Concluding Sentence: Definition, Examples & Starters

What is a Concluding Sentence?

A concluding sentence indicates that you are bringing closure to a paragraph. Writing a concluding sentence may not come as easily as you may think. Many writers fail to realize that it closes out the final thoughts about the topic on which they are writing. This is why it is important for you to be able to write effective concluding sentences. For each paragraph, the reader should be able to identify what your key points are based on the concluding sentence. Remember, it should not include any information that was not discussed in the paragraph.

When teaching students how to write concluding sentences, you may need to provide a few examples they will be able to use as a guide for their own writing. Examples of concluding sentence starters include:

• In conclusion
• Therefore
• As expressed
• Overall
• As a result
• Thus
• Finally
• Lastly
• For this reason
• In general

Characteristics of Effective Concluding Sentences

It is important for your students to know how to write effective concluding sentences in order to drive home the final point. Some characteristics include:

• Reviewing main points mentioned in a paragraph
• Restating the topic sentence
• Are found at the end of a paragraph
• Do not introduce new ideas or topics

As the writer, you should keep in mind that concluding sentences may look different for various types of writing. Examples of these types of writing include narratives, descriptions, compare and contrast, and argument.

The concluding sentence of a narrative paragraph should emphasize the moral lesson to the audience. With descriptive paragraphs, the concluding sentence helps to tie everything together by emphasizing details from the topic sentence, using different wording and summing up supporting facts. When writing a concluding sentence for the compare and contrast paragraph, you will want to restate both topics by pointing out the various similarities and differences that were discussed. The concluding sentence in an argument paragraph will summarize the argument being made. It may reaffirm why the argument is correct and the consequences that may occur if the argument is not heeded.

Examples of Concluding Sentences

Let’s look at an example paragraph, and how a concluding sentence would be written for it:

Early colonists came to the New World in order to gain freedom from the harsh reign of the English monarchy. Not only did the colonists desire freedom from the king’s taxation system, but they also wanted to break away from the intolerance that kept them from worshiping freely in England. They saw the new country as a place for new beginnings, and looked forward to beginning their lives anew—even if it meant living in a land of uncertainty.

There are several ways in which the concluding sentence in this example can be written.