{"id":79387,"date":"2026-01-15T00:09:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T05:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=79387"},"modified":"2026-01-15T00:09:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T05:09:54","slug":"ending-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/ending-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Ending well"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The End handwrite title on red round bacground. Old cinema movie ending screen. Vector illustration EPS10<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be tricksy. As with all stories, don\u2019t play tricks on the reader. Don\u2019t bring a rabbit out of the hat at the last moment. If there is a big reveal, make sure it\u2019s planted well in advance. Don\u2019t fade and die. If you start off strong, make sure you have an ending that\u2019s just as strong, that resonates with that beginning and that gives the reader a sense of satisfaction and completeness.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Kit de Waal. (2019) Flash Fiction, in The creative writing coursebook. Forty authors share advice and exercises for fiction and poetry.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I\u2019ve been thinking about endings lately, prompted by this advice from Kit de Waal about how to conclude flash fiction. \u201cDon\u2019t be tricksy,\u201d she warns. \u201cDon\u2019t bring a rabbit out of the hat at the last moment.\u201d This prompted me to think about the times I\u2019ve read papers, books and dissertations where something goes wrong at the end.<\/p>\n

Academic writers often struggle with conclusions in ways that mirror fiction writers. We often know how to begin. And if we don\u2019t, there\u2019s lots of advice on introductions, including mine. And we understand how to build an argument, marshal evidence, engage with theory. Lots of advice about this too. But when it comes to endings, we can stumble. We either say too much or too little. We introduce new ideas we haven\u2019t prepared readers for. We repeat what we\u2019ve already said. Or we fade and die, just as de Waal says.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the rabbit-out-of-the-hat problem. We\u2019ve probably all seen a paper that proceeds carefully, methodically, building an argument. The analysis is solid. The engagement with literature is thorough. And then, in the final paragraph or two, the writer suddenly pivots to something entirely new. A limitation becomes the main point. A tangential policy implication takes centre stage. Or a theoretical framework that hasn\u2019t been mentioned since the literature review suddenly resurfaces as the key interpretive lens.<\/p>\n

This feels tricksy because it is. The rabbit-out-of-the-hat disrupts the implicit contract between writer and reader. Now let\u2019s pivot to you writing a paper, not reading someone else\u2019s. Throughout your paper, you\u2019ve been guiding your reader to follow a particular thread, to think alongside you in a certain way. Your conclusion needs to honour that journey. If you\u2019re going to make a significant claim or introduce a crucial theoretical perspective, it needs to be woven through your work, planted in advance, as de Waal puts it. Your reader should arrive at your conclusion thinking \u201cyes, this makes sense, this follows, this feels inevitable\u201d rather than \u201cwait, where did that come from?\u201d<\/p>\n

Now to the second problem, starting strong. de Waal\u2019s advises that strong beginnings require equally strong endings that resonate with those openings. In academic writing, we can think about this quite mechanically. The conclusion should \u201creturn to\u201d the introduction, should \u201canswer the research questions posed.\u201d (Gah, I\u2019ve said this lot.) But resonance is different from a mechanical return. It\u2019s about creating an echo, a sense of completion that feels organic rather than forced.<\/p>\n

Think about your introduction. What question animated it? What tension, problem or puzzle drew you into this work? Your conclusion shouldn\u2019t simply restate that you\u2019ve answered the question. Instead, it should show your reader how the journey through your paper has changed their understandings of the original problem. The ending should feel like it emerges naturally from everything that came before, while simultaneously casting new light on where you began. It\u2019s the difference between a conclusion that says \u201cI told you I would examine X, and I did\u201d and one that says \u201cremember when we started with X? Now look at how differently we can understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the hardest part of de Waal\u2019s advice for academic writers relates to leaving readers with something to do. Academic culture trains us to value comprehensiveness, to spelling things out, to making sure we\u2019ve covered every base and addressed every possible interpretation. We fear that if we don\u2019t explain everything very explicitly, we\u2019ll be criticised for gaps or omissions. And so our conclusions often become exhaustive inventories of findings, implications, limitations, and future directions.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s power in restraint. There\u2019s intellectual generosity in trusting your reader to think alongside you rather than for you. This doesn\u2019t mean being vague or incomplete, you\u2019ve still done the rigorous analytical work, you\u2019ve still made your argument clear. But it means recognising that the best academic writing opens up space for readers to extend your thinking, to see connections you didn\u2019t make explicit, to take your analysis further. I\u2019m not suggesting here that academic conclusions should be cryptic or deliberately obscure. The \u201cdon\u2019t force it\u201d and \u201cdon\u2019t spell it out\u201d guidance needs to be calibrated for academic genres where clarity and precision matter enormously. But we can over-explain, particularly in conclusions. We worry so much about making sure readers understand our contribution that we end up diminishing it by labouring every single point to the nth degree. But a conclusion can be an invitation to take the work further. As de Wal says, create \u201ca sense that the world you have created goes on.\u201d( I\u2019m thinking about how to exemplify this in another post.)<\/p>\n

