8 English

Newman
Conclusions in Essays

Writing a concluding paragraph requires that you briefly sum up what you have been
demonstrating in your body paragraphs, reminding the reader of your overall point and
the strongest or perhaps most overall aspects of your discussion/argument.

Conclusions do not parrot the thesis statement. You need to remind the reader by tying
your thesis idea to the just-stated subtopic points, and you must do this by paraphrasing
yourself thoroughly.

Always begin with (or bury) a concluding transition for this paragraph so that the reader
immediately knows it will not be another body paragraph.

For the present in English 8, a conclusion may have two or three sentences, no more, no
less.

Here is a model:

Thus, these characters’ behavior ranges widely from sadness and despair to
anger and denial, because everyone progresses uniquely through certain stages in the
process of acceptance and moving through grief. Circumstances surrounding someone’s
demise are all individual, sometimes expected, sometimes shockingly unexpected,
sometimes well-prepared for and other times not; it is not at all surprising then, that
from these short stories, a reader gains a greater awareness of the disparate, and yet
perfectly normal, ways people can respond to the loss of a loved one.