how to conclude a nonfiction essay

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Writing the Perfect Conclusion for your Nonfiction Book

September 27, 2017 By Nina Amir 10 Comments

Conclusion #1: The “Where are They Now” Conclusion

In a ‘where are they now’ conclusion, the author talks about their or their subject’s current life after having undergone the journey discussed in the book. This type of conclusion works best with memoir or autobiography, but it can also work for biography or a kind of narrative involving multiple characters going through a concrete event.

If you use this type of conclusion, be careful not to just include a rote summary of what everyone’s doing; dive in to how the events in the book link up to your or the subject’s present-day experience.

Conclusion #2: The “Why Should We Care” Conclusion

This type of conclusion is the most common one I see, and that’s because it’s so effective. This kind of conclusion steps out from the close focus of the book to explore the bigger picture into which the book fits. In a journalistic story, it’s a chance to say how the stories in a book fit in to a larger trend and why that trend is important. In a history or other more discursive book, the conclusion is a place to explain how the topic discussed in the book illuminates new information and unveils new ways of looking at a particular subject.

The important thing to keep in mind with this kind of conclusion is that you want to avoid being repetitive, as you may have discussed the “so what” of your argument in your introduction or in scattered places throughout the book. If you find yourself in this position, my general advice is to examine the implications of the book more fully in the conclusion and change earlier discussion of those implications to be more succinct.

Conclusion #3: The “What Do We Do Now?” Conclusion

A “what do we do now” conclusion works well in how-to or advice books. If you are writing a book about getting involved in politics as a young person, for instance, you could write a conclusion that gives distilled real-world tips on how someone could get involved. If you are writing a book on how to do something that follows a standard process (say, writing nonfiction books) then the conclusion could be the final step in the process, or getting started again after going through the process once.

Conclusion #4: The “Artsy Cliffhanger” Conclusion

In memoirs, journalistic narratives, or true-crime books, there might not be a clear, solid ending to a narrative. The mystery hasn’t been solved; you (the memoirist) conquered your demons a little but not all the way; the international crisis in Africa you witnessed is still ongoing. In these cases, it could be interesting to take a more artistic approach and end the book with a story that shows there is not yet a resolution to the story.

This can be a moving ending, but take care to add in extra “so what” narration if it is not immediately clear why you are not adding in a more resolute conclusion to the book.

Conclusion #5: The Combo Method

As you might guess, sometimes just following one of these conclusion approaches won’t quite be enough for your book. In these cases, experiment with combining two or more approaches. A “where are they now” structure can be the story that makes up your “artsy cliffhanger” conclusion; a “why should we care” conclusion can take the form of a “what do we do now” ending. Above all, you should think about your readers: what would they want or need before ending the book? The conclusion is really for them.

As I’ve said before on this blog, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to writing any part of a book; what type of conclusion you have can vary by the kind of book you are writing and what you want to ultimately say. But what does matter is that you have one in the first place. Like I’ve said with introductions , take care to put together a good conclusion—you owe it to your readers to keep them engaged until the very end of the book.

About the Author

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October 7, 2018 at 8:52 am

Yes I too believe that conclusion is as important as is the introduction. Conclusion can have some more related resources and sum up of everything but not the repetition.

June 25, 2019 at 6:44 pm

Thank you so much for such helpful guidance. I had already written my book – conclusion and all and, like so many, I thought I was done. I stepped away from it for a while and a little more research extended the thesis in a much more meaningful way. I then wrote the conclusion again then, I wondered had I gone too far and maybe gone into related areas that had only been mentioned throughout the other chapters. I did a Google search and ended up reading this article. It turned out that I had essentially used (unbeknowst to myself) THE COMBO METHOD “where are they now” structure (or, in my case: where is the situation now), with a springling of “artsy cliffhanger”, a major coating of, “why should we care” followed by, “what do we do now” ending. And I considered my readers at this point quite considerably. This confirmed that I was instinctively on the right track and thanks to your article, I now how the tools to all my conclusions and customise the advice accordingly. The most important part of the advice of course, is to recognise that even when you think you have finished – that you maybe haven’t and, as I found in my own experience, by revisiting the conclusion – I had something much more profound to say, It was the bigger picture as you describe it and this seems to only come by taking a big step back from all that you have slaved over so lovingly and passionately – so that you as the writer actually get the significance of what you have just written. Thank you so much again.

July 1, 2019 at 10:53 pm

So glad you found the post, Maria, and that it was hepful.

November 17, 2019 at 4:49 pm

Can a case study to validate the thesis be part of a conclusion? Or should it come before a conclusion, or after?

January 6, 2020 at 3:55 pm

I would do it long before a conclusion.

August 14, 2019 at 7:38 am

Writing my first book and needed help with a conclusion. Your suggestions were timeless!

August 27, 2019 at 11:39 am

Glad the post was timely for you!

October 14, 2019 at 8:19 am

I needed that so much to he;p me get a 100 A+.

THANK YOU!!!.

November 22, 2019 at 5:47 am

Hello Nina, Thank you for your many wise words to all who are passionate about words and putting them together correctly to help describe the vents of the story unfolding before the readers own eyes. At the request of my eldest daughter, I have been writing a book (nonfiction) about events of my own life which saw me not only imprisoned at a particular time in my life (almost forty years ago now) but also put onto life support as a consequence of the new living environment I found myself in at that same time,and trying to survive in, on a day by day, hour by hour existence. I found it very hard to write this book as in doing so I seemingly re-lived many unpleasant and hurtful events in my own mind. Where to now though? It is a massive story and I do not want to put too much detail about it into an open letter that others may see and read. I would dearly like to ask a couple of questions of you with regards to what to and where to from here? Is it possible that you might respond to give me a guiding suggestion? I would be very appreciative and would be open to share with you an absolutely massive story about an event in time which has never been told by anyone, to anyone. No media interview has ever been conducted and I am the only person out of the three people involved in this event (almost forty years ago) who is still alive and who can tell the story about what actually did happen. That is why my daughter asked me to document it all whilst i was still alive. I am currently sixty one years old. (2019) Infamous these events and this story are; definitely NOT ‘famous’ but historical and TRUE CRIME none the less. I was one who the system decided to make a public example of, … and continues to do so all of these years later. It was a matter of property and NOT one of people. I did not harm at any time, man, Woman or child, nor did I break into anybody’s private home, corner shop, department store or harm the family cat or dog. None the less, a whipping boy I was made, and I have been constantly lashed by the opinions of others who some were not even alive at the time, yet make judgement s of events they could not know about; .. simply because I have never discussed them with anybody. They look at the headline only, and not the story behind the headlines. It is indeed a fascinating story. I await your reply. With respect Stay well, God Bless Steve Mannix Australia.

January 6, 2020 at 3:54 pm

Why not contact me for a free 15-minutes session? Go here: https://ninaamir.as.me/15-min-strategy-session

Home → Writing

How to write a conclusion for nonfiction books.

You’ve almost done it . . . you’ve nearly reached the end of your nonfiction book . . . now all you need to do is write the conclusion. Hmmm.

Even though you’ve aced it up ’til now and know you’ve written a rocking intro, penned well-organized chapters packed with useful info, when it comes to rounding it all off, inspiration just won’t come.

You might have thought getting the intro right was the hardest task and imagined writing the ending would be a piece of cake. Not so. You need to put the same dedication into rounding off your book as you did into starting it . . . if you want to satisfy your readers and have them coming back for more.

So, what should you aim for in writing a really good conclusion to your book?

To help answer that question, let’s first clarify exactly what is meant by ‘a conclusion.’

As readers, we don’t want to be fobbed off with a few weak sentences after we’ve gone the distance. We want value, to justify time and money spent. We want a return on our investment.

The Tricky Opener

To conclude, in conclusion, to summarize, in summary, rounding off , now we’re almost done, coming to the end of . . .

Phrases like these are all good ways to start your conclusion—they tell readers exactly what’s coming. Whether your style is formal or informal, with a little experimentation, you’ll find what works for you.

Restate Your Aim

Why did you write the book? Look back at your intro; you should have started out by stating the aim of your book—what you set out to deliver to your readers. With non-fiction books, that’s usually your title.

Here are a few examples:

“In this book, I promised to share my secrets for making your first million dollars in a year . . .”

“At the start of this book, I set out to turn you techno-dummies into social media wizards . . .

“Well, guys, here we are, almost at the end of our journey into the fascinating world of home brain surgery . . .”

Did You Deliver?

Ask your readers a rhetorical question: Has this book delivered on its initial promise? Have you got your money’s worth? Is it good value? Here are some ways to phrase it:

“In this book, I promised to show you how to make your first million dollars in a year. Have I succeeded?”

“At the start of this book, I set out to turn you techno-dummies into social media wizards. So, how did I do?”

Recap Your Topics

Use that question as springboard to launch into your brief roundup of all the information you’ve covered in preceding chapters, in chronological order. Start with something like this:

“. . . Here’s a roundup of everything I’ve shared with you . . .”

“. . . Let’s recap what we’ve covered . . .”

“. . . Here’s a quick review of the lessons . . .”

Takeaways Mean Value

We buy nonfiction books because they promise us something we want—knowledge, advice, insights, facts, guidance, a plan, a complete how-to. We want to take away our new knowledge and put it into practice when we’re done. Takeaways give your book value.

For example:

“This technique is the secret to successfully closing every sale.”

“This guide to suturing means you’ll be able to do this procedure at home easily.”

Add further value by giving readers info on helpful resources like websites and organizations related to your book content.

If you want feedback from readers, give them a contact point. But safeguard your privacy and limit it to a dedicated email, not your home address and phone number.

Signing Off

A few friendly, encouraging words are enough here. For instance:

“Thanks for joining me on this journey. Goodbye, and good luck!”