Next. The \u201cdon\u2019t fade and die\u201d warning is perhaps the most common problem that academic writers face. It\u2019s one I often experience myself. Academic conclusions often lose energy in their final paragraphs. After making substantive points, they trail off into increasingly generic statements about limitations or future directions. We\u2019re tired, yes? We\u2019ve got this far, can\u2019t we just stop now? So the final sentences feel obligatory rather than purposeful, as if the writer ran out of steam or couldn\u2019t figure out how to end. This is the academic equivalent of the fiction writer who doesn\u2019t know how to stop, who keeps adding one more paragraph, one more scene, until the story just peters out.<\/p>\n

Strong endings in academic work need to maintain energy right through to that final sentence. This doesn\u2019t mean saving your biggest claim for last, that\u2019s the rabbit-out-of-the-hat problem. But it does mean thinking carefully about where to place different elements of your conclusion. If you\u2019re going to discuss limitations, they probably shouldn\u2019t be the final words your reader encounters. If you\u2019re going to point to future research, that gesture should feel generative rather than apologetic. Your last paragraph, your last sentence even, should leave readers with something substantial to hold onto.<\/p>\n

And a final key point. de Waal\u2019s advice goes directly to the relationship between writer and reader. Don\u2019t be tricksy. Don\u2019t force it. Leave them work to do. These are instructions for how to respect your reader\u2019s intelligence and engagement while still guiding them toward understanding. They assume a reader who is actively thinking, who will notice if you plant something early that pays off later, who can handle some ambiguity and complexity, who will keep thinking after they finish reading.<\/p>\n

Academic writing culture sometimes trains us to assume less capable readers, or at least to write defensively, as if we must anticipate and forestall every possible misunderstanding or criticism. But the best academic prose, like the best fiction, trusts its readers. It gives them a clear path through complex ideas without reducing that complexity. It builds toward conclusions that feel both surprising and inevitable. It knows when to explain and when to suggest. It ends with purpose and power rather than trailing off into disclaimers.<\/p>\n

So the next time you\u2019re writing a conclusion, you might revisit de Waal\u2019s flash fiction advice. Have you planted the key elements of your ending throughout your paper? Does your conclusion resonate with your beginning in ways that show genuine development rather than simple restatement? Are you giving your readers the satisfaction of completion while also leaving them space to extend your thinking? And does your ending have the same energy and purpose as your beginning, or have you let it fade and die?<\/p>\n

Your conclusion is your last chance to speak to your reader. Make it count. But don\u2019t be tricksy. Let it emerge from the world you\u2019ve built, let it honour the journey you\u2019ve taken your reader on, and trust that they\u2019ll carry your ideas forward into their own thinking and work. That\u2019s when you know you\u2019ve ended well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Don\u2019t be tricksy. As with all stories, don\u2019t play tricks on the reader. Don\u2019t bring a rabbit out of the hat at the last moment. If there is a big reveal, make sure it\u2019s planted well in advance. Don\u2019t fade and die. If you start off strong, make sure you have an ending that\u2019s […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[435424],"tags":[435618],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-79387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-writing","tag-end-well"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEnding well - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/ending-well\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ending well - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Don\u2019t be tricksy. 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