make a summary of the main ideas, while for a creative essay it will be the story coming to an end.

“Introducing” The Essay Conclusion

Signal to your readers that the paper is coming to an end. You must have a transition from the body to the conclusion. However, in certain scenarios, the transition may somewhat feel redundant since, from the previous section of the text, it was obvious that the essay is coming to a close. The transition should be simple and not use cliché words such as “to conclude,” “in summary,” “to sum up,” “in conclusion,” and so on. They are okay to use but not the best approach, go beyond the normal and creatively give a stunning conclusion.

Keep Your Paper Conclusion Short and Simple

Conclusions aren’t supposed to be lengthy! They are short, consisting of a paragraph or two – for long essays. All a conclusion does is restate your main points or arguments and not rewriting the entire essay.

Simplicity is key when writing the conclusion. Use one syllable words in your sentences. You can also employ the use of compound sentences to give that sense of a dramatic end to a complex discussion in your conclusion.

Give an Authoritative Touch to the Conclusion

Writing an essay is a chance for you to express your opinion and thoughts on specific issues. Therefore, as you conclude your essay, your choice of words should reflect that. You are trying to assert your ideas to your readers, do so by using words that will echo your conviction on the issue at hand, without you being apologetic and that can convince them too.

Main Ideas

Writing conclusions is reasonably easy, what you are simply doing is reiterating the main ideas. Go back to the essay and highlight your main points in the conclusion.

Include Your Thesis Statement

A good conclusion highlights the thesis statement, such that, should anyone only read that section, they should be able to tell what the thesis statement is. In any case, the thesis statement gives an idea of what the main argument of your essay is and as earlier stated, your conclusion ought to include a summary of the main ideas.

Make It Engaging

Your conclusion should be mentally stimulating for your readers. You can include a call to action and basically, give your conclusion a polished finish. Give your readers the satisfaction of knowing it was worth reading your paper.

Mistakes to Avoid While Writing Conclusions

Don’t Introduce New Ideas

A conclusion is a summary of the main points that you had previously introduced in the body of the essay. Therefore, introducing new concepts would be a grievous mistake. Stick to the scope of the topic at hand. Introducing new ideas only confuses your readers, lowering the quality of your paper.

Repeating the Introduction

Although there must be a connection between the introduction and conclusion, don’t make the mistake of just restating the intro in the conclusion. Yes, you may be reiterating the major points, but then, the conclusion ties all of them together giving a neat finish to your thoughts. Don’t repeat the introduction, instead, highlight your ideas from a more compelling perspective. Give your audience a reason to read the conclusion, and don’t make it too obvious.

Using Fluff

Using fluff and filler content is among the many things that distort the readability of your essay. A proper conclusion is void of such mistakes. You can achieve a fluff free conclusion by simply stating the main points using clear and concise language that doesn’t mislead your readers. Students are often tempted to use complex, long words that make the conclusion incomprehensible. Your wordings should be precise and to the point, using words such as “firstly” is not advised. They actually make your essay conclusion boring!

Avoid Emphasis on the Not-So-Major Points

The length of a conclusion isn’t rigid, and you can have whichever length. However, it’s on the condition that it reflects specific issues such as the thesis statement, your final thoughts, or suggestions and the main ideas. Anything beyond that will be considered as fluff. Most college essays are between 5 to 7 lines long, which means that you have to only highlight the main issues. An essay conclusion is no place for mentioning minor points.

An Essay Conclusion Example

Source: Impact of Facebook Usage on Students’ Academic Achievement: Role of self-regulation and trust. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology

This study attempted to measure the perceived impact of the presence and use of the social networking site Facebook by undergraduate students at Luleå University of Technology on their academic achievement. The expected results demonstrated the perception of the use of this online platform in a particular cultural and academic context and its preliminary impact. We analyzed the role of trust in people, self–regulation, and personality traits in enhancing one’s presence on Facebook. We then analyzed whether extensive cognitive load would increase the presence on this site and if both would negatively impact students’ academic results. The role of polychronicity, satisfaction with life, and performance-goal orientation in reducing the presumed negative effect of online social networking and enhancing the students’ academic achievement was tested as well….

Note how the author introduces his arguments, results and thesis statement in the above essay conclusion example.

Conclusion

Each section of any essay plays a significant role in giving flow and improving the quality of the piece. However, the conclusion in quite a number of essays doesn’t receive the needed attention, probably because all the conclusion does is echo the main points. To have a well-written conclusion, it’s vital to give it the same attention as you did the introduction and body of the essay.

Writing your conclusion is rather easy and not a hustle as many may perceive. Brainstorm on what information you’ll include in the conclusion, keep it short and simple, and avoid using complex words that may distort the message. Conclude your essay in a manner that engages your readers by giving it a polished finish. You may have an excellent intro and body but should your conclusion not be of par the overall quality of the essay is lowered. Link your ideas to a broader context but be keen not to go outside the main topic, it increases your chances of having fluff!