“Thanks for buying this book; I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Now you can have some fun putting everything you’ve learned into practice.”

That’s it! Follow these tips and you’ll be able to write a stylish conclusion to your book that leaves readers satisfied and equipped to put your lessons into practice for their benefit. Good luck!

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Table of Contents

What a Good Ending Should Do

What the end of the book should not do, how to end a book (and get readers talking about it), great conclusion examples, how to write a book conclusion (& end your story the right way).

Here’s the thing about ending your book the right way:

If the reader got all the way to the conclusion, that means they read the whole book , they liked it, and now they want to wrap this up.

So don’t ramble on and on. Give them what they want.

The goal of a great ending is to tie everything together, neatly summarize your book, and then provide a specific call or calls to action for your reader.

Don’t overcomplicate the conclusion—just let it do its job, and it’ll work great.

Clearly summarize the book: That’s the best thing you can do, not only to deliver value to the reader but also to make the book memorable (and recommendable).
Address any lingering issues and close any open loops: The reader should feel like everything is wrapped up in a bow.
Provide a call to action: In essence, tell the reader what to do.
Give even more: Point them to any additional resources you have that could help them.
A conclusion should NOT introduce any new content: This should only be a summarization of what’s in the book. You can have new stories or anecdotes, of course.
A conclusion should not be too long: The rule of thumb is that it should be the shortest chapter in your book.
A conclusion should not break faith with the reader: Don’t tell them “operators are standing by” or try to sell them in a preposterous way that turns them off.

At Scribe, we like to outline the conclusion using this template:

Grab the reader with a great hook
Restate the book’s thesis
Summarize the chapters
Call to action: what should the reader do when they finish the book?

This is one of the most important writing tips for any Author:

Every chapter should start with a hook. Even the last one.

This can be a story that summarizes the book, or you can close a loop from earlier in the book. But the point is, the reader should feel like they do at the end of a good movie, where everything feels nicely summarized with a satisfying ending.

By this time, you’ve mentioned a lot of different topics. Usually, the easiest and most compelling way to begin the conclusion is by referring back to one (or more) of them. Or you can add another dimension to a story you already told or tie up loose ends.

2. Restate the book’s mission/thesis

This is pretty simple, but make sure you restate the book’s thesis. From the first chapter to the final chapter, your book’s primary message should be consistent.

3. Summarize chapters

This is optional, but most good nonfiction books do this. They summarize the key points so succinctly and clearly that the reader can’t help but understand your lessons the same way that you do.

You want the reader to think about and talk about your book to their friends the same way you would if you could be there yourself. The best way to make sure they do that is to tell them exactly what to say.

That’s what this section is for.

Specifically, it’s about nailing whatever you want your readers to remember about your book. What are the takeaways that really matter? How do you want them to talk about them?

If your book is a memoir, your conclusion also needs to complete your story arc, tying up any plot threads and subplots in your storyline so you don’t leave any cliffhangers.

You might not summarize the plot points of each chapter literally, but you still want to remind your readers of the journey.

4. Call to action

What’s the first thing you want your reader to do when they finish the last word and put the book down? This is usually the final word, and it’s what you should leave them with on the final page.

Note on the call to action

A call to action (CTA) is not required in a conclusion, but most nonfiction books have them. It’s usually the very last bit of the conclusion, the final word to readers, and it ensures they know what you want them to do.

Authors generally adopt a different tone with the CTA—one that’s not just more explicitly inspirational but that’s also framed as an imperative. The underlying message of the call to action is straightforward and empowering: now that you have all the tools, go out there and use them.

This is good, and readers tend to like it. Some authors feel uncomfortable including such a direct appeal to readers because they may feel it’s unprofessional, and they can be right (sometimes).

Authors often want to be too inspirational in the introduction, and not enough in the conclusion. But this is when you can really tell your reader what to do, and be very direct.

What you do not want to do is write a glorified sales brochure. The last thing you want to do here is try to pitch them something of yours to buy.

Think about it—you’ve spent the whole book earning their trust, and now you ruin it with a bad ending that tries to sell them?

Don’t do that. Most importantly because it doesn’t work very well.

Readers are smart. They’re interested in your topic because they’ve picked up your book. If they’ve made it this far, then they’ve already read an entire book’s worth of your knowledge and expertise.

They can form their own conclusions when it comes to contacting you.

That said, if you do want to suggest they contact you, do so authentically—from a place of trying to help them , not yourself. Tell them you want to hear from them, or that you want to help them move forward.

If your website or the name of your firm is in your bio or About the Author page , that’s sufficient. Give them your email in the conclusion if you like—but only if you’re sincere about responding to them.

Ultimately, your goal is to provide so much value to them that they respect and admire you and your work, and choose to contact you because they have sold themselves on wanting to, not because you sold them.

Some authors want a more explicit CTA, such as directing readers of the book to a specific landing page. This can work, as long as the page you’re directing them to gives the reader something.

But it has to be something they’ll see as extra, not something they’ll feel should have been in the book. For example, a map or chart that is additive, but not crucial, to the content is great.

What you don’t want to do is give them something on a landing page that makes them think, “Why isn’t this in the book?” That just breaks faith with the reader.

1. Syndicating is a B*tch, by Bruce Petersen

“The most tangible stress of managing a syndication deal happens prior to close. You’re taking care of a lot of moving pieces and are responsible for a lot of money for a lot of people, and that’s a lot. Once the deal closes, that’s it. There’s not a lot happening at that point.

That doesn’t mean the stress has ended. The more experience you gain doing deals, the more prepared you’re going to be for the weird things that come up—and something will always come up. Remember when I lost $5.2 million to OFAC? I was completely blindsided that first time, and as I’m writing this book, it happened again. Yep.”

This is a fantastic example of how to start a well-structured conclusion. The author leads by talking about closing a deal, just as he’s closing his book. There’s a parallel structure there that orients the reader to the end of the book.

He also refers back to something that happened earlier in the book, then leads into a story about the same thing happening again. The new story hooks the reader while reminding them of an important point he made earlier.

2. Breakthrough Leadership Team, by Mike Goldman

“You’ve just finished reading this book, and your head is swimming with ideas. You’re probably wondering, Where do I begin?

I suggest you start by measuring where you are in your journey toward becoming a Breakthrough Leadership Team …”

Here, again, the opening lines of the conclusion orient the reader, signaling to them that they have reached the final chapter. In this case, the Author jumps immediately into helping the reader figure out what to do next.

The title of this final chapter, by the way, is “Call to Action.” It’s the theme of the whole chapter, reminding the reader of their journey throughout the book and suggesting what to do next.

3. Beyond Wins, by Mala Subramaniam

“Did the book address questions posed in the OpeningThoughts?

Why do I feel like I am on a seesaw of wins and losses in my business negotiations? Even when I win, I sometimes feel like I lost something. Tools and techniques I picked up in books and training are not foreign, so what am I missing? What will put me on the path to success? What Is the yardstick for success?

It did for Paula of the Adrift Website Case, which is a real success story.”

This Author begins her conclusion by returning to and listing the questions she asked at the beginning. As the book ends, she reminds the reader of where the journey started, then immediately leads into a new story.

While you shouldn’t introduce new concepts in a conclusion, new stories that drive key concepts home are a great way to leave the reader with a memorable application of what they’ve learned.

The Scribe Crew

5 Ways To End Your Creative Nonfiction Essay ∣ Writer’s Relief

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5 Ways To End Your Creative Nonfiction Essay ∣ Writer’s Relief

When writing creative fiction, you usually know from the start how your story will end. A creative nonfiction essay, however, can be trickier to end in a satisfying way. Life is messy, so creative nonfiction can be difficult to conclude. At Writer’s Relief, we know you can’t change the facts, but you can change how you present them . How you ultimately end your creative nonfiction essay will make the difference between an intriguing, engaging read and one that falls flat.

The 5 Best Ways To End Your Creative Nonfiction Essay

The Lesson Learned: Many personal essay writers include a “lesson” in the ending—which makes sense if the natural conclusion to the essay is a new understanding to be shared with the reader. This should be handled carefully: Readers won’t appreciate being preached to. But if your essay is growing toward an organic “lesson learned” moment, then go for it! Just be sure you present it in a way readers can discover for themselves ; don’t hand the message to them on a silver platter.

The Lyric Moment: This type of ending often borrows heavily from poetic techniques. While the conclusion is important, you can also use language to offer readers a satisfying ending. Word choice, repetition, alliteration, and even meter all have a heightened significance in a “lyric moment” ending. Use the sounds of language to magnify whatever emotion you are ending with to make it resonate with your readers.

The Open Ending: As we mentioned, life can be messy, and nonfiction sometimes reflects this in ways fiction doesn’t. In life, there isn’t always a tidy ending or resolution. Maybe you realize you still don’t know what the topic of your essay has taught you, or what it means, if anything. That’s okay—that’s life! Sometimes questions go unanswered and stories go unfinished, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The Circle Back: This can be thematic or linguistic, but the general idea is to connect your ending back to the beginning in some way, thus making the essay feel complete even if you don’t have an “answer” or “lesson.” This type of ending works well when the journey in your essay follows less of a straight road and more of a meandering footpath. Remember, it’s perfectly fine in a creative nonfiction essay to eschew the typical plot structure required in fiction —but you don’t want your readers to get lost along the way!

The Abrupt Ending: If your essay has been building momentum from the start and hasn’t slowed down, it may be more impactful and satisfying to end on a sharp note than to slowly crawl back into a quieter conclusion. Use the force you’ve been building—whether it’s emotional or linguistic—and leave your readers right in the thick of what’s happening. Keep in mind that this type of ending must be done well; otherwise, readers may feel shortchanged.

