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Conclusions
If you have written a thoughtful introduction and have used topic sentences and transitions to lead your reader through a logical and adequately developed body, a conclusion should be easy to write. Use your conclusion to dri ve home the points you have made in the body of your paper. In addition, your conclusion should give a sense of finality, which may be achieved in one of several ways. The easiest way to conclude your paper is to review its major ideas. The following paragraph concludes a paper in which the writer explains why he belongs to a book club.
Convenience, variety, and economy--these were my reasons for joining a book club. I have not been disappointed.Some conclusions merely restate the thesis, although in different words to avoid monotony. For a paper with this thesis--"A city like Bellingham can reduce three hazards that accompany airport expa nsion by using a careful planning system"--the conclusion might begin something like this:
While there is no doubt that expanding an airport can have negative repercussions, there is also no doubt that those repercussions can be all but eliminated with careful, systematic planning.Some conclusions interpret the significance of the material presented in the body of the paper. The conclusion of the paper on airport expansion might include this statement of significance.
In Washington State alone, four other cities like Bellingham have attempted airport expansion in the last ten years. All four projects have been stalled by lawsuits protesting the same three hazards that my proposed planning system could have eliminated.Other conclusions make predictions based on the material in the body of the paper.
Pollution is a major world-wide problem against which many powerful interests are being marshaled. From the private citizens who are concerned with the type of detergent or pesticide they use to the leaders of great nations, all thinking peop le are involved in the environmental crisis. There is still time for humanity to resolve this problem, as people are creative, inventive, and ambitious. These qualities, which are responsible for precipitating this crisis, will be the very means for hum anity's salvation.An anecdote sometimes effectively concludes a paper. Following is the conclusion to a paper about the rewards given to Dr. Jonas Salk for his polio vaccine:
Probably the greatest tribute Dr. Salk has received was unwittingly paid by a small boy whose father, having shown his son the research center, told him that Dr. Salk invented the polio vaccine. The boy, looking puzzled, said, "Daddy, wh at's polio?"Quotations and questions can serve to conclude papers. Both devices are used in the conclusion to a paper urging support of the United Torch Drive:
Samuel Johnson defined a patron as "one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached the ground encumbers him with help." Shall we be merely patrons of the needy?Forms of conclusions, like forms of introductions, vary. All conclusions, however, should be related to what has gone before. In writing your conclusions, be sure you don't present irrelevant material--ideas that have not been touched on in the body of the paper. Furthermore, all conclusions should be consistent in tone with the body of the paper. Don't let a strong argument just dwindle away because of a weak conclusion. If Patrick Henry, for example, had concluded his speech to th e House of Burgesses with, "Thus, gentlemen, now that you have heard my arguments, I am sure you will agree with me that we should oppose the British crown," his words would not have been remembered. Instead, he said:
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!