You have seen how the basic components of an argument--claim, reasons, and evidence--can be developed further by including counterclaims and rebuttals. These are most of the tools you need to construct a well-written argument. There is one more thing your argument needs, however: a concluding statement. Concluding statements have several purposes. Click each tab below to learn what your concluding statement should do.
Restate
Expand
Call to Action
By the time you get to the end of your persuasive essay, your reader may have lost track of your original claim. You have provided lots of reasons and evidence for each part of your claim, but the reader may need to be reminded of the overall point.
As you can see, it makes sense economically and ecologically for our city to grow in and up rather than out and down.
As you re-read your persuasive essay, your evidence might appear so overwhelming that you feel comfortable taking a stronger stand in your concluding statement than you did in your original claim.
The evidence for including fine arts instruction in our schools is overwhelming, and the far-ranging benefits of that instruction cannot be overstated. Funding for fine arts programs should not be cut. In fact, it should be increased.
Use a call to action as a concluding statement when you want your reader to do, not just think, something.
Children who garden reap social, emotional, and intellectual rewards as well as tasty harvests. So get digging, people!
