Academic Skills Adviser Conclusions Mel Kinchant Academic Skills Adviser academicskills@napier.ac.uk

Conclusions should … This is your last chance to impress your reader with your knowledge and understanding of the topic and your academic thinking and writing skills! This part of assignments can often be rushed, but it is really worth spending enough time here to enable you to achieve as many marks as possible for this section.

Conclusions … As with your introduction, be guided by the marking criteria for your word count for this sections again, the exact length will depend on the particular assignment. In essays, the conclusion is usually the very last section. With reports, the conclusion may precede a recommendations section, however these may be combined into one section. The conclusion of your essay or report should round up or provide a nice closure to the topic you have explored. As such, it should not include any ‘new’ information and should provide an overview of the main / key points that have already been presented within the main body or section. If you start to talk about something new then you are not concluding and it will feel like a continuation of the main body or section.

Your conclusion should… Provide a brief synthesis of your main arguments/ideas & evaluate how they support your conclusion, restating the context, if appropriate. No new material or ideas, but do not simply restate exactly what you have already said – vary the way in which you say things. Your conclusion should aim to draw your key points together and provide a sense of closure to the assignment. Provide a clear response to the assignment question – link back to your introduction. Imagine your introduction & conclusion as ‘bookends’ to your assignment. 4

Top tips … What do you want your reader take home as your final message? Can you move from the specific / narrow focus to the broader context? Provide a clear response to the assignment question – link back to your introduction. Imagine your introduction & conclusion as ‘bookends’ to your assignment. 5

Top tips … You have taken your reader on a ‘journey’ towards your conclusion, so the evidence you have presented beforehand needs to be sufficient to support it. Think about providing a response to the question ‘So what?’ Why is this significant? What are the implications of this? 6

Top tips … It can be helpful to draft your conclusion early on. If you know where you want to end up, this can help you to ensure that you are including a clear line of reasoning and enough evidence to support it within your main body / section. You are unlikely to go on a journey without knowing your final destination! Always ensure that you adhere to any instructions in your marking criteria / guidelines. 7