How to Conclude an Argumentative Essay: the Tips

There is a commonly held notion that teachers read only two parts of student works – introduction and conclusion. It sounds plausible, given the number of papers teachers have to check. An appropriately written introduction and argumentative conclusion can give a teacher a nice idea of the main points of paper content – problems posed, findings made, solutions proposed by the student and so on. But even if this notion is not true, it doesn’t make writing a conclusion less important.

So, let’s clear up what it is about since many students face challenges while writing an argument essay conclusion just because they don’t quite understand its content and purpose. The trouble with writing this particular essay part lies in the fact that virtually it should reflect all the material described in the body of your paper, but in a very condensed form. It should present clearly your key takeaways, answers to questions raised in the introduction, your recommendations and perspectives for further studies. And all these should flow organically from the main part of your work.

However, your conclusion needs to be closely related not only to the body of your essay but also to the introduction. It should show that you have achieved the goals set in the beginning and provided convincing arguments to make your thesis statement well-grounded.

Prior to delving into practical guidance on how to conclude an argumentative essay, let’s enlarge upon things you should avoid when writing your conclusion:

• New facts. Some students mistakenly believe that previously unknown information in their conclusion will add to the credibility of their arguments. When you bring new facts, figures and findings at the end of your work, you make the reader rethink your entire argumentation, and this gives the impression that your work is incomplete.
• Voluminous explanations and reasoning. Your conclusion is aimed at impressing readers rather than wearing them down, so it is better to leave a long discourse for the body of your essay. It also refers to using cumbersome and bombastic phrases – use plain English to give a clear summary of your work.

How to Write a Conclusion for an Argumentative Essay to Get an “A+”

Now we are getting to the key piece – how to write a conclusion for an argumentative essay in practice. Let’s start with the fact that by the time you begin to write it, you should already have your argumentative essay draft written. Moreover, you need to revise it in order to make sure that you won’t make any significant changes in the content. Further, you can polish your language and make minor logical corrections, but the idea is that you cannot start writing a conclusion for an argumentative essay when conceptual changes are expected – in this case, you will need to deal with re-writing to meet new arguments and findings.

Carefully read your essay and write down the main ideas of each paragraph. If the essay contains a thesis, mention it in the conclusion part, as well as questions put forth to give the problem full consideration. Revise them and leave only those that are the most important. It makes no sense to stuff your conclusion with all the findings, facts and arguments you used in the body since this will only confront your audience with too much information, making the entire work tedious.

Think about how to present the chosen arguments, so that avoid duplication of what was said in the introduction and the main part of your work. Perhaps, you can paraphrase them or provide a different point of view on the same points. Try to make them more vivid, convincing and memorable.

How to Start a Conclusion for an Argumentative Essay

It seems that everybody knows that a good conclusion for an argumentative essay needs a kind of transition to be smoothly integrated into the essay body. However, this is easier said than done, and many students cannot think about anything else than using hackneyed phrases like "Thus" or "To conclude". Yes, a conclusion can be started with some of these summarizing phrases to focus your reader’s attention, but it is not a must.

But how to start a conclusion for an argumentative essay without those phrases? In fact, you can start right with restating the main idea of your writing followed by the key arguments supporting the idea. It is especially suitable for cases where the last phrases of the essay body contain mentions of the main statement or problem.

How to End an Argumentative Essay

Another problem is how to end an argumentative essay. Again, students are quite aware of the need to make the ending impressive. But how to conclude an argumentative essay with a flourish? Here you can touch on your readers’ feelings, call them to a specific action, take advantage of an ironic phrase or surprise them with an apt remark on the subject. When ending an argumentative essay, you can also make a warning (in case the problem is not solved) or to present some ideal picture of the future (if the problem is solved). Besides, closing an argumentative essay you can overview future research possibilities or use a powerful quote (make sure it confirms your idea without introducing new information). However, avoid controversial statements that marred the effect.