Conclusions:  Reinforcing the Idea, Reestablishing Exigence

Conclusions serve functions very similar to that of introductions: they exist to reinforce the main ideas of the essay, and remind the audience of why they in particular should care about the essay and what it has said.   An essay with a strong conclusion leaves the reader with a powerful and clear impression of what the writer wants to communicate; conversely, essays with weak conclusions make the essay feel incomplete or abruptly ended, and leave the reader “hanging.” Consider, for a moment, how it would feel to hear a friend tell you a story, and then after the main action of the story, simply stop talking.  How would you feel?   The point of the story and the relevance to your life and values (as the audience) might not be clear—without your friend offering some kind of conclusion to the story, you might not fully understand what the story was about and why you should care.  

Conclusions in general tend to be a mirror image of an essay’s introduction, restating the essay’s thesis at their outset and then proceeding to remind the audience of the overall exigence of the writing.   While introductions generally move from general information to a specific thesis, conclusions for the most part proceed from a rather specific opening statement to a more general statement of exigence.  

Consider the following organizational diagram for a conclusion to the Hip Hop paper we discussed above. 

Below is an example of a conclusion for the Hip-Hop essay that we have been working with.  The sections where the conclusion is particularly effective in achieving its primary goals are highlighted in red, green, and blue, just as in the introduction. 

 Chapter Composition 06: Introductions provides more information on establishing and reinforcing exigence in writing.