In this guide, we’ll be discussing what to do after you’ve formulated your argument with strong evidence that connects to your claims. The next step is to answer the question: why does it matter?

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This guide will cover how to conclude your research paper, and — if you wish — how to make resolutions and/or solutions part of that conclusion. While this guide specifically focuses on writing a conclusion for your research paper, a lot of this information is also applicable to writing arguments in general. 

Information comes from the College Board’s CED.

** Research Tip: While all research papers for AP Research should discuss limitations of the research and implications (of which resolutions, conclusions and solutions are a part of), not every research paper needs to propose a solution or contain a call to action. It all depends on where you’re at after the paper’s written.**

In Conclusion…

Whether or not you’re offering a resolution or a solution, you’ll need a conclusion for your paper. After all, the College Board is looking for you to not only have a conclusion but also to explain the “limitations of the conclusion.” 

A conclusion typically has two parts: summary and implications. 

Oftentimes, conclusions will summarize the paper briefly, restating the thesis statement as well as some of the reasoning behind it. Although this isn’t necessary, I recommend doing this to solidify your main point in the paper and to yourself.

After you summarize, or even if you choose not to summarize, the conclusion will then explain: why is this research important? 

Where Do I Start?

Here are some prompts to get you thinking…

• How do you feel about your research? Why do you feel that way? Your opinion about how the research went can provide a starting point for your conclusion.
• What have we learned (or not learned) from this research? Why did we learn that?
• What implications does this research have for the larger world? For your community? For your field?
• If you’re presenting a resolution (taken here to mean a conclusive judgment or call to action), why do you have this resolution? What would it mean to your readers to accept it?
• If you’re presenting a solution, what would happen if that solution was implemented?
• If you ran into any difficulties or research challenges, those can be part of your conclusion too!
  • It may indicate challenges to future research or current limitations in your field that haven’t been discovered before.
• Now that you’ve finished your research, is there a further direction you wish you could take it?
• Does your research open new possibilities for further work? These don’t have to be extensive possibilities — anything you feel counts as a new opportunity provided by the research counts.
• What do you want your readers to walk away with? What do you want them to think about after having read your paper?

** Research Tip: It’s possible to write a successful AP Research paper even if your research doesn’t go the way you wanted it to. The College Board is not grading whether or not your experiment was successful or not. An inconclusive or unexpected result is still a result. **

Limits to Your Conclusion

Once you’ve finished writing, you also need to address the limitations of your conclusion. 

Any research you do — indeed, any research anyone does — can never cover all the possibilities the research topic presents, even if the research topic is ridiculously narrow. This is because there are many different potential consequences and conclusions someone could come to from the same experiment or research project, and not enough pages to explain them all. 

Taking some time to identify the limitations of your conclusion, and if applicable the limitations of your resolution and/or solution, will extend the potential of your research paper further and demonstrate that you’re aware of what you can and cannot do with your research. Finally, considering limitations is crucial if you’re proposing a resolution or solution, to prevent your statements from being too extreme or ungrounded. 

What are the Limitations? 

Here are some ways to consider your limitations. Note that, as always, not every conclusion needs to include all of these components. These are just ideas for you to consider!

• Acknowledge the importance of your research paper’s content and the context your research was done in.
  • Your conclusions, solutions and resolutions should be based on the research you’ve done.
  • If you speculate, make sure you make it clear that you’re speculating, and explain where those speculations come from.
• Engage in reflective skepticism.
  • It’s easy to fall in love with our own brilliance, especially after finishing a very long and daunting research paper. This isn’t a bad feeling to have, and you should be proud of yourself! However, leave yourself time to set aside that feeling and look at your paper with a critical eye.
• Identify and challenge the assumptions of your paper and your background research.
  • Critical examination of underlying assumptions can reveal new things about yourself, your paper and the world around you. Granted, this is easier said than done and underlying assumptions are often hard to discover.
• Imagine and explore alternatives.
  • Could you go with a different solution or come up with a different conclusion from this research? Maybe that direction would be better than what you currently have. Give yourself time to explore!
• Consider the advantages and disadvantages of your resolutions and solutions.
  • Are there more pros than cons?
  • Alternatively, are the cons much worse than the pros are good? And there we have it! Only one more Big Idea to go. In our next Big Idea, we’ll be discussing how to revise, present and review your work. 

https://media.giphy.com/media/gd09Y2Ptu7gsiPVUrv/giphy.gif

We’re gonna be discussing how to conclude your research paper, and — if you wish — how to make resolutions and/or solutions part of that conclusion. While this guide specifically focuses on writing a conclusion for your research paper, a lot of this information is also applicable to writing arguments in general. 

