If many writers struggle with introductions, the act of starting a paper, they frequently also struggle with conclusions, the act of wrapping it up. Both introductions and conclusions should receive special attention because they mark important moments of engagement with the reader. Just as the introduction is your opportunity to make a good first impression on the reader—and teachers marking large stacks of papers, unfortunately but almost inevitably, have learned to form early opinions about the essays they read—the conclusion is an opportunity to leave your reader with a pleasant aftertaste. If an instructor is juggling between a B+ and an A–, for example, a rousing and skillful conclusion might be just enough to nudge him or her toward the higher grade (conversely, a poor conclusion could do the opposite). There are two main reasons that writers struggle with conclusions. First, by the time the writer gets to a conclusion, he or she is exhausted and often desperate to be done. The conclusion is like the last guest at a dinner party who cannot take a hint and leave. It is late, you want to go to bed, the rest of the essay has gone safely home, but the conclusion is still hanging around demanding your attention. Second, conclusions are very difficult to write. Sometimes students simply give up and come to a sudden stop. It is as if they feel that they have said all they wanted to say, so any further writing would just be a waste of time. A safe but rather boring and mechanical solution to the conclusion problem is what some call the "sports highlights" approach. While a baseball game might have lasted three hours, for example, the highlights package on the evening news may be just a few seconds. It will show the score and probably any home runs. It may also show a great catch or two. A basic, competent conclusion does something similar. It restates the thesis (the score) and recalls the key pieces of evidence that helped support that argument (the most memorable action). More creative conclusions might also suggest related problems outside the essay's scope but potentially of interest to your reader (see the last few sentences of the example below). Braver souls might also see the conclusion as an opportunity to get a little lyrical or poetic in the final lines (again, see the example below), the verbal equivalent of fireworks at the end.What a good conclusion will not do is any of the three following things. First, it will not begin with the phrase In conclusion…. The fact that it is the last one or two paragraphs of your essay should be enough to clue most readers into the fact that you are now concluding your essay. Second, it will not introduce big new ideas—it is too late. If you do think of good idea late in the writing of your paper, revise the paper and put the idea where it fits best in the work. (Sometimes you might even find that you have an idea good enough to become a new thesis statement. This is great, but you must tweak the body of the essay so that it appears that this argument was what you had in mind all along.) Finally, a good conclusion should not end with a moral. Students often channel memories of childhood stories by ending an essay along the lines of Thus, we see Othello is the victim of racism, but also the perpetrator of it against himself. This, then, is one of the tragedies of racism as it makes people not only hate others but hate themselves too. We should seek a world without bigotry, one in which black and white coexist in harmony. While the final sentiments of this conclusion are noble, they have taken the essay away from Othello and into the ethical world of the author's life and hopes. This "moral swing" has been noted by a number of commentators on student work, and writers should guard against it.Here, then, is a conclusion that serves its purpose quite well. The thesis for this essay is Although As You Like It appears to be a wholehearted comedy, ending in not one but four marriages, the play is nonetheless busy questioning, even undermining the commonplaces of the comic genre.As we have seen, then, As You Like It is a play that creates strong tensions between form and content. While it is finally a comedy, it is comedy in part about the very limits of comedy. It is clear that all four of the final pairings, to varying degrees, are faulty and, despite the nuptial ceremonies, do not necessarily promise to be "happy ever after." Moreover, the impossibility of Frederick's conversion, along with the exaggerated convenience of Rosalind's resolution of the play's otherwise intractable problems of romance, further add to the sense that Shakespeare is asking the audience to question not only the structure of the play but also its own theatrical expectations and desires. The play, of course, represents just one stage in Shakespeare's examination of comedy. What is certainly evident here, however, is that Shakespeare was drawn to the idea of providing what the audience wanted while at the same time testing the very boundaries of theatrical form. Compare that conclusion to the following:In conclusion, Steinbeck presents frustration and isolation as destructive to characters. Elisa is disappointed that she cannot seem to break out of her rut despite her desire to change her life. Her sadness at the end of the story indicates that, even when we try hard, we cannot always change our lives. I guess that is true for all of us. Besides starting with a mechanical transitional device, this conclusion is pointlessly moralistic and uninteresting. It seems merely to summarize what came before.Sample Conclusions1. While, by story's end, it is clear that Bernice has internalized the new model of femininity, this is not an entirely positive development. While exerting her own will and building confidence are positive results of her time with Marjorie, Bernice has, for the most part, only learned social skills designed to make her more appealing to men, and she has become competitive and selfish. The story emphasizes that not all change is progress. It implicitly criticizes the fact that in an attempt to achieve equality, women were, in a way, attempting to become more like the stereotypical male—self-absorbed, calculating, and competitive—suggesting that perhaps women should develop their own strengths and demand equality on their own terms instead.2. To emphasize that Aylmer's relationship with science is fanatical, Hawthorne uses fire, smoke, and soot to characterize Aylmer's laboratory. When Georgiana first enters the laboratory, the scene reminds the reader of hell: "The first thing that struck her eye was the furnace, that hot and feverish worker, with the intense glow of its fire." Aylmer is "pale as death, anxious, and absorbed." In spite of this imagery, Georgiana's final words to her husband are positive, as if to emphasize what is good about him: "You have aimed loftily!—you have done nobly! Do not repent, that, with so high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best that earth could offer." Georgiana's words seem to convey the moral of the story, and the narrator echoes them at the end of the story. He says, "Yet, had Aylmer reached a profounder wisdom, he need not thus have flung away the happiness, which would have woven his mortal life of the self-same texture with the celestial." "Profounder wisdom" would have told Aylmer that perfection does not exist on earth. Just as Georgiana loved him for his imperfections, Aylmer should have been content with Georgiana and her birthmark. Instead, Aylmer's obsession with science and obtaining perfection on earth led him to destroy "the best that earth could offer."3. Ultimately, Of Mice and Men is a tale of an unlikely but sustaining friendship that cannot weather the cruelties of a brutal society. George cannot imagine the idyllic farm without Lennie, and when Candy asks if they can still pursue that dream, George responds, "It's all off" (95). To George, the notion of a future beyond migrant farm work is impossible to imagine without his friend. That friendships are so rare in this world but are wanted by all suggests that the society in which this story is set prevents human kindness, companionship, and understanding. Because it is set in a specifically agricultural world, one that Steinbeck knew well from his life and work in the Salinas Valley, the novella asserts that the conditions of those who work on farms and are subjected to the demands of harvesting seasons are dehumanizing ones. Individuals who do seasonal work on farms and ranches, the book shows, are denied hope and humanity by their rootlessness and loneliness. George, after shooting his friend, walks away with Slim, who suggests a drink. George's going along with Slim symbolizes that George will replace the true friendship he enjoyed with the oblivion that drinking and, it is suggested, a night in a brothel will afford. Though the novel is set in a specific locale, the values it describes—friendship, love, human connection—are universal ones. By showing the profound sacrifice George makes to survive in the world, the reader is led to think about the sacrifices we all make to survive. Ultimately, Steinbeck's novella encourages us to value the friendships that enrich our common humanity.
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