In logic, a conclusion is a proposition inferred from premises.

The conclusion is the final section of an essay in which the writer ties together what was presented in the passage, summing up the main point, explaining how the thesis was proven, and successfully closing the discussion. The conclusion is often the most difficult part of an essay to write, and many writers feel that they have nothing left to say after having presented points proving their thesis in the body of the paper. However, the conclusion is often the part of the paper that a reader remembers best, and thus must be effective to be strong. This definition also applies more broadly to any progressive academic or artistic work.

In research and experimentation, conclusions are determinations made by studying the results of the preeceding work. These often take the form of theories. The conclusion is the result of the discussion of the premises. One conclude, based on the discussion, for and against the premises. Without the discussion of the premises, there are no conclusion, only assertions and without evidence, allegations. Naturally, the accuracy of a given conclusion is dependent on the truth of the chosen premises.

In music, the conclusion may take the form of a coda or outro. Often there are "altogether unexpected digressions just as a work is drawing to its close, followed by a return...to a consequently more emphatic confirmation of the structural relations implied in the body of the work." Examples include the slow movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, where "echoing afterthoughts" follow the initial statements of the first theme and only return expanded in the coda, Varese's Density 21.5, where partitioning of the chromatic scale into (two) whole tone scales provides the missing tritone of b implied in the previously exclusive partitioning by (three) diminished seventh chords, and the slow movement of Bach's Brandeberg Concerto No. 2, where a "diminished-7th chord progression interrupts the final cadence." (Perle, 1990)

Source

• Perle, George (1990). The Listening Composer. California: University of California Press. ISBN 0520069919.

See also

• introduction
• exposition
• essay
• paper
• abstract