Draft Your
ConclusionInclude a Quotation
Quotations can help add authority to your argument or
may present a nice summary of your paper. Use a quotation only if
it directly relates to your paper’s thesis. A quotation cannot
stand alone for a conclusion though. Quotations are typically used
in conjunction with another technique, such as summary.
The quotation strategy can be a tough strategy to do effectively.
Let’s look at an example from a paper about the role of conscience
versus the perfect crime in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale
Heart”:
Ultimately, in the "Tell-Tale Heart" we discover the narrator’s
crime was indeed perfect but his conscience resulted in his ruin.
With every imagined beat of the victim’s heart, the narrator’s
sanity slips further and further from him. He goes mad, and his story
ends with his hysterical cry: “ ‘Villains!’ I shrieked, ‘dissemble
no more! I admit the deed!-- tear up the planks!-- here, here!-- it
is the beating of his hideous heart!’”
In the conclusion above, you can again see a combination of strategies.
The first part of the conclusion summarizes the paper and reaffirms
the thesis statement. Then, the paper ends dramatically with a quote
from the main character—the narrator’s admission of guilt
in his hysterical cry. In this case, the writer did not comment further
about the paper, wanting the reader to leave the paper with the narrator’s
shriek; however, many times you’ll want your words to end the
paper. After all, it’s your paper, why turn it over to someone
else at the end? You can find another example of the quotation technique
in the final paragraph of
this
handout.
If you use a quotation, make sure that it does not introduce new
information into your argument. If it does, it may be better to include
the quote within the text of your paper where you have space to comment
on its importance to your discussion.
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