A conclusion is where an MLA paper lands. It should leave the reader with a settled sense of what the essay argued and why it mattered — without simply replaying the introduction. As with the introduction, it is worth separating what MLA formats from what good essay writing requires. MLA imposes almost nothing on the conclusion structurally; almost everything here is writing craft, which is exactly why it is worth doing deliberately.
What MLA Requires of Your Final Section
- The conclusion is a normal body paragraph: first line indented half an inch, double-spