BC MANUAL

Bridgewater College Online Writing Manual

Writing Conclusions

Drawing conclusions from information that you have presented can be challenging. Many writers choose the apparently "safe" strategy for concluding of summarizing what their paper says. In most cases, a summary of a short paper (say, three or four pages) is unnecessary because your reader can probably remember the points you have made. 

One way of thinking about actually drawing conclusions, as opposed to simply ending the paper, is to imagine your reader asking you, "So what?" In other words, "What can I do with this information? Why is it important to me? What does everything you said imply?" Instead of just repeating, then, end your paper by giving your reader a reason to care about what you have said.

Updated by A. L. Trupe Sept. 2006