Since you’re not following the traditional story arc of creative fiction, it’s important to trust your intuition when you’re writing the ending of your creative nonfiction essay. What feels right? What feels impactful? What feels like a true ending? You can try a few of the types of endings we’ve talked about here to see which offers the best conclusion. Once you have the best ending for your essay and you’ve polished and proofread your work, be sure to submit it to literary journals for publication ! Find out how the experts at Writer’s Relief can help.

Question: Which is your favorite type of ending for a personal essay?

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Writing a Summary or Rhetorical Précis to Analyze Nonfiction Texts

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Academic writers across all disciplines analyze texts. They summarize and critique published articles, evaluate papers’ arguments, and reflect on essays. In order to do these things, they have to read complex texts carefully and understand them clearly.

This page is about how you can read and analyze nonfiction texts. When you’ve read a text well, you can then discuss it in class, think critically about it, incorporate it into your writing, consider it in light of other texts, and advance or push against its ideas. We believe two productive strategies for approaching this kind of reading and analysis are active reading and rhetorical précis writing. This page provides a guide to these strategies and practical ways to help you evaluate, compare, and reflect upon nonfiction texts.

Active Reading

Introduction to the rhetorical précis, parts of a rhetorical précis, using a rhetorical précis to guide analysis.

Active reading requires you to slow your reading down, engage more intentionally with the text, think about it, and focus your attention on its ideas. When you read actively, you can’t just flip pages and daydream about tomorrow’s plans. Much has been written about active reading, but generally we recommend that when you read you:

Skim over the text before reading it. Look to see how long it is, where it’s published, how it may be divided into sections, what kind of works cited list it has, whether there are appendices, etc. Use the title to help you predict what the text is about and what it argues. This overview will help you to understand the context, genre, and purpose of this piece as well as help you gauge how long it will take you to read it and how it might be relevant to your class, paper, or project.
Take notes about the text’s key ideas and your responses to those ideas. Depending on the text and your preferences, these notes could be made on your copy of the text or article or in a separate place. Notes will help you remember and process what the text is about and what you think about it.

In addition to these strategies, we firmly believe that one of the best ways to understand a book, article, essay, blog post, etc. is to write a summary of it. Specifically, we recommend that you use your reading to generate a rhetorical précis.

“Précis” is French for “specific” or “precise.” It’s also a particular kind of writing. When you write a précis you have to exactly and succinctly account for the most important parts of a text. If you write a successful précis, it is a good indication that you’ve read that text closely and that you understand its major moves and arguments. Writing a précis is an excellent way to show that you’ve closely read a text.

Disclaimer: There are different kinds of précis for different contexts. A legal précis is different from what we’re talking about here. Some précis are longer or shorter than others. If you are writing a précis as a course assignment, be sure to follow your instructor’s guidance on what this should consist of and how it should be formatted.

Sometimes rhetorical précis writing is a course requirement. However, even if you aren’t required to write a précis for a class, writing one can help you in a number of ways. Writing a précis guides your reading and directs your attention to the key aspects of a text. Précis writing prepares you to discuss a text and sets you up for that important next step: analysis. A rhetorical précis can even help you structure your annotated bibliography annotations or provide you with summary sentences to include in a paper as you account for your sources.

A rhetorical précis, as developed by Margaret K. Woodworth and described in her 1988 article “The Rhetorical Précis” (published by Rhetoric Review), consists of four dense but direct sentences.

The first sentence identifies who wrote the text, where and when it was published, and what its topic and claim are.
The second sentence explores how the text is developed and organized.
The third sentence explains why the author wrote this, her purpose or intended effect.
The fourth and final sentence describes the “for whom” of the text by clarifying who the intended or assumed audience of this text is.

Let’s look more closely at those four parts.

First Sentence: Who, Where, When, and What?

Start by identifying the author and offering any information that might help clarify who this person is in relation to this text. Is this a scholar? If so, what is her field? Is she a public official or a prominent blogger? Is he a public intellectual? A reporter? A spokesperson? Has he written other stuff? Locate a bio in the journal or the book cover. Do a quick internet search. Figuring out who the writer is will help you understand some of the texts’ context.

Next up, the publication. What is its title? Is it a book in a series or an article in a special collection? Does it appear in the leisure section of a local newspaper? Sometimes the title of the journal is self-explanatory, but at other times it’s unfamiliar or not clearly connected to a specific discipline. Explain it as necessary. Add the date in parentheses after the title of the text. Unless it’s a newspaper, magazine, or time-sensitive online article, usually just the year will suffice.

The rest of the sentence should be about the article’s topic—what it is about. In order to make this part particularly precise, use a rhetorically strong verb to describe the author’s claim. For example, the author may suggest, argue, analyze, imply, urge, contrast, or claim something.

Second Sentence: How?

In this sentence, provide a very condensed outline of how the author develops, structures, and supports the argument. What kind of evidence does the article draw upon? How is the case built? Perhaps by comparing and contrasting, illustrating, defining, or providing context? Perhaps the text starts out with a narrative and then moves into a description of several research studies? This sentence should account for all the most important moves made across this piece.

Third Sentence: Why?

What does the writer want the reader to do, believe, feel, or think about all this? What was the purpose of this text? In the first sentence, you told us what that author is arguing; now it is time to consider why the author has done all of this. Use an “in order to” phrase in this sentence to very clearly indicate the purpose.

Fourth Sentence: For Whom?

In the final sentence, identify the author’s intended audience and offer some rationale for how you know that to be the audience. Look back at the publication and think about who is likely to read this kind of magazine, journal, or book. Pay attention to the language used in this piece and how much background the writer provides. What does the writer assume readers believe, know, or value? Identifying the audience helps you consider how rhetorically effective this text is.

An Annotated Sample of a Rhetorical Précis

Take a look at this annotated précis of William Cronon’s 1995 article “The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.” It closely follows the précis structure outlined above.

In “The Trouble With Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” (1995), the opening essay of the edited collection Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, renowned environmental historian William Cronon [Comment: The information about who Cronon is was very easily located at the end of the article and through a quick internet search.] critiques the romantic idolization of supposedly untouched, vast wilderness and argues that such a perspective of wilderness negatively affects humankind’s relationship with nature. Cronon builds a historical case for wilderness as a human construct, explores the cultural and literary foundations for the belief that wilderness is a sublime frontier, identifies the problematic paradoxes inherent in this belief, and outlines the detriments of and possible paradigm–shifting solutions to this environmental problem. [Comment: One of the challenges of the second sentence is to decide what not to include. In this case, more could be said about what those paradoxes and detriments are, but since the focus here is on the “how” instead of the “what,” they have been left out. If those kinds of unidentified details are important enough, there is room to mention them more thoroughly in the third sentence.] Cronon opposes the perspective of wilderness as an idealized, non–human space in order to persuade his readers to live rightly in relationship to nature and embrace the reality that “home” as a welcoming, responsibility–requiring place encompasses both “wilderness” and “civilization.” [Comment: Often there is more than one “why,” so be on the look out for this as you actively read.] According to his specific identification, scholarly presentation, and publication venue, Cronon’s primary audience includes American environmentalist academics. [Comment: In the later third of this essay, Cronon uses the pronoun “we” to identify himself and his assumed readership. Often authors aren’t this useful in helping to identify an audience.]

Writing a good précis is a lot of work. It takes dedicated time and consideration. But, it can be useful in and of itself and productive in the development of additional academic writing. Of course, the most obvious application of a précis is connected to its function as a summary. In academic writing, we summarize sources all the time. Once you have written a précis, you can incorporate some of its sentences or ideas into your writing when you need to quickly account for a text’s argument, content, or purpose.

But a rhetorical précis is even more powerfully useful for writing analysis.

Etymologically, “analysis” comes from the Ancient Greek terms for “throughout” and “loosening.” When you analyze something, you deconstruct it, extract its parts, peer inside to see how everything fits together. You thoroughly loosen it in order to understand it better. When you’ve used a précis to lay out the primary elements of this text (the author; the argument’s what, how, and why; and the audience) in front of you, you’re ready to move on with your analysis. Analysis of nonfiction texts can take several forms, but three common ones are: evaluation and critique, comparison, and reflection.

Evaluation and Critique

Evaluating a text requires you to use your analysis to consider and critique the strengths and weaknesses of that piece of writing. Look back at the argument and audience and ask yourself some of these questions:

Is this a persuasive argument for this group of readers?
How well is the author’s argument developed and clarified through the structure of the text?
Where does the logic of the argument and its supporting evidence cohere or fall apart?
Do the author’s background, tone, evidence, and assumptions foster credibility?
Does the piece achieve what the author intended?

Detailed answers—with examples—to any of these or similar questions could generate enough material for a close, analytical evaluation. Make sure that you are connecting your assertions about what works and doesn’t work in this text to the author, the argument’s development and purpose, and the audience. Make sure that you are looking deeply at how and why various elements of the text and its argument succeed or falter.

Through comparison, you bring together an analysis of more than one text. Start by writing a précis for each piece you have to compare. Then look at each précis side–by–side and ask yourself about how a sentence in one précis relates to the corresponding sentence in the other précis. Here are some questions to guide your thinking:

Are all texts addressing a parallel idea?
Are they making similar or different arguments?
Have they employed similar methods to arrive at their arguments?
Are they using the same kind of structure to develop those arguments?
What is different about their intended audiences?
Is one more or less successful or persuasive than the other?

Let what you identify as being similar and different about these texts guide your comparative analysis.

