A Memorable Conclusion

Your conclusion is the mic drop of your paper. You’ve made all your claims, offered all your evidence, and busted out your best analysis. Now you need to wrap it all up in a way that leaves the reader feeling satisfied and enlightened. Did you know our Bumo instructors and essay coaches can give you even more guidance?

1. Don’t just restate your thesis

I know, I know, every writing teacher you’ve ever had has told you that the first sentence of the conclusion should be your thesis (but this time with different words!). What they’re actually asking you to do is not end at the same place you started, but transform your thesis into something new. This leads us to….

2. Create a significance statement(s)

Let’s say you’ve spent 3 paragraphs proving that starting school at 10 a.m. would have a positive impact on students’ GPAs. Now you need to give your audience a reason to care. So, the first sentence of your conclusion might look something like this: “Given that late start times have an overwhelmingly positive effect on GPAs across 9th-12th grades, schools looking to improve the wellbeing and future prospects of their students should enact this change immediately.” Here you’ve used your thesis as a springboard to an even broader claim about why this topic matters. The bulk of your conclusion should be devoted to answering the question: “why should my audience care about this topic?”

3. Hand out party favors

When I was a kid, no one left a birthday party empty-handed. On the way out the door, the host or hostess would give everyone a little bag with a toy, candy, or some other treat. Likewise, at the end of any essay, you want your audience to leave with something. This could take many forms, but some of the most common are: an interesting idea to puzzle over, a call-to-action, or a long-term forecast. For example:

“Ask yourself, what could you achieve after a good night’s sleep?”

“By writing to your school administrators, local district, or even superintendent, you can help to effect this necessary change to our educational system.”

“If sleeping in leads to higher grades, and higher grades lead to more college admissions, and more college admissions lead to better job prospects, then making this change could lead to a highly-skilled workforce within the next ten years.”

No matter which option you choose, be sure to make it memorable!

Happy Writing!

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