How to write a good concluding sentence for a paragraph

Concluding sentences are key to tying your argument together. One of the biggest mistakes that many otherwise excellent writers make is leaving concluding sentences out of their paragraphs and essays.

The purpose of a concluding sentence is to summarize the argument you just made in your preceding paragraph. In a single paragraph response, the concluding sentence is essential. It should tie the whole paragraph together without simply rephrasing the topic sentence. In an essay, concluding sentences serve a number of different, but equally important purposes. In your introductory paragraph, your concluding sentence often doubles as your thesis statement. In the body paragraphs, your concluding sentences should transition readers to your next paragraph if you are continuing the same point or they should link the ideas discussed in the preceding paragraph(s) back to your thesis if you are concluding a point. At the end of your concluding paragraph, your concluding sentence should wrap up your entire argument and provide guidance to your readers about what to do with the information you have just given them.

Here are a couple of examples to help you see the importance of a strong concluding sentence. The concluding sentences are highlighted. Try reading the paragraphs without reading the concluding sentences first; then read through it a second time to help you see how a concluding sentence ties everything together.

The topic for these examples is: What can we do to help stop climate change?

The first example is of a

single paragraph response:

            If we are going to bring an end to climate change, we need to continuously adjust our habits so that we are using less energy and creating less waste. Simple changes, like recycling and turning off the lights when we leave a room are a good place to start, but we can’t stop there. For example, when we are out shopping, we should carefully evaluate our purchases. A great deal of the Earth’s resources are put into producing and transporting goods, and when we buy things we do not need or things that are of poor quality, they quickly end up in the landfill, which is a waste of resources. With this in mind, we should all make an effort to buy fewer items of better quality based on our needs rather than our wants. It is also important to look for ways to further reduce our consumption at home. Any time we use disposable items, we should ask ourselves if there is a reusable alternative. For example, paper towels could easily be replaced with cloth rags. We can also look for ways to minimize our use of other valuable resources by shifting our daily habits towards more sustainable practices, like taking shorter showers, eating less meat and walking to nearby locations rather than driving. If we all make an effort to continuously re-evaluate our habits, we can live greener and greener lifestyles that will reduce our demands on the environment and help stop climate change.

The second example is written on the same topic, but it is an essay response with a similar premise. You will see all the functions of concluding sentences in this example:

            Climate change is an issue that concerns many people in our society. This concern has made people more environmentally conscious, and more and more people are making simple changes to their lifestyles that will help reduce their demands on the environment. Unfortunately, stopping after making a few small changes will not be enough. The good news is that continuously adding new and greener habits to our daily lives will not only save the environment, it will also save us money.
            One of the first places to go green and save green is when we are out shopping. We live in a consumer society where everyone loves to have new things, but over-consumption places a huge strain on our environment, especially when we are buying large numbers of poorly made goods that just get thrown out after a short period of use. Buying less will obviously help us save money, but it will also save the environment because we will be consuming fewer resources. Look for good quality items that will not break easily or go out of style quickly to help your purchases last longer. Buying second hand items is a great way to save money, and it helps the environment because we are keeping an item that is still in good condition out of the landfill. Making these shifts in our shopping habits will help us keep money in our pockets while reducing our consumption of the Earth’s resources.
            We can further reduce our consumption of resources by altering our diets. Meat is typically the most costly part of a grocery bill and raising meat requires double the resources of raising vegetable protein. Eating less meat, whether that means becoming vegetarian or simply going meat-free once a week, will save us money while helping us eat a more earth-friendly diet. Another option for eating greener on a reduced budget is to eat seasonal produce from farmers markets. Buying directly from the farmer is usually cheaper than buying from a supermarket and eating seasonal produce that is grown in our local area means less pollution has been created by the transportation process. These simple changes are better for our health, our environment and our wallets and are just one of the easy ways to shift our daily habits towards sustainability.
            Developing sustainable habits is essential if we want to stop climate change, so we must constantly look for ways that we can reduce our consumption of the Earth’s resources in our daily lives. Opportunities for earth-friendly and money-saving behaviour shifts are all around us. Shorter showers reduce our consumption and pollution of water while saving money on the hot water bill. Replacing disposable items, like paper towels, with reusable items, like cloth rags, reduces waste while saving us the cost of constantly replacing what we throw away. Making the effort to walk to nearby locations in our neighbourhood, like the library or the corner store, reduce our consumption of fossil fuels while saving us the cost of gas (and maybe even the cost of a gym membership if we walk enough to meet our exercise needs). If we look for them, opportunities to improve our lives with healthier, cost-effective and greener habits are easy to find, and we must seize these opportunities when they arise.
            If we ignore our chances to move towards a greener lifestyle, it will eventually cost us. It will cost us more money, and it will cost us the healthy environment that is essential for our survival. Simple changes are a good place to start, but we cannot stop there. We must always be on the lookout for ways to make our lives greener if we want to bring an end to climate change. 

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