Reflection provides you with space to analyze a text in light of your experiences, perspectives, and ideas. In this kind of writing, you get to talk about yourself. In a way, a reflective analysis is kind of like a comparative analysis where the second text is you. Look back at that rhetorical précis and ask yourself questions like these, or other questions that connect what you know and have experienced with the text you have read:

What else have you read or experienced that furthers or complicates the argument made by this text?
How do you see that these ideas fit into the larger context of what you’ve been studying in this course?
Why do you have a particular opinion or response towards this piece of writing?
Moving forward, how can this text, its argument, or its presentation be influential in shaping your thinking or research?

In order to analyze a text, you need to understand key elements of it. Closely reading that text and summarizing it through a rhetorical précis can help you understand it better. In large part, the quality of your analysis will be dependent on the quality of your comprehension. So, give yourself the time you need to read carefully, think deeply, and analyze effectively.

Works Cited

Cronon, William. “The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.” Environmental History , vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 7–28.

Woodworth, Margaret K. “The Rhetorical Précis.” Rhetoric Review , vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 156–64.

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How to write a non-fiction conclusion for your book

Jan 24, 2024 | Writing

I took an essay writing course in grad school back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and discovered that it’s much harder to wrap up a piece than it is to start one. When it comes time to draw a conclusion, just watch yourself blank out.

The same sort of WTF-now? comes up for those writing prescriptive non-fiction books. The intro is locked down, you’ve got 200 or so pages spelling it all out, and now you’ve got to end the show gracefully, without looking like you’ve simply run out of paper.

The beautiful thing is there’s a formula for conclusions, which I’m going to share with you right here.

But let’s start with a clear understanding of the purpose of a conclusion, which is to wrap up your argument or discussion and leave a lasting impression on your readers. It’s your opportunity to summarize key points, restate your thesis or main message, and provide closure.

Here’s what you should include in a non-fiction conclusion:

Restate your thesis or main message: Begin your conclusion by revisiting the main point or argument you made in your introduction. This reminds your readers of the central focus of your piece. (If you don’t know what I’m referring to, go HERE .)

Summarize key points: Briefly recap the main points and arguments you’ve made throughout your work. This helps readers recall the important information you’ve presented.

If you’ve guided your reader through action steps, we want a reiteration of these steps.

Acknowledge the reader for taking the first step towards solving this problem.

This is a new lifestyle, a new mindset. Simple small habits will win this game.

How can they lock in this new lifestyle? What more should they do? What should they watch out for? How might they set they screw up when first using this stuff? What are the common errors they’ll have to avoid now that they’re making these changes?

How can they set themselves up for continued success?

Put in a slightly different way, describe how your reader can incorporate this information, this philosophy, into his or her life. How does this new way of thinking open the vista, make life better financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually?

Or think….What happens when your reader internalizes this stuff, does the exercises, completes the action items? Can you paint the “after” picture using a client example? What happened when they made these changes, when they finally understood the very information you’ve provided in the book? How does it change things up in unexpected ways?

Give us a reiteration of how much better life can be on this side of the problem.

What programs or services can you offer them that will guarantee continued success? Where can you point them? If you have nothing, is there another book they can read that will deepen their understanding?

Address counterarguments (if applicable): If you’ve discussed opposing viewpoints or counterarguments in your work, briefly acknowledge them in your conclusion. You can explain why your perspective is more compelling or how your research has contributed to the broader discussion.

End with a strong closing statement: Craft a memorable closing sentence that leaves a lasting impression on your readers. It could be a thought-provoking quote, a powerful statement, or a call to action.

Things to watch out for:

Maintain the tone and style: Ensure that your conclusion maintains the same tone and style as the rest of your work. Consistency in voice and style is essential for a polished conclusion.

Avoid introducing new information: Your conclusion is not the place to introduce new facts, arguments, or evidence. Stick to summarizing and reiterating what you’ve already presented. This is not a dumping ground, people.

Damn, now I have to come up with a pithy closing statement and I’m drawing a blank. How about….Follow this formula, and you won’t go wrong.

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In a short paper—even a research paper—you don’t need to provide an exhaustive summary as part of your conclusion. But you do need to make some kind of transition between your final body paragraph and your concluding paragraph. This may come in the form of a few sentences of summary. Or it may come in the form of a sentence that brings your readers back to your thesis or main idea and reminds your readers where you began and how far you have traveled.

So, for example, in a paper about the relationship between ADHD and rejection sensitivity, Vanessa Roser begins by introducing readers to the fact that researchers have studied the relationship between the two conditions and then provides her explanation of that relationship. Here’s her thesis: “While socialization may indeed be an important factor in RS, I argue that individuals with ADHD may also possess a neurological predisposition to RS that is exacerbated by the differing executive and emotional regulation characteristic of ADHD.”

In her final paragraph, Roser reminds us of where she started by echoing her thesis: “This literature demonstrates that, as with many other conditions, ADHD and RS share a delicately intertwined pattern of neurological similarities that is rooted in the innate biology of an individual’s mind, a connection that cannot be explained in full by the behavioral mediation hypothesis.”

Highlight the “so what”

At the beginning of your paper, you explain to your readers what’s at stake—why they should care about the argument you’re making. In your conclusion, you can bring readers back to those stakes by reminding them why your argument is important in the first place. You can also draft a few sentences that put those stakes into a new or broader context.

In the conclusion to her paper about ADHD and RS, Roser echoes the stakes she established in her introduction—that research into connections between ADHD and RS has led to contradictory results, raising questions about the “behavioral mediation hypothesis.”

She writes, “as with many other conditions, ADHD and RS share a delicately intertwined pattern of neurological similarities that is rooted in the innate biology of an individual’s mind, a connection that cannot be explained in full by the behavioral mediation hypothesis.”

Leave your readers with the “now what”

After the “what” and the “so what,” you should leave your reader with some final thoughts. If you have written a strong introduction, your readers will know why you have been arguing what you have been arguing—and why they should care. And if you’ve made a good case for your thesis, then your readers should be in a position to see things in a new way, understand new questions, or be ready for something that they weren’t ready for before they read your paper.

In her conclusion, Roser offers two “now what” statements. First, she explains that it is important to recognize that the flawed behavioral mediation hypothesis “seems to place a degree of fault on the individual. It implies that individuals with ADHD must have elicited such frequent or intense rejection by virtue of their inadequate social skills, erasing the possibility that they may simply possess a natural sensitivity to emotion.” She then highlights the broader implications for treatment of people with ADHD, noting that recognizing the actual connection between rejection sensitivity and ADHD “has profound implications for understanding how individuals with ADHD might best be treated in educational settings, by counselors, family, peers, or even society as a whole.”

To find your own “now what” for your essay’s conclusion, try asking yourself these questions:

What can my readers now understand, see in a new light, or grapple with that they would not have understood in the same way before reading my paper? Are we a step closer to understanding a larger phenomenon or to understanding why what was at stake is so important?
What questions can I now raise that would not have made sense at the beginning of my paper? Questions for further research? Other ways that this topic could be approached?
Are there other applications for my research? Could my questions be asked about different data in a different context? Could I use my methods to answer a different question?
What action should be taken in light of this argument? What action do I predict will be taken or could lead to a solution?
What larger context might my argument be a part of?

What to avoid in your conclusion

a complete restatement of all that you have said in your paper.
a substantial counterargument that you do not have space to refute; you should introduce counterarguments before your conclusion.
an apology for what you have not said. If you need to explain the scope of your paper, you should do this sooner—but don’t apologize for what you have not discussed in your paper.
fake transitions like “in conclusion” that are followed by sentences that aren’t actually conclusions. (“In conclusion, I have now demonstrated that my thesis is correct.”)
picture_as_pdf Conclusions

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Guides • Perfecting your Craft

Last updated on Apr 23, 2021

How to Write a Nonfiction Book in 6 Steps

Writing a nonfiction book is a good way to share your story, impart your wisdom, or even build your business. And while you may not have thought about becoming an author before, it’s not as far-fetched a goal as you might think. In this post, we'll show you a simple process for becoming a nonfiction author. Hold onto that book idea of yours, and let’s see how we can turn it into something that readers will love.

How to write a nonfiction book:

1. Determine what problem your book will solve

2. outline your book with a logical structure, 3. choose a style guide to remain consistent, 4. blast through your messy first draft, 5. revise your manuscript and check your facts, 6. choose to publish traditionally or independently.

When you start out, your idea is likely to be nebulous or vague, e.g. “It’s a self-help book for new parents.” Before you put pen to paper, you need to crystallize and tighten your original idea, as well as think about your target audience and your author platform . Using that information and the tips below, you can validate your book idea, find a sense of direction in your writing, and prepare for when you send out a book proposal , if you want to traditionally publish.

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Nail down your book idea

A key part of figuring out how to write a nonfiction book is being able to answer the three important "W" questions:

What is it about?
Why does it matter, and why should you write it?
Who will want to read it — or rather, who is your target audience ?

Once you can answer these questions, you can fill in the blanks below:

[The who] will read my book about [the what] because [the why].

For example: "CEOs will read my book about workplace culture because it offers insights into the practices of the top ten companies voted 'best places' to work in the USA."

Being able to distill your book down in this way is a good sign you have a solid concept, and that your book will ultimately be marketable. If you can’t answer one of those questions, it may be time to return to the drawing board and tighten up your book’s main idea.

Research your topic

Once you’ve pinned down your idea, , you’ll want to dig a bit into the topic or the nonfiction genre of your book to find the leads to develop this idea. Research is very important, and it can come in many shapes and sizes depending on the project. Here are a few of the different types of research that are suitable for certain genres.

💭 If you’re writing a memoir

We’ve got a whole guide on how to write a memoir here with more research tips, but if there’s one thing we recommend you do, it’s to interview yourself. Ask yourself questions that strangers might ask you. A simple interview like this can help you reassess your memories and pull out the important bits of your story. (And of course, you can always have someone else interview you too!)

