Most conclusions have two primary functions. The first function is to re-state your argument and the core findings from your paper – after spending time with the in-depth work done in your body paragraphs, it is important to remind the reader what the core point of the argument has been. The second function is to indicate why these findings matter and describe the implications of your argument.

Steps for Future Research

In your introduction and literature review, it is likely that you defined for your reader the boundary of existing knowledge on a question, and proposed how you intended to expand that boundary. Now, in your conclusion, you can reiterate where your own research puts our understanding of your research question, and propose what steps future researchers should take to expand the boundary even further. What unanswered research questions has your work left on the table? What new research questions has your work raised? What studies should follow yours? By proposing next steps for future research, you not only affirm that a broader research agenda exists on your topic – you get to define that agenda by laying out the first steps for the studies that will build on your own.

Lessons for Broader Study of the Topic

Until your paper conclusion, your primary goal has been to develop an argument, and uncover evidence, that answers a very specific research question that you yourself have defined. However, your findings, and your argument, may have broader implications for the way we understand, or should study, a topic more generally. Does your research bring attention to an understudied variable, or perspective? Do your findings change the way that researchers should study your topic? While proposing “steps for future research” speaks to researchers directly following up on your own study, noting lessons for broader study speaks to everyone working on your topic.

Limitations of the Study

Every study has limitations on what it can say, and with what level of confidence it can say those things. The conclusion is a place where you can define those limitations, explain where they come from, and lay out their implications for how we understand your answer to the research question. Denoting the limitations of your study often can lead into proposing steps for future research that would remedy those limitations.

Policy Implications

Your argument or findings may have implications for how policymakers should think about a particular issue in the real world. As social scientists, we usually focus on explaining the world as it is and avoid speculating on what sorts of political positions we should endorse. In our conclusion, we can give ourselves a space to prescribe and proscribe what policymakers, lawmakers, leaders, or everyday people should or shouldn’t do based on our findings. If your research explains something negative like violence, what do your findings mean for how policymakers can reduce it? If your research explains something positive like democratic participation, what do your findings mean for how policymakers can promote it? What do your findings tell us about how to design practical solutions to real world problems?