Writing the Conclusion of Your Literary Analysis Essay

The Conclusion

Your literary analysis essay should have a concluding paragraph that gives your essay a sense of completeness and lets your readers know that you have come to an end of your paper.  

You may decide to: 

• Summarize the main points you made in the body
• Make a relevant comment about Whitman's work
• Examine Whitman from a different perspective
• Restate the thesis using different words 

**Your conclusion should be approximately 100-300 words long.**

Here is an example conclusion paragraph that I wrote for you about hot dogs: 

     If hot dogs are indeed a healthy source of protein, why would the manufacturer need to use so many chemical preservatives in their production?  The fact that the meat used in hot dogs comes from several different animals from many different farms is reason enough to stop eating them.  The main problem in encouraging others to stop poisoning their bodies with hot dog meat lies in their delicious taste.  Many people enjoy hot dogs with mustard, ketchup, and even sauerkraut.  There's even been stories of people who eat their dogs cold, without any condiments or bread whatsoever.  As you can see, this hot dog situation is tricky to navigate.  Unless the government steps in with a law banning the sale of hot dogs across the country, it is most likely that Americans will continue to enjoy this mystery meat for years to come.