🔧 If you’re writing a how-to

Your research may involve collecting all sorts of existing material on the subject — such as blog posts and previously published essays. You might want to test some of the methods out in order to home in on the most effective instructions.

☯ If you’re writing self-help

When writing a self-help book , you might want to reach out to experts, such as psychologists and inspirational speakers, who can provide more evidence and insight to what you already know. If you're an expert yourself, you can interview yourself as you would for a memoir. It also doesn’t hurt to check out some of the best self-help books for inspiration!

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⏳ If you’re writing a history or biography

You’ll be gathering resources in libraries and archives, looking at primary and secondary sources on the matter. And if you’re writing about someone who’s still alive, you’ll probably need access to said person, or at least have their consent before forging on with the research.

💼 If you’re writing a business book

This requires a lot of understanding of the market that you’re writing about, be it the one concerning stocks or houseplants (see more of what we mean in our guide on how to write an ebook ). You have to find out who might be interested in the products you're talking about, what their habits are like, where they usually go to for advice on matters related to the product — the list goes on. If you really want to dive into this route, perhaps this free course of ours can be of some help…

Free course: How to write a business book

How can writing a book revolutionize your business? Only one way to find out.

Like fiction, where story structure can make or break a narrative , nonfiction relies on the reader being able to follow the writer’s leaps of logic. Since nonfiction is all about utility, structure is of the utmost importance in guiding the reader toward the information they need. You want your structure to be coherent but also gripping, so that readers want to read on and remember what they’ve read.

How to Write a Nonfiction Book | Book Writing Software Reedsy Book Editor

Typically, if your book is about a process, or is a how-to, a linear structure makes sense. To make things more exciting for readers, you can also choose to disrupt the linear flow and follow a list or essay structure. Not sure what these structures are? Head on to guide on how to outline a nonfiction book to find the answers (and more planning tips).

Before you start writing, pick a style guide to follow throughout your book. What’s a style guide, you ask? It’s a set of guidelines to help keep your writing consistent. If you’ve worked with both US English and UK English, you might notice that certain things get spelled differently, i.e. ‘color’ versus ‘colour’. You should choose the variation that best suits your target audience, depending on where they’re based. A manual of style would help ensure you keep to one of those versions, along with some other details like whether you use the Oxford or serial comma, single or double quotation marks, or how to list your references. A popular guide that you might find useful is the Chicago Manual of Style .

Why do things like this matter? Firstly, a proper guide matters to a nonfiction book because this book is supposed to be factual and accurate. Whether you’re writing popular self-help or more academic pieces, referencing will be a crucial part of your credibility, so you’ll want to nail it from the moment you start. Secondly, being consistent as you write will only help you in the editing process, preventing you from having to correct the same mistakes over and over again.

Now the planning’s out of the way, there’s nowhere left to run: it’s time to actually sit down and write your first draft. Luckily, we've got plenty of writing tips to help you out!

Use storytelling techniques

Almost anything is more comprehensible and memorable when told as a story. Stories are easier to follow along, they get readers invested in the topic and curious about what happens next, and they tend to be more memorable than just hard facts. Which is why you should think about the stories that you can tell through your nonfiction book, and how to get the most out of them.

So when you use anecdotal evidence, think about the person (a.k.a. character) involved, what their motivations and feelings are. How can those motives and sensations be linked to your main point? If you can, the fact that you’re sharing will be that much more meaningful to the reader because they've associated it with a story. Of course, you shouldn’t embellish facts and end up in the realm of fiction, but an eye for narrative detail is a big asset for a nonfiction author.

Hear it from another author: Harry Freedman shared his process with us in this Reedsy Live!

Include dialogue

Continuing on from the previous point, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use dialogue in your nonfiction writing. It’s a given that you’d use it in creative nonfiction, but it’s also a great way to break up dense texts and add a human voice to your book. If you have a transcript or a record of a direct quote, you can write it as dialogue . If not, feel free to refer to what was being said as something you’ve been told, rather than something someone said. The difference is subtle (as you can see in the example below), but either way, including conversations make the writing more accessible and interesting to read.

“I bought a lot of ice cream that week where there was a heatwave,” Joe said. Hot weather makes people crave ice cream — I remember my neighbor, Joe, stocking up in preparation for a heatwave.

Of course, it goes without saying that in academic writing this might not be the most conventional or professional option. But if you have a clear recording of the conversation, and you see the value of including it in your book, then you can do it. Note, however, that the formatting for dialogues in academic writing especially may be different from the ones you see in fiction writing (this is why we cannot emphasize enough the need to find an appropriate editor).

Avoid jargon

This just might be the most important piece of advice we can give you: keep your use of jargon and complicated language to a minimum. This does not mean that you have to cut away every expert term you have in your vocabulary, it just means you should use them mindfully. Remember that you may be writing for a quite a big audience, many of whom might not know what you’re talking about. Not only will they need you to explain the term when you first introduce it, they’ll also be less likely to remember these terms if they’ve only just met them.

As such, you want to minimize the use of jargon in your writing. If there’s a simpler way to express something, use it. It might feel like you’re killing your darlings , but it will most likely be appreciated by your readers.If you must use specialist vocab, be sure to define it and add refreshers where necessary.

Have a writing schedule

Our final tip is one for your process: create a writing schedule for yourself, whichever fits your own timetable and writing habits the most. Perhaps you have a day job and work best when you have a specific time to write at the end of the day. Or maybe you work better with a monthly goal of finishing certain sections and chapters in mind. Either way, setting out time to write regularly will help you progress and keep you from losing motivation.

If you think learning how to write a nonfiction book is all about the actual writing, you’re forgetting another crucial dimension of the book business: editing. Most manuscripts go through several rounds of revisions before they reach their final form, and the first round should always be a self-edit. So don’t hold back: it’s time for you to ruthlessly edit your book . Here are some of our best tips for you.

Double-check your facts

It should go without saying, but this is probably the most important part of editing your nonfiction book. Whenever you refer to a fact, a historical event, or an argument that another academic has previously made, you have to make sure that it’s accurate. On top of that, you’ll have to add a footnote and reference at the end, listing your sources. You don’t want to be sharing false facts or accused of paraphrasing other’s works!

As such, combing through and checking your facts is essential. It can be quite a tedious task, and you can never be too careful, so having a second pair of eyes on your manuscript is always a good idea.

Perfect your manuscript with professional help

The top nonfiction editors are on Reedsy, and you can meet them for free

Learn how Reedsy can help you craft a beautiful book.

Cut down on excessive information

While we’re on the topic of facts, let’s talk about being overly informative. Can a book that’s supposed to educate ever be provide too much information? Turns out too much of anything can be bad.

Everything in your book should link back to the main problem that you’re addressing. Sometimes it’s tempting to drop in a fun fact or anecdote that you think readers might find entertaining, but it’s important to balance that with the coherence of your book. So as you reread your first draft, think about the purpose behind the pieces of information you lay out, and remove those that don’t aid in answering the main question of your book.

Shorten your sentences

The style guide you picked at the beginning will probably have you covered in terms of punctuation and grammar. What it can’t cover is your sentence length. Most sentences in first drafts err on the longer side — we tend to use more conjunctions than necessary to connect phrases and ideas that are interlinked. However, it’s often easier for readers to take in the details bit by bit.

Aim for 20-30 words sentences, which should max out at about two lines in the standard Times New Roman, 12-point font. Anything longer than 50 words should be avoided as much as possible.

Looking for more tips to refine your nonfiction writing? Reedsy editor Jenn Lien shared plenty in this seminar!

Self-edits all done? That means you’re ready for the next steps of your publishing journey. The next question to ask yourself is how you’ll be putting this book of yours into the world: will it be through a publisher, or will you produce the book independently? There’s a lot to consider when debating the pros and cons of traditional and self-publishing , but as a nonfiction writer, you might find doing it yourself beneficial, because:

Publishing is much faster without having to go through agents and publishers;
You probably have or are building an online presence already and can use that to effectively market your book ;
You get most of the royalties.

That said, we’ll share some tips to get you ready for either pathway below. And if you’re still on the fence about the next steps, maybe this little quiz can help you out!

Is self-publishing or traditional publishing right for you?

Takes one minute!

Self-publishing

If you’ve decided to become an indie author , here are some things you might want to do once you finish your manuscript. (Remember that although you’re self-publishing, you won’t have to do everything by yourself! Professional help is at hand.)

✍ Hire an editor (if you haven’t already). At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we can’t recommend hiring a professional editor enough. A fresh perspective will always help when it comes to the nitty gritty details.

🎨 Work with a professional cover designer. In the digital age, the decision to buy a book is arguably more heavily influenced by the appeal of the cover — it’s the thumbnails on Amazon that do much of the work! Artistic book covers like these are guaranteed to catch the eye of browsers, which is why you should definitely work with a designer.

🌐 Get to know Amazon. We know, its influence on our lives is uncanny, but there’s hardly a better place to reach your audience than Amazon. From printing the books to promoting it, there are all the tools you need on this platform to achieve self-publishing success. This guide on Amazon self-publishing will shed some light on how that can be done.

Traditional publishing

Going down the traditional route means that the publisher will take care of most areas of finishing up the product, from the edit to cover design. However, to get to that point, you’ll need to follow some pretty standard steps.

📬 Query an agent. Most large publishers don’t accept unsolicited submissions from authors, meaning they require representation from a literary agent. Some resources we have for those looking to query are:

Writing a Nonfiction Query Letter (with Free Sample) (blog post)
The Best Nonfiction Literary Agents to Submit to (directory)

📖 Submit a book proposal. Together with an agent, you’ll have to pitch a publisher with a book proposal. This proposal includes your book’s synopsis, its target audience and competitive titles, as well as a sample of one or two of the chapters. So while you don’t need a complete manuscript before you submit, a rough draft will no doubt be helpful. For a bit more detail on the process, check out our free course on how to submit a nonfiction proposal.

