Discussion vs conclusion
The conclusion contains similar elements to the discussion, and sometimes these two sections are combined (especially in shorter papers and journal articles). But in a thesis or dissertation, it’s usual to include a final chapter that wraps up your research and gives the reader a final impression of your work.
The conclusion chapter should be shorter and more general than the discussion. Instead of discussing specific results and interpreting the data in detail, here you make broad statements that sum up the most important insights of the research.
The conclusion should not introduce new data, interpretations, or arguments.
Length of the conclusion
Depending on the type of thesis, the conclusion should typically be around 5-7% of the overall word count. An empirical scientific study will often have a short conclusion that concisely states the main findings and recommendations, while a humanities thesis might require more space to conclude its analysis and tie all the chapters together in an overall argument.
What is your plagiarism score?
Compare your paper with over 60 billion web pages and 30 million publications.
Best plagiarism checker of 2020
Plagiarism report & percentage
Largest plagiarism database
Answer the research question
The conclusion should begin from the main question that your thesis or dissertation aimed to address. This is your final chance to show that you’ve done what you set out to do, so make sure to formulate a clear, concise answer.
Don’t repeat a list of all the results that you already discussed, but synthesize them into a final takeaway that the reader will remember.
Examples
In a thesis that set out to solve a practical problem with empirical research, the conclusion might begin like this:
This research aimed to identify effective fundraising strategies for environmental non-profit organizations. Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of donation intention in response to campaign materials, it can be concluded that social distance and temporal distance are important factors to consider when designing and targeting campaigns. The results indicate that potential donors are more receptive to images portraying a large social distance and a small temporal distance.
In a thesis that set out to make a theoretical argument based on an analysis of case studies, it might begin like this:
By analyzing changing representations of migration and UK border policy in the past ten years, this thesis has shown how media discourse can directly and indirectly shape political decision-making.
Note that in the second example, the research aim is not directly restated, but is implicit in the statement (the research aimed to analyze the relationship between media discourse and migration policy). To avoid repeating yourself, it is helpful to reformulate your aims and questions into an overall statement of what you did and how you did it.
Summarize and reflect on the research
The conclusion is an opportunity to remind the reader why you took the approach you did, what you expected to find, and how well the results matched your expectations.
To avoid repetition, instead of just writing a summary of each chapter, you can write more reflectively here. You might consider how effective your methodology was in answering your research questions, and whether any new questions or unexpected insights arose in the process.
You can also mention any limitations of your research if you haven’t already included these in the discussion. Don’t dwell on them at length, though – focus on the positives of your work.
Examples
Explanation:
