Writing a Basic Conclusion
Restate the topic. You should briefly restate the topic as well as explain why it is important. Do not spend a great amount of time or space restating your topic. A good research paper will make the importance of your topic apparent, so you do not need to write an elaborate defense of your topic in the conclusion. Usually a single sentence is all you need to restate your topic. An example would be if you were writing a paper on the epidemiology of infectious disease, you might say something like "Tuberculosis is a widespread infectious disease that affects millions of people worldwide every year." Yet another example from the humanities would be a paper about the Italian Renaissance: "The Italian Renaissance was an explosion of art and ideas centered around artists, writers, and thinkers in Florence."
Restate your thesis. Aside from the topic, you should also restate or rephrase your thesis statement. A thesis is a narrowed, focused view on the topic at hand. This statement should be rephrased from the thesis you included in your introduction. It should not be identical or too similar to the sentence you originally used. Try re-wording your thesis statement in a way that complements your summary of the topic of your paper in your first sentence of your conclusion. An example of a good thesis statement, going back to the paper on tuberculosis, would be "Tuberculosis is a widespread disease that affects millions of people worldwide every year. Due to the alarming rate of the spread of tuberculosis, particularly in poor countries, medical professionals are implementing new strategies for the diagnosis, treatment, and containment of this disease."
Briefly summarize your main points. Essentially, you need to remind your reader what you told them in the body of the paper. A good way to go about this is to re-read the topic sentence of each major paragraph or section in the body of your paper. Find a way to briefly restate each point mentioned in each topic sentence in your conclusion. Do not repeat any of the supporting details used within your body paragraphs. Under most circumstances, you should avoid writing new information in your conclusion. This is especially true if the information is vital to the argument or research presented in your paper. For example, in the TB paper you could summarize the information. "Tuberculosis is a widespread disease that affects millions of people worldwide. Due to the alarming rate of the spread of tuberculosis, particularly in poor countries, medical professionals are implementing new strategies for the diagnosis, treatment, and containment of this disease. In developing countries, such as those in Africa and Southeast Asia, the rate of TB infections is soaring. Crowded conditions, poor sanitation, and lack of access to medical care are all compounding factors in the spread of the disease. Medical experts, such as those from the World Health Organization are now starting campaigns to go into communities in developing countries and provide diagnostic testing and treatments. However, the treatments for TB are very harsh and have many side effects. This leads to patient non-compliance and spread of multi-drug resistant strains of the disease."
Add the points up. If your paper proceeds in an inductive manner and you have not fully explained the significance of your points yet, you need to do so in your conclusion. Note that this is not needed for all research papers. If you already fully explained what the points in your paper mean or why they are significant, you do not need to go into them in much detail in your conclusion. Simply restating your thesis or the significance of your topic should suffice. It is always best practice to address important issues and fully explain your points in the body of your paper. The point of a conclusion to a research paper is to summarize your argument for the reader and, perhaps, to call the reader to action if needed.
Make a call to action when appropriate. If and when needed, you can state to your readers that there is a need for further research on your paper's topic. Note that a call for action is not essential to all conclusions. A research paper on literary criticism, for instance, is less likely to need a call for action than a paper on the effect that television has on toddlers and young children. A paper that is more likely to call readers to action is one that addresses a public or scientific need. Let's go back to our example of tuberculosis. This is a very serious disease that is spreading quickly and with antibiotic-resistant forms. A call to action in this research paper would be a follow-up statement that might be along the lines of "Despite new efforts to diagnose and contain the disease, more research is needed to develop new antibiotics that will treat the most resistant strains of tuberculosis and ease the side effects of current treatments."
Answer the “so what” question. The conclusion of a paper is your opportunity to explain the broader context of the issue you have been discussing. It is also a place to help readers understand why the topic of your paper truly matters. You should use the conclusion to answer the “so what” question because the significance of your topic may not be obvious to readers. For example, if you are writing a history paper, then you might discuss how the historical topic you discussed matters today. If you are writing about a foreign country, then you might use the conclusion to discuss how the information you shared may help readers understand their own country.
Making Your Conclusion as Effective as Possible
Stick with a basic synthesis of information. The most basic conclusion is the summary closing, which is very similar to the paper's introduction. Since this sort of conclusion is so basic, you must aim to synthesize the information rather than merely summarizing it. Instead of merely repeating things you already said, rephrase your thesis and supporting points in a way that ties them all together. By doing so, you make your research paper seem like a "complete thought" rather than a collection of random and vaguely related ideas.