Free course: How to submit a book proposal

Get publishers excited about your nonfiction book in this 10-day online course.

Now that you know how to write a nonfiction book, the publishing world is your oyster! Whatever path you take, we wish you the best of luck. And if you do decide to publish, we can’t wait to see what you’ve created.

David Irvine says:

05/12/2019 – 16:58

I self-published all my books for free using the Amazon KDP software. It was a bit of a high learning curve but worth the time and effort. You can also create a really nice front cover using their cover creator. Anyway, nice write up with plenty of good tips for writers seeking to get published.

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Inferring in Nonfiction: Going Beyond the Text

by Stephanie Harvey

Inferential thinking is the bedrock of understanding.

Inferring involves drawing a conclusion or making an interpretation based on information that is not explicitly stated in the text. Inferential thinking helps readers make predictions, surface themes, or draw conclusions.

When reading nonfiction, readers infer from the text, but they also infer from illustrations, photographs, and graphic features such as color and design.

Readers may have to crack open language to get at the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary and concepts. Answers to questions often must be inferred.

Inferring requires that readers merge their background knowledge with clues in the text and/or graphics to come up with something that isn’t explicitly stated. We share this inferring equation with students:

BK+TC=I (Background Knowledge + Text Clues = Inference)

Students need to know that inferring is not merely guessing. Inferences have to be tied to the text. Guesses do not. (Harvey and Goudvis 2016)

Infer with Explorer

National Geographic Explorer magazine , with its remarkable images and features, offers a wide array of inferential entry points to help students gain understanding and build knowledge.

The May 2018 issue of National Geographic Explorer contains an article titled “The Blue Fleet.” Loaded with stunning photos, we can share the inferring equation and then flip through the magazine, making inferences from photographs as well as text.

Beginning with the cover photo and the title, we model with students how we infer the meaning of the title:

“I know what a fleet is (a large group of ships) but since there are no ships on the cover, I can infer that this title actually doesn’t mean a group of ships. So, I need to use the photos as additional clues. These photos help me infer that The Blue Fleet is an inferential title and seems to relate to the creatures on the cover. I infer the meaning of the title by using the inferring equation BK+TC=I.”

Once you have modeled this, have students scan pages 2 and 3 and ask them to turn and talk about what they can infer from the images and the selection title on those pages. They might infer that the creature is a jelly. They might confirm that “Blue Fleet” means blue sea creatures, since there is one on the page.

Suggest students preview the article, paying attention to the photos and subheads. You might read the subhead “Many Parts, One Animal” and share what you infer this section will be about.

“I infer from the subhead and the photo to the left that this section is going to give information about this creature, but that it is more than one creature.”

Read the first sentence under that subhead. “Don’t let the name fool you. The blue button jellyfish is no jellyfish. It’s a colony.”

Say “I made a reasonable inference based on the subhead and the photo. I will jot my inference on a Post-it and place it right next to the photo where I made it.”

Once you have modeled how you infer from photos, subheads, and titles, invite students to find a partner, read together, practice inferring, and jot down their own inferences as they read and view.

After they finish the article, have students come back and share out what it is they inferred … as well as any of the cool content they learned.

Adapted from: Harvey, Stephanie and Anne Goudvis. 2016 The Intermediate Comprehension Toolkit. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann

Interested in Explorer magazine? Click here to subscribe to this great classroom resource.

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How to Conclude an Essay (with Examples)

Last Updated: April 3, 2023 Fact Checked

Writing a Strong Conclusion

What to avoid, brainstorming tricks.

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams and by wikiHow staff writer, Aly Rusciano . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 3,205,903 times.

So, you’ve written an outstanding essay and couldn’t be more proud. But now you have to write the final paragraph. The conclusion simply summarizes what you’ve already written, right? Well, not exactly. Your essay’s conclusion should be a bit more finessed than that. Luckily, you’ve come to the perfect place to learn how to write a conclusion. We’ve put together this guide to fill you in on everything you should and shouldn’t do when ending an essay. Follow our advice, and you’ll have a stellar conclusion worthy of an A+ in no time.

Things You Should Know

Rephrase your thesis to include in your final paragraph to bring the essay full circle.
End your essay with a call to action, warning, or image to make your argument meaningful.
Keep your conclusion concise and to the point, so you don’t lose a reader’s attention.
Do your best to avoid adding new information to your conclusion and only emphasize points you’ve already made in your essay.

“All in all”
“Ultimately”
“Furthermore”
“As a consequence”
“As a result”

Step 2 Briefly summarize your essay’s main points.

Make sure to write your main points in a new and unique way to avoid repetition.

Step 3 Rework your thesis statement into the conclusion.

Let’s say this is your original thesis statement: “Allowing students to visit the library during lunch improves campus life and supports academic achievement.”
Restating your thesis for your conclusion could look like this: “Evidence shows students who have access to their school’s library during lunch check out more books and are more likely to complete their homework.”
The restated thesis has the same sentiment as the original while also summarizing other points of the essay.

“When you use plastic water bottles, you pollute the ocean. Switch to using a glass or metal water bottle instead. The planet and sea turtles will thank you.”
“The average person spends roughly 7 hours on their phone a day, so there’s no wonder cybersickness is plaguing all generations.”
“Imagine walking on the beach, except the soft sand is made up of cigarette butts. They burn your feet but keep washing in with the tide. If we don’t clean up the ocean, this will be our reality.”
“ Lost is not only a show that changed the course of television, but it’s also a reflection of humanity as a whole.”
“If action isn’t taken to end climate change today, the global temperature will dangerously rise from 4.5 to 8 °F (−15.3 to −13.3 °C) by 2100.”

Focus on your essay's most prevalent or important parts. What key points do you want readers to take away or remember about your essay?

For instance, instead of writing, “That’s why I think that Abraham Lincoln was the best American President,” write, “That’s why Abraham Lincoln was the best American President.”
There’s no room for ifs, ands, or buts—your opinion matters and doesn’t need to be apologized for!

For instance, words like “firstly,” “secondly,” and “thirdly” may be great transition statements for body paragraphs but are unnecessary in a conclusion.

For instance, say you began your essay with the idea that humanity’s small sense of sense stems from space’s vast size. Try returning to this idea in the conclusion by emphasizing that as human knowledge grows, space becomes smaller.

Step 4 Think about your essay’s argument in a broader “big picture” context.

For example, you could extend an essay on the television show Orange is the New Black by bringing up the culture of imprisonment in America.

Community Q&A

Always review your essay after writing it for proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and don’t be afraid to revise. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 1
Ask a friend, family member, or teacher for help if you’re stuck. Sometimes a second opinion is all you need. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 1

↑ https://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/support/helps/self-help-resources/grammar/transition-signals
↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/argument_papers/conclusions.html
↑ http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/conclude.html
↑ https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/ending-essay-conclusions
↑ https://www.pittsfordschools.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=542&dataid=4677&FileName=conclusions1.pdf
↑ https://www.cuyamaca.edu/student-support/tutoring-center/files/student-resources/how-to-write-a-good-conclusion.pdf
↑ https://library.sacredheart.edu/c.php?g=29803&p=185935

About This Article

To end an essay, start your conclusion with a phrase that makes it clear your essay is coming to a close, like "In summary," or "All things considered." Then, use a few sentences to briefly summarize the main points of your essay by rephrasing the topic sentences of your body paragraphs. Finally, end your conclusion with a call to action that encourages your readers to do something or learn more about your topic. In general, try to keep your conclusion between 5 and 7 sentences long. For more tips from our English co-author, like how to avoid common pitfalls when writing an essay conclusion, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to End Your Article: 5 Ways to Write a Powerful Conclusion

December 30, 2022
13 Comments

A good article ends with a conclusion that surprises the reader, yet makes sense. Writing an ending that summarizes your ideas is difficult, but not impossible.

Endings are important. So important, in fact, that some writers say a strong ending is more important than a strong beginning. I disagree. If you don’t hook your reader from the start, she’ll never get to the end.

Nevertheless, ending your article on a high note gives it power to stick with the reader forever. Or a really long time. In this article, you won’t find a “one size fits all” tip on how to end your article because it doesn’t exist. You will, however, find the five most effective ways to write a conclusion.

“It is always important to know when something has reached its end,” writes Paulo Coelho in The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession . “Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn’t matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over.”

Sometimes the ending practically writes itself. Other times you have to wrestle that ending to the ground. Either way, you must be alert. Writing a great conclusion is easier when you have a variety of tools and techniques to choose from. Who goes into battle empty-handed? These five tips for ending your article will help you find the right way to say “The End” without coming out and saying…The End.

Whether you’re writing an article for a national magazine or blogging a little blurb, keep the ending at the back of your mind. What impression do you want to leave the readers with? How do you want them to feel, what do you want them to do? As you research, write and revise your article, stay alert to possible endings. Play with different ideas.

5 Powerful Ways to End Your Article

Some writers say the conclusion of an article could work just as well as the introduction – with a slight modification. I think it depends on your article, writing style, and audience.

Your conclusion rounds out the article, ties up the loose ends. It’s not an afterthought. To be powerful, a strong ending has to develop naturally from the article, essay, or chapter. The conclusion has to both surprise readers and make them feel like they should’ve known it was coming all along.

1. End with a quotation that looks back or looks forward

You don’t necessarily want to add anything too new to the end of your article, but you can include a surprising twist. Readers want the same, but different. So do editors and publishers. So, give your reader more of what you’ve been doing in the article — ending with a little poke in the ribs.

