Conclusion

Conclusions are also difficult to write. How do you manage to make the reader feel persuaded by what you've said? Even if the points of your paper are strong, the overall effect of your argument might fall to pieces if the paper as a whole is badly concluded.
Many students end their papers by simply summarizing what has come before. A summary of what the reader has just read is important to the conclusion - particularly if your argument has been complicated or hascovered a lot of ground. But a good conclusion will do more. Just as the introduction sought to place the paper in the larger, ongoing conversation about the topic, so should the conclusion insist on returning the reader to that ongoing conversation, but with the feeling that they have learned something more. You don't want your reader to finish your paper and say, "So what?" Admittedly, writing a conclusion isn't easy to do.
Many of the strategies we've listed for improving your introductions can help you to improve your conclusions as well. In your conclusion you might:

1. Return to the ongoing conversation, emphasizing the importance of your own contribution to it.
2. Consider again the background information with which you began, and illustrate how your argument has shed new light on that information.
3. Return to the key terms and point out how your essay has added some new dimension to their meanings.
4. Use an anecdote or quotation that summarizes or reflects your main idea.
5. Acknowledge your opponents - if only to emphasize that you've beaten them.
6. Remember: language is especially important to a conclusion. Your goal in your final sentences is to leave your ideas resounding in your reader's mind. Give her something to think about. Make your language ring.