Write With Me #5 - Conclusion

You're worried I've missed the section on writing the introduction? Don't worry, I haven't, we'll get to that but this is something people think by the way that I write essays. I always leave the introduction until after I've written the conclusion. Things just flow better with writing as you have your body paragraphs and then your conclusion is an extension of those, in some regards. The introduction you can always go back and do later.

So, how do you write a conclusion? Like this...

What is a conclusion?

We're starting off by looking at what a conclusion is, since it's something people don't always know. A conclusion is the final idea that you're leaving with the reader that links back to your essay question / topic and lets them know what the point of it all was. In a conclusion you want to:

1. Restate the question & your final opinion on it

2. Sum up the main body paragraphs/ ideas you've looked at

3. Evaluate these ideas

4. Inform the reader why the topic you're writing about is significant

5. Highlight an area for further exploration

Ways To Conclude An Essay

Depending on what topic you're discussing you're going to want to finish the essay in different ways. If the essay has been an argumentative, one side vs the other, then you're going to want to have a definitive answer on which side you agree with and why.

However if your essay is something more exploratory and open then you're going to want to show that you know the topic well, and have looked at that particular area of the topic for a reason. Why is that area significant?

For example, looking at the essay topic I've been working on for this series the latter format would work well. I want to conclude my essay by saying that I've looked at these particular things in relation to humanity in Frankenstein since I feel these are the more significant areas to explore, and that I feel they are the key areas in understanding the humanity of the creature. I would also mention in the conclusion that there are other areas that can be explored in more detail, such as other texts by Shelley that would give an insight into her mentality when writing and further show the complexity of what humanity means.

I love concluding with a statement that I then use in the introduction. This brings the reader back to the start and shows that your essay has a solid structure and has a clear sense of direction. You aren't going all over the place, trying to fit in everything, you've had this one clear topic in mind when writing.

Another way I love to conlcude an essay is with a final quote from whatever it is that I'm discussing. E.g - "'What hope can I gather from your fellow-creatures, who own me nothing? They spurn and hate me.' The creature describes humans as Victor's fellow-creatures, and shows that they turn away from him. They treat him as something lesser, like he is not alive and can think. They are human, the Creature shows humanity.What hope do we give him as readers if we only ever call him 'monster'?" Or something to that effect.

I use the quote to give the reader something to think about - pose a question that will have them remembering my essay. Here I am inviting them to examine the way that readers distance themselves from the Creature by using the term monster. Are we as bad as those actively shunning him in the novel? Does it matter?

What Not To Do

Don't simply summarise your entire essay. I know I said "sum up the main ideas", what I mean by this is to give a very brief sentence about it before you state the significance. For example;

The discussion of the term 'monster' in relation to Shelley's experience and in comparison to the other terms used for the Creature in the text is a pillar of the exploration of humanity in the text. As I stated previously, names have power, they shape the reader's opinion and the names used to refer to the Creature by the characters in the text betray their opinions of him. The Creature is referred to in ways which make him seem less human ('monster' and 'daemon', for example), but he reclaims his humanity by the text referring to humans as 'creatures' at various points. Further examination of the text in regards to naming and monikers would provide a more detailed insight into how these affect not just the Creature, but the other characters, giving a more rounded view of how they shape opinion in relation to humanity.

The paragraph above has a brief recap of the body paragraph, a statement of my opinion and a suggestion for further research that I couldn't do in this essay due to constraints. This is not a word-for-word recap of my body paragraph.

I'm not making any new statements here, or introducing anything new other than the suggestion for further exploration.

Don't apologise for your essay. By this I mean "there may be better approaches" or anything similar to that. You want to show confidence in your own conclusions and writing here. Leave the reader on a positive end where you know that what you have done is make a good, solid point.

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Hey! Tara here and thanks for checking out my blog. I update every Tuesday with posts about studying tips, advice and talk about productivity and organisation too. If you want to keep up to date with my latest blog posts I’d love it if you subscribed to this blog.