“…don’t make the surprise so foreign that it seems out of place and doesn’t tie into the article. If the quote or surprising statement seems out of place, then you only leave the reader confused, and you have lost the value of what you have built throughout the article,” writes Roger Palms in Effective Magazine Writing: Let Your Words Reach the World .

2. Invite the reader to go in a different direction

The most powerful ending neatly wraps up the article and gives the reader something new to think about. This is difficult for most writers – even seasoned freelancers. Imagine your ending as a fork in the road. Where do you want readers to go? Write two or three different endings, then take a break. Have a nap, visit another world. Now how does the ending feel? Maybe it needs more work, or maybe one of your conclusions does the job.

The bad news is there is no one perfect way to write a powerful ending to your article. This is also the good news! If there was one perfect way to end it, then all writers would use that conclusion. And it would lose its power. You need to find the right ending for your article.

3. Finish with a dollop of something different

“If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on a wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off,” says Paula LaRocque, author of The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well . “If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”

This type of conclusion might involve weaving in (not tacking on) a whole new anecdote, or including a new bit of information that adds to the story you introduced in the lead or body of the article. Many professional freelance writers like to end with a relevant story, a little vignette, something that gives the reader a feeling that the essence of the article or essay was captured.

How do I end my articles? I circle back to the beginning somehow – it depends on the topic, interviewees, audience, article length, and deadline. I often include more information about something I introduced earlier in the article.

“What is this ‘more’ you speak of?”, you ask? It depends on the article you’re writing. That’s the pain and power of writing: so much simply depends on so many things. If you know how to end your article or essay but your writing is flimsy and weak, read How to Write Powerful Words That Grab Attention .

4. If you must summarize, do it with style

Some endings need to clearly restate and summarize the article’s main argument. Other articles don’t need a summary because there wasn’t a stated theme. Does your article need a summary? Ask it. Ask yourself as the writer. Maybe even ask a beta reader. If you’re arguing for or describing something complicated or new to readers, perhaps a summary is the most powerful way to end the article.

A summary isn’t the most creative way to end your article, but you can spice it up with different literary techniques. Use sensory details to fire up your writing, or bring an inanimate object alive with personification. Learn different types of edgy and quirky writing . Sometimes it’s not what you write…it’s how you write it.

Here’s how NOT to end an article:

“In summary, I would like to say….”
“The End.”
“In conclusion, may I reiterate….”
“I know I said this in my intro and in paragraphs three through thirty, but it cannot be overstated that…”

I take a week to write magazine articles. This allows my brain and the article to tell me how to write a powerful ending. It’s never perfect, but it is as good as I can write it.

5. Circle back to the beginning

The final, most powerful tip on how to end an article: write a conclusion that refers back to your introduction or opening statements. This, says some professional freelance writers, gives readers a feeling of arrival.

You could pick up a word, a phrase, or part of an anecdote from your introduction, and round it out more. Don’t just repeat it; expand on it, color it in, give it some texture and depth. Ideally, leave readers with a hook at the end of your article – something that lodges in their minds so deeply that they can’t forget it right away.

Good writing isn’t just about learning how to end an article with a strong conclusion or conclude an essay with a summary of all your main points. Rather, good writing is about weaving all the aspects of the whole piece together.

Are you writing for a magazine?

In 11 Most Popular Articles to Write for Magazines (Freelance Writing is Easier Than You Think!) I share tips for getting published in magazines.

Getting published in print and online magazines is a lot easier when you know what types of articles editors and publishers need.

I welcome your thoughts on writing good endings – and learning how to listen to your article for the ending it wants to tell. Remember that writing a good ending involves editing and revising; it’s not something you can just tack onto the end.

Need encouragement? Stay in touch! Get my free weekly email

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13 thoughts on “How to End Your Article: 5 Ways to Write a Powerful Conclusion”

Great article! Your explanation of how to write a conclusion was very clear and informative. I particularly appreciated the tips on summarizing the main points and tying them together to leave a lasting impact on the reader. Thank you for sharing this valuable information with the writing community

Appreciate the encouragement!

Just to say: Paula LaRocque is quoting (or ripping off?!) master playwright Anton Chekhov there (about the gun that must go off). It’s a pretty famous quote from him: he just says “acts” instead of chapters, since he was a playwright. Just sayin’! Thanks for the tips on endings!

The Most Popular Nonfiction Books of 2024 So Far, According to Goodreads

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Goodreads editors have crunched some more numbers to give us a list of 51 of the most popular nonfiction books of 2024 (so far). To do so, they looked at which titles their members had saved under the Read or Want to Read sections on the site, which boasts more than 150 million members.

They’ve organized the list into categories that may overlap a bit: Essays, History & Biography, Memoirs, Science, and General Nonfiction.

A sampling of Goodreads’ 51 most popular nonfiction books of 2024 is below:

There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

a graphic of the cover of My Side of the River: A Memoir by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez

My Side of the River by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul

History & Biography

cover of Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton

Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong by Katie Gee Salisbury

Science, Technology & Health

Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation by Jen Gunter

Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher

General Nonfiction

Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out by Shannon Reed

a graphic of the cover of Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson

To see the complete list, visit Goodreads.com.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books .

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What Sentencing Could Look Like if Trump Is Found Guilty

A black-and-white photo of Donald Trump, standing behind a metal barricade.

By Norman L. Eisen

Mr. Eisen is the author of “Trying Trump: A Guide to His First Election Interference Criminal Trial.”

For all the attention to and debate over the unfolding trial of Donald Trump in Manhattan, there has been surprisingly little of it paid to a key element: its possible outcome and, specifically, the prospect that a former and potentially future president could be sentenced to prison time.

The case — brought by Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, against Mr. Trump — represents the first time in our nation’s history that a former president is a defendant in a criminal trial. As such, it has generated lots of debate about the case’s legal strength and integrity, as well as its potential impact on Mr. Trump’s efforts to win back the White House.

A review of thousands of cases in New York that charged the same felony suggests something striking: If Mr. Trump is found guilty, incarceration is an actual possibility. It’s not certain, of course, but it is plausible.

Jury selection has begun, and it’s not too soon to talk about what the possibility of a sentence, including a prison sentence, would look like for Mr. Trump, for the election and for the country — including what would happen if he is re-elected.

The case focuses on alleged interference in the 2016 election, which consisted of a hush-money payment Michael Cohen, the former president’s fixer at the time, made in 2016 to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. Mr. Bragg is arguing that the cover-up cheated voters of the chance to fully assess Mr. Trump’s candidacy.

This may be the first criminal trial of a former president in American history, but if convicted, Mr. Trump’s fate is likely to be determined by the same core factors that guide the sentencing of every criminal defendant in New York State Court.

Comparable cases. The first factor is the base line against which judges measure all sentences: how other defendants have been treated for similar offenses. My research encompassed almost 10,000 cases of felony falsifying business records that have been prosecuted across the state of New York since 2015. Over a similar period, the Manhattan D.A. has charged over 400 of these cases . In roughly the first year of Mr. Bragg’s tenure, his team alone filed 166 felony counts for falsifying business records against 34 people or companies.

Contrary to claims that there will be no sentence of incarceration for falsifying business records, when a felony conviction involves serious misconduct, defendants can be sentenced to some prison time. My analysis of the most recent data indicates that approximately one in 10 cases in which the most serious charge at arraignment is falsifying business records in the first degree and in which the court ultimately imposes a sentence, results in a term of imprisonment.

To be clear, these cases generally differ from Mr. Trump’s case in one important respect: They typically involve additional charges besides just falsifying records. That clearly complicates what we might expect if Mr. Trump is convicted.

Nevertheless, there are many previous cases involving falsifying business records along with other charges where the conduct was less serious than is alleged against Mr. Trump and prison time was imposed. For instance, Richard Luthmann was accused of attempting to deceive voters — in his case, impersonating New York political figures on social media in an attempt to influence campaigns. He pleaded guilty to three counts of falsifying business records in the first degree (as well as to other charges). He received a sentence of incarceration on the felony falsification counts (although the sentence was not solely attributable to the plea).

A defendant in another case was accused of stealing in excess of $50,000 from her employer and, like in this case, falsifying one or more invoices as part of the scheme. She was indicted on a single grand larceny charge and ultimately pleaded guilty to one felony count of business record falsification for a false invoice of just under $10,000. She received 364 days in prison.

To be sure, for a typical first-time offender charged only with run-of-the-mill business record falsification, a prison sentence would be unlikely. On the other hand, Mr. Trump is being prosecuted for 34 counts of conduct that might have changed the course of American history.

Seriousness of the crime. Mr. Bragg alleges that Mr. Trump concealed critical information from voters (paying hush money to suppress an extramarital relationship) that could have harmed his campaign, particularly if it came to light after the revelation of another scandal — the “Access Hollywood” tape . If proved, that could be seen not just as unfortunate personal judgment but also, as Justice Juan Merchan has described it, an attempt “to unlawfully influence the 2016 presidential election.”

History and character. To date, Mr. Trump has been unrepentant about the events alleged in this case. There is every reason to believe that will not change even if he is convicted, and lack of remorse is a negative at sentencing. Justice Merchan’s evaluation of Mr. Trump’s history and character may also be informed by the other judgments against him, including Justice Arthur Engoron’s ruling that Mr. Trump engaged in repeated and persistent business fraud, a jury finding that he sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll and a related defamation verdict by a second jury.

Justice Merchan may also weigh the fact that Mr. Trump has been repeatedly held in contempt , warned , fined and gagged by state and federal judges. That includes for statements he made that exposed witnesses, individuals in the judicial system and their families to danger. More recently, Mr. Trump made personal attacks on Justice Merchan’s daughter, resulting in an extension of the gag order in the case. He now stands accused of violating it again by commenting on witnesses.

