Almost Done….Time for the Concluding Paragraph

 

 

            Your concluding paragraph should give your readers a sense of closure or completion. Very often, your concluding paragraph will develop naturally as you finish writing your body paragraphs. You should, however, keep the following guidelines in mind as you develop your concluding paragraph:

 

 

• AVOID restating the thesis statement from the introductory paragraph in exactly the same words
• AVOID introducing an entirely new topic

Here is how you will break down your concluding paragraph:

 

Concluding Statement #1:  This statement is usually used to offer the “opposing viewpoint”.  If we continue with the cat thesis an example of a concluding statement #1 would be something like, “Although many people still prefer dogs to cats,….”

 

Reassertion of Thesis:  We want to restate our thesis statement without using the same words.  “…cats are better because of their devotion to their owners, their fuzzy exterior and their charm.”

 

Concluding Statement #2:  This is the last line of your paper.  Just like great movies and books the last line should really be powerful.  This is another statement where you can use a quotation if you would like.  An example of an acceptable final sentence for our model would be, “In the age old debate of cats vs. dogs there is one fact that will always make cats superior, unlike humans, cats always land on their feet.”

 

 

So our model-concluding paragraph would look like this:

 

“Although there are many people who still prefer dogs over cats, cats are better because of their devotion to their owners, their fuzzy exterior and their charm. In the age old debate of cats vs. dogs there is one fact that will always make cats superior, unlike humans, cats always land on their feet. ”