how to write a conclusion for a history essay

how to write a conclusion for a history essay

Crafting a Compelling Conclusion for a History Essay

1. Introduction to the Importance of a Conclusion

While a history essay will make a number of specific truthful claims, it often takes a general reason to represent these numerous claims as an exercise of history. This curiosity might be of concern to historians as professionals, or to non-professionals; the historian’s conclusions might matter in this essay, in something far more mundane, and unrelated to professional historians. Nonetheless, the discipline frequently creates particular challenges for developing a close, persuasive, effective, and comprehensive conclusion. The conclusion is an essay that will embody the pursuit of objective truth.

Creating a compelling conclusion is of particular importance when writing a history essay. There are not many pieces of writing that will require the writer to think about such a wide range of interwoven issues, all connected to one subject. In different historical investigations and research, the writer will have to cover dimensions as varied as economics, geography, psychology, and anthropology. As a result of this multidisciplinary approach, many different types of conclusions can be crafted, each appropriate for particular types of essays. Academic writers understand the importance of conclusions, and they continue to work on a draft until they are satisfied with the conclusions of their history papers.

2. Key Elements to Include in a History Essay Conclusion

The closing, memorable statement, similar to the restatement, is self-explanatory. It reiterates a key idea found in your research introduction. Again, using a quotation is a very effective technique. However, crafting an effective conclusion is by no means easy. Just as introductions are designed to grab your reader, conclusions are a way of leaving your reader with a final impression. In a conclusion, you encapsulate all your ideas and findings to provide a thoughtful answer to the question proposed in the introduction. One of the best ways to conclude an essay is by simulating the idea of the introduction.

A conclusion should be an integral part of your essay, but if you want to leave an impression with your reader, it should also include some original thoughts. Here are some of the best ideas I could find that stood out to me. First, you can use a description to pull the reader into the conclusion. When researching the ideas for my second blog in this conclusion series, I found a paper that used a fascinating description to draw me to the conclusion. You can argue that the introduction of your paper – the scenario and its development – were crucial components to capturing the reader’s interest.

3. Strategies for Writing a Strong and Memorable Conclusion

Although your conclusion should be confident, this does not mean that you should simply restate your thesis. Many writers do start their conclusion with a restatement of their thesis, although usually they parrot the thesis rather than truly recreate it. After an essay grows in length through the body of the paper, revisiting the thesis can feel perfunctory. Do not be afraid of introducing new information or contradicting yourself here, as long as that information is highlighted as new, and any self-contradictions are resolved. The conclusion is your last chance to clarify any muddled analysis from your paper, and achieve closure.

The conclusion should be definitive but concise. It should sum up the central arguments of your paper and particularize if possible. This need not mean that you have to prove the relevance of your claims to contemporary debates, but explaining why they are relevant at all can be helpful—how might it deepen our understanding of the present? The conclusion is one place in your paper where you could directly address the analytical problem you established in the introduction. You could also suggest other directions that your research could be taken in.

4. Tips for Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Concluding a History Essay

One common pitfall in this concluding section is simply rushing through it. While the story moves at a quickened pace, the conclusion is no less important. Because this series of assignments progresses and builds on the previous essay, the role large conclusions serve throughout should directly contradict the use of them being superfluous. Avoid at all costs the use of quantifiers and general comments, for everything you write should have a potent, specific purpose. One ought to take the time to craft a thoughtful, complete conclusion, indeed one that pulls everything else together in one comprehensive swoop.

Your satisfaction in the final product will depend on your attention to the details and the way in which your argumentative moves inform that final conclusion. Here are some tips to consider that will help you avoid common pitfalls and craft a compelling conclusion. This exercise should help the writer craft a speech in about the time allowed. If this is a timed assignment, timing is essential. If the author takes the allowed time and barely finishes with the introduction, the author should expect only a cursory reaction from the class and superficial suggestions from the instructor.

5. Examples of Effective Conclusions in Historical Writing

[Topic: A Consideration of the Condemnation of Joan of Arc] Throughout this essay, we have been trying to make sense of the condemnation of Joan as a spell without realizing that witchcraft was a late medieval obsession. This is not so much a blunder on our part as a failure to heed the fierce opposition raised when Joan’s trial was promulgated within her lifetime. If we had considered Pierre d’Ailly’s reaction, in particular, we might not need to trust our paltry sources and questionable translations so earnestly. “On average,” we think that Joan was tried by an immense interdiocese court which included thirteen inquisitors against witchcraft and never forged any of the sorts of documentation that might have convinced us. We apologize for having tried to make a senseless blot on our image. We were hypnotized by witchcraft and we could not resist fantasizing about what spell Joan had cast. Our reservations remain nonetheless, since they seem to us better rooted in reality than those who, in the wake of Jacques Alain Miller, refuse to consider the existence of the trial texts at all.

Since the conclusion performs crucial work in a history essay, it is a site of potential pause, deflation, or satisfaction. We don’t have to reach false peaks or suggest an answer that we cannot plausibly arrive at, given the honest uncertainties that attend the historian’s craft. We also don’t need to present an answer to a question that our readers may not find particularly pressing. We do want to offer some grander vistas, a new angle or two, or, at the very least, a fresh view on an often-viewed landscape. The important thing, again, is not to aim higher, or make a suggestion sharper and more distinctive and useful. What we are doing in the conclusion, then, is not very different from what we have been doing in the introduction, but we have some data we didn’t have and can revisit the question in new light. Here are five very different and effective conclusions, assessed through considerations of what the conclusion actually accomplishes within the context of the whole essay.