Humanizer · Guides
Sentence Starters for Conclusions: Phrases for Each Move of a Final Paragraph
A conclusion works through a short series of moves. It restates the thesis in new words, connects your points, and says why the result matters. Lab reports and research papers also name their limitations. Next steps can follow, and the last sentence ends on the topic. The starters below are grouped by move, each with an example.
Contents
What a conclusion has to do
The UNC Writing Center suggests a "So what?" game: for each statement in your conclusion, ask why anybody should care. Purdue OWL says the conclusion should pull back from the specifics of the body into more general information. This guide sorts the starters into six moves:
- Restate the thesis in new words.
- Pull the main points together.
- Show why the result matters.
- Name the limitations.
- Point to next steps or future research.
- Close on the topic.
Not every genre needs all six. The table shows which moves an argumentative essay, a lab report, and a research paper ask for.
| Move | Argumentative essay | Lab report | Research paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restate thesis or aim | Restate the thesis or claim | Whether the data support the hypothesis | Main argument and objectives |
| Pull points together | Restate the main points | Conclusions about the process you studied | How the arguments converge |
| Why it matters | Why the topic matters | Theoretical or practical implications | How findings relate to prior research |
| Limits and objections | Answer the opposing view | Anomalous data or deviations | Limitations that qualify the conclusions |
| Next steps | Call to action or future research | Optional: how you would change the design | Future research, if the discussion has not covered it |
Humanizer
Sample textAutomated phrasing Automatically generated text is often very uniform in structure, which makes it read as detached impersonal. That is exactly what stands out to a reader.
“Support, not the medium, determines learning success.”
Original and result comparable word for word
Same language, meaning as the yardstick. The report then shows the real scanner scores, even when a target was not reached.
Starters for restating your thesis
Restate the thesis as it stands now that the body has tested it. UNC lists ending "with a rephrased thesis statement without any substantive changes" among its "strategies to avoid." Where your field allows first person, "I have argued that…" works too.
| Starter | Example |
|---|---|
| This essay has argued that… | This essay has argued that early-grade homework bans move practice into the classroom. |
| As the preceding sections show, … | As the preceding sections show, the narrator is least reliable when she tells events from memory. |
| The evidence supports a narrower claim: … | The evidence supports a narrower claim: tutoring raised scores only for weekly attendees. |
| This study asked whether… The answer is… | This study asked whether shorter lectures improve notes. For first-year students, the answer is yes. |
Starters for pulling your points together
UNC's advice is "Synthesize, don't summarize." Show how your points fit together. Name the claim they support together, the thread that runs through them, or what each source explains on its own.
| Starter | Example |
|---|---|
| These [three] findings point to one conclusion: … | These three findings point to one conclusion: price, not distance, kept patients away. |
| Read together, [X] and [Y] suggest… | Read together, the letters and shipping records suggest the merchant knew months earlier. |
| The common thread in [X] is… | The common thread in all four interviews is distrust of the portal, not the staff. |
| Where [X] explains…, [Y] explains… | Where the survey explains who left the program, the attendance logs explain when. |
Starters for showing why it matters
This sentence answers "So what?" Keep it within reach of your evidence. USC Libraries notes that some disciplines allow reflection in a conclusion. Even then, it warns against guessing at possible outcomes or making up "scenarios not supported by the evidence."
| Starter | Example |
|---|---|
| This matters because… | This matters because the district plans to extend the schedule to its middle schools. |
| These findings have implications for… | These findings have implications for how instructors grade participation. |
| If this reading is right, … | If this reading is right, the final stanza is an apology, not a farewell. |
| For [group], this means… | For first-generation students, this means the advising gap opens before the first semester. |
Starters for limitations and future research
In a lab report or research paper, this is where the limitations go. Purdue's outline also lets an argument paper close with future research. USC Libraries says the problems you met during the study "should be summarized as a way of qualifying your overall conclusions." For how strongly to word these sentences, see the guide to hedging in academic writing. Manchester's Academic Phrasebank lists more phrases for limitations and for future research.
| Starter | Example |
|---|---|
| Because the sample included only…, … | Because the sample included only two schools, the results may not hold for rural districts. |
| Although [limitation], the data still show… | Although the response rate was low, the data still show a consistent gap. |
| Future research could test whether… | Future research could test whether the effect lasts beyond the first year. |
| It remains unclear whether… | It remains unclear whether the pattern holds in online courses. |
| Based on these findings, [X] should… | Based on these findings, the library should extend weekend hours during exams. |
Starters for the final sentence
Purdue OWL advises against ending with a "whiz bang(!) conclusion" or trying to "solve world hunger in the final sentence of your conclusion." UNC suggests returning to a theme from your introduction. That brings the reader "full circle."
| Starter | Example |
|---|---|
| The [example] from the introduction… | The bus stop from the introduction still has no shelter, and the data now explain why. |
| The question is no longer whether…, but… | The question is no longer whether the town needs housing, but where to build it. |
| Until [condition], … | Until the portal works on a phone, the students who need it most will wait in line. |
| The next [decision] will show… | The next budget vote will show whether the council read the same numbers. |
Concluding sentences for body paragraphs
The last sentence of a body paragraph has a smaller job. In a handout for an MIT literature course, Arthur W. Bahr writes that this sentence generally does one of two things. It states the paragraph's argument, or it acts as a signpost that explains how the argument relates to the essay's overall thesis. For openers that present evidence earlier in the paragraph, see the guide to sentence starters for essays.
| Starter | Example |
|---|---|
| This [pattern] supports the larger claim that… | This pattern supports the larger claim that the narrator's memory, not her honesty, fails. |
| That is why… | That is why the second survey carries more weight than the first. |
| [X] was less about… than about… | The strike was less about wages than about who set the schedule. |
A worked example
This conclusion of about 120 words closes an argumentative essay on a one-year bike-lane pilot in Millbrook, a fictitious town. Read in order, the five sentences form one paragraph.
| Move | Sentence |
|---|---|
| Restated thesis | Millbrook's pilot showed that protected bike lanes can make downtown cycling safer, but only where the protection continues through the intersection. |
| Synthesis | The crash reports and the ridership counts tell one story: the blocks that gained the most riders were the same blocks where collisions fell. |
| Significance | That link matters for next spring's council vote, because it means the town can plan for safety and ridership together rather than trade one for the other. |
| Next step | Before the pilot becomes permanent, the council should rebuild the three intersections where the lanes stop short of the crosswalk. |
| Closing thought | Today a cyclist on Main Street is protected on every block and exposed at every corner, so the corners are where the next phase has to start. |
A research-paper version would add a limitation before the next step: "Because the pilot ran for only one year, the data cannot show whether the gains will last."
What to leave out of a conclusion
- New evidence. USC: "Don't surprise the reader with new information in your conclusion that was never referenced anywhere else in the paper."
- The introduction's wording. A thesis copied word for word suggests the body changed nothing.
- Claims the essay did not support. If the body examined one town, the conclusion should not speak for every city. UNC's handout on scientific reports calls this overreaching.
- Apologies. USC Libraries tells writers to "resist the urge to apologize" and not to undermine their authority as researchers. A precise limitation is not an apology.
- Empty announcements. UNC calls "in conclusion," "in summary," and "in closing" unnecessary and overused. For other stock phrases that fill space, see the guide to alternatives to "it is important to note".
Smoothing your own draft
Once each sentence makes its move, read the paragraph aloud. Starters that work alone can sound stiff together. The Certentis AI Humanizer can smooth the wording of a conclusion you wrote. It accepts texts of 100 to 30,000 characters and up to 3,000 words. It is built to keep your claims and citations intact. Check the result against your draft anyway. If your course has rules on AI tools, follow them and disclose the use where required. The guide to AI and academic integrity shows how to disclose it.
Frequently asked questions
Is it okay to start a conclusion with "In conclusion"?
It is not wrong, but it only announces the end. UNC and USC both advise against it in written papers. Both say it can work in a speech or an oral presentation. Open with your restated thesis instead. For other ways to signal the end, see the guide to alternatives to "in conclusion".
How long should a conclusion be?
For a social-science research paper, USC Libraries says the conclusion is often the shortest section, "requiring only two or three well-developed paragraphs." For essays, the guides cited here set no length. Make each move your genre needs once, then stop.
Try it here
Make your own drafts read naturally
The Humanizer reworks a draft you wrote yourself so it reads the way you actually write.
Try the HumanizerSources
- Conclusions · The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Conclusions (Argument Papers) · Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
- The Conclusion: Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper · University of Southern California, USC Libraries
- Scientific Reports · The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Academic Phrasebank: Writing Conclusions · The University of Manchester
- Roles of Sentences in Body Paragraphs (and a Few Words on Conclusions) · MIT OpenCourseWare, 21L.001 (Arthur W. Bahr) (2008)