Writing a Dissertation Conclusion


Writing a Dissertation Conclusion

Looking for advice on how to write a strong conclusion of your dissertation? A dissertation conclusion is the final chapter of this complex paper. Its main purpose is to help readers understand why your research is important after they have finished reading your dissertation. You need to prove that your work makes a valuable contribution to the existing theory and research in the field. Besides, your conclusion should be engaging for readers. Wondering what you should do to achieve these goals? Keep reading to learn about general recommendations and best strategies you should follow to communicate your message and impress the committee. And don’t forget you can always get reliable professional assistance if you hire an experienced writer online.

Why is it important to write a good dissertation conclusion?

Before we start discussing several effective strategies of writing a powerful dissertation conclusion, let’s review its main goals to get a better idea of what to write about. Remember: it’s not enough to provide a summary of your research and findings. No matter what the research question of your dissertation is, there are certain points that you should include in its conclusion.  

  • You need to emphasize that you have answered the main research question and clearly state it.
  • It’s important to highlight key findings of your dissertation and tell about their implications applied to practice.
  • Dissertation conclusion gives a great opportunity to answer “So what?” question and tell how your research contributes new knowledge to the field of study.
  • You have to highlight the study limitations and provide possible recommendations for further research.

In other words, you must tie together or integrate different issues, research etc. which you covered in the main chapters of the dissertation and to comment on their meaning, forecasting future trends. 

How to structure a conclusion chapter

Regardless of the field of study, a dissertation conclusion must include certain essential elements:

  • Restatement of the hypothesis or research question
  • Brief summary of the key dissertation findings related to the research questions
  • Possible explanations of the findings and reflections on the research
  • Research limitations
  • Implications of your dissertation findings
  • Recommendations for future research and practical applications

Speaking about the length of dissertation conclusion, it shouldn’t be long. Depending on the field of study, it should be about 5-8% of the overall word count. For, example, if your dissertation is based on empirical scientific research, its conclusion can be shorter. It should only concisely state the major findings and most important recommendations. But in humanities dissertations, conclusions should be longer because they require more word count to conclude the argument in a compelling manner and tie together all paper chapters.

General rules of developing a compelling dissertation conclusion

The main purpose of a dissertation conclusion is providing a justification and defense of your dissertation. That’s why you need to restate the key arguments and mention the most important supporting evidence. In this way, you’ll be able to emphasize the strengths of your dissertation. And of course, it’s crucial to state your dissertation conclusions in clear and simple language.

Begin the conclusion chapter with the major research question you dissertation was aimed to address. Then provide a synthesis of the key results in a clear and concise manner. In this way, you’ll ensure that your readers will be able to remember a final takeaway. 

Don’t miss the opportunity to remind your readers of the investigation you have conducted when working on your dissertation and give a brief overview of essential steps you’ve taken. You mustn’t summarize each dissertation chapter to avoid repletion. Instead, you should comment on research process, evaluate methods and discuss whether they were effective in providing good answers to your research questions. You can mention some limitations of your study but it’s important to focus on a positive side of your work. 

Dissertation conclusion is a great place for reminding your readers about the significance of your study for theory and practice. It’s important to be honest and not exaggerate when you give recommendations about future research and speak about applicability of your dissertation findings. Make them in a form of suggestions and not instructions, especially if you making recommendations for business.

To make a strong impression on readers, you should emphasize specific contributions your study has made to your specific field of knowledge. To do that, you can show how your dissertation has addressed a gap in knowledge, has helped in solving the research problem, how it challenges or confirms existing assumptions or theory. Avoid repeating the same information you have covered in main chapters word for word. You should be creative and find some interesting or even unusual approach. For example, you can select the most important ideas presented in your dissertation and sum up those points in the conclusion, speaking about them in broader context.

Follow these essential recommendations on writing a dissertation conclusion and you are sure to avoid common mistakes that students typically make, for example, not matching the objectives of their research, not being concise, not revealing negative results or not commenting on larger issues. 

Developing a dissertation conclusion is an important step in the writing process but it’s not the end of your project. Once you finish it, you have to take several final steps to complete your dissertation:

  • write an abstract 
  • create a reference list and make sure it is formatted properly
  • add appendices
  • create a title page and a table of contents
  • proofread the entire dissertation and make sure it is error-free

As you see, writing a dissertation involves a lot of work and may be very time-consuming. But if for any reason, you can’t cope with this arduous task on your own, professional writers from our dissertation writing service are ready to offer you a helping hand any time you need. Just place your order on our platform, provide instructions, and they will help you solve all your writing problems.