Finally, in this last section of the essay—the Conclusion
paragraph—you will want to keep these logical rules, regarding the construction of your conclusion in
mind:
A Conclusion must be at least 3-sentences long
(based on the 3 sections, logically), but a typical Conclusion paragraph ranges
from 3-7 sentences in length. Anything
longer than that, and you are going to bore your reader by going over too much
content from the body-paragraphs.
A Conclusion’s first line of the paragraph will be
where you re-word the original thesis into a new format, using new words.
Do not copy and paste the thesis into this first
line of the Conclusion.
Do not use the exact same words from the original
thesis, yet with them shifted here or there.
You need to really work on recreating your thesis in
a new light.
A Conclusion will not have
questions peppered throughout it. While
you can
use a question as your culminating option (see below), that is the only
location for a question in a conclusion.
Your Conclusion serves as a final thought on the
way to the argument-exit.
The Conclusion works to reiterate how strong the
ethical argument was in the body-paragraphs and why the audience must
secure this argument as if it was their own.
Therefore, it stands to reason that you
will not be asking your reader questions about how he/she feels about this or
that. You will be wrapping up your
position, not asking questions. You already know the ‘truth’. You already know the answers. Why would you ask your audience questions when
you had just convinced them that your argument was the strongest? You want your audience to understand how confident
you are on the topic/issue. Therefore,
you will persuasively assert your viewpoint—from the body-paragraphs—in this,
the middle section of the Conclusion paragraph—without peppering questions
throughout.
The very last sentence of the Conclusion paragraph
is the only location where it is possible to integrate source material.
While you do not ‘have’ to use source
material to send the audience on his/her way, it is an option.
Source material (such as a famous quote or
research statistics that really cinch it all together) would not logically go
anywhere else in a Conclusion since you are wrapping up the overall
topic.
You are no longer proving anything with
source support.
You will not introduce new research in an attempt
to argue more.
The argument needs to remain in the
body-paragraphs.
The body-paragraph establish the validity of the argument,
and the Introduction and Conclusion simply hold the argument together neatly.
The Conclusion is simply one of the pair of
bookends to the writing. It holds the argument together with the introduction
on the other end of the body-paragraph argument.
BASICS of
a CONCLUSION
Conclusion
Part 1: Re-word Thesis
Conclusion
Part 2: Summarize the Argument
Conclusion
Part 3: Culminating Sentence
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