What this all suggests is that a term of imprisonment for Mr. Trump, while far from certain for a former president, is not off the table. If he receives a sentence of incarceration, perhaps the likeliest term is six months, although he could face up to four years, particularly if Mr. Trump chooses to testify, as he said he intends to do , and the judge believes he lied on the stand . Probation is also available, as are more flexible approaches like a sentence of spending every weekend in jail for a year.

We will probably know what the judge will do within 30 to 60 days of the end of the trial, which could run into mid-June. If there is a conviction, that would mean a late summer or early fall sentencing.

Justice Merchan would have to wrestle in the middle of an election year with the potential impact of sentencing a former president and current candidate.

If Mr. Trump is sentenced to a period of incarceration, the reaction of the American public will probably be as polarized as our divided electorate itself. Yet as some polls suggest — with the caveat that we should always be cautious of polls early in the race posing hypothetical questions — many key swing state voters said they would not vote for a felon.

If Mr. Trump is convicted and then loses the presidential election, he will probably be granted bail, pending an appeal, which will take about a year. That means if any appeals are unsuccessful, he will most likely have to serve any sentence starting sometime next year. He will be sequestered with his Secret Service protection; if it is less than a year, probably in Rikers Island. His protective detail will probably be his main company, since Mr. Trump will surely be isolated from other inmates for his safety.

If Mr. Trump wins the presidential election, he can’t pardon himself because it is a state case. He will be likely to order the Justice Department to challenge his sentence, and department opinions have concluded that a sitting president could not be imprisoned, since that would prevent the president from fulfilling the constitutional duties of the office. The courts have never had to address the question, but they could well agree with the Justice Department.

So if Mr. Trump is convicted and sentenced to a period of incarceration, its ultimate significance is probably this: When the American people go to the polls in November, they will be voting on whether Mr. Trump should be held accountable for his original election interference.

What questions do you have about Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial so far?

Please submit them below. Our trial experts will respond to a selection of readers in a future piece.

Norman L. Eisen investigated the 2016 voter deception allegations as counsel for the first impeachment and trial of Donald Trump and is the author of “Trying Trump: A Guide to His First Election Interference Criminal Trial.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

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COMMENTS

7 ways to end a nonfiction essay
But having a few snapshots help you understand the whole journey better. This is when it clicks. You collect pieces of a puzzle, you spend hours assembling them, you concentrate on the individual pieces how they fit together. The end is when you put the last piece into place, stand up, and look at it from a distance so you can see the whole ...
Writing the Perfect Conclusion for your Nonfiction Book
Conclusion #5: The Combo Method. As you might guess, sometimes just following one of these conclusion approaches won't quite be enough for your book. In these cases, experiment with combining two or more approaches. A "where are they now" structure can be the story that makes up your "artsy cliffhanger" conclusion; a "why should we ...
How To Write a Conclusion for Nonfiction Books
Signing Off. A few friendly, encouraging words are enough here. For instance: "Thanks for joining me on this journey. Goodbye, and good luck!". "Thanks for buying this book; I hope you've enjoyed it. Now you can have some fun putting everything you've learned into practice.".
PDF Ultimate Guide to Writing a Nonfiction Manuscript
to end. You can instead work on different chapters at different times, or jump around topics—whatever works best for you. Once you begin to exercise your writing muscle, the process should get easier with time. Stick to your planned schedule! Also, heed the popular advice to "just write."
How to Write an Interesting Conclusion for Your Nonfiction Book
Use a Consistent Tone and Style. The tone and style of the conclusion should be consistent with the rest of the book. If the book is academic, maintain an academic tone; if it's a self-help book, maintain an encouraging and motivational tone. In essence, the purpose of the conclusion in a nonfiction book is to tie together the various ...
Ending the Essay: Conclusions
Finally, some advice on how not to end an essay: Don't simply summarize your essay. A brief summary of your argument may be useful, especially if your essay is long--more than ten pages or so. But shorter essays tend not to require a restatement of your main ideas. Avoid phrases like "in conclusion," "to conclude," "in summary," and "to sum up ...
How to Write a Conclusion [& End Your Book The Right Way]
Usually, the easiest and most compelling way to begin the conclusion is by referring back to one (or more) of them. Or you can add another dimension to a story you already told or tie up loose ends. 2. Restate the book's mission/thesis. This is pretty simple, but make sure you restate the book's thesis.
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The 5 Best Ways To End Your Creative Nonfiction Essay. The Lesson Learned: Many personal essay writers include a "lesson" in the ending—which makes sense if the natural conclusion to the essay is a new understanding to be shared with the reader.This should be handled carefully: Readers won't appreciate being preached to.
Writing a Summary or Rhetorical Précis to Analyze Nonfiction Texts
Academic writers across all disciplines analyze texts. They summarize and critique published articles, evaluate papers' arguments, and reflect on essays. In order to do these things, they have to read complex texts carefully and understand them clearly. This page is about how you can read and analyze nonfiction texts. When you've read a text well,…
Writing a conclusion for a non-fiction book
Here's what you should include in a non-fiction conclusion: Restate your thesis or main message: Begin your conclusion by revisiting the main point or argument you made in your introduction. This reminds your readers of the central focus of your piece. . (If you don't know what I'm referring to, go HERE .)
Conclusions
Highlight the "so what". At the beginning of your paper, you explain to your readers what's at stake—why they should care about the argument you're making. In your conclusion, you can bring readers back to those stakes by reminding them why your argument is important in the first place. You can also draft a few sentences that put ...
5 Ways To End Your Creative Nonfiction Essay ∣ Writer's Relief
The Lyric Moment: This type of ending often borrows heavily from poetic techniques. While the conclusion is important, you can also use language to offer readers a satisfying ending. Word choice ...
How to Write a Conclusion: Tips and Examples for a Strong Final Word
How to Write a Conclusion. To write a strong conclusion, there are several "do's" you'll want to keep in mind. Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay. 1. Synthesize your main points. While your summary should neatly wrap up your paper and tie up any loose ends, you should note the difference between summarizing and synthesizing your main points.
How to Conclude an Essay
Step 1: Return to your thesis. To begin your conclusion, signal that the essay is coming to an end by returning to your overall argument. Don't just repeat your thesis statement —instead, try to rephrase your argument in a way that shows how it has been developed since the introduction. Example: Returning to the thesis.
How to Improve Your Nonfiction Writing: 11 Great Writing Techniques
Developing a unique and dynamic prose style in your creative nonfiction writing is a great way to avoid writing stale and static factual accounts without personality or perspective. Play with different techniques, like alliteration, to vary your sentence structure and inject a bit of variety into your prose. 11. Practice self-editing.
How to Write a Nonfiction Book in 6 Steps
Hold onto that book idea of yours, and let's see how we can turn it into something that readers will love. How to write a nonfiction book: 1. Determine what problem your book will solve. 2. Outline your book with a logical structure. 3. Choose a style guide to remain consistent. 4.
A Complete Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction
Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Sep 29, 2021 • 5 min read. Creative nonfiction uses various literary techniques to tell true stories. Writing creative nonfiction requires special attention to perspective and accuracy.
Inferring in Nonfiction: Going Beyond the Text
by Stephanie Harvey Inferential thinking is the bedrock of understanding. Inferring involves drawing a conclusion or making an interpretation based on information that is not explicitly stated in the text. Inferential thinking helps readers make predictions, surface themes, or draw conclusions. When reading nonfiction, readers infer from the text, but they also infer from illustrations,…
How to End an Essay: Writing a Strong Conclusion
End your essay with a call to action, warning, or image to make your argument meaningful. Keep your conclusion concise and to the point, so you don't lose a reader's attention. Do your best to avoid adding new information to your conclusion and only emphasize points you've already made in your essay. Method 1.
How to End Your Article: 5 Ways to Write a Powerful Conclusion
This allows my brain and the article to tell me how to write a powerful ending. It's never perfect, but it is as good as I can write it. 5. Circle back to the beginning. The final, most powerful tip on how to end an article: write a conclusion that refers back to your introduction or opening statements.
25 of the Best Free Nonfiction Essays Available Online
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Writing the Perfect Conclusion for your Nonfiction Book

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Conclusion #1: The “Where are They Now” Conclusion

Conclusion #2: The “Why Should We Care” Conclusion

Conclusion #3: The “What Do We Do Now?” Conclusion

Conclusion #4: The “Artsy Cliffhanger” Conclusion

Conclusion #5: The Combo Method

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The Tricky Opener

Restate Your Aim

Did You Deliver?

Recap Your Topics

Takeaways Mean Value

Signing Off

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2. Restate the book’s mission/thesis

3. Summarize chapters

4. Call to action

Note on the call to action

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Writing a Summary or Rhetorical Précis to Analyze Nonfiction Texts

Active Reading

First Sentence: Who, Where, When, and What?

Second Sentence: How?

Third Sentence: Why?

Fourth Sentence: For Whom?

An Annotated Sample of a Rhetorical Précis

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How to write a non-fiction conclusion for your book

Here’s what you should include in a non-fiction conclusion:

Things to watch out for:

Submit a Comment

Highlight the “so what”

Leave your readers with the “now what”

What to avoid in your conclusion

How to Write a Nonfiction Book in 6 Steps

1. Determine what problem your book will solve

Nail down your book idea

Research your topic

💭 If you’re writing a memoir

🔧 If you’re writing a how-to

☯ If you’re writing self-help

⏳ If you’re writing a history or biography

💼 If you’re writing a business book

Free course: How to write a business book

Use storytelling techniques

Include dialogue

Avoid jargon

Have a writing schedule

Double-check your facts

Perfect your manuscript with professional help