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PhD Writing 4: How to write the conclusion chapter of your thesis

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16 November, 2021

PhD Writing 4: How to write the conclusion chapter of your PhD

Writing the conclusion to your PhD thesis can be daunting.

How are you meant to draw together more than three years’ worth of work into one concise chapter, and make those wider conclusive points that have been on the periphery of your research throughout your PhD?

First, it’s important to note that just as every PhD project is different, so too is every conclusion. By the time it comes to writing your conclusion, you are the person who knows your research the best and are also the most well-informed person on your area of study. It is vital to remember that you are absolutely the optimal, most qualified candidate to draw conclusions from your research.

That being said, here are some useful tips for writing a PhD thesis conclusion, whether your field of research is in Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (STEM) or Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities (SSAH).

Clearly state the answer(s) to the main research question(s)

By now, you will have honed your research question (s) – here is your opportunity to intelligibly answer those questions or address your hypotheses. If you are struggling with where to start with your conclusion, directly answering your research questions is a good opener.

Summarise and reflect on the research you have undertaken

The conclusion provides the opportunity for you to tie all your chapters together, showing how they all connect under the umbrella of your PhD title and your research questions or objectives.

Acknowledge the limitations of your research

Most PhD conclusions include a reflection of the limitations of your research. Areas for consideration include:

Scope : What has your focus or research questions excluded or not been able to cover within this project, and why?
Time and word limits : How have the limitations of the PhD period restricted your research, or how have the word counts affected the expression of your thesis into a paper? (This may overlap in part with scope.)
Access : Were you unable to access certain resources or materials , and how has this limited your research?

Make recommendations for future work on the topic

Whether you want to be the one to continue this work in postdoctoral research, or if you are ready to hand this off to the next generation of researchers, this is your chance to gesture towards potential future avenues of research. For example, you could highlight other directions or approaches that could be explored, alternative data sets that could be studied or new questions or hypotheses arising from your research that could be further investigated. This is also a good time to offer suggestions for addressing the limitations to this research that you have identified.

Showcase the original knowledge you have contributed to the field

A significant and substantial part of a PhD is about providing an original contribution to your field. Here is your opportunity to lay bare what you have contributed and how you have done that. Your literature review will have discussed the relevant literature and identified prominent gaps in the knowledge within your field of study. Your conclusion can then show how you have filled those gaps in an innovative way.

Finally, working on your conclusion is an excellent opportunity for yourself to reflect upon your research as a whole.

Before and as you write this chapter, reflect upon these questions:

Where does your research fit in the existing body of knowledge?
What gaps in research have you addressed?
What is new and exciting about your research?
How is the literature in your field in dialogue with each other, and with your study?

By answering these questions, you should be able to arrive at a concise, yet insightful summary of your overall research journey, process and findings .

Read previous in series: PhD Writing 3: How to write the introduction chapter of a thesis

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Dissertation

How to Write a Thesis or Dissertation Conclusion

Published on September 6, 2022 by Tegan George and Shona McCombes. Revised on November 20, 2023.

The conclusion is the very last part of your thesis or dissertation . It should be concise and engaging, leaving your reader with a clear understanding of your main findings, as well as the answer to your research question .

In it, you should:

Clearly state the answer to your main research question
Summarize and reflect on your research process
Make recommendations for future work on your thesis or dissertation topic
Show what new knowledge you have contributed to your field
Wrap up your thesis or dissertation

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Discussion vs. conclusion, how long should your conclusion be, step 1: answer your research question, step 2: summarize and reflect on your research, step 3: make future recommendations, step 4: emphasize your contributions to your field, step 5: wrap up your thesis or dissertation, full conclusion example, conclusion checklist, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about conclusion sections.

While your conclusion contains similar elements to your discussion section , they are not the same thing.

Your conclusion should be shorter and more general than your discussion. Instead of repeating literature from your literature review , discussing specific research results , or interpreting your data in detail, concentrate on making broad statements that sum up the most important insights of your research.

As a rule of thumb, your conclusion should not introduce new data, interpretations, or arguments.

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Depending on whether you are writing a thesis or dissertation, your length will vary. Generally, a conclusion should make up around 5–7% of your overall word count.

An empirical scientific study will often have a short conclusion, concisely stating the main findings and recommendations for future research. A humanities dissertation topic or systematic review , on the other hand, might require more space to conclude its analysis, tying all the previous sections together in an overall argument.

Your conclusion should begin with 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
Do synthesize them into a final takeaway that the reader will remember.

An empirical thesis or dissertation conclusion may begin like this:

A case study –based thesis or dissertation conclusion may begin like this:

In the second example, the research aim is not directly restated, but rather added implicitly to the statement. 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.

Your conclusion is an opportunity to remind your reader why you took the approach you did, what you expected to find, and how well the results matched your expectations.

To avoid repetition , consider writing more reflectively here, rather than just writing a summary of each preceding section. Consider mentioning the effectiveness of your methodology , or perhaps any new questions or unexpected insights that arose in the process.

You can also mention any limitations of your research, but only 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.

While x limits the generalizability of the results, this approach provides new insight into y .
This research clearly illustrates x , but it also raises the question of y .

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You may already have made a few recommendations for future research in your discussion section, but the conclusion is a good place to elaborate and look ahead, considering the implications of your findings in both theoretical and practical terms.

Based on these conclusions, practitioners should consider …
To better understand the implications of these results, future studies could address …
Further research is needed to determine the causes of/effects of/relationship between …

When making recommendations for further research, be sure not to undermine your own work. Relatedly, while future studies might confirm, build on, or enrich your conclusions, they shouldn’t be required for your argument to feel complete. Your work should stand alone on its own merits.

Just as you should avoid too much self-criticism, you should also avoid exaggerating the applicability of your research. If you’re making recommendations for policy, business, or other practical implementations, it’s generally best to frame them as “shoulds” rather than “musts.” All in all, the purpose of academic research is to inform, explain, and explore—not to demand.

Make sure your reader is left with a strong impression of what your research has contributed to the state of your field.

Some strategies to achieve this include:

Returning to your problem statement to explain how your research helps solve the problem
Referring back to the literature review and showing how you have addressed a gap in knowledge
Discussing how your findings confirm or challenge an existing theory or assumption

Again, avoid simply repeating what you’ve already covered in the discussion in your conclusion. Instead, pick out the most important points and sum them up succinctly, situating your project in a broader context.

The end is near! Once you’ve finished writing your conclusion, it’s time to wrap up your thesis or dissertation with a few final steps:

It’s a good idea to write your abstract next, while the research is still fresh in your mind.
Next, make sure your reference list is complete and correctly formatted. To speed up the process, you can use our free APA citation generator .
Once you’ve added any appendices , you can create a table of contents and title page .
Finally, read through the whole document again to make sure your thesis is clearly written and free from language errors. You can proofread it yourself , ask a friend, or consider Scribbr’s proofreading and editing service .

Here is an example of how you can write your conclusion section. Notice how it includes everything mentioned above:

V. Conclusion

The current research aimed to identify acoustic speech characteristics which mark the beginning of an exacerbation in COPD patients.

The central questions for this research were as follows: 1. Which acoustic measures extracted from read speech differ between COPD speakers in stable condition and healthy speakers? 2. In what ways does the speech of COPD patients during an exacerbation differ from speech of COPD patients during stable periods?

All recordings were aligned using a script. Subsequently, they were manually annotated to indicate respiratory actions such as inhaling and exhaling. The recordings of 9 stable COPD patients reading aloud were then compared with the recordings of 5 healthy control subjects reading aloud. The results showed a significant effect of condition on the number of in- and exhalations per syllable, the number of non-linguistic in- and exhalations per syllable, and the ratio of voiced and silence intervals. The number of in- and exhalations per syllable and the number of non-linguistic in- and exhalations per syllable were higher for COPD patients than for healthy controls, which confirmed both hypotheses.

However, the higher ratio of voiced and silence intervals for COPD patients compared to healthy controls was not in line with the hypotheses. This unpredicted result might have been caused by the different reading materials or recording procedures for both groups, or by a difference in reading skills. Moreover, there was a trend regarding the effect of condition on the number of syllables per breath group. The number of syllables per breath group was higher for healthy controls than for COPD patients, which was in line with the hypothesis. There was no effect of condition on pitch, intensity, center of gravity, pitch variability, speaking rate, or articulation rate.

This research has shown that the speech of COPD patients in exacerbation differs from the speech of COPD patients in stable condition. This might have potential for the detection of exacerbations. However, sustained vowels rarely occur in spontaneous speech. Therefore, the last two outcome measures might have greater potential for the detection of beginning exacerbations, but further research on the different outcome measures and their potential for the detection of exacerbations is needed due to the limitations of the current study.

Checklist: Conclusion

I have clearly and concisely answered the main research question .

I have summarized my overall argument or key takeaways.

I have mentioned any important limitations of the research.

I have given relevant recommendations .

I have clearly explained what my research has contributed to my field.

I have not introduced any new data or arguments.

You've written a great conclusion! Use the other checklists to further improve your dissertation.

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or research bias, make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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In a thesis or dissertation, the discussion is an in-depth exploration of the results, going into detail about the meaning of your findings and citing relevant sources to put them in context.

The conclusion is more shorter and more general: it concisely answers your main research question and makes recommendations based on your overall findings.

While it may be tempting to present new arguments or evidence in your thesis or disseration conclusion , especially if you have a particularly striking argument you’d like to finish your analysis with, you shouldn’t. Theses and dissertations follow a more formal structure than this.

All your findings and arguments should be presented in the body of the text (more specifically in the discussion section and results section .) The conclusion is meant to summarize and reflect on the evidence and arguments you have already presented, not introduce new ones.

For a stronger dissertation conclusion , avoid including:

Important evidence or analysis that wasn’t mentioned in the discussion section and results section
Generic concluding phrases (e.g. “In conclusion …”)
Weak statements that undermine your argument (e.g., “There are good points on both sides of this issue.”)

Your conclusion should leave the reader with a strong, decisive impression of your work.

The conclusion of your thesis or dissertation shouldn’t take up more than 5–7% of your overall word count.

The conclusion of your thesis or dissertation should include the following:

A restatement of your research question
A summary of your key arguments and/or results
A short discussion of the implications of your research

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George, T. & McCombes, S. (2023, November 20). How to Write a Thesis or Dissertation Conclusion. Scribbr. Retrieved August 5, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/write-conclusion/

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How to write a PhD in a hundred steps (or more)

A workingmumscholar's journey through her phd and beyond, concluding the thesis.

I am co-supervising a PhD student who is handing in her thesis for examination in November. She is currently revising her whole thesis, working towards the conclusion (and finally, the introduction). Conclusions can be tricky things to write – pulling something as big as a PhD dissertation together into a final, clear chapter is not easy. It is both an intellectual and an emotional challenge, as conclusion-writing comes towards the very end of the process, and you are so tired, and probably feeling like there are no more coherent words or sentences in your brain. This post reflects a little on what a thesis conclusion is for, with some thoughts on how to construct one that does justice to your meisterwerk .

To begin with, let’s think a bit about what conclusions are for in a piece of written work. In undergraduate studies, students are typically taught that conclusions are summaries . You restate the thesis, or main claim, of your paper, reiterate what each paragraph has said that contributes to that argument, and then bring it all together with a firm final sentence or two that says something about the relevance of the paper, or argument. There should be no new information, just a summing up of what has already been said. Sometimes you are allowed recommendations, depending on the discipline. It makes sense, then, that we progress into postgraduate studies believing that we are writing summaries whenever we conclude (a paper, or a journal article, or a thesis). I have seen many conclusions like this in postgraduate, postdoctoral and early career writing. But, unfortunately, at these levels conclusions that merely summarise a paper the reader has just read are not adequate, or suitable . A shift is needed.

As Pat Thomson usefully argues in this post about writing a thesis conclusion, the conclusion to a thesis (or journal article) is not a summary of the whole . The summary part of a thesis conclusion should ideally be quite brief, and used rather as a springboard to the real work of the conclusion: using the preceding writing and research to show how the study has addressed the research questions, and in so doing, how it has made a valid, and useful, contribution to knowledge .

A strong conclusion shows your readers what your research means within the context of the field you have referenced in your ‘literature review’, and how in answering your research questions you have been able to speak back to this body of research in which you have located your own study. It answers your research questions, succinctly and clearly, so that your readers understand the overall claims of your study, the focus of your argument, the basis upon which you have advanced your argument, and the significance, meaning or value of that argument to your (their) field. It discusses – argues – for the place of your research within your field, and the contribution it is making.