Research Tip: While all research papers for AP Research should discuss limitations of the research and implications (of which resolutions, conclusions and solutions are a part of), not every research paper needs to propose a solution or contain a call to action. It all depends on where you’re at after the paper’s written.

In Conclusion…

Whether or not you’re offering a resolution or a solution, you’ll need a conclusion for your paper. After all, the College Board is looking for you to not only have a conclusion but also to explain the “limitations of the conclusion.” 

A conclusion typically has two parts: summary and implications. 

Oftentimes, conclusions will summarize the paper briefly, restating the thesis statement as well as some of the reasoning behind it. Although this isn’t necessary, I recommend doing this to solidify your main point in the paper and to yourself. (Sometimes, you’ll discover that your conclusion actually needs to be your introduction.) 

Then, the conclusion will explain: why is this research important? 

Here are some prompts to get you thinking…

• How do you feel about your research? Why do you feel that way? Your opinion about how the research went can provide a starting point for your conclusion.
• What have we learned (or not learned) from this research?
• What implications does this research have for the larger world? For your community? For your field?
• If you’re presenting a resolution (taken here to mean a conclusive judgment or call to action), why do you have this resolution? What would it mean to your readers to accept it?
• If you’re presenting a solution, what would happen if that solution was implemented?
• If you ran into any difficulties or research challenges, those can be part of your conclusion too!
  • It may indicate challenges to future research or current limitations in your field that haven’t been discovered before.
• Now that you’ve finished your research, is there a further direction you wish you could take it?
• Does your research open new possibilities for further work? These don’t have to be extensive possibilities — anything you feel counts as a new opportunity provided by the research counts.
• What do you want your readers to walk away with? What do you want them to think about after having read your paper? Research Tip: It’s possible to write a successful AP Research paper even if your research doesn’t go the way you wanted it to. The College Board is not grading whether or not your experiment was successful or not. An inconclusive or unexpected result is still a result. 

What’s this about limitations? 

Once you’ve finished writing, you also need to address the limitations of your conclusion. 

Any research you do — indeed, any research anyone does — can never cover all the possibilities the research topic presents, even if the research topic is ridiculously narrow. This is because there are many different potential consequences and conclusions someone could come to from the same experiment or research project, and not enough pages to explain them all. 

Taking some time to identify the limitations of your conclusion, and if applicable the limitations of your resolution and/or solution, will extend the potential of your research paper further and demonstrate that you’re aware of what you can and cannot do with your research. Finally, considering limitations is crucial if you’re proposing a resolution or solution, to prevent your statements from being too extreme or ungrounded. 

Here are some ways to consider your limitations. Note that, as always, not every conclusion needs to include all of these components. These are just ideas for you to consider!: 

• Acknowledge the importance of your research paper’s content and the context your research was done in.
  • Your conclusions, solutions and resolutions should be based on the research you’ve done.
  • If you speculate, make sure you make it clear that you’re speculating, and explain where those speculations come from.
• Engage in reflective skepticism.
  • It’s easy to fall in love with our own brilliance, especially after finishing a very long and daunting research paper. This isn’t a bad feeling to have, and you should be proud of yourself! However, leave yourself time to set aside that feeling and look at your paper with a critical eye.
• Identify and challenge the assumptions of your paper and your background research.
  • Critical examination of underlying assumptions can reveal new things about yourself, your paper and the world around you. Granted, this is easier said than done and underlying assumptions are often hard to discover.
• Imagine and explore alternatives.
  • Could you go with a different solution or come up with a different conclusion from this research? Maybe that direction would be better than what you currently have. Give yourself time to explore!
• Consider the advantages and disadvantages of your resolutions and solutions.
  • Are there more pros than cons?
  • Alternatively, are the cons much worse than the pros are good? And there we have it! Only one more Big Idea to go. In our next Big Idea, we’ll be discussing how to revise, present and review your work.