(Excerpt from the Book: Essentials of Essays and Business Communication by Julie Tagg)

Writing Strong Conclusions

The conclusion is important. A good conclusion can help readers easily remember the main points that the writer presents in the paper. Here are five basic methods for concluding your paper in a way that will leave your reader intrigued and impressed. Some of these can be used for the introduction as well.

Anecdote

If you began your paper with a short story to illustrate your argument, try mentioning the story or putting it together in the conclusion.

Basic Summary

Technical papers or formal research papers may use a basic summary of the paper’s thesis and main points as this can help the reader remember what he or she read.

Startling Summary

Conclude the paper by restating your main argument as concisely and powerfully as possible. This will work well with informal papers or papers that use the first or second person.

Famous Ideas

If your paper quotes a writer or another source, conclude the paper with words from this source or a description of how he or she might feel about your topic.

Hinting at Related Issues

You can consider peeking into a related topic that your paper doesn’t address but be careful as it may seem as if you are beginning a new paper.