There are a few ways in which you can approach writing such a conclusion (and Pat’s post above is very helpful here). There are also a few guidelines to consider in writing this vital part of your thesis.

To begin with, you do need to bring your reader up to speed with the thesis thus far . Examiners and other readers are unlikely to read your whole PhD in one go, so ending each chapter with a brief summary, and starting the next one with a short section that connects the present chapter to the previous one is a good idea for creating coherent connections between chapters, and is helpful for your readers. Thus, you should begin your conclusion with an overview, or brief summary, of the argument thus far.

Then, consider your research questions : what did you set out to do in this project or study? Your research questions could make useful sub-headings here, at least in a first draft, to help you organise your thoughts. Starting here, you can begin to pull out the answers you have found (in the ‘analysis chapter/s’) so that you can discuss the implications of your findings, their relevance in relation to your overall argument, and the way in which what you have found relates to the body of research to which you have connected your study. No new information : just an analytical discussion of selected aspects of your findings that are useful for answering your research questions, and further consolidating your argument.

Perhaps you have recommendations , on the basis of your findings and their implications for practice, and/or further research. You could include a section on these, discussing a step further the possible implications of your research in relation to your field. Something else that may be relevant to include here could be limitations to the size or scope of your findings: are there any that your readers need to know about, so that they don’t expect your study to have done something other than what it has done? Don’t just list all the things you could have done but didn’t do: think carefully about pertinent limitations that may represent counter-arguments you could defend or mitigate against.

At the end of the end, consider your argument again : what has your thesis claimed and to what end? Try to end your thesis with a paragraph that reiterates not just what your thesis has argued, but WHY this argument has relevance, or import, for your readers. What do you hope the outcome of your research will be? Why are you so passionate about it, and why do you think others should care too? Read a few thesis conclusions to get a sense of different ways of doing this, and check out Pat Thomson’s posts on conclusion writing , too. Then write a draft and share it with your supervisor for feedback.

It’s worth really taking your time and not rushing this chapter, even as it comes at the end when you are tired, and really just want to be done. End on the highest note you can: you owe yourself that much after all your hard work getting there.

How to write an excellent thesis conclusion [with examples]

Restate the thesis

Review or reiterate key points of your work, explain why your work is relevant, a take-away for the reader, more resources on writing thesis conclusions, frequently asked questions about writing an excellent thesis conclusion, related articles.

At this point in your writing, you have most likely finished your introduction and the body of your thesis, dissertation, or research paper . While this is a reason to celebrate, you should not underestimate the importance of your conclusion. The conclusion is the last thing that your reader will see, so it should be memorable.

A good conclusion will review the key points of the thesis and explain to the reader why the information is relevant, applicable, or related to the world as a whole. Make sure to dedicate enough of your writing time to the conclusion and do not put it off until the very last minute.

This article provides an effective technique for writing a conclusion adapted from Erika Eby’s The College Student's Guide to Writing a Good Research Paper: 101 Easy Tips & Tricks to Make Your Work Stand Out .

While the thesis introduction starts out with broad statements about the topic, and then narrows it down to the thesis statement , a thesis conclusion does the same in the opposite order.

Restate the thesis.
Review or reiterate key points of your work.
Explain why your work is relevant.
Include a core take-away message for the reader.

Tip: Don’t just copy and paste your thesis into your conclusion. Restate it in different words.

The best way to start a conclusion is simply by restating the thesis statement. That does not mean just copying and pasting it from the introduction, but putting it into different words.

You will need to change the structure and wording of it to avoid sounding repetitive. Also, be firm in your conclusion just as you were in the introduction. Try to avoid sounding apologetic by using phrases like "This paper has tried to show..."

The conclusion should address all the same parts as the thesis while making it clear that the reader has reached the end. You are telling the reader that your research is finished and what your findings are.

I have argued throughout this work that the point of critical mass for biopolitical immunity occurred during the Romantic period because of that era's unique combination of post-revolutionary politics and innovations in smallpox prevention. In particular, I demonstrated that the French Revolution and the discovery of vaccination in the 1790s triggered a reconsideration of the relationship between bodies and the state.

Tip: Try to reiterate points from your introduction in your thesis conclusion.

The next step is to review the main points of the thesis as a whole. Look back at the body of of your project and make a note of the key ideas. You can reword these ideas the same way you reworded your thesis statement and then incorporate that into the conclusion.

You can also repeat striking quotations or statistics, but do not use more than two. As the conclusion represents your own closing thoughts on the topic , it should mainly consist of your own words.

In addition, conclusions can contain recommendations to the reader or relevant questions that further the thesis. You should ask yourself:

What you would ideally like to see your readers do in reaction to your paper?
Do you want them to take a certain action or investigate further?
Is there a bigger issue that your paper wants to draw attention to?

Also, try to reference your introduction in your conclusion. You have already taken a first step by restating your thesis. Now, check whether there are other key words, phrases or ideas that are mentioned in your introduction that fit into your conclusion. Connecting the introduction to the conclusion in this way will help readers feel satisfied.

I explored how Mary Wollstonecraft, in both her fiction and political writings, envisions an ideal medico-political state, and how other writers like William Wordsworth and Mary Shelley increasingly imagined the body politic literally, as an incorporated political collective made up of bodies whose immunity to political and medical ills was essential to a healthy state.

Tip: Make sure to explain why your thesis is relevant to your field of research.

Although you can encourage readers to question their opinions and reflect on your topic, do not leave loose ends. You should provide a sense of resolution and make sure your conclusion wraps up your argument. Make sure you explain why your thesis is relevant to your field of research and how your research intervenes within, or substantially revises, existing scholarly debates.

This project challenged conventional ideas about the relationship among Romanticism, medicine, and politics by reading the unfolding of Romantic literature and biopolitical immunity as mutual, co-productive processes. In doing so, this thesis revises the ways in which biopolitics has been theorized by insisting on the inherent connections between Romantic literature and the forms of biopower that characterize early modernity.

Tip: If you began your thesis with an anecdote or historical example, you may want to return to that in your conclusion.

End your conclusion with something memorable, such as:

a call to action
a recommendation
a gesture towards future research
a brief explanation of how the problem or idea you covered remains relevant

Ultimately, you want readers to feel more informed, or ready to act, as they read your conclusion.

Yet, the Romantic period is only the beginning of modern thought on immunity and biopolitics. Victorian writers, doctors, and politicians upheld the Romantic idea that a "healthy state" was a literal condition that could be achieved by combining politics and medicine, but augmented that idea through legislation and widespread public health measures. While many nineteenth-century efforts to improve citizens' health were successful, the fight against disease ultimately changed course in the twentieth century as global immunological threats such as SARS occupied public consciousness. Indeed, as subsequent public health events make apparent, biopolitical immunity persists as a viable concept for thinking about the relationship between medicine and politics in modernity.

Need more advice? Read our 5 additional tips on how to write a good thesis conclusion.

The conclusion is the last thing that your reader will see, so it should be memorable. To write a great thesis conclusion you should:

The basic content of a conclusion is to review the main points from the paper. This part represents your own closing thoughts on the topic. It should mainly consist of the outcome of the research in your own words.

The length of the conclusion will depend on the length of the whole thesis. Usually, a conclusion should be around 5-7% of the overall word count.

End your conclusion with something memorable, such as a question, warning, or call to action. Depending on the topic, you can also end with a recommendation.

In Open Access: Theses and Dissertations you can find thousands of completed works. Take a look at any of the theses or dissertations for real-life examples of conclusions that were already approved.

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my research
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connecting chapters/chapter conclusions

This post is the second of four which address the question of how you achieve flow across a thesis text. The previous post ( here ) offered a three-part approach to beginning to write a chapter. The three moves, link, focus and overview, are particularly useful if you are going back to writing a chapter after a period of time, writing chapters out of order or if you are really worried about the process of starting off. If you stare at the blank screen not knowing where to start, using the three part move as a kind of less-stress ‘holding’ text can be helpful. These three moves – just like the one in this post – are one approach – and only one – to achieving a coherent first draft.

This post focuses on the conclusion.

A conclusion should be a short summary of the most pithy points in the chapter. It’s the thing that you’re going to leave the reader with. Given that they’ve just spent time reading the whole chapter, they don’t want to read it all again. What do you most want the reader to remember about this chapter? What is the key to the argument you’ve made, the most significant thing(s) that they have to keep in their mind as they go forward? In a thesis, a conclusion is usually fairly brief and to the point. Barbara and I call this ‘crunching’. Crunching the conclusion requires some thought – it’s not an afterthought. It is always about your take-home message , if you like. So don’t go on at length in the conclusion – Crunch.

But conclusions can also be VERY helpful in achieving flow. When you get to the conclusion of the chapter, it’s vital to return to the ‘focus’ that you wrote at the start. What did you aim to do in this chapter?

Now is the time to see if you have actually done what you said you would do. It may be that, as you were writing, a new angle came to you, something that you hadn’t thought of at the start. If that happens that’s probably really good. You just need to go back to the focus/aim that you had and readjust it. However, it may be that you wandered off track during the chapter, and going back to check the aim at the start helps you to work out how and where. In both of these circumstances the conclusion is working for you as a writer, as well as for the reader. It’s making sure that the start and the end of the chapter work together, they open up and then sum up the argument you are making.

Of course, using this strategy means that the first draft of the next chapter will also start with a link back, a trailer which says what you’ve done in the chapter before… so there is a decision to be made when you get to the second draft about whether a summary at the end of one chapter, and another summary at the start of the next is good for the reader… But before we get to that, the next and third post looks at headings and the way to use headings to signal flow, and to check on argument flow.

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I have seen many dissertations that don’t have conclusions of each chapter. As I’m writing my own dissertation, I would like to know your opinion. At the beginning I thought to include a brief summary of each chapter. For example, the summary of the theoretical framework chapter was more or less half page. But then I was wondering if it could be too repetitive, because I also want to include a brief summary at the beginning of the last chapter (“conclusion”). I know that a summary helps the reader, but isn’t it too much to include a summary of each chapter and then summarize again at the beginning of the conclusion? Thank you!

I would only have a summary once in a chapter. Usually this is at the end of the chapter not the beginning of the next. The beginning Of the chapter usually has some signposts only of what is to come, not a summary. Th summary in the conclusion is usually brief.

I think what @Agnese was asking is about the final ‘Conclusions’ chapter. If there are conclusions at the end of each chapter, would it be too repetitive because one will again have to mention these same points in the final chapter of conclusion anyways. Cheers 🙂

If I understand well what @Agnese asked, she was hinting whether repeating the same conclusions that one writes at the end of each chapter could seem repetitive since they are mentioned again at the end in the ‘Conclusions’ chapter. I think that each chapter has a summary at the end which highlights the most important results from that chapter, whereas the conclusions at the end of the thesis are in a way the conclusions that are derived from the overall thesis (more global conclusions wrt the main thesis research question).

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Hi Thanks for some great advice. I’ve just noticed that you posted this way back in 2014 but the rest of the posts are not here, are there plans to continue this post or am I looking in the wrong place? Thanks

Great post Pat! I just stumbled across this via google by searching for “conclusions at the end of chapters or book?” You have some good advice in here. As you can see, I am still in the midst of converting the thesis into a book – it is steadily getting there…

All best wishes to you from Vietnam, Simon

How to mark this conclusions? Shall I use ***, or “Chapter Conclusion”, or “Chapter Summary”?

How people do it?

I would put as “Summary” so as not to confuse with the actual conclusion chapter.

I am writing a dissertation and I am confused in writing the conclusion of each chapter and general conclusion because I found it repetitive so can you help me

This post and comment section are so helpful, thank you!

Thanks for posting this article.

I am writing a dissertation; the last chapter is entirely titled as “conclusion.” Additionally, this is also emphasized in the list of contents. Now my question is; should I also provide a brief conclusion at the end of each chapter?

It helps to tell the reader what they need to remember before they start the next chapter. But very succinctly.

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How to Write a Thesis or Dissertation Conclusion

How to Write a Dissertation Conclusion | Checklist and Examples

Published on 9 September 2022 by Tegan George and Shona McCombes. Revised on 10 October 2022.

In it, you should:

Clearly state the answer to your main research question
Summarise and reflect on your research process
Make recommendations for future work on your topic
Show what new knowledge you have contributed to your field
Wrap up your thesis or dissertation

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Discussion vs. conclusion, how long should your conclusion be, step 1: answer your research question, step 2: summarise and reflect on your research, step 3: make future recommendations, step 4: emphasise your contributions to your field, step 5: wrap up your thesis or dissertation, full conclusion example, conclusion checklist, frequently asked questions about conclusion sections.

While your conclusion contains similar elements to your discussion section , they are not the same thing.

