How to Writing: Conclude

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

In our previous Related Lessons, found in the right-hand sidebar, you learned about writing a great introduction.

In this lesson, you will learn how to write a strong conclusion.

• Are you ready?

Let's go!

When you meet a new person, you introduce yourself, and maybe give some information about your background. When you part ways, you say your goodbye and leave on a positive note, hoping they remember you.

When writing, you do the very same thing, but in a more focused, formal way. At the start of your paper, you introduce your topic and give your reader your purpose for writing.

When you close you paper, you want to end with a strong conclusion. Consider the following questions:

• Why do you think a strong conclusion is important?
• What do you think should be included in your conclusion?

A conclusion restates the introduction to the reader and wraps up the topic in a fresh new way so it stays on his or her mind after he or she has finished reading your paper. You also want to briefly touch upon your main ideas, relate back to your hook, and tie everything together in a neat package. To learn in detail about crafting a strong conclusion, watch How to write a Conclusion, by Sheena Roller. Take notes as you watch, and begin thinking about how to relate this information to your paper:

Now that you have watched the video, let's recap. What are the three important parts of a conclusion?

A conclusion must

• restate the thesis or main idea.
• be at least three sentences long.
• conclude or wrap-up thoughts.

In other words, a well-written conclusion will tell the reader what was stated in the introduction, but will use different words so it does not sound repetitive. The conclusion should be at least three sentences long, and it should not introduce any new information. The purpose is to bring your writing full-circle and end it in a nice, clean way.

In our previous Related Lessons, you read an introduction about tying your shoes.

• Do you remember this part?

"Did you know that 14 steps are required every time you tie your shoes? In this paper, I will clearly teach you how to tie your shoes in 14 easy steps. It is important to learn how to tie your shoes, and tie them well, because if you don't know how to tie your shoes, you might trip on untied laces, or you might not be able to wear shoes that need to be tied. That means you may not be able to play sports, such as baseball, hockey, football, and bowling, that require shoes that need to be tied."

To write an effective conclusion to this paper, writers need to re-read the introduction in order to restate the main idea, or thesis. The main idea of this introduction is that the reader will learn how to tie his shoes in 14 steps. So, you could restate the main idea by saying,

"You have learned how to tie your shoes in 14 steps. Now, you can wear any shoes you would like and you will be able to participate in activities that require tied shoes."

Finally, you can provide a conclusion to wrap up the thoughts or ideas that were communicated in the paper:

"Learning how to tie your shoes is a very important skill that you will need throughout your life."

So, the whole conclusion looks like this:

"You have learned how to tie your shoes in 14 steps. Now, you can wear any shoes you would like and you will be able to participate in activities that require tied shoes. Learning how to tie your shoes is a very important skill that you will need throughout your life."

Wow! That was easy!

• Did you notice how long it is?

Three sentences! Right on target!

In the Got It? section, you will be given an introduction and you will write a conclusion. Are you ready? Let's get started!