Writing Resources

Just as the preceding body paragraphs attempted to draw more general conclusions from specific pieces of evidence, the concluding paragraph of an essay reestablishes the essay’s overall argument using the more specific claims argued in the body. Though the thesis is generally reintroduced the first sentence in the conclusion, the remainder of the paragraph should be used to ensure that this return to the thesis moves beyond simply reproducing the introduction.

Just as your introduction acts as a bridge that transports your readers from their own lives into the textual space of your analysis, your conclusion provides a bridge to help your readers make the transition back to their daily lives. This is done most effectively by emphasizing a context for your ideas that makes them relevant or meaningful for your reader. In some cases, this context may be different from the one established in your introduction, and it may push slightly beyond the boundaries of the writing prompt.

Many strong conclusions restate the thesis — in different language from the introduction — in the opening sentence. This allows the concluding paragraph to establish something more than the introduction in which the thesis is usually stated near the end. Restating the paper’s overall argument at the beginning of the conclusion allows for a brief exploration of your essay’s context or broader implications in the final paragraph.

In guiding your readers out of the textual space of your paper, it is important to remind them why your arguments are significant. You don’t want your readers to finish your paper thinking “so what?” To prevent this, use your conclusion to reestablish the relevance of your thesis.

Acknowledging the limitations of your argument, while optional, can be an effective way of clarifying the scope of your thesis, particularly in an essay whose claims are rather ambitious. Acknowledging that there are questions that need further research or that your argument is unlikely to convince those who approach the topic with a different set of assumptions is also a useful strategy for bolstering your credibility.

Because an essay is but a small part of a larger discourse on its topic, it is important to describe how your conclusion may serve as a stepping stone for further research. Implicitly you are saying, “Now that I have proven the thesis of my essay, what new questions can we ask about this topic?” In a way, looking ahead to a new question does the work of the three previous components: proposing new areas of inquiry reinforces that you have proven your thesis; showing that, with further research, your claims could have broader implications remotivates your argument; acknowledging that other questions still remain acknowledges the limitations of your central claim.

Since it is the last thing they will read, you want your final sentence to stick in your readers’ minds. Whether you choose to end with emphasis, wit or wonder, your final sentence should be in some way memorable without departing significantly from the overall tone of your essay.

While the status of homosexuality within American capitalism has evolved from nuisance under industrial capitalism to tool of late capitalism, the interests of capital have always in some way been in opposition to those of the gay community.

Explanation

The opening sentence of the conclusion restates the essay’s thesis that “homosexuality has occupied positions both inside and outside the capitalist system” but that “a common element throughout this dynamic relationship … is the capitalist control of homosexuality and homosexuals in increasingly insidious ways.” It also reestablishes the tension inherent in this thesis between the shifting function of homosexuals within capitalism and their static position within the system. The opening sentence also effectively sums up the essay by using terms — “nuisance,” “industrial capitalism,” “tool,” “late capitalism” — that have been given specialized meanings within the body of the paper. Restating the thesis in the opening sentence of the conclusion allows the author a chance to explore the essay’s broader implications, as he does in the sentences that follow.

While, admittedly, progress has been made in the realm of tolerance,

Explanation

While this statement is more of a concession to his opposition than an acknowledgement of an argumentative limitation, the admission that progress towards tolerance has been made by working within the capitalist system works against the author’s overall claim that capitalism itself must be opposed. This bolsters the author’s credibility by showing his reader that, though he has ultimately rejected them, he has genuinely considered opposing viewpoints.

it has not been enough; capital has simply found new and more insidious ways to manipulate, marginalize, and oppress homosexuals.

Explanation

The motivating move in the conclusion is the same as the one the author employs in the introduction to his essay: the truth is not what it would appear to be on a first reading. However, the motives in the introduction and conclusion differ significantly in function. In the introduction, the author argues that, “contrary to what a quick stroll through the GAP or five minutes of watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy would tell you about homosexuality’s exalted status in modern consumer culture, the history of the relationship between homosexuality and the capitalist mode of production has been a complex and troubled one.” The motive in the introduction ushers the reader into the world of the text by motivating an issue of interpretation. The motive in the conclusion ushers the reader back into the world of daily life by motivating an issue of political action, which is the overall goal of the essay. This incitement to action derives from the author’s claim that, though it may seem that homosexuals are making progress by working within the system of capitalism, the only way to truly achieve acceptance is by resisting capitalism itself.

If America’s gays and lesbians desire liberation and authenticity, then they must align themselves with the enemies of capitalism and employ new theories and strategies in their struggle.

Explanation

While the author does not pose a new question directly, he suggests a further realm of inquiry. Having established in his essay that homosexuals cannot achieve tolerance by working within the system of capitalism, he looks to the next logical set of questions which require an examination of how to most effectively resist capitalism. While the author does devote some space in the latter part of his essay to sketching out some possibilities, these ideas are not nearly as fully realized as the argument about the impossibility of full tolerance of homosexuals within capitalism. Thus, this new question is also an implicit acknowledgement of a limitation in the author’s previous arguments.

The American gay community has nothing to lose but their overpriced Diesel jeans. They have a world to win.

Explanation

The author’s reference to the “overpriced Diesel jeans” functions as more than a sort of witty gimmick. As the author moves the reader from the highly theoretical arguments that comprise the majority of his essay into the real world of the reader’s daily life, he chooses to focus on an object from that world. In addition, the reference to giving up Diesel jeans is juxtaposed with the idea that homosexuals have “a world to win” through resistance to capitalism. When placed in these terms, the sacrifice of the material object seems pithy in comparison with the toleration that the author argues homosexuals stand to achieve by aligning themselves against capitalism.