As a rule of thumb, your conclusion should not introduce new data, interpretations, or arguments.

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Depending on whether you are writing a thesis or dissertation, your length will vary. Generally, a conclusion should make up around 5–7% of your overall word count.

An empirical scientific study will often have a short conclusion, concisely stating the main findings and recommendations for future research. A humanities topic or systematic review , on the other hand, might require more space to conclude its analysis, tying all the previous sections together in an overall argument.

Don’t repeat a list of all the results that you already discussed
Do synthesise them into a final takeaway that the reader will remember.

An empirical thesis or dissertation conclusion may begin like this:

A case study –based thesis or dissertation conclusion may begin like this:

Your conclusion is an opportunity to remind your reader why you took the approach you did, what you expected to find, and how well the results matched your expectations.

You can also mention any limitations of your research, but only 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.

While x limits the generalisability of the results, this approach provides new insight into y .
This research clearly illustrates x , but it also raises the question of y .

Based on these conclusions, practitioners should consider …
To better understand the implications of these results, future studies could address …
Further research is needed to determine the causes of/effects of/relationship between …

Just as you should avoid too much self-criticism, you should also avoid exaggerating the applicability of your research. If you’re making recommendations for policy, business, or other practical implementations, it’s generally best to frame them as ‘shoulds’ rather than ‘musts’. All in all, the purpose of academic research is to inform, explain, and explore – not to demand.

Make sure your reader is left with a strong impression of what your research has contributed to the state of your field.

Some strategies to achieve this include:

Returning to your problem statement to explain how your research helps solve the problem
Referring back to the literature review and showing how you have addressed a gap in knowledge
Discussing how your findings confirm or challenge an existing theory or assumption

The end is near! Once you’ve finished writing your conclusion, it’s time to wrap up your thesis or dissertation with a few final steps:

It’s a good idea to write your abstract next, while the research is still fresh in your mind.
Next, make sure your reference list is complete and correctly formatted. To speed up the process, you can use our free APA citation generator .
Once you’ve added any appendices , you can create a table of contents and title page .
Finally, read through the whole document again to make sure your thesis is clearly written and free from language errors. You can proofread it yourself , ask a friend, or consider Scribbr’s proofreading and editing service .

Here is an example of how you can write your conclusion section. Notice how it includes everything mentioned above:

V. Conclusion

The current research aimed to identify acoustic speech characteristics which mark the beginning of an exacerbation in COPD patients.

Checklist: Conclusion

I have clearly and concisely answered the main research question .

I have summarized my overall argument or key takeaways.

I have mentioned any important limitations of the research.

I have given relevant recommendations .

I have clearly explained what my research has contributed to my field.

I have not introduced any new data or arguments.

You've written a great conclusion! Use the other checklists to further improve your dissertation.

In a thesis or dissertation, the discussion is an in-depth exploration of the results, going into detail about the meaning of your findings and citing relevant sources to put them in context.

The conclusion is more shorter and more general: it concisely answers your main research question and makes recommendations based on your overall findings.

For a stronger dissertation conclusion , avoid including:

Generic concluding phrases (e.g. “In conclusion…”)
Weak statements that undermine your argument (e.g. “There are good points on both sides of this issue.”)

Your conclusion should leave the reader with a strong, decisive impression of your work.

The conclusion of your thesis or dissertation shouldn’t take up more than 5-7% of your overall word count.

The conclusion of your thesis or dissertation should include the following:

A restatement of your research question
A summary of your key arguments and/or results
A short discussion of the implications of your research

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

George, T. & McCombes, S. (2022, October 10). How to Write a Dissertation Conclusion | Checklist and Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 5 August 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/thesis-dissertation/conclusion/

Is this article helpful?

Tegan George

Other students also liked, how to write a thesis or dissertation introduction, how to write a discussion section | tips & examples, how to write an abstract | steps & examples.

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The Final Chapter(s): Discussion, Conclusion, Limitations and Implications

Posted by Rene Tetzner | Oct 21, 2021 | PhD Success | 0 |

4.5 The Final Chapter(s): Discussion, Conclusion, Limitations and Implications

In some theses, the discussion of the study, its results and any concluding thoughts will fill more than one chapter: there may be, for instance, a chapter dedicated to discussion and a shorter conclusion chapter, or perhaps two chapters dedicated to discussing the results of different methodologies and a final chapter on relationships between those different results. In many theses, however, a single chapter will suffice for both. This final part of your thesis is a vital one: it tends to synthesise and analyse all elements of the thesis in order to evaluate and explain the overall significance of the research, and readers will often turn to the discussion (or conclusion) chapter first to obtain an overall picture of a study. The structure of this all-important final material varies considerably from thesis to thesis, yet it is essential that it be designed in a way that allows you to move through a great deal of potentially complicated, analytical and speculative information in an orderly fashion. Considerable reflection is therefore necessary before beginning to write, and not only to get the structure right. That structure depends, of course, on exactly what you intend to include in your discussion chapter(s), and deciding on exactly what to say will take some deep reflective thought on your part.

You may wish to address your plans for your discussion and conclusion chapter(s) with your supervisor and other committee members, and it is also a good idea to see if your department has any guidelines for this part of the thesis, especially if you are feeling unsure about how to proceed and could use some practical advice. In the final analysis, however, you are better acquainted with your research and thus better able to make sense of it than anyone else can be, so you are the only person truly qualified not only to write, but also to design the discussion and conclusion for that research. Besides, this final part of the thesis is your opportunity to express your own perspective and opinions on the significance of your doctoral research, based firmly, of course, on the topic, problem or phenomenon you investigated, your aims and objectives, the methods you used and the results you achieved.

Unfortunately, you may well feel rather exhausted by the experience of drafting your thesis by the time you arrive at your discussion chapter(s), but detailed analysis, intellectual vigour and creative connections are absolutely necessary for discussing and concluding your thesis, and a little passion never hurts either. Doing less than your best at this point would compromise all the effort you have already invested, so take a deep breath and dive into what can in fact be the most challenging and pleasurable part of writing a thesis. There is no simple or universal recipe for successfully discussing and concluding a doctoral thesis and its research, but, generally speaking, an inversion of your opening chapters takes place: in those chapters, you moved your reader from the more general background and scholarship associated with the topic, problem or phenomenon to focus on your particular perspective and approach; in your final chapter(s), you need to use the specific focus you adopted and the results you achieved to move your reader back out to the more general interpretations and implications of your research. In order to achieve this, there are a number of practical approaches and standard expectations that are worthy of serious consideration before forging your own unique path through the forest of possibilities.

Discussing and concluding a thesis effectively might and generally should involve:

A brief introduction outlining the structure and content of the chapter(s). This can take the form of a single short paragraph, but because the discussion section of a thesis tends to be creative and is always unique, and it is essential that readers understand exactly what you intend, an opening paragraph of this sort can be extremely helpful for clarifying your approach and raising appropriate expectations.
A brief but informative summary of the study or thesis as a whole. This need only highlight the major issues and can be done efficiently by moving through the individual chapters as outlined in the following four points.
A return to the introduction of the thesis to restate the most important material introduced there. The research topic, problem or phenomenon should certainly be emphasised, as should its significance, your aims and objectives, and any research questions and hypotheses you introduced and used as guiding factors in your research. You will need to analyse how your research and results answer, resolve and contribute to knowledge in relation to these elements, so any or all of them can effectively be used to structure the chapter, especially if you have used them to organise your report of the results. You may also want to return to the essential aspects of the background and context of your research as discussed in the introduction chapter, but this tends to be necessary only if that background and context is immediately relevant to your discussion and concluding thoughts.
A return to the literature review to highlight the most important aspects of previous research on your topic and any key theories related to your work in the thesis. Any gaps, misconceptions and limitations that you identified in the scholarship in your earlier literature review should be restated with the goal being to explain exactly how your research and its results have provided what was lacking, established new ways of looking at the problem(s) and thus moved beyond the traditional views and limitations. Your thesis should make an original contribution to knowledge and discussing it in relation to previous scholarship in the area is one of the most effective ways to identify, emphasise and explain that contribution.

A return to the description of your methodology. This need not be long or detailed, but it sometimes is, and reviewing your main methods and approaches with an eye to evaluating their reliability, limitations and overall effectiveness is an important part of assessing your research. Your understanding of the appropriateness of your methodology may have changed since you first designed your study, particularly as you analysed and reported your results. Your methods may have exceeded or failed to live up to your expectations, or they may have presented limitations or complications you had not envisioned. You may have made errors while putting your methods into practice. Whatever the reality of your methodology proved to be should be explained accurately and objectively, so this is a place for complete if sometimes painful honesty.
A return to the report of your results to summarise and highlight the key points. There is no need to go through your results in detail – the chapter(s) immediately preceding your discussion has already done that – but since you will need to use the results to discuss the implications and limitations of your research, mentioning the main trends is essential. You should focus particularly on the aspects of your results that you intend to discuss, but try not to leave out any significant or meaningful findings, including surprises, whether they support your research hypotheses or not. Focus and brevity can be achieved by making general statements about the nature of the results and following each statement with the most important examples and details to support it.
An analysis and interpretation of your research as a whole and its results. This can be included in a step-by-step manner along with the summaries mentioned in the last four points above, or it can be tackled separately after the relevant information from previous chapters has been highlighted. Your approach, like your ideas, for this part of your thesis will require a great deal of reflection and you may find that you have to begin more than once before finding the right direction. The essential question is ‘What does it all mean?’ and the answer can be notoriously difficult to identify and explain both thoughtfully and accurately. It is likely that your research and results will have many meanings, but this is your chance to express your own views and opinions. These should not be whimsical, erratic, biassed or overly subjective, however, but should be solidly and logically based upon your findings. Your interpretations and conclusions should be plausible, insightful and comprehensive, and whenever your ideas are tentative or speculative (as they will necessarily be at times when discussing matters such as causality), your language should clearly indicate that with phrasing such as ‘it seems that,’ ‘these results appear to suggest,’ ‘it is probable that’ and ‘the likely explanation is.’ It is also important to explain how your research and results have resolved the problem you explored, answered your research questions, tested your hypotheses, filled gaps in the scholarship on the topic, revealed the limitations of earlier theories, proved the validity of your methodology and achieved your aims and objectives. If you have not met with success in any of these areas, that, too, should be indicated.

An identification and analysis of the limitations of your study and its methodology. You may want to write this part along with the review of your main methods, but it can also work as a separate section of the chapter because limitations often extend beyond your methodology (to your findings, for instance). Identifying the limitations of your research and its results is a vital part of your thesis. You may prefer, of course, that there were no or very few limitations, but they are an inevitable aspect of any research, so recognising and discussing them not only demonstrates your intellectual maturity and critical skills, but also makes your research much more useful for future researchers in your area, including yourself. Limitations often stem from the nature of the research design and the exact qualities of the population or sample used, both of which might be called normal limitations that affect the generalisability of your research, but mistakes in controlling the relevant variables, defects in the instruments used or inadequate approaches to recording or analysing data will result in limitations (and perhaps unreliability) of a different kind. If any such limitations proved so significant that it was necessary to adjust your methods and/or repeat any of your research, a discussion of that process, the improvements you made and the ways in which the new results differed can be included as well, though you may want to consult your supervisor about this, as it might be more appropriate to discuss such changes in your methodology chapter(s) instead.
A discussion of the implications of your research and its results. This will tie into your comments about the significance of your research project as expressed in your introduction to the thesis, but your understanding of that significance may well have changed since you began writing, and you can provide further details as well as more certain conclusions in this chapter based on the results you have presented. Implications, whether for practical action or intellectual reflection, should obviously be directly related to the topic, problem or phenomenon you explored (it can be helpful to imagine what you would tell an audience affected by the problem or phenomenon if you had only enough time to emphasise a few major points), and good use can be made of your research questions and hypotheses as well as your aims and objectives as you construct your discussion. The implications you identify should be considered in relation to the background and context of your research as well as previous scholarship in the area, including both trials and studies of a more theoretical nature – ask yourself how your results build on the literature you reviewed and how your study integrates with or overturns current theories. You may also want to comment on the implications of your methodology, especially if it has been innovative, problematic or extraordinarily successful. You will have a great deal of freedom in expressing your thoughts about your work – the factual reporter of your results chapter has been left behind for the authoritative thinker of your discussion – but be sure that the implications you identify and explain are based firmly and logically upon your research and its results, and when you are theorising, generalising and speculating, ensure that your language accurately reflects those tentative modes.
One or more recommendations for future research in your area or discipline. Your recommendations for future research will be based to a large extent on the implications and limitations of your own research. It may be that some idealistic researchers start projects with the notion that their work will resolve all associated questions and problems, but this rarely (if ever) happens in reality, and often the answers that are derived from careful and extensive research complicate matters and open more doors on further research needs and possibilities. Your recommendations may involve repeating the kind of research you have done, but with changes that would eliminate the limitations you have identified (by adding controls, for instance, or choosing or developing different instruments, participants or means of analysis), or they may involve taking very different directions by conducting entirely different kinds of research (using entirely different methods perhaps, or focussing from a different perspective on the most unexpected or surprising trends of your results). Remember that your recommendations for future research can transform aspects of your work that may have proved disappointing into positive possibilities.
A brief conclusion. Since conclusions about your study are a major part of this chapter, a conclusion to it may seem somewhat redundant, but it is important to end on a bright clear note. Sometimes an academic or scientific author will dedicate pages of text to describing, interpreting and speculating upon all the sound and revealing results he or she obtained only to turn at the end of the final chapter to the limitations of the study, which can have the effect of dumping all the wind out of the sails he or she has so carefully and convincingly filled. It may be that the guidelines provided by your university or department call for limitations to be reported at the end of the thesis, and, as an essential aspect of valuable research, limitations need not be negative, especially if they are combined with or (if possible) followed by recommendations for future research. However, after discussing the limitations of your study, it can be useful to return to the unquestionably positive results and conclusions of your research. You might choose, for instance, three main concepts or conclusions that you would like to highlight as you close your text, and these can certainly be qualified with hints of limitations and recommendations while still emphasising the significant contributions of your research. Keep in mind that a doctoral thesis should make a significant and original contribution to knowledge, so highlighting the main ways in which it does so in your final thoughts is not out of place. If there was ever a time to blow your own horn a little, this is it.

