How to End a College Essay?

Books on psychology repeatedly tell us that what people say and do last, matters the most. The same is true in the realm of academia, in particular – in college essays. The final part of any essay is tremendously important, though, unfortunately, it is often underestimated by students of all educational levels.

In the academic journey, students often encounter challenging essays that can leave them overwhelmed, leading to thoughts like “I should pay for an essay.” While crafting a compelling conclusion is essential, many students underestimate its significance. However, the conclusion is a crucial element that should not be rushed or overlooked. It has the power to elevate the entire essay and leave a lasting impression on the reader. To ensure a strong conclusion, it’s vital to allocate ample time and thought to this part of the essay-writing process. Whether you choose to connect your findings to the real world, offer a thought-provoking insight, provide a call to action, send attention back to the introduction, or conclude with a powerful quotation, the conclusion should be carefully crafted to leave a lasting impact. Avoiding common pitfalls like clichés, unconvincing summarizing statements, information repetition, introducing new content, or sounding desperate is equally important. Mastering the art of concluding an essay is a valuable skill that extends beyond academia, impacting various aspects of life, including effective communication and career development.

In the realm of college essays, the significance of crafting a compelling conclusion cannot be overstated, and this is where professional essay writers can be invaluable. These essay writers possess the expertise to carefully structure and craft a conclusion that elevates the entire essay. They can help students connect their findings to the real world, offer thought-provoking insights, provide effective calls to action, redirect attention back to the introduction, or conclude with powerful quotations. Essay writers are skilled in avoiding common pitfalls like clichés, unconvincing summarizing statements, information repetition, introducing new content, or sounding desperate. By enlisting the support of experienced essay writers, students can ensure that their essays conclude effectively, leaving a lasting impression on the reader and enhancing their academic performance.

This guide was made with the sole purpose of helping students how to write a conclusion for a college essay. In the few pages that follow you’ll learn about the five most effective approaches on how to end your college essay, as well as find plenty of relevant college essay conclusion examples.

The Significance of Crafting a Compelling Conclusion

Students typically write a conclusion to an essay at the very last moment. Unfortunately, many view it as an insignificant part in terms of energy and time required to complete. Really, why bother about the conclusion if the entire work is already done? However, this type of thinking and attitude is a big misconception that may cost one an otherwise good grade.

It is such a shame to waste excellent research done, and an eloquently written essay text with a weak conclusion. There cannot be any excuses for this, such as lack of time or shortage of motivation due to exhaustion. Planning a conclusion must be part of the outline, and a priority aspect of time management efforts for writing.

In fact, the conclusion is so important that many experienced writers recommend allocating at least 20% of all time to writing it. Several trustworthy studying websites, such as UNC Writing Center, say that upon proofreading the final part, one may even reveal the need to come back to the introduction and rethink & revise the main goals for the entire work, including the research question and thesis statement.

Therefore, we highly recommend that you give the conclusion of your essay the utmost attention it deserves, and in the following chapter, we will unveil five highly effective approaches to mastering this essential skill.

How to Conclude a College Essay – 5 Effective Approaches

Approach #1. Connect to the Real World or Personal Experience

A good way to approach a conclusion is by connecting your main findings to the real world. Oftentimes, college essays include a lot of theoretical thinking, pure logical argumentation, or raw data. These might seem boring, but inevitable, however, one can make them significantly sharper by drawing parallels to the real world or their personal experiences. For example:

Approach #2. Offer a Thought-Provoking Insight

No matter how interesting and engaging your essay may be, you can always make it better by providing a thought-provoking insight or a similarly effective question. Such add-ons must be perfectly aligned with the main topic, and complement, rather than extend the discussion. For example:

Approach #3. Provide a Call to Action

The academic writing style is considered monotonous and overly regulated. College essays, though, offer a little bit of extra room for creativity, however, they also tend to lack action. You can compensate for that shortcoming by providing a call to action in your conclusion. The goal is to engage with your audience, and make them consider taking a certain action based on the findings from your paper, e.g., search for additional information on the topic, consider making a change in their behavior, review a particular perspective, etc. For example:

Approach #4. Send Attention Back to the Introduction

In graduate college essays, the reader may get too carried away by the abundance of arguments, and the twists and turns of the storyline. Sometimes, circulating their attention back to the main question and the thesis statement brings outstanding results. It will give a se

Approach #5. Conclude with a Quotation

In college essays, we provide original thoughts and biased opinions. They may seem convincing to some, but not to all of our readers. In this sense, concluding our paper with a relevant powerful quote that cements our findings and opinions on things – is an ideal approach, especially if the quote we chose comes from someone respectful. For example:

Ways to End a College Essay Based on Its Type

Did you know that different essay types require different tactics to be used in the conclusion? Essays come with unique narrative styles, distinct tones of voice, and even argumentation parts, so we need to slightly adjust our conclusion tactics to make them most effective in each particular case.

Argumentative essay. The conclusion must serve as a powerful closing statement in an argumentative essay. It should not leave any doubts as to the validity of our main point – the thesis statement. To this end, it is worth restating the main argument or listing all the arguments in the order of importance.

Expository essay. Since the goal of an expository essay is to describe the topic in the best possible (for the reader) way – our tactic for the conclusion should offer the crux of the main information provided throughout the essay. The purpose of this is to reinforce the reader’s understanding of the subject.

Narrative essay. In the conclusion of a narrative essay, one should reflect on the personal experiences or a lesson learned from the narrative. It should leave no doubt as to the significance and value of our story.

Persuasive essay. Construct the conclusion to the persuasive essay in a way that will convince the reader to adopt your perspective. Use all your eloquence, knowledge, and wisdom, as well as the most compelling information from the essay itself to persuade your reader to take a specific action, or to simply change their viewpoint.

Descriptive essay. The goal of the conclusion to a descriptive essay should be to impose a vivid and lasting impression on the reader based on the described subject matter. As the author, you can wrap up a college essay by reminding of the main emotions conveyed and highlighting their importance for the reader.

College Essay Conclusion – Things to Avoid

Anyone can make their college essay better simply by avoiding using certain things:

• Avoid obvious, cliché-like opening words and sentences. They don’t bring any value, but instead may indicate your lack of creativity, or even use of AI in making your conclusion. For example: “In conclusion,” “In summary,” “All things considered,” “To sum up,” and the like.
• Avoid unconvincing and, thus, redundant summarizing statements that use space, but don’t really mean much. For example: “In the course of this paper, I’ve learned…,” “The most important thing/outcome/conclusion I can make…,”, and similar.
• Avoid summarizing ALL the key points and arguments from your essay. It is the easiest approach for a conclusion; however, it makes little to no sense and doesn’t bring additional value. Usually, highlighting only the most important point is enough.
• Avoid introducing any new information, such as new points, new arguments, new details, etc. This creates an impression of a poorly written paper and makes you look unprofessional as the author.
• Avoid begging for something and, thus, ruining your otherwise strong and convincing work. Avoid using phrases like: “Please, consider my candidacy…,” “I really want you to understand/believe/feel…”, and similar.

Final Thoughts

The conclusion to a college essay is one small but very important structural writing element. It holds the power to magnify the significance of one’s findings, persuade the reader to do a certain action, take the author’s perspective, or conduct further research. College professors pay utmost attention to the state of essays’ conclusions, moreover – they often grade works based on this important element.

Therefore, knowing how to finish a college essay is a vital creative skill that stretches far beyond the academic realm and touches upon many life situations, encompassing personal communication and career growth.