Teaching Students to Write Strong Conclusions: Beyond 'In Conclusion, I Have Shown'

If you've read student essays for more than a year, you've seen the conclusion problem. "In conclusion, I have shown that..." followed by a word-for-word restatement of the introduction. Or the essay that simply stops. Or the conclusion that introduces a brand new idea with no connection to what came before. Or the summary that's so comprehensive it's almost a second essay.

Students write weak conclusions not because they're lazy or don't care but because they don't understand what a conclusion is supposed to do. When the only instruction they've received is "wrap it up," they wrap it up. Badly.

Effective conclusion instruction is specific about purpose, form, and what success looks like. Here's how to teach it.

What a Conclusion Is Actually Supposed to Do

Before students can write an effective conclusion, they need to understand its function. A conclusion does three things:

1. Signals that the argument is complete. The reader needs to know the essay is over — not because you said "in conclusion" but because the ideas have reached a natural endpoint.

1. Synthesizes without simply repeating. A good conclusion revisits the main idea but at a higher level — using what the essay has argued to say something more than it started with. This is the hardest part to teach.

1. Leaves the reader with something. The best conclusions end with an image, a question, an implication, or a call to action that resonates beyond the final period. They give the reader something to carry.

Once students understand the purpose of each element, you can teach each one directly.

The Synthesis Problem

The most common conclusion mistake — restatement — happens because students conflate summary with synthesis. Summary reports what was said. Synthesis builds on it.

A useful analogy: imagine a friend tells you everything they did on a road trip. Summary is repeating back the list of activities. Synthesis is saying: "So it sounds like that trip changed how you think about travel." The synthesis uses the details to say something larger.

Teach students the "so what?" move: at the end of their essay, ask "so what?" Why does this argument matter? Who is affected? What should change? What does this tell us about something larger? The answer to "so what?" is often the core of a good conclusion.

Model this directly: take a thesis statement from a student essay (anonymized), project it, and ask students to brainstorm "so what?" responses together. What larger claim could you make after arguing this point? What implication follows? This collaborative practice makes synthesis concrete before students attempt it alone.

Conclusion Strategies by Type

Different essay types call for different conclusion moves. Teaching students to match their conclusion strategy to their essay type helps them avoid one-size-fits-all endings.

For argument essays: End with an implication or a call to action. What should change because this argument is true? Who should do what differently?

For analytical essays: End with a broader significance. What does this analysis reveal about something beyond the specific text or topic? What pattern does it illuminate?

For narrative essays: End with a reflection or image. What do these events mean in retrospect? What lingering image or feeling captures the experience?

For informational essays: End with a synthesis of significance. Of everything you've explained, what's the most important thing to take away? What question does this information raise?

Common Conclusion Moves to Teach Explicitly

Teach students a menu of conclusion moves they can choose from:

• Circle back to the opening image or anecdote. If the essay opened with a scene or story, returning to it in the conclusion creates satisfying symmetry.
• End with a question. Not a rhetorical filler ("Wouldn't you agree?") but a genuine question that your essay raises without fully answering.
• Zoom out. Move from your specific argument to a broader context: what does this one case reveal about something larger?
• Call to action. For persuasive writing, ask readers to do something specific.
• Implication. State what follows from your argument being true.

Showing students examples of each move in published writing — not just in student models — gives them concrete patterns to imitate.

What to Forbid (And Why)

Tell students directly which conclusion habits to abandon:

• "In conclusion" and "In summary" — they announce rather than accomplish. The conclusion should feel like a conclusion, not be labeled as one.
• "I have shown that..." — this is summary, not synthesis, and it's particularly weak because it makes the essay about the writer's performance rather than the argument.
• Introducing new evidence — the conclusion isn't the place for new facts. New evidence belongs in the body.
• "This is a topic people should care more about" — this is meaningless without specificity. Why should they care? What specifically should they do?

Banning these without explaining why tends to produce workarounds that miss the point. Explaining the logic — "we don't say 'in conclusion' because a conclusion should feel complete without announcing itself" — helps students understand what to aim for instead.

Revision Practice

Conclusion instruction works best when students revise their own conclusions rather than write new ones. After direct instruction on conclusion purpose and strategies, return students' most recent essays and give them twenty minutes to revise only the conclusion. Compare before and after, share strong revisions with the class, and discuss what changed.

Your Next Step

Find the three or four most common conclusion problems in your students' most recent essays. Write them on the board. Name each one and explain exactly what's wrong with it — not just "this is weak" but "this doesn't work because it only summarizes instead of synthesizing." Then show one strong conclusion from a professional writer that solves the same problem. That pairing — here's the problem, here's what solving it looks like — is the fastest path from weak conclusions to strong ones.