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All’s well that ends well; it is true for your academic projects as well. While it is important to start them right, it is equally important to end them right as well.
Let this blog guide you on how to write a conclusion. By following this guide you can write the kind of conclusion that leaves an ever-lasting impression on the mind of your reader.
Remember writing a conclusion can be a pain in the neck because not everyone has the skill to summarize a topic – that too something as long as a thesis. The primary focus of this blog is to be a professional thesis conclusion guide for every student.
Conclusion
It is the final part of any written assignment – the general purpose of the conclusion is to summarize the efforts and mention the key points of your assignment, essay, and dissertation.
Different academic projects have different academic requirements. BUT! One requirement that remains the same is to write a well-explained conclusion, either you are writing an essay conclusion or a thesis conclusion.
How exactly does the theoretical framework hold the structure of a theory? It does so by explaining the nature of the relationship between variables.
Significance of a conclusion
Underestimating the importance of a conclusion is like risking your marks. The conclusion is the last thing that a reader reads in your piece of writing so it should not be messed with. While, understanding the importance of the conclusion, nail the following points in your head:
It helps the reader in understanding how much your research has achieved its aims and objectives.
Every story needs closure so is your essay or a thesis.
It helps the other researchers to find a research gap for further research.
Conclusion and abstract are what grabs the attention of the reader to your essay or thesis.
Sums up your entire effort – it summarizes your findings and their implications.
Conclusion in a research paper
Now you have gotten a little bit of an idea about a conclusion; it is the perfect time to get into the details of a research conclusion.
How does it fit into your overall research project?
Its placement: It is the last chapter of the dissertation; hence it comes towards the end. However, it is not the last portion. The last portion of your thesis is the bibliography which comes after the conclusion.
Length: A typical thesis conclusion comprises 5-7% of your dissertation’s total word count.
Contribution to the Grade: how much the conclusion contributes to your dissertation grade depends upon your professor and institute, but this section has the potential to boost your grade or to drown it.
The time required: Since a dissertation conclusion only recaps and reflects on your efforts and does not require you to add any new information, it does not require much time and effort.
Steps to writing worthy qualified conclusions!
If you have read this far, you know that it is crucial to conclude your dissertation well. And now you want to learn how to make it perfect.
Don’t worry! It’s simple – at least it has been made simple by providing this guide.
Step1 – Answer your research question
The conclusion of a research paper always begins with the main research question that your study aimed to answer. This shows your supervisor that you have achieved your research objective by answering the research question. Hence, you should make sure that you state the answer to your research question clearly and concisely.
You do not have to restate all the results in this section. Rather, you have to compile and synthesize them in a manner that your evaluator can take away the key points from it.
A thesis set out to solve a practical might address the research problem like this:
Example: This research aimed to identify effective fundraising strategies for environmental non-profit organizations. Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of donation in response to campaign materials, it can be concluded that social distance and temporal distance are important factors to consider when designing and targeting campaigns. The results indicate that potential donors are more receptive to images portraying a large social distance and a small temporal distance.
Step2 – Summarize and reflect!
Once you have answered the research question, it’s time to reflect – you should briefly discuss your expectations while setting out to conduct this research and how close the actual results to those expectations are and why.
Example:
While X limits the generalizability of the results, this approach provides new insight into Y.
This research clearly illustrates X, but it also raises the question of Y.
Be reflective, smartly describe your research purpose, evaluate and analyze the purpose.
If you haven’t mentioned the limitations in the discussion, this is your chance – do mention your research limitations in the conclusion. However, make sure not to make those limitations the focus of your conclusion.
Step3 – Make recommendations
After mentioning the limitations, answer this key question, “How your research adds value to the existing literature on the topic?” and, based on that, make recommendations.
State the implications of your findings and tell your supervisor what those findings mean for theory and the practical implications.
Make sure not to exaggerate the applicability of your study. And your recommendations should sound like suggestions and not imperatives.
Example:
Based on these conclusion, practitioners should consider.
To better understand the implications of these results, future studies could address.
Further research is needed to determine the causes of/effects of/ relationship between.
Step4 – Bring emphasis to your contributions
You must utilize this section to emphasize the contributions of your research – the aim must be to leave your supervisor (or whoever is reading your research) with a strong impression. Emphasize how this research has contributed to the knowledge related to your topic (in particular) and the field of study (in general). You can accomplish that using the following strategies.
Return to the problem statement and tell your readers how your dissertation solves the research problem you aimed to address.
Show how your study has addressed a gap in knowledge by referring back to the literature review.
Discuss how your results confirm a theory or assumption or how they challenge it.
Remember this is not a step to have a discussion, this is a step to summarize and talk about your contributions.
Step5 – Prepare for a wrap party!
In the last step, you are done with your conclusion. Now, all you have to do is to perform the last following rituals of your research.
Write your Abstract.
Add appendices.
Generate the TOC and add references.
Format your dissertation.
Don’t forget to Proofread and edit out the mistakes.
Prepare For A Celebration!
Conclusion Sample
Most frequently asked conclusion questions
That depends on your professor and your university’s criteria. So you have to be aware of your university’s requirements. You might have to talk to your research supervisor to know exactly how much weightage of your dissertation is concentrated in the final chapter.
Discussion is the list of results and compares them with the existing literature. The purpose is to report.
VS
The conclusion is all about synthesizing the results in the form of a final takeaway. The purpose is to reflect.
They are two different sections of a research paper and serve different purposes – they may be merged as one.
The conclusion is not always the last section – references and appendices come after the conclusion
The takeaway
A conclusion is the part of a dissertation that you have to get right. If you follow your professors’ guidelines and the information shared in this blog, you will nail the final chapter of your dissertation. Still, if you think you won’t be able to write a good conclusion due to any reason outsource the thesis conclusion is one of the reason but you can also take personalize consultancy from me through my LinkedIn Profile because it is important to end your dissertation well!
Free presentation slides
If you are a course instructor willing to educate your class or a student who wants to learn then refer to our free presentation slides available for Google slides and Microsoft PowerPoint.
Meet Dr. Sara Nathan
I am Dr. Sara Nathan and I have done a Ph.D. in aviation management. I have experience of 10 years in mentoring UK’s Students. Over this decade. I enjoy being able to help researchers all around the world as imparting valuable information has always been my passion. Writing & Reading are my passions. For detail about me and to read my other blog you can visit my profile:
