CONCLUSION
DEFINITION
The conclusion is intended to help the reader understand why your research should matter to
them after they have finished reading the study. A conclusion is not merely a summary of your
points or a re-statement of your research problem but a synthesis of key points.
Importance of a Good Conclusion
A well-written conclusion provides you with several important opportunities to demonstrate
your overall understanding of the research problem to the reader. These include:
1. Presenting the last word on the issues you raised in your research. Just as the
introduction gives a first impression to your reader, the conclusion offers a chance to
leave a lasting impression. Do this, for example, by highlighting key points in your
analysis or findings.
2. Summarizing your thoughts and conveying the larger implications of your study.
The conclusion is an opportunity to succinctly answer the "so what?" question by
placing the study within the context of past research about the topic you've
investigated.
3. Demonstrating the importance of your ideas. Don't be shy. The conclusion offers
you a chance to elaborate on the significance of your findings.
4. Introducing possible new or expanded ways of thinking about the research
problem. This does not refer to introducing new information [which should be
avoided], but to offer new insight and creative approaches for framing/contextualizing
the research problem based on the results of your study.
Structure and Writing Style
I. General Rules
When writing the conclusion to your thesis, follow these general rules:
State your conclusions in clear, simple language.
Do not simply reiterate your results or the discussion.
Indicate opportunities for future research, as long as you haven't already done so in the
discussion section of your thesis.
The function of your conclusion is to restate the main argument. It reminds the reader of
the strengths of your main argument(s) and reiterates the most important evidence supporting
those argument(s). Make sure, however, that your conclusion is not simply a repetitive
summary of the findings because this reduces the impact of the argument(s) you have
developed in your essay.
Consider the following points to help ensure your conclusion is appropriate:
1. If the argument or point of your study is complex, you may need to summarize the
argument for your reader.
2. If, prior to your conclusion, you have not yet explained the significance of your
findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the end of your thesis to describe
your main points and explain their significance.
3. Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration that returns the topic to the
context provided by the introduction or within a new context that emerges from the
data.
The conclusion also provides a place for you to persuasively and succinctly restate your
research problem, given that the reader has now been presented with all the information
about the topic. Depending on the discipline you are writing in, the concluding paragraph
may contain your reflections on the evidence presented, or on the essay's central research
problem. However, the nature of being introspective about the research you have done will
depend on the topic and whether your professor wants you to express your observations in this
way.
NOTE: Don't delve into idle speculation. Being introspective means looking within yourself
as an author to try and understand an issue more deeply not to guess at possible outcomes.
II. Developing a Compelling Conclusion
Strategies to help you move beyond merely summarizing the key points of your research
may include any of the following.
1. If your essay deals with a contemporary problem, warn readers of the possible
consequences of not attending to the problem.
2. Recommend a specific course or courses of action.
3. Cite a relevant quotation or expert opinion to lend authority to the conclusion you have
reached [a good place to look is research from your literature review].
4. Restate a key statistic, fact, or visual image to drive home the ultimate point of your
thesis.
5. If your discipline encourages personal reflection, illustrate your concluding point with
a relevant narrative drawn from your own life experiences.
6. Return to an anecdote, an example, or a quotation that you introduced in your
introduction, but add further insight that is derived from the findings of your study; use
your interpretation of results to reframe it in new ways.
7. Provide a "take-home" message in the form of a strong, succient statement that you
want the reader to remember about your study.
III. Problems to Avoid
Failure to be concise
The conclusion section should be concise and to the point. Conclusions that are too long often
have unnecessary detail. The conclusion section is not the place for details about your
methodology or results. Although you should give a summary of what was learned from your
research, this summary should be relatively brief, since the emphasis in the conclusion is on
the implications, evaluations, insights, etc. that you make.
Failure to comment on larger, more significant issues
In the introduction, your task was to move from general [the field of study] to specific [your
research problem]. However, in the conclusion, your task is to move from specific [your
research problem] back to general [your field, i.e., how your research contributes new
understanding or fills an important gap in the literature]. In other words, the conclusion is
where you place your research within a larger context.
Failure to reveal problems and negative results
Negative aspects of the research process should never be ignored. Problems, drawbacks, and
challenges encountered during your study should be included as a way of qualifying your
overall conclusions. If you encountered negative results [findings that are validated outside the
research context in which they were generated], you must report them in the results section of
your thesis. In the conclusion, use the negative results as an opportunity to explain how they
provide information on which future research can be based.
Failure to provide a clear summary of what was learned
In order to be able to discuss how your research fits back into your field of study [and possibly
the world at large], you need to summarize it briefly and directly. Often this element of your
conclusion is only a few sentences long.
Failure to match the objectives of your research
Often research objectives change while the research is being carried out. This is not a problem
unless you forget to go back and refine your original objectives in your introduction, as these
changes emerge they must be documented so that they accurately reflect what you were trying
to accomplish in your research [not what you thought you might accomplish when you began].
Resist the urge to apologize
If you've immersed yourself in studying the research problem, you now know a good deal
about it, perhaps even more than your professor! Nevertheless, by the time you have finished
writing, you may be having some doubts about what you have produced. Repress those
doubts! Don't undermine your authority by saying something like, "This is just one approach
to examining this problem; there may be other, much better approaches...."