Why Your Conclusion Matters
When a piece of writing is truly memorable, it takes you from wherever you are at this moment and transports you into a place where the writer’s analysis and ideas are the primary focus of your attention. Good writing is an immersive experience (that’s why we recommend using a proofreading program – bad grammar tends to snap you out of the experience), with the introduction and conclusion serving as the doors in and out of that temporary “place.”
The introduction serves as the entryway into that experience, convincing you to leave your own thoughts behind and delve right into the work’s concerns. The conclusion, on the other hand, is your passage out. If it does its job well, you return to your own thoughts and ideas, fully satisfied with the experience you just took part in.
A poor conclusion, however, can leave you with a bad feeling upon setting the piece down. Whether it’s poorly addressed concerns, unanswered questions or just a downright incomplete discussion, you finish the material feeling dissatisfied with its treatment. The conclusion just didn’t do its job of tying all loose ends the way you expected it to.
Your conclusion should do more than let you have the final word. It should make your readers believe it was a good idea to read your paper, because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have made a new realization, started seeing things a different way or understood the implications of an idea.
Conclusions can either leave the reader excited at what they read or largely unappreciative for wasting their time. Do what you can to make sure yours do the former and avoid the latter.