Alright, in the last session for my history writing seminar, we got down to the problem of conclusions: after you've done all the work of the paper, what should you do for a conclusion? Here's a short list of conclusion moves, but the list needs to grow, so please add your faves

scan through your intro, looking for promises you've made ("this paper will offer a new perspective on X" or "my argument will expand what has been done on Y"), turn those promises into questions ("what is my new perspective on X?"), then answer them in the conclusion

take a piece of evidence used early in the paper and revisit it, re-reading it under the new analysis that developed over the course of the paper

zoom out, taking the reader to a concept or method you haven't talked about yet, but that now needs to be thought of differently because of what you've written, and explain that

zoom in, looking just at the small field/era/geography you've covered, and make clear where your argument sits among the work of three other people writing on that small field/era/geography

make a list of the things you weren't able to do in the paper, then turn that list into a set of explorations you suggest are now possible for the reader to take up

if you did a vignette opening for the paper, go back to the vignette and twist it

come in totally sideways: take a writer from another field/era/geography whose work can be fruitfully juxtaposed with yours and do the juxtaposition, pointing out how your work expands or enhances theirs

my go-to: go back to early incarnations of the paper and look through the introductions, where you've likely given away a great ending point. Excise it and its tendrils from the intro and main parts of the paper, and use it as a conclusion instead.

Or, look through your current draft for the thing that is just gumming up the works---it may not be fitting in the main body because it's actually a conclusion, just camouflaged for the moment, and you can rescue it and put it in its proper place

what moves am I missing?

And a coda: by the time you're writing a conclusion, you're tired! You're tired because you've done so much work---but that work has earned you the license and authority to just tell the reader what they need to think going forward, so don't give that opportunity away

wow you all really do not like writing conclusions, do you