Writing Conclusion
The conclusion is based on the thesis statement you from your introduction, but should not be asimple repetition. It should summarize the paper’s content as it links the information to the overallpoint being argued or supported by the text, but it should not simply repeat the points made. The conclusion contains your final analysis of all the information you have pulled together from various sources.
You should evaluate the implications of what has been proven: make recommendations, predict a future outcome, or suggest further research as you explain the importance of what you have written. Applications of the evidence or logical questions which are inherent in the material can be suggested.
Sometimes you can include a compelling quote or statistic from sources which you have saved to put at the end of the paper if it reinforces a point already presented in the text. However, new research information should not surprise the reader in the conclusion! Nor should you add a comment which is meant to grab the reader’s attention, but goes in a different direction from the thrust of the paper. This is not a creative technique; it is bad writing.
Don’t do what this student did: one student wrote a beautiful essay about the advantages of living in a foreign country — meeting new people, learning a second language better, enjoying new customs. Then, the conclusion ended with this famous quote: “East or west, home is best.” What?!? The proven point of the whole essay was contradicted in the last sentence!