Why PhD Success?

To Graduate Successfully

This article is part of a book called "PhD Success" which focuses on the writing process of a phd thesis, with its aim being to provide sound practices and principles for reporting and formatting in text the methods, results and discussion of even the most innovative and unique research in ways that are clear, correct, professional and persuasive.

The assumption of the book is that the doctoral candidate reading it is both eager to write and more than capable of doing so, but nonetheless requires information and guidance on exactly what he or she should be writing and how best to approach the task. The basic components of a doctoral thesis are outlined and described, as are the elements of complete and accurate scholarly references, and detailed descriptions of writing practices are clarified through the use of numerous examples.

The basic components of a doctoral thesis are outlined and described, as are the elements of complete and accurate scholarly references, and detailed descriptions of writing practices are clarified through the use of numerous examples. PhD Success provides guidance for students familiar with English and the procedures of English universities, but it also acknowledges that many theses in the English language are now written by candidates whose first language is not English, so it carefully explains the scholarly styles, conventions and standards expected of a successful doctoral thesis in the English language.

Individual chapters of this book address reflective and critical writing early in the thesis process; working successfully with thesis supervisors and benefiting from commentary and criticism; drafting and revising effective thesis chapters and developing an academic or scientific argument; writing and formatting a thesis in clear and correct scholarly English; citing, quoting and documenting sources thoroughly and accurately; and preparing for and excelling in thesis meetings and examinations.

Completing a doctoral thesis successfully requires long and penetrating thought, intellectual rigour and creativity, original research and sound methods (whether established or innovative), precision in recording detail and a wide-ranging thoroughness, as much perseverance and mental toughness as insight and brilliance, and, no matter how many helpful writing guides are consulted, a great deal of hard work over a significant period of time. Writing a thesis can be an enjoyable as well as a challenging experience, however, and even if it is not always so, the personal and professional rewards of achieving such an enormous goal are considerable, as all doctoral candidates no doubt realise, and will last a great deal longer than any problems that may be encountered during the process.

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Rene Tetzner

Rene Tetzner's blog posts dedicated to academic writing. Although the focus is on How To Write a Doctoral Thesis, many other important aspects of research-based writing, editing and publishing are addressed in helpful detail.

PhD Success – How To Write a Doctoral Thesis

October 1, 2021

Table of Contents – PhD Success

October 2, 2021

The Essential – Preliminary Matter

October 3, 2021

The Main Body of the Thesis

October 4, 2021

Dissertation Genius

Dissertation Writing: How to Write your Conclusion

December 10, 2016 by Dissertation Genius

In this blog post, you’ll learn exactly how to write the last chapter of your doctoral dissertation. In particular, you will get oriented with the overall goals of the conclusion chapter. Then, you’ll be taught on how to go about writing the chapter itself. Finally, you will be given guidance on what things to avoid in the ever-important final chapter of your dissertation.

The Main Goals of your Dissertation Conclusion

Before going into how to actually write the conclusion chapter of your dissertation, it’s important to review its purpose. Regardless of what discipline you are in, there are certain messages you always want your readers to absorb after reading your conclusion chapter. Basically, your conclusion should always: Give a general overview of the important contributions of your work – Make it absolutely clear for your committee and the general reader the original contributions of your work and where they are situated with respect to the rest of your research field. A good way to do this is to simply display your contributions in a bulleted list.

Summarize the main points of your various chapters – Especially if you aim to get your work published, your conclusion should always strive to be an ‘executive summary’ of your work. Not every reader will be interested in reading your entire work. This way, you will have this chapter ready to give them a brief (yet comprehensive) overview of the dissertation.

Recommendations – You should always include at least a paragraph on the practical implications resulting from your findings. This is extremely valuable for yourself, the committee, and the general reader. You can be rather flexible with your recommendations as long as they are relevant and derived from the findings of your dissertation research. For example, you can list highly-specific recommendations and steps to be followed or you can list more general recommendations guiding the reader towards certain ideas and principles to follow.

Future Work – No matter how much you have done with your dissertation research, it will never truly be finished. There will always be lingering question marks and open ends. By no means does this indicate your work is incomplete On the contrary, no PhD work is ever complete and, in fact, a good dissertation is one that sparks a high level of general interest and motivates further research in a particular discipline.

How to Actually Write the Dissertation Conclusion Chapter

Now that you have a good grasp of what the general outline should be of your conclusion, it is important to look at how to actually write it. The most important principle to keep in mind while writing your dissertation conclusion is reflection . To illustrate:

If readers were to go over nothing in your work except your conclusion, what message(s) would you want to leave them with?
What would your ‘take-home’ message be to your audience? What idea, question, call-to-action, etc., would you want them to have as they finish reading your work and walk away?

These are what you must constantly ask yourself while you are writing your dissertation conclusion.

Usually, you should start writing your conclusion by first taking notes, and you should do this while proofreading the initial draft of your work . In general, you should use the following approach:

Use an approach where you would 1) proofread, 2) take notes, and 3) summarize every single chapter of your work. This will pave the way and give you the structure you need for your dissertation conclusion.
After you do this, simply copy & paste these mini chapter summaries and combine them into your conclusion.
Now you have the ‘raw material’ and with this, you can start to modify and weave together the main ideas of your general summary.
After that, simply add the sections on practical implications, contributions, and future work/research.
As a final step, re-read the draft of your conclusion and ask yourself, “Does my conclusion really grasp the essence of my work?”

Pitfalls to Avoid for your Dissertation Conclusion

In general, there are three main pitfalls you should always avoid when writing the conclusion for your dissertation.

Protracted and Rambling Conclusion – A long and protracted conclusion is when you repeat yourself unnecessarily (without adding anything to what you are mentioning) about points you already mentioned in your previous chapters before the conclusion.

Short Conclusion – This is actually an improvement to a long and rambling conclusion, which wastes valuable time on the part of your audience. However, a conclusion that is too short also rambles about facts without coming to a logical conclusion, and does all this using less words and missing vital points/arguments.

Implausible Conclusion – Often times, doctoral students can come to wild conclusions that boggle the mind. They make claims that have absolutely no logical link to the evidence in their research, or that link is very weak. For example, many PhD students (in their very limited small-scale study) make wild assertions that the results of their study should be adopted by public policy-makers, governmental officials, and the like. If you make a list of unsubstantiated claims, you will be wasting a lot of hard work for nothing. Simply stay humble and avoid doing this!

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Writing a Conclusion

Writing a conclusion is an important part of any piece of writing. It is often possible to get a good overview of an assignment by looking briefly at the conclusion. However, writing a conclusion can be quite difficult. This is because it can often be hard to find something interesting or useful to say in the conclusion. Conclusions should be attractive and interesting but often they are rather dull and "formula written".

Although formulae for writing conclusions are tempting to use, it is always best to avoid set phrases such as "Therefore, let us conclude that..." which are clichés, and do not help to end your work in the best light.

Helpful information, advice and materials for writing conclusions

1. What are the typical ingredients in a conclusion?

2. What are the differences between writing conclusions to essays and to dissertations/theses?

3. See a sample conclusion

4. Try a practice activity

5. Check out further advice on writing conclusions

6. Download a checklist to help you edit your written work

What are the typical 'ingredients' of a conclusion?

Trzeciak and Mackay (1994) ( Study skills for academic writing. New York: Prentice Hall ) observe a number of useful "ingredients" that form part of a conclusion. Again (as with introductions) it will not always be necessary or desirable to include all the elements they mention. However, you will probably want to use some of these in some combination, in order to conclude your work.

A summary of the main part of the text
A deduction made on the basis of the main body
Your personal opinion on what has been discussed
A statement about the limitations of the work
A comment about the future based on what has been discussed
The implications of the work for future research
Important facts and figures not mentioned in the main body

Pallant (2009) sees five basic ingredients of a conclusion as follows, though these will not always be used in the same conclusion:

A summary of the main points (being careful not to repeat exactly what you have written before)
Concluding statements
Recommendations
Predictions

These recommendations probably apply more to discussion essays than they do to other kinds of assessed writing at university. For example, if you are writing a business plan or discussing a law scenario, or answering an examination question, you may not need the above elements, unless the question specifically asks you for them or unless it is known that it is expected of you in the discipline you are working in.

However, you will generally need a final section to indicate that you are 'rounding off' the discusion. Always be very careful to check what the conventions are in the discipline you are working in, and ideally, it is best to look at examples of past students' work so that you can see what you are aiming for.

back ^

What are the differences between writing conclusions to essays and to dissertations/theses?

When writing longer pieces of work, it is still very important to observe some of the principles above. For instance, you will still want to ensure that your conclusion really does conclude , and does not just go off at a tangent to discuss something that is unrelated to the thesis. Some people believe (mistakenly) that a conclusion is the place for you to relax and 'say whatever you want'. This is incorrect. If you do this, you will be likely to be marked down.

There are also likely to be some key differences in your approach when writing conclusions. Certainly, conclusions will be even more important in a dissertation or thesis, purely because of the length of the piece. Among the differences you will notice are the following:

As well as having an overall conclusion to your dissertation or thesis, each chapter should also have a conclusion (as well as an introduction). The reason for this is that in a longer piece of writing, it becomes more important to remind the reader of what you have done and why you have done it, before you move onto the next stage.
The conclusion of a dissertation or thesis is not an opportunity to engage in a personal 'rant'. You must draw out key aspects of the literature you have studied, along with your recommendations , and say how they are justified or contradicted by your research.
It is a good idea in a chapter conclusion to remind the reader what happened in the chapter (e.g. In this chapter, the literature relating to the teaching of vocabulary was considered.). After this, you need to build a bridge linking this chapter with the next one. (e.g. This will be further discussed in the next chapter.)
In a dissertation or thesis, there is likely to be a longer section on the limitations of your research . Important though this is, however, you also need to be sure to sell your research in the conclusion - so it is best not to be too negative or over-modest about your achievements at this point. The key to many dissertations and theses is the need to emphasise the contribution that it makes to research.
In a dissertation or thesis, it is more likely that you will have a section on the need for future research . In an MA or MSc dissertation you may like to suggest something that could be developed from your work as a PhD thesis. In a PhD thesis you may like to indicate some potential for post-doctoral work.

Further advice on writing conclusions

When writing an assignment, be careful of the following points:

The topic you are writing about may not always require a full conclusion (this is particularly the case if your work is heavily analytical or mathematical, or not very discursive.) Remember not all assignments require discussion. Check what the expectations are in your own department. Ask your tutor if you are not sure.
Even if you do not need a full conclusion, remember that any assignment nearly always needs to be rounded off in some way and brought to an end. Consider this: will the reader know that you have finished your work? (Or will they just think that you have run out of time - or energy)?
Keep in mind the balance of your assignment. The conclusion should be clear and relatively brief.
In discussion-type assignments, it is often a better idea to raise questions and problems in the conclusion than to provide over-simplified/ naive answers to the assignment title. Examiners will usually be very wary of essays, theses or dissertations that presume to solve all the world's problems in a simplistic and trivial way. Remember, life is never that simple. However, remember not to introduce any new material in the conclusion.
There is no need to go over everything again that you have already mentioned; this would be unnecessarily boring and tedious.
Make sure that the conclusion is based on what you have said before. It is often tempting to go off at a tangent and to say things that are completely unrelated to the topic. Be wary of this.
It is permissible to give your opinion in the conclusion but try to do so subtly and try not to sound too pompous or authoritarian . Usually your viewpoint will be obvious from your discussion, so there is no need to conclude with statements such as: In conclusion, I think Hamlet is a great play. Allow your enthusiasm for the topic to show in how you discuss it. Make sure that you do not use the conclusion as an opportunity to engage in an over-generalised an unfocussed 'rant'.
Be careful with tenses. In a conclusion, you will usually want to use the present perfect (e.g. The aim of this dissertation has been to....) followed by the simple past (Chapter 1 provided an overview of...).
Be very careful about using the word "conclusion" anywhere other than the conclusion itself! This can mislead the reader. If you use the word conclusion several times in an essay, the reader will give up trying to work out where the conclusion really is.

Academic Skills
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Writing thesis sections - Part 1

Writing the conclusion

The conclusion of your thesis, whether embedded in or separated from your discussion chapter, should create a strong closure to your thesis as it leads out to future research and pathways.

Key conclusion moves

Summarise the research by restating the research problem and aim, providing a succinct answer to these, and recapping the key findings and evidence
Unpack the implications of your contribution for theory, practice, research and/or policy in the field
Acknowledge the limitations and scope of your research
Address the next frontier: ‘what’s next?’ - make specific recommendations for future work in the field: what could be done to apply or further your research?

Depending on your discipline, you could include a section reflecting on your professional learning as a researcher through the study, especially if you started the thesis with a personal anecdote. Keep your conclusion concise – it could be just several pages long.

Compare the differences between discussions and conclusions in the table below:

The discussion	The conclusion
Presents an evidence-based argument of a new insight or solution to the research problem.	States why this new insight or solution matters, who should care about it, and what should be done next.
Focuses on what your original contribution is.	Emphasises its social significance and as such delivers the influence, or 'punch' of the research.

Gather ideas for the conclusion

As you write or edit your thesis, gather in one place ideas that don’t quite fit the tight purpose of an earlier chapter, or ideas that you would love to develop in another project. These can provide fresh material for the conclusion. For example, they can become statements about the social implications of your research or your recommendations for future investigations.

Align the conclusion with earlier parts of thesis

The introduction and conclusion, as well as the mini-introductions and mini-conclusions of the core chapters, form the bulk of a thesis narrative as they give readers a holistic perspective of the research.

To align the conclusion:

Make sure it addresses the same problem you set out in the introduction
If an anecdote or another kind of hook has been used to start the introduction, think about ending the thesis with a return to the hook
Assess whether you need to adjust the introduction or earlier parts of the thesis to fit your conclusions, or whether the conclusions themselves need to be adjusted.

Explore example introductions and conclusions

In this activity, you’ll read short introduction and conclusion excerpts from two example theses. As you read, think about the ways the author has linked or connected their conclusions to their introductions. Then, turn each card to read a brief commentary.

Conclusions - practice getting to the point(s)

Boostering your introduction and conclusion

Use the side menu to go the next section: Using disciplinary conventions , where we discuss how to use the conventions of your discipline.

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Do I need "Introduction" and "Conclusions" parts in my PhD thesis?

My advisor has asked me to write my thesis in parts. So, basically, my thesis will have three major parts, each of which explains a different piece of work. However, he is asking me to also add a part called "Introduction" and a part called "Conclusions"

I know he is not quite experienced with this type of thesis writing (i.e., writing in parts), so I am not sure if this is the right thing to do. Moreover, he is asking me to add "Introduction" and "Conclusions" chapter to each part (except for the parts with the same names). This is also a little bit strange to me!

So, could someone help on structuring my thesis? This is the overall structure:

Part 1: It consists of three main chapters on topic A.
Part 2: It consists of two main chapters on topic B.
Part 3: It consists of one main chapter on topic C.

I am definitely going to need an introduction somewhere to justify the three parts and how they are relevant to each other and can be placed in the same thesis, however, I do not know where this introduction should be (should it be a chapter somewhere or part?)

EDIT: Here I also mention my advisor's suggested structure for clarity:

Part 1: Introduction (with one chapter called Introduction)
Part 2: topic A (with one chapter called Introduction and another called Conclusions)
Part 3: topic B (with one chapter called Introduction and another called Conclusions)
Part 4: topic C (with one chapter called Introduction and another called Conclusions)
Part 5: Conclusions (with one chapter called Conclusions and another called Future Work)

I had an introduction section in my PhD thesis, but no conclusion. Rather, each chapter had its own introduction and conclusion in addition to one introduction chapter at the beginning. This was for two reasons: the conclusion of the dissertation could be clearly categorized by chapter, and also I was trying to save space to avoid the thesis becoming too long. – Jake Commented Apr 9, 2021 at 17:09

4 Answers 4

Your adviser's suggestion is a tad unconventional based on my individual experience ( which may be institute and field-specific ), but is not untenable. It may actually be very good advice.

As goes the common joke , while there would be a common theme which ties up your entire thesis in unison, perhaps the three parts you describe might pertain to a common methodology/approach being utilized in three altogether different contexts. If this is true, this is not at all an unusual, and under these circumstances, you have been given very good advice. Three different contexts each deserve their own respective introduction and conclusion sections.

In this case, I would offer you the following advice:

If you are uncomfortable having 4 different "Introduction" sections in your thesis, you can perhaps try this. Call the first introduction section " Introduction " itself, and make it a general introduction to the common theme, i.e. the approach you pursue in this work. While you tease the contexts A, B and C, do not go full throttle describing them here in this section. Just mention them, and say, they will be elaborated on later in the thesis.

The individual introductions to the three parts need not be named "Introduction". ( Though if you want to call it by that name, your wish .) You can give it some other alternative title, such as " Prelude ", or nothing at all. Latter is also a very reasonable choice, an untitled 2-3 page monograph at the beginning of a new section will be automatically understood as an introduction only. What else can it possibly mean?

Likewise, for the three individual conclusions sections, and the final overall conclusion - they will have different composition, even if you choose to give them the same name. The individual conclusion sections should conclude the findings of the individual parts, while the final conclusion section would basically describe how magnificently the common theme/approach worked in altogether different contexts to elucidate how nature works as per the same laws etc. etc. This final conclusion section should only reflect over the detailed individual parts' conclusions, not go through them comprehensively again (since that would be a repetition), and point out some general observations and comparison between the three sections/parts.

You can also add a summary and outlook subsection to the final conclusion chapter, which will make the last conclusion stand out from the earlier ones, while conveying that this is where it all draws to a close in this work, but is hardly the end as far as the spirit of this investigation goes and that there are future directions which you would ardently pursue.

Of course, my answer assumes that at your university, scholars have the flexibility to organize their thesis the way they want. Please check first that there is no rigid organizational paradigm that everyone is supposed to conform to.

Hope that helps :)

1 Thanks for your answer. It was very useful. I just need some clarification. In most of the answer, you use the terms "section". Here is exactly my problem. I don't know what should be a part/chapter/section? Everything you said makes sense and my university is flexible with the organization of thesis. However, I am not sure if a part called Introduction with one chapter (probably called Introduction as well) would make sense (the same for concolusion)! – Moh Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 9:27
1 You can, if you so desire, and particularly since you mention that you have this flexibility. As regards the image, like I'd said earlier, that's just one of the possible ways of doing it, to keep the arrangement clean while preserving the logical order. If you so desire, you can also have them as "Parts" only, with the "Parts" being merely a symbol notation. So, in this case, your contents page reads: Ch 1, Ch 2, Part A which has Ch 3, 4, 5, 6, Part B which has Ch 7, 8, 9, 10, Part C which has Ch 11, 12, 13, 14, followed by Ch 15 Conclusions, Ch 16 Summary and Outlook. (comment continues) – 299792458 Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 11:53
1 (contd.) But as you can see, this will greatly increase the total number of "Chapters". Additionally, you will have the problem of Ch 1, 3, 7 and 11, all being Introductions, and Ch 6, 10, 14, and 15 all being Conclusions.Clearly, that's not a very good way of going about it. The alternative I suggest, with Chapters and Sections, as shown in the image, avoids this problem, and gives you the additional flexibility of not giving a name to the introductory bits of Ch 3, 4, and 5, preserving them as un-named 2-3 pages which serve as the introductions only. (continued further) – 299792458 Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 11:58
1 (contd.) You can always propose this scheme to your adviser and get his views on this alternative classification, pointing out that it preserves the same logical order as his/her suggestion only, but is cleaner. I am confident he/she will concur. :) – 299792458 Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 11:59
1 Exactly that is what bothers me. Having all those repetitions and tiny parts/chapters. Thank you for your help. I'll do as you suggested and try to compromise. – Moh Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 12:43

Run, don't walk , towards the advice of your advisor .

I'm not sure why you are questioning their "experience writing a thesis in parts."

You should add a broad introduction and broad conclusion that service your entire thesis; these will be before and after your Part 1 and Part 3, respectively.

You should add individual introductions and conclusions to each Part. Therefore you will have a total of 4 introductions and 4 conclusions, with 3 of each that have a narrower scope and 1 of each that have a broad scope.

You will probably additionally have introductions and conclusions within each chapter in each part, though you may not label them as such and they could simply be paragraphs. This is simply good writing and is not at all related to thesis writing specifically.

The Introduction before Part 1 and the Conclusion after Part 3 should be parts themselves or chapters in your opinion? – Moh Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 9:19
@Moh Ask your advisor. – Bryan Krause ♦ Commented Mar 21, 2019 at 12:52

I think there are two parts to your question: 1) how to structure your thesis, and 2) what to call the different sections of your thesis. Your advisor's suggestion for the structure seems quite reasonable to me, and it's how my thesis was structured. As for the names of the sections, I too would prefer not to repeat the names "Introduction" and "Conclusion" for each chapter. But there are ways around it. Here's an example of how I structured one of the middle chapters of my thesis.

I suspect that what your advisor cares about is the structure , rather than the names of the sections, so you might give him something like this for your next draft. If it turns out he does care about the names, then I'd follow his advice. This might be a convention in your field, and presumably your advisor knows what the external examiners expect in a thesis.

As your thesis begins to take shape, you might find that the best way to present your research is to modify this structure somewhat. You are the expert on your own research, and your advisor is the expert on what is expected for a thesis in your field, so the two of you will probably need to compromise on some things. I had some lively (but friendly) debates with my advisors about the structure of my thesis, and I think the result was all the better for it.

In the field of Mathematics the standard is to start with maybe a chapter of Introduction, and include some introductory material for each chapter.

Conclusions are often limited to the end-of-proof symbol. However it is common to end with a section called something like Future work or Open questions .

My experience is that you don't need conclusions if your results are for the eternity. If you come from a more applied area, introduction states the things you wanted to do and conclusions state the things that were done. – Oleg Lobachev Commented Mar 20, 2019 at 22:15

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The structure of PhD conclusion chapters

2005, Journal of English for Academic Purposes

This paper considers the generic structure of Conclusion chapters in PhD theses or dissertations. From a corpus of 45 PhD theses covering a range of disciplines, chapters playing a concluding role were identified and analysed for their functional moves and steps. Most Conclusions were found to restate purpose, consolidate research space with a varied array of steps, recommend future research and cover practical applications, implications or recommendations. However a minority were found to focus more on the field than on the thesis itself. These field-oriented Conclusions tended to adopt a problem–solution text structure, or in one case, an argument structure. Variations in focus and structure between disciplines were also found.

Related Papers

Science Park Research Organization & Counselling

Writing a thesis in English is challenging for non-native English speaking students, and it is not an exception for Vietnamese master's (M.A.) students. Despite this challenge, English writing was not formally taught at their elementary, secondary and high school levels until 2008. In their postgraduate programs, these students have little or no formal instruction on how to write each part of a thesis; but are provided with the guidelines and then tailor their own theses. This paper, therefore, explores how 24 Vietnamese teachers of English wrote their thesis Conclusion chapters. By employing the revised framework for analyzing the Conclusion chapters in Applied Linguistics by Chen and Kuo (2012), the study found Deductions from the study (Move 4) is present in every chapter while the other three moves (Introducing the Conclusion chapter, Summarizing the study and Evaluating the study) are conventional. Moreover, a new move (Chapter summary) and an infrequent occurrence of Summarizing previous chapter and a cycle of next section introduction-each section summary were identified. These findings indicate not only a linear structure in composing the concluding chapters by this group of Vietnamese writers but also the rhetorical influence of Vietnamese written discourse on their English writing. The results from this study have some pedagogical implications for teaching novice Vietnamese writers on how to properly compose this genre.

