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How to Write Conclusions That Don’t Suck - Help Scout
The Problem Of Writing A Conclusion
Many authors, article writers and content writers draft samples without a proper conclusion or a wrap-up.
Beginner writers can try to follow the advice on structuring an essay or thesis statement, given by English teachers: “Tell ’em what you’re gonna tell ’em, tell ’em, and then tell ’em what you told ’em.”
Other than that, complex ideas are sometimes difficult to summarize, and there is conflicting advice available, which can be confusing.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Key Ideas
Jumping into Conclusions
Jumping into Conclusions: Examples
- Inference-observation confusion: An assumption made that may or may not be correct. Example: Concluding that a guy is rich, based on the car he drives.
- Fortune-Telling: Assumption of knowing exactly what will happen in the future.
- Mind Reading: Assuming based on how to have read someone's mind and concluded something which may not be true.
- Extreme Extrapolation: Finding a minor clue and making something major out of it.
- Overgeneralization: Copy-pasting a piece of knowledge over something that you think is related, but is not.
- Labeling: Stereotyping a set of people based on their likes and dislikes.
Why We Jump to Conclusions
The reason people jump to conclusions is the fact that they find it easy.
Fact-checking and 100 percent accuracy on everything they see or observe consume way too much time for a normal person.
Taking mental shortcuts is the path most people choose to jump to conclusions.
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Key Ideas
Be Visual
Readers understand and remember material far better when it is expressed in concrete language that allows them to form visual images. So trying to make the reader “see” is a good goal and b...
See The Reader As An Equal
Don't increase the complexity of your vocabulary just to give the impression of intelligence. This actually makes you look stupid.
Treat the reader as an equal. If you’re trying to impress, at best you will make the reader feel dumb. And nobody likes to feel dumb.
The Curse Of Knowledge
Once you know something you assume others do too. It’s human nature. And that leads to bad writing.
'The curse of knowledge' refers to the inability that we all have in imagining what it’s like not to know something that we do know.
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Key Ideas
Components of a good essay
Many people think a good essay is persuasive. But more importantly, an essay should be useful.
There are four parts to a good essay:
- correctness
- s...
Correctness
An essay should be correct. However, to be correct is not enough if it is vague.
Don't publish anything unless you're sure it's worth hearing. Write the first draft of an essay quickly, trying out all sorts of ideas. Then rewrite it very carefully, being sure to sift out anything that you're not sure of, or that is not true. Useful writing makes claims that are as strong as they can be without overstating it.
Strength
Strength comes from two things: thinking well, and the skillful use of qualification.
Qualifications can express many things: how broadly something applies, how you know it, how happy you are it's so, even how it could be falsified. As you try to refine the expression of an idea, adjust the qualification accordingly. The more you refine an idea, the less you'll need to qualify it. However, don't underestimate qualification. Learn to use its full range.