Hi there guys! It's Dustin the writing tutor. Today, I'm going to teach you how to write an essay conclusion.
Let's take a look first at the purpose of a conclusion.
A conclusion serves to emphasize your thesis, summarize your main points, and leave your reader with a lasting thought.
While there are many different types of conclusions, traditional conclusions will have a thesis restatement, an overview, and some kind of final thought or an outlook. You can remember this with a word: T O O
Thesis Restatement
The first step when writing a conclusion is to restate the thesis. Here you're going to want to do this in a fresh way and you want to avoid just changing a word or two.
Here's an example of a thesis statement:
Here's an example of how to restate the thesis:
You'll notice in the example above that we've changed the structure, some of the words, and some of the word forms.
Overview
The second step when creating a conclusion is to provide an overview. This is going to summarize the main ideas or the body paragraph topics and this will help to drive home the key takeaways for your reader.
Let's take a look at the example below. If we have the following body paragraphs--safe spaces, identifying mental health concerns, and inclusive environments, we would create an overview that discusses each of these.
You want to avoid sounding like you're listing each topic. To practice this, go ahead and create your own overview section of the conclusion.
Below is an example of the restatement of the thesis and the overview (text in yellow):
Outlook
The final part of creating an effective conclusion is the outlook. Sometimes this is also called the final word.
There are many ways to finish the essay. We might use a call to action, especially for persuasive essays. We might connect to a larger context or implications, link back to the hook-which is often done in personal essays, and we might use a memorable quotation or combine any of these approaches that you see below.
It's time to get some practice!
Create an outlook for the paragraph below.
Let's look at a possible answer (text in red):
Final Thoughts
Here are some final thoughts when writing a conclusion.
First, you'd want to provide a memorable close. You want to create a "mic-drop" moment for your reader. But you don't want to include new evidence or new ideas that make it feel like you're writing a new body paragraph. Also, you don't want to undermine your thesis statement in this final stage.
I really hope you enjoy this article. If you need help in writing, I'm here to support you.
Thank you and see you next time!