Bring things full circle. Tie your research paper together by directly linking your introduction with your conclusion. There are several ways to do this. Ask a question in your introduction. In your conclusion, restate the question and provide a direct answer. Write an anecdote or story in your introduction but do not share the ending. Instead, write the conclusion to the anecdote in the conclusion of your paper. For example, if you wanted to get more creative and put a more humanistic spin on a paper on tuberculosis, you might start your introduction with a story about a person with the disease, and refer to that story in your conclusion. For example, you could say something like this before you re-state your thesis in your conclusion: "Patient X was unable to complete the treatment for tuberculosis due to severe side effects and unfortunately succumbed to the disease." Use the same concepts and images introduced in your introduction in your conclusion. The images may or may not appear at other points throughout the research paper.
Close with logic. If your research paper presented multiple sides of an issue, use your conclusion to state a logical opinion formed by your evidence. Include enough information about your topic to back the statement up but do not get too carried away with excess detail. If your research did not provide you with a clear-cut answer to a question posed in your thesis, do not be afraid to indicate as much. Restate your initial hypothesis and indicate whether you still believe it or if the research you performed has begun swaying your opinion. Indicate that an answer may still exist and that further research could shed more light on the topic at hand.
Pose a question. Instead of handing the reader the conclusion, you are asking the reader to form their conclusion. This may not be appropriate for all types of research papers. Most research papers, such as one on effective treatment for diseases, will have the information to make the case for a particular argument already in the paper. A good example of a paper that might ask a question of the reader in the ending is one about a social issue, such as poverty or government policy. Ask a question that will directly get at the heart or purpose of the paper. This question is often the same question, or some version of it, that you may have started with when you began your research. Make sure that the question can be answered by the evidence presented in your paper. If desired you can briefly summarize the answer after stating the question. You could also leave the question hanging for the reader to answer, though.
Make a suggestion. If you are including a call to action in your conclusion, you could provide your reader with a recommendation on how to proceed with further research. Even without a call to action, you can still make a recommendation to your reader. For instance, if you are writing about a topic like third-world poverty, you can various ways for the reader to assist in the problem without necessarily calling for more research. Another example would be, in a paper about treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis, you could suggest donating to the World Health Organization or research foundations that are developing new treatments for the disease.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls
Avoid saying "in conclusion" or similar sayings. This includes "in summary" or "in closing." These sayings usually sound stiff, unnatural, or trite when used in writing. Moreover, using a phrase like "in conclusion" to begin your conclusion is a little too straightforward and tends to lead to a weak conclusion. A strong conclusion can stand on its own without being labeled as such.
Do not wait until the conclusion to state your thesis. While it may be tempting to save your thesis to create a dramatic end to your paper, doing so will create a paper that seems less cohesive and more unorganized. Always state the main argument or thesis in the introduction. A research paper is an analytical discussion of an academic topic, not a mystery novel. A good, effective research paper will allow your reader to follow your main argument from start to finish. This is why it is best practice to start your paper with an introduction that states your main argument and to end the paper with a conclusion that re-states your thesis for re-iteration.
Leave out new information. A new idea, new subtopic, or new evidence is too significant to save until the conclusion. All significant information should be introduced in the body of the paper. Supporting evidence expands the topic of your paper by making it appear more detailed. A conclusion should narrow the topic to a more general point. A conclusion should only summarize what you have already stated in the body of your paper. You may suggest further research or a call to action, but you should not bring in any new evidence or facts in the conclusion.
Avoid changing the tone of the paper. The tone of your research paper should be consistent the entire way through. Most often, a shift in tone occurs when a research paper with an academic tone gives an emotional or sentimental conclusion. Even if the topic of the paper is of personal significance for you, you should not indicate as much in your paper. If you want to give your paper a more humanistic slant, you could start and end your paper with a story or anecdote that would give your topic more personal meaning to the reader. This tone should be consistent throughout the paper, however.
Make no apologies. Do not make statements that downplay your authority or discoveries. Apologetic statements include phrases like "I may not be an expert" or "This is only my opinion." Statements like this can usually be avoided by refraining from writing in the first-person. Avoid any statements in the first-person. First-person is generally considered to be informal and does not fit with the formal tone of a research paper.
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