By the time you reach the conclusion you are usually exhausted, over your word count and days from the deadline. It shows. The conclusion is the most rushed chapter in most dissertations, and it is also the last thing an examiner reads before deciding what mark to give.
This guide covers how to write a dissertation conclusion that adds something, rather than restating what the reader has just finished.
What the conclusion is for
Your discussion chapter interprets your findings. Your conclusion answers the question you asked in chapter one.
That distinction is where most students go wrong. If your conclusion reads like a shorter version of your discussion, you have written the same chapter twice. The conclusion should pull back to the level of the research question and say, plainly, what the answer turned out to be.
The five things it has to do
Answer the research question
Directly, in the first paragraph, in a sentence a reader could quote. If your question was whether flexible working improves productivity, say what your study found about that, not what the literature says or what the data showed in general terms.
Examiners look for this immediately. A conclusion that circles the question without landing on it reads as an author who is not confident in their own findings.
Summarise how you got there
A short recap of the method and the key findings, kept to a paragraph. This is the only place where restating earlier material is appropriate, and it is there to remind rather than to inform.
State your contribution
What does the field know now that it did not know before you wrote this? Be specific and be modest. Most masters dissertations make a small contribution, and claiming a large one damages your credibility. “This study provides the first evidence that the effect holds in further education settings” is a real contribution. “This study revolutionises our understanding” is not.
Acknowledge limitations
Sample size, scope, method, the things you could not access. Every study has them, and examiners respect a candidate who identifies their own before being asked.
The trick is to state a limitation and then say what it does and does not affect. “The sample was drawn from one institution, so the findings may not transfer to institutions with different entry requirements, though the mechanism identified is unlikely to be institution-specific” is far stronger than an unqualified apology.
Recommend what comes next
Recommendations for practice, for policy or for future research, depending on your discipline. Make them follow from your findings. A recommendation your data cannot support is worse than none, and it is the easiest thing in the chapter for an examiner to challenge in a viva.
How long it should be
Around five to ten per cent of the total word count, and usually slightly shorter than your introduction:
- 8,000-word dissertation — 500 to 800 words
- 10,000-word dissertation — 700 to 1,000 words
- 15,000-word masters dissertation — 1,000 to 1,500 words
- 80,000-word PhD thesis — 3,000 to 6,000 words
Some departments combine discussion and conclusion into one chapter. If yours does, the elements above still apply; they simply sit at the end of a longer chapter.
What must not appear in it
New findings. Anything you present for the first time in the conclusion should have been in your results. Examiners treat late findings as evidence of poor structure.
New citations. Occasionally acceptable when framing future research, but as a rule the conclusion works with material the reader has already met.
Hedging that undoes your argument. There is a difference between acknowledging a limitation and retracting your conclusion. “These results should be treated with extreme caution and may not mean anything” throws away work you spent months on.
Apology. Students often use the conclusion to explain what went wrong with their data collection. State limitations factually and move on.
A structure you can follow
For a masters conclusion of around 1,200 words:
- The answer — your research question, resolved. Around 200 words.
- How you got there — method and headline findings. Around 250 words.
- Contribution — what is now known. Around 250 words.
- Limitations — honest, qualified, unapologetic. Around 250 words.
- Recommendations — practice, policy or further research. Around 200 words.
- Closing — two or three sentences returning to why the question mattered. Around 50 words.
The last paragraph
Return to the problem you opened with in your introduction and show that it has moved. This is the one place in an academic document where a little rhetorical weight is appropriate, and a conclusion that ends on a limitation or a recommendation for further study ends on somebody else’s work rather than your own.
Keep it short. Two or three sentences. Do not introduce a new idea in order to finish on something memorable.
Common questions
What is the difference between the discussion and the conclusion?
The discussion interprets findings against the literature, in detail, finding by finding. The conclusion steps back and answers the research question overall. The discussion is about the data. The conclusion is about the question.
Can I include recommendations if my study was small?
Yes, provided they are proportionate. Recommend what your evidence supports, and frame the rest as questions worth investigating rather than actions worth taking.
Should the conclusion have subheadings?
In longer dissertations, yes, and examiners generally find them helpful. Contribution, Limitations and Recommendations are the usual ones. For a conclusion under 1,000 words, continuous prose usually reads better.
Do I need to restate every finding?
No. Restate the ones that answer your research question. A conclusion that lists every result reads as a summary and loses the thread of the argument.
If you are writing this at the last minute
Most students are, and the chapter suffers for it. If you have run out of time rather than out of ideas, the fastest way to rescue a conclusion is to write the answer to your research question in one sentence, then build the chapter around it.
Our dissertation writing help covers final chapters, including tightening a conclusion that has run long or rebuilding one that restates the discussion. There are companion guides on writing the introduction and structuring the methodology chapter, and doctoral candidates can find the same support through our thesis writing service.