Thi Thuy Loan Nguyen

Writing a thesis in English is challenging for non-native English speaking students, and it is not an exception for Vietnamese master’s (M.A.) students. Despite this challenge, English writing was not formally taught at their elementary, secondary and high school levels until 2008. In their postgraduate programs, these students have little or no formal instruction on how to write each part of a thesis; but are provided with the guidelines and then tailor their own theses. This paper, therefore, explores how 24 Vietnamese teachers of English wrote their thesis Conclusion chapters. By employing the revised framework for analyzing the Conclusion chapters in Applied Linguistics by Chen and Kuo (2012), the study found Deductions from the study (Move 4) is present in every chapter while the other three moves (Introducing the Conclusion chapter, Summarizing the study and Evaluating the study) are conventional. Moreover, a new move (Chapter summary) and an infrequent occurrence of Summarizing previous chapter and a cycle of next section introduction-each section summary were identified. These findings indicate not only a linear structure in composing the concluding chapters by this group of Vietnamese writers but also the rhetorical influence of Vietnamese written discourse on their English writing. The results from this study have some pedagogical implications for teaching novice Vietnamese writers on how to properly compose this genre.

A master’s thesis is a high stakes genre at the summit of a student’s academic accomplishment (Hyland, 2004) and writing a thesis in English poses difficulties for non-native English speaking students (Dong, 1998; Paltridge, 2002b; Shaw, 1991). Given the difficulty of writing M.A. theses and their importance in students’ academic achievement, scarce or even non-existent research has been conducted on this specific genre written by Vietnamese students and what constitutes effective citation practices in student writing. This research, therefore, studies on the rhetorical structure and the in-text citations in each chapter of 24 M.A. theses in TESOL produced at three universities in the South of Vietnam. Employing Chen and Kuo’s (2012) and Thompson and Tribble's (2001) frameworks for the analysis of moves-steps and citation types and functions, respectively and semi-structured interviews with thesis writers and thesis supervisors, the results showed the similarities and differences in the moves and steps of each chapter in these TESOL theses by Vietnamese and those by international writers in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database although this group of Vietnamese writers had little or no formal instruction on how to write this genre. This finding is likely to reflect not only these writers’ conformity to the rhetorical norms but also their adaptation to suit their cultural expectations. Moreover, citations were found to function differently among the chapters and this group of novice writers was likely to be unaware of the rhetorical consequences of their citation choices through their preference for integral citation types, their limited use of citation functions, and their random use of reporting verbs in their M.A. theses. Besides these findings, this study also proposes practical implications for teaching this particular group of novice writers in Vietnam as well as for other educational settings with similar cultural values on how to effectively compose this particular genre and use citation in composing this genre.

Maria Ester W. Moritz , Adriana Kuerten Dellagnelo

The present study is a contrastive investigation of conclusions of researcharticles (RAs) written in Portuguese as a native language, English as anative language and English as a foreign language. The analysis wascarried out according to the principles of genre studies as proposed bySwales (1990). The corpus is composed of 36 conclusions of RAs in the field of applied linguistics. The findings reveal no constant pattern of rhetorical organization and no obligatory moves or steps. However,the results indicate the occurrence of a complex array of moves and steps which exhibits a cyclical structure but with differences in the threelanguages investigated. Furthermore, the samples investigated permitted the elaboration of a proposal of a model for this component of RAs. Thestudy, therefore, contributes to a richer understanding of the nature of conclusions of RAs and, as such, of academic writing

Widhi Widhiyanto

Abstract This thesis is concerned with the quality of argument in lengthy academic texts. The aim of the research reported in this thesis is to better understand the ways arguments in undergraduate dissertations are constructed through the employment of a range of linguistic resources. It investigates two dissertations written by student writers who, while from very different linguistic background and educational contexts, are both neophyte participants in an increasingly global higher education market. In this research, argument refers to “a mode of thinking and composition or ‘metagenre’” (Andrews, 2005), by which undergraduate student writers create and organise meanings in the dissertations. The research is particularly interested in the textual and the interpersonal zones in academic texts where novice writers must learn in constructing effective arguments that embody the organisation of the texts as unified whole, the staging of meanings to achieve texts’ communicative purposes, and the enactment of the writers’ engagement with others in the literature as they take up their positions in the discourse community. The research is underpinned primarily by comprehensive theoretical frameworks of the model of “language as social semiotic” (SFL) (Halliday, 1994, 2004). Particularly, the research draws on the Periodicity framework (Halliday, 1985b; Martin & Rose, 2007), the genre theories (Swales, 1990; Martin, 1992; Martin & Rose, 2008), and the Appraisal framework (Martin, 2000a; Martin & White, 2005) to conduct in-depth linguistic analyses on the linguistic resources utilised to construct the arguments, focusing on three-key text features: Periodicity, genre and Engagement. A complementary theory of the model of “the layout of argument” by Toulmin (1958, 2003) is utilised to assess the organisation of the elements of arguments laid out across stretches of the dissertations. This research is descriptive in nature; in which, the in-depth linguistic analysis is conducted to investigate the phenomena emerging in both texts with a view to noticing the similarities and differences in the ways the two student writers manage these tasks. It analyses an Honours dissertation from an Australian university and a dissertation written by an Indonesian student writer studying English as a foreign language (EFL) in an English department at an Indonesian university. Three-stage analyses are conducted in the top-down manner suggested by the three-key text features. Firstly, Periodicity analysis explores each dissertation to see how each student writer organises meanings as unified whole hierarchically and construct the macro-argument effectively. Secondly, genre analysis examines three selected chapters from each dissertation to see how writers stage meanings to achieve their communicative purposes in the meso-level of argument. Thirdly, analysis on Engagement in the sentence level (i.e. micro-level of argument) is conducted to samples from each text those that potentially show how the writers engage with readers and other writers in the field. The research uncovers that the two writers employ linguistic resources to organise meanings to construct arguments in both similar and different ways. The Periodicity analysis reveals that both writers structure their texts at the macro-level of arguments according to conventional ways of organising dissertations. This suggests commonality in modelling practices across the students’ institutions. However, genre analysis and Appraisal analysis show important differences that emerged in how students structure their texts at the meso-level (at chapter, section and paragraph levels), and in how the writers accomplish negotiation by their employment of evaluative language at the micro-level of sentence and below. The arguments within these levels are differently organised that might influence their soundness (quality). These practices indicate the dissimilarities the way each discourse community employs linguistic resources in academic setting, and the academic discourse practices within communities where each student writer participated in. The thesis contributes to the understanding of how arguments are constructed across lengthy texts through (i) choices in the ways meanings are hierarchically organised at various levels of texts, and (ii) in the ways meanings are staged to achieve the texts’ communicative purposes, together with (iii) how writers engage with others in respect to other voices in the discourse within the academic context. The research extends existing explanations of text development and its relations to genre staging. This staging is verified by the evaluative linguistic analysis in which the staging is signposted. Pedagogically, the findings of the research contribute to the advancement of the teaching of argument in academic genre in EFL educational context. More specifically, a more nuanced approach to pedagogy is necessary in the Indonesian tertiary context.

A master's thesis is a high stakes genre at the summit of a student's academic accomplishment, and writing a thesis in English is reported to pose difficulties for non-native English speaking students. Given the difficulty of writing master's theses and their importance in students' academic achievement, scarce or even non-existent research has been conducted on this specific genre written by Vietnamese students. This paper, therefore, presents the study on the rhetorical structure of 24 master's theses in TESOL produced at three universities in Vietnam. Employing Chen and Kuo's (2012) framework, the results revealed the similarities and differences in the moves and steps of each chapter in the theses written by Vietnamese and those by international writers from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database (ProQuest). Moreover, these findings indicated both these Vietnamese writers' conformity to the rhetorical norms and their adaptation to suit their discourse community's expectations.

In P. Thompson & G. Diani (Eds.), English for Academic Purposes: Approaches and implications. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.

Maggie Charles

Results and Discussion chapters are considered difficult to write in a thesis, especially for non-native English writers. However, few studies have been conducted on how writers compose these two genres. This study, therefore, explores the move-step structures of these two chapters in 24 Master’s theses written by Vietnamese postgraduates. Based on the framework by Chen and Kuo (2012) and the discourse-based interviews with actual thesis writers and supervisors, the study found that this group of writers constructed the genres according to their perceived communicative purposes of these chapters. Moreover, the presence of section/chapter introduction-next section/chapter introduction-section/chapter summary cycles tends to reflect the distinctive composition of these texts at the TESOL discourse community in Vietnam. These findings suggest that explicit instructions on rhetorical structures of these two genres should be provided to non-native English writers and attention should also be paid to specific practice of a genre composition in a particular discourse community.

Wasima Shehzad , Akhtar Abbas

Exploration of academic discourse of academic genres has been a focus of attention of many) for the last twenty years in native and non-native contexts. However, the academic genres produced in Pakistan have not got the attention of scholars yet. Continuing the international tradition of analyzing genre knowledge, the current study aims at the analysis of MPhil theses' introduction chapters in the disciplines of Linguistics and Literature produced in Pakistan by applying the genre theory of Swales (1990). At macro level, genre analysis was conducted to explore the rhetorical organization of the introductory chapters qualitatively and quantitatively by adopting CARS (Create A Research Space) model proposed by Swales (2004). Contrary to other CARS based studies, M3M1, M1M3 and M3M3 were found as dominant move sequences with dominant occurrence of Move 3 (228).

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How to Write a Dissertation or Thesis Conclusion: Guide & Examples

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A dissertation conclusion serves as the final chapter and is often the last thing the reader will see. It should provide a concise summary of the research project, including the research questions or hypotheses, the methods used to conduct the research, and the key findings and conclusions. The conclusion section should also discuss the implications of the research, including its significance for the field and any practical applications of the findings.

Are you a PhD, doctorate, or bachelor student looking forward to writing your dissertation/thesis conclusion and don't know where to start? Stop worrying — help is here. Continue reading this blog post to gain an idea on how to write a conclusion for a thesis or dissertation. In this article, we will discuss what a dissertation conclusion is, its length, and what it should include. Our dissertation services also provided examples, and explained some typical mistakes you have to avoid.

What Is a Dissertation Conclusion?

So, what is a thesis conclusion? It is a concluding chapter in a dissertation or thesis paper. It is the last section of an academic work, carefully written to summarize the information discussed in a document and offer readers insight into what the research has achieved. Your dissertation or thesis conclusion should be well-drafted as it is a reference point that people will remember most. The purpose of dissertation conclusion is to give those reading a sense of closure and reiterate any critical issues discussed. Each conclusion for dissertation should be concise, clear, and definitive. Also, its aim is to offer recommendations for further investigation as well as give readers an understanding of the dissertation discussion chapter .

Thesis or Dissertation Conclusion Length

The conclusion of a thesis or a dissertation is a long chapter — not one single sentence but a whole page or more. Generally, it should be 5–7% of the overall word count. The length of a thesis or dissertation conclusion chapter depends on several factors, such as your academic field, research topic , and stated number of pages. However, it can vary depending on other circumstances. Indeed, you should always refer to each set of your university guidelines for writing conclusions. It's important to note that this section ought not to introduce any new information and be a summary of the research findings. Also, every dissertation conclusion must not be too long as it can distract from other aspects of your thesis. Make sure that you provide a balanced summary and avoid repeating yourself. Lastly, it has to be long enough to discuss its implications for future studies.

What to Include in the Conclusion of a Dissertation or Thesis?

Writing a thesis conclusion can be challenging, but every student needs to understand how to create it, as this is one of the most critical parts of your Ph.D. work. Below is the list of things every dissertation conclusion structure should include:

Summary of the major findings of your research Summarize the main points discussed in your work.
Implications of your research Discuss your study's implications for future research and academic fields. Doing this here is essential to indicate an author's transparency and willingness to accept the flaws of their report.
Recommendations for further study Provide suggestions for the next investigation if needed.
Reviewing any limitations and weaknesses of the research process and findings It is an integral part of dissertation conclusions as it allows authors to reflect on the process.
Evaluation or analysis of your findings Analyze your research findings and provide an assessment.
Conclusion statement Provide a specific conclusion that summarizes your thesis or dissertation.

Hopefully, these tips on writing a conclusion chapter for your thesis or dissertation will help you finish your work confidently. All these components should be present when writing a conclusion for thesis or dissertation. Additionally, ensure that you do not repeat yourself. Lastly, keep your length appropriate and based on your university guidelines.

How to Write a Dissertation Conclusion Chapter?

When writing this chapter, you should ensure its content is clear and concise. Equipping yourself with some knowledge of how to write a conclusion for a dissertation or thesis is imperative, as it will help you keep your piece organized, logical, and interesting. This chapter is the last part of your work that your professors or readers will read, and it should make a lasting impression on them. Below is a step-by-step instruction on how to write a dissertation conclusion section.

1. Restate Your Research Question and Answer It

While writing a dissertation conclusion, your first step is to restate the research question offered in your dissertation introduction and reveal the answer. It is essential to do this in your conclusion in thesis or dissertation because it helps readers be aware of every primary point you were trying to achieve in writing. In addition, restating available research questions in your conclusion in a dissertation or thesis will also make people understand the significance of your inquiry. In other words, it should remind people of the original purpose of writing. Provide further insights into a topic when answering each research question. In addition, responses must be related to your dissertation results section and offer evidence for any conclusions you made in your study. When writing a dissertation conclusion chapter, you ought to be able to give a meaningful response to the study question that adds value to your work. Keeping replies short, concise, and clear will help you to avoid writing irrelevant content. Below is an example of how to start a dissertation conclusion:

2. Summarize Key Points

The next element in your conclusion section is summarizing the main points of your dissertation. In this section, students need to reflect on their study and mention critical findings and the methodology's effectiveness. Straightforwardly compose your summary and ensure you use your own words to write a conclusion in a dissertation. Avoid copying and pasting sentences from other parts of your work to evade plagiarism and repetition. In concluding a dissertation, each written summary should include findings, results, data, and additional relevant literature. The following is an example of how to summarize a dissertation:

3. Explain Why Your Study Is Valuable

After summarizing your key points, the next step to writing a dissertation conclusion is to explain why your research was valuable. Here you should provide readers with an additional perspective of the study to better understand the importance of your study. When it's time to write a conclusion to a thesis paper or dissertation, you must explain what makes it worthwhile to any academic or scientific community. It can include topics such as answering a critical research question, using unique methods to explore an issue, or discovering something new about an existing topic. You should note that you have to provide further recommendations to help improve the research. Composing a dissertation conclusion shows how your work has impacted the field of study, either in progress or resolving an existing problem. It is essential to demonstrate how your study contributes to future studies and influences society or policymaking. Doing this is crucial in your dissertation conclusion chapter as it shows readers the importance of research in that field and validates what you have achieved throughout your investigation. Also, explaining some study implications to society will help people understand why this topic is valuable and relevant. Below you can find an example of how to write contributions in a dissertation conclusion:

If you experience difficulties with any section of your PhD work, don’t hesitate to ask our professional academic writers for thesis help.

4. Mention the Limitations of Your Study

When writing a thesis or dissertation conclusion, mentioning your study's limitations is imperative. It includes discussing any issues you encountered in collecting data, constraints that limited your research, and specific parameters. Citing these shortcomings can help provide insight into why certain elements may not be included in your work and explain any discrepancies your readers might have noticed and, hence, missing in your conclusion chapter. Additionally, writing about any drawbacks can deliver an opportunity to offer further suggestions for future studies and make recommendations on how best to address these uncovered issues. In concluding a dissertation, constraints should not be seen as unfavorable but rather as an additional chance to deliver more understanding of your investigation. Limitations in a thesis conclusion example can look as follows:

When writing about identified limitations of the research, you demonstrate to readers that you considered critical shortcomings and that you are aware of available potential issues. That will provide insight into addressing these limitations and help display your researching and writing credibility.

5. Offer Recommendations Based on Implications

Including recommendations is an integral part of writing every conclusion of a dissertation. In this section, you can provide insight into how to address any issues you have uncovered in your study and make suggestions for future research. When including recommendations, you should first give an overview of the implications of your research and then link it to how you may deal with them. A bachelor conclusion ought to consist of advice for students to guide their future writing. Offer insights for further investigation based on data results and analysis of literature review . Below is an example of how to write dissertation conclusion recommendations:

6. Conclude Your Dissertation with a Summary

The end of conclusion final chapter will close with a summary of the study. Wrapping up your dissertation or thesis conclusions is an excellent way to leave long-lasting impressions on your readers and ensure they remember all critical points of your research. You should summarize key points from previous sections and how they contribute to your overall context. When writing the conclusion chapter of a dissertation, the summary should be brief but comprehensive. Moreover, these findings can offer an innovative perspective on how to conclude a thesis or a dissertation. It provides comprehensive insights into outcomes and their relevance in today's world. Here is how to wrap up a conclusion of a dissertation example:

Thesis & Dissertation Conclusion Examples

Before writing a thesis or dissertation conclusion, you are encouraged to check at least two examples. These instances can provide insights on effectively linking your key findings with possible implications for future studies. In addition, you may use these examples as guides to writing your dissertation conclusions. Attached below is a thesis conclusion example sample.

Thesis paper conclusion example

Dissertation conclusion example

Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Dissertation Conclusions

Mistakes are inevitable when writing conclusions in a dissertation, but you can avoid them through careful proofreading and editing. Including new information or data in your dissertation or thesis conclusion chapter is one such mistake. The chapter should only incorporate information or data already mentioned and discussed in other preceding body paragraphs. How not to write a dissertation conclusion can be seen in complex language, lengthy sentences, and confusing grammar. In addition, one should evade making unsubstantiated claims or generalizations not supported by research findings. Shun writing phrases or any argument considered jargon. Lastly, ensuring that the conclusion chapter in a dissertation answers the research question and that you have provided sufficient evidence to support your conclusions is essential. Therefore, we simply recommend that you review and proofread it before submission. Following these tips mentioned above and examples of dissertation or thesis conclusions should help you write effectively.

Dissertation/ Thesis Dissertation Conclusion Writing Checklist

Writing a conclusion to a thesis paper or dissertation can be daunting because there is a lot of pressure to ensure you wrap up all the key points and tie together any loose ends. Checklists are helpful guides. The reason is that they provide practical tips on how to write dissertation conclusions by breaking each writing process down into manageable steps. Below is a checklist of important things you should keep in mind and follow when writing any conclusion:

Final Thoughts on Dissertation Conclusion

The article discussed how to write the conclusion of a dissertation or thesis writing. It has outlined some critical steps and provided a checklist that you can use as a practical guide. Reasonable inferences require clear objectives, knowing the appropriate structure, addressing any limitations within your work, summarizing key points, providing recommendations for further research, and citing sources appropriately. Also, we offered some samples of how to write a thesis conclusion example. Following these steps will ensure that you conclude your dissertation or thesis writing successfully. Finally, proofread and edit your writing to provide high-quality outcome. All these tips will help you in writing a thesis or dissertation conclusion chapter that is effective and comprehensive.

Keep in mind that our expert writers are always here to support you! They can assist in preparing any section of your study. While we are assisting you with writing, you are relaxing your mind or focusing on other important tasks!

Joe Eckel is an expert on Dissertations writing. He makes sure that each student gets precious insights on composing A-grade academic writing.

FAQ About How to Write a Conclusion to a Thesis or Dissertation

1. how to write a good thesis conclusion.

When writing every thesis conclusion, it's essential to focus on summarizing the key points, providing implications to that broader field, addressing any limitations, and making recommendations for further study. Additionally, it should be concise, clear, logical, and coherent. Finally, it's crucial to proofread and edit it to ensure its high quality.

2. How to start a dissertation conclusion?

Beginning each dissertation's concluding chapter is best done by restating the research question, as it provides the link between your introduction, research objectives, and conclusion. That allows an individual to transition smoothly into summarizing all main points from the discussion. For you to start a dissertation conclusion chapter effectively, it is essential to understand the purpose of writing it in the first place.

4. What is the difference between discussion and conclusion?

The difference between a discussion and a conclusion is in the depth of exploration. A discussion is a detailed assessment of the results, while a conclusion is shorter and more general. The discussion section will usually include a detailed analysis of the data collected, while the conclusion section will often provide an overview of the key points and implications. Additionally, this part will offer recommendations for further research.

3. Can I add new data in a conclusion of the dissertation?

No, including new data in the conclusion of a dissertation is not advisable. This section should summarize the research objectives, findings, and implications. Adding new data would not be appropriate as it may create confusion or inconsistency throughout your research. Conversely, it is prudent to summarize every content your work addresses.

5. How to end a thesis or a dissertation?

The end of a dissertation or a thesis should be memorable and end on a high note. One way to accomplish this is by including something unforgettable, such as a question, warning, or call to action. It will give every reader something to think about and engage in further discussion.

How To Write The Results/Findings Chapter

For quantitative studies (dissertations & theses).

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewed By: Kerryn Warren (PhD) | July 2021

So, you’ve completed your quantitative data analysis and it’s time to report on your findings. But where do you start? In this post, we’ll walk you through the results chapter (also called the findings or analysis chapter), step by step, so that you can craft this section of your dissertation or thesis with confidence. If you’re looking for information regarding the results chapter for qualitative studies, you can find that here .

Overview: Quantitative Results Chapter

What exactly the results chapter is
What you need to include in your chapter
How to structure the chapter
Tips and tricks for writing a top-notch chapter
Free results chapter template

What exactly is the results chapter?

The results chapter (also referred to as the findings or analysis chapter) is one of the most important chapters of your dissertation or thesis because it shows the reader what you’ve found in terms of the quantitative data you’ve collected. It presents the data using a clear text narrative, supported by tables, graphs and charts. In doing so, it also highlights any potential issues (such as outliers or unusual findings) you’ve come across.

But how’s that different from the discussion chapter?

Well, in the results chapter, you only present your statistical findings. Only the numbers, so to speak – no more, no less. Contrasted to this, in the discussion chapter , you interpret your findings and link them to prior research (i.e. your literature review), as well as your research objectives and research questions . In other words, the results chapter presents and describes the data, while the discussion chapter interprets the data.

Let’s look at an example.

In your results chapter, you may have a plot that shows how respondents to a survey responded: the numbers of respondents per category, for instance. You may also state whether this supports a hypothesis by using a p-value from a statistical test. But it is only in the discussion chapter where you will say why this is relevant or how it compares with the literature or the broader picture. So, in your results chapter, make sure that you don’t present anything other than the hard facts – this is not the place for subjectivity.

It’s worth mentioning that some universities prefer you to combine the results and discussion chapters. Even so, it is good practice to separate the results and discussion elements within the chapter, as this ensures your findings are fully described. Typically, though, the results and discussion chapters are split up in quantitative studies. If you’re unsure, chat with your research supervisor or chair to find out what their preference is.

Free template for results section of a dissertation or thesis

What should you include in the results chapter?

Following your analysis, it’s likely you’ll have far more data than are necessary to include in your chapter. In all likelihood, you’ll have a mountain of SPSS or R output data, and it’s your job to decide what’s most relevant. You’ll need to cut through the noise and focus on the data that matters.

This doesn’t mean that those analyses were a waste of time – on the contrary, those analyses ensure that you have a good understanding of your dataset and how to interpret it. However, that doesn’t mean your reader or examiner needs to see the 165 histograms you created! Relevance is key.

How do I decide what’s relevant?

At this point, it can be difficult to strike a balance between what is and isn’t important. But the most important thing is to ensure your results reflect and align with the purpose of your study . So, you need to revisit your research aims, objectives and research questions and use these as a litmus test for relevance. Make sure that you refer back to these constantly when writing up your chapter so that you stay on track.

There must be alignment between your research aims objectives and questions

As a general guide, your results chapter will typically include the following:

Some demographic data about your sample
Reliability tests (if you used measurement scales)
Descriptive statistics
Inferential statistics (if your research objectives and questions require these)
Hypothesis tests (again, if your research objectives and questions require these)

We’ll discuss each of these points in more detail in the next section.

Importantly, your results chapter needs to lay the foundation for your discussion chapter . This means that, in your results chapter, you need to include all the data that you will use as the basis for your interpretation in the discussion chapter.

For example, if you plan to highlight the strong relationship between Variable X and Variable Y in your discussion chapter, you need to present the respective analysis in your results chapter – perhaps a correlation or regression analysis.

Need a helping hand?

How do I write the results chapter?

There are multiple steps involved in writing up the results chapter for your quantitative research. The exact number of steps applicable to you will vary from study to study and will depend on the nature of the research aims, objectives and research questions . However, we’ll outline the generic steps below.

Step 1 – Revisit your research questions

The first step in writing your results chapter is to revisit your research objectives and research questions . These will be (or at least, should be!) the driving force behind your results and discussion chapters, so you need to review them and then ask yourself which statistical analyses and tests (from your mountain of data) would specifically help you address these . For each research objective and research question, list the specific piece (or pieces) of analysis that address it.

At this stage, it’s also useful to think about the key points that you want to raise in your discussion chapter and note these down so that you have a clear reminder of which data points and analyses you want to highlight in the results chapter. Again, list your points and then list the specific piece of analysis that addresses each point.

Next, you should draw up a rough outline of how you plan to structure your chapter . Which analyses and statistical tests will you present and in what order? We’ll discuss the “standard structure” in more detail later, but it’s worth mentioning now that it’s always useful to draw up a rough outline before you start writing (this advice applies to any chapter).

Step 2 – Craft an overview introduction

As with all chapters in your dissertation or thesis, you should start your quantitative results chapter by providing a brief overview of what you’ll do in the chapter and why . For example, you’d explain that you will start by presenting demographic data to understand the representativeness of the sample, before moving onto X, Y and Z.

This section shouldn’t be lengthy – a paragraph or two maximum. Also, it’s a good idea to weave the research questions into this section so that there’s a golden thread that runs through the document.

Step 3 – Present the sample demographic data

The first set of data that you’ll present is an overview of the sample demographics – in other words, the demographics of your respondents.

For example:

What age range are they?
How is gender distributed?
How is ethnicity distributed?
What areas do the participants live in?

The purpose of this is to assess how representative the sample is of the broader population. This is important for the sake of the generalisability of the results. If your sample is not representative of the population, you will not be able to generalise your findings. This is not necessarily the end of the world, but it is a limitation you’ll need to acknowledge.

Of course, to make this representativeness assessment, you’ll need to have a clear view of the demographics of the population. So, make sure that you design your survey to capture the correct demographic information that you will compare your sample to.

But what if I’m not interested in generalisability?

Well, even if your purpose is not necessarily to extrapolate your findings to the broader population, understanding your sample will allow you to interpret your findings appropriately, considering who responded. In other words, it will help you contextualise your findings . For example, if 80% of your sample was aged over 65, this may be a significant contextual factor to consider when interpreting the data. Therefore, it’s important to understand and present the demographic data.

Step 4 – Review composite measures and the data “shape”.

Before you undertake any statistical analysis, you’ll need to do some checks to ensure that your data are suitable for the analysis methods and techniques you plan to use. If you try to analyse data that doesn’t meet the assumptions of a specific statistical technique, your results will be largely meaningless. Therefore, you may need to show that the methods and techniques you’ll use are “allowed”.

Most commonly, there are two areas you need to pay attention to:

#1: Composite measures

The first is when you have multiple scale-based measures that combine to capture one construct – this is called a composite measure . For example, you may have four Likert scale-based measures that (should) all measure the same thing, but in different ways. In other words, in a survey, these four scales should all receive similar ratings. This is called “ internal consistency ”.

Internal consistency is not guaranteed though (especially if you developed the measures yourself), so you need to assess the reliability of each composite measure using a test. Typically, Cronbach’s Alpha is a common test used to assess internal consistency – i.e., to show that the items you’re combining are more or less saying the same thing. A high alpha score means that your measure is internally consistent. A low alpha score means you may need to consider scrapping one or more of the measures.

#2: Data shape

The second matter that you should address early on in your results chapter is data shape. In other words, you need to assess whether the data in your set are symmetrical (i.e. normally distributed) or not, as this will directly impact what type of analyses you can use. For many common inferential tests such as T-tests or ANOVAs (we’ll discuss these a bit later), your data needs to be normally distributed. If it’s not, you’ll need to adjust your strategy and use alternative tests.

To assess the shape of the data, you’ll usually assess a variety of descriptive statistics (such as the mean, median and skewness), which is what we’ll look at next.

Step 5 – Present the descriptive statistics

Now that you’ve laid the foundation by discussing the representativeness of your sample, as well as the reliability of your measures and the shape of your data, you can get started with the actual statistical analysis. The first step is to present the descriptive statistics for your variables.

For scaled data, this usually includes statistics such as:

The mean – this is simply the mathematical average of a range of numbers.
The median – this is the midpoint in a range of numbers when the numbers are arranged in order.
The mode – this is the most commonly repeated number in the data set.
Standard deviation – this metric indicates how dispersed a range of numbers is. In other words, how close all the numbers are to the mean (the average).
Skewness – this indicates how symmetrical a range of numbers is. In other words, do they tend to cluster into a smooth bell curve shape in the middle of the graph (this is called a normal or parametric distribution), or do they lean to the left or right (this is called a non-normal or non-parametric distribution).
Kurtosis – this metric indicates whether the data are heavily or lightly-tailed, relative to the normal distribution. In other words, how peaked or flat the distribution is.

A large table that indicates all the above for multiple variables can be a very effective way to present your data economically. You can also use colour coding to help make the data more easily digestible.

For categorical data, where you show the percentage of people who chose or fit into a category, for instance, you can either just plain describe the percentages or numbers of people who responded to something or use graphs and charts (such as bar graphs and pie charts) to present your data in this section of the chapter.

When using figures, make sure that you label them simply and clearly , so that your reader can easily understand them. There’s nothing more frustrating than a graph that’s missing axis labels! Keep in mind that although you’ll be presenting charts and graphs, your text content needs to present a clear narrative that can stand on its own. In other words, don’t rely purely on your figures and tables to convey your key points: highlight the crucial trends and values in the text. Figures and tables should complement the writing, not carry it .

Depending on your research aims, objectives and research questions, you may stop your analysis at this point (i.e. descriptive statistics). However, if your study requires inferential statistics, then it’s time to deep dive into those .

Step 6 – Present the inferential statistics

Inferential statistics are used to make generalisations about a population , whereas descriptive statistics focus purely on the sample . Inferential statistical techniques, broadly speaking, can be broken down into two groups .

First, there are those that compare measurements between groups , such as t-tests (which measure differences between two groups) and ANOVAs (which measure differences between multiple groups). Second, there are techniques that assess the relationships between variables , such as correlation analysis and regression analysis. Within each of these, some tests can be used for normally distributed (parametric) data and some tests are designed specifically for use on non-parametric data.

There are a seemingly endless number of tests that you can use to crunch your data, so it’s easy to run down a rabbit hole and end up with piles of test data. Ultimately, the most important thing is to make sure that you adopt the tests and techniques that allow you to achieve your research objectives and answer your research questions .

In this section of the results chapter, you should try to make use of figures and visual components as effectively as possible. For example, if you present a correlation table, use colour coding to highlight the significance of the correlation values, or scatterplots to visually demonstrate what the trend is. The easier you make it for your reader to digest your findings, the more effectively you’ll be able to make your arguments in the next chapter.

make it easy for your reader to understand your quantitative results

Step 7 – Test your hypotheses

If your study requires it, the next stage is hypothesis testing. A hypothesis is a statement , often indicating a difference between groups or relationship between variables, that can be supported or rejected by a statistical test. However, not all studies will involve hypotheses (again, it depends on the research objectives), so don’t feel like you “must” present and test hypotheses just because you’re undertaking quantitative research.

The basic process for hypothesis testing is as follows:

Specify your null hypothesis (for example, “The chemical psilocybin has no effect on time perception).
Specify your alternative hypothesis (e.g., “The chemical psilocybin has an effect on time perception)
Set your significance level (this is usually 0.05)
Calculate your statistics and find your p-value (e.g., p=0.01)
Draw your conclusions (e.g., “The chemical psilocybin does have an effect on time perception”)

Finally, if the aim of your study is to develop and test a conceptual framework , this is the time to present it, following the testing of your hypotheses. While you don’t need to develop or discuss these findings further in the results chapter, indicating whether the tests (and their p-values) support or reject the hypotheses is crucial.

Step 8 – Provide a chapter summary

To wrap up your results chapter and transition to the discussion chapter, you should provide a brief summary of the key findings . “Brief” is the keyword here – much like the chapter introduction, this shouldn’t be lengthy – a paragraph or two maximum. Highlight the findings most relevant to your research objectives and research questions, and wrap it up.

Some final thoughts, tips and tricks

Now that you’ve got the essentials down, here are a few tips and tricks to make your quantitative results chapter shine:

When writing your results chapter, report your findings in the past tense . You’re talking about what you’ve found in your data, not what you are currently looking for or trying to find.
Structure your results chapter systematically and sequentially . If you had two experiments where findings from the one generated inputs into the other, report on them in order.
Make your own tables and graphs rather than copying and pasting them from statistical analysis programmes like SPSS. Check out the DataIsBeautiful reddit for some inspiration.
Once you’re done writing, review your work to make sure that you have provided enough information to answer your research questions , but also that you didn’t include superfluous information.

If you’ve got any questions about writing up the quantitative results chapter, please leave a comment below. If you’d like 1-on-1 assistance with your quantitative analysis and discussion, check out our hands-on coaching service , or book a free consultation with a friendly coach.

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Thank you. I will try my best to write my results.

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this was great explaination

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COMMENTS

How To Write The Conclusion Chapter
Some universities will prefer that you cover some of these points in the discussion chapter, or that you cover the points at different levels in different chapters. Step 1: Craft a brief introduction section. As with all chapters in your dissertation or thesis, the conclusions chapter needs to start with a brief introduction.
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In general, you should use the following approach: Use an approach where you would 1) proofread, 2) take notes, and 3) summarize every single chapter of your work. This will pave the way and give you the structure you need for your dissertation conclusion. After you do this, simply copy & paste these mini chapter summaries and combine them into ...
Writing a Conclusion
It is a good idea in a chapter conclusion to remind the reader what happened in the chapter (e.g. In this chapter, the literature relating to the teaching of vocabulary was considered.). After this, you need to build a bridge linking this chapter with the next one. ... In a PhD thesis you may like to indicate some potential for post-doctoral ...
Writing the conclusion
The conclusion of your thesis, whether embedded in or separated from your discussion chapter, should create a strong closure to your thesis as it leads out to future research and pathways. Key conclusion moves. Summarise the research by restating the research problem and aim, providing a succinct answer to these, and recapping the key findings ...
Writing the Conclusion Chapter: the Good, the Bad and the Missing
Results and conclusions are also discussed in detail, so that PhD candidates can follow the guide clearly. This paper has 5 parts such as Introduction, Literature reviews, Methodology, Results and Conclusion. As such, I discuss Methodology, Results and Conclusion as the final assessment of the PhD thesis writing process.
Do I need "Introduction" and "Conclusions" parts in my PhD thesis?
I had an introduction section in my PhD thesis, but no conclusion. Rather, each chapter had its own introduction and conclusion in addition to one introduction chapter at the beginning. This was for two reasons: the conclusion of the dissertation could be clearly categorized by chapter, and also I was trying to save space to avoid the thesis ...
The structure of PhD conclusion chapters
None of the studies look at PhD thesis Conclusions. The study from which this research grew (Bunton, 1998) found that the structural prominence of Discussions and Conclusions with the PhD theses is reversed: there was nearly always a final chapter with Conclusion(s) or Summary in the title but rarely a chapter with Discussion in the title.
Thesis and Dissertation Conclusion Writing Guide & Examples
The conclusion of a thesis or a dissertation is a long chapter — not one single sentence but a whole page or more. Generally, it should be 5-7% of the overall word count. The length of a thesis or dissertation conclusion chapter depends on several factors, such as your academic field, research topic, and stated number of pages.
Introduction and conclusion thesis chapters
Both the introduction and conclusion chapters frame your thesis. The introduction gives a preview of the thesis and often indicates the standard of the thesis. The conclusion gives a convincing summary of the thesis's findings. The introduction allows you to orient the reader to your research project and preview the organisation of your thesis.
Dissertation Conclusion Chapter: 6 Simple Steps
Learn how to write an A-grade conclusion for your dissertation, thesis or research project in 6 simple steps. Emma explains what exactly the conclusion chapt...
Dissertation Results/Findings Chapter (Quantitative)
The results chapter (also referred to as the findings or analysis chapter) is one of the most important chapters of your dissertation or thesis because it shows the reader what you've found in terms of the quantitative data you've collected. It presents the data using a clear text narrative, supported by tables, graphs and charts.

PhD Writing 4: How to write the conclusion chapter of your thesis

PhD Writing 4: How to write the conclusion chapter of your PhD

Clearly state the answer(s) to the main research question(s)

Summarise and reflect on the research you have undertaken

Acknowledge the limitations of your research

Make recommendations for future work on the topic

Showcase the original knowledge you have contributed to the field

Share with your colleagues

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