Choose an appropriate conclusion for the specific type paper. How you conclude your term paper really depends upon the topic. For example, the conclusion for a literary analysis in an American Literature class is going to be quite different than the conclusion for a paper about the Revolutionary War for a history class or a paper about the Big Bang Theory for a science class.
Jean Wyrick, author of "Steps to Writing Well" (2002), suggests several types of conclusion for essays, but these conclusions would work just as well for term papers:
1. Provide an evaluation of the importance of the subject.
2. Discuss the broader implications of your topic.
3. Issue a call to action.
4. Provide a warning.
5. Use an appropriate quotation.
6. Tell a personal anecdote or even a joke.
7. Paint a vivid mental image through description.
8. Issue a prediction based upon your paper's thesis.
9. Ask a rhetorical question that serves as food for thought.
Write the lead sentence. According to Bob Brannan, author of "A Writer's Workshop" (2003), just as the introduction and body of a paper should contain a lead sentence, so should the conclusion. This lead sentence is the topic sentence (main idea). A topic sentence is akin to a thesis statement, except in this instance the statement (sentence) is the thesis of the conclusion, and although related to the thesis of the paper itself, this topic sentence presents the main idea or ideas contained in the conclusion.
For example, if the thesis of your paper is "The theme of T. S. Eliot's poem 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' is regret," the lead sentence in the concluding paragraph might be something like this: "Of all Eliot's poetry, 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' is often underrated by readers because they fail to grasp the full import of its message." Of course, then you would need to elaborate upon this thought, incorporating ideas you had presented throughout the paper, as you developed the conclusion.
Connect thoughts between paragraphs. "Connectors" provide links between ideas, and these links help maintain unity, coherence and cohesion from one paragraph to the next, as well as throughout the entire paper. Therefore, when you transition from the body into the conclusion, provide a connector that, in effect, causes the reader to look back at the previous paragraph.
For instance, if you discussed the concluding verses of Eliot's poem in the final paragraph of the body of the paper, you might say something to this effect as you begin the conclusion:
When Prufrock laments that he has "heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me" (Anthology, 1989), this line effectively conveys the sense of regret that echoes throughout the entirety of Eliot's poem, and that "regret" is, indeed, the theme of the poem.
Restate the thesis and the paper's main points. This does not mean, though, that you should repeat verbatim everything you said in the introduction. What it means is that you should gently remind the reader of the thesis, doing so in different words than you used in the introduction, before you summarize the main points you made and then bring the paper to an end. For example, after summarizing the main points you made, you might end the final paragraph with something like this:
Eliot is saying that people need to live life to its fullest, for time is fleeting, although they erroneously believe they have all the time in the world before "the taking of toast and tea" and that fateful day when, like Prufrock, they awaken to see "the eternal footman" standing there in the corner of the bedroom, holding their coat and snickering (Anthology, 1989).
Use your word processing program's word count function. The conclusion for a term paper should be longer than that for a short essay. According to Bob Brannan (2003), any conclusion "should be written in proportion to the rest of the work." With this rule in mind, the conclusion for a paper should ideally be at least 10 percent of the total word count, meaning that if the word count for the paper's introduction and body total 2,500 words, the conclusion should consist of at least 250 words. The important thing to remember is that the conclusion for a paper should be neither too short nor too abrupt. It should, instead, signal to the reader that you are now ending your discussion of the topic and effectively summarize the main points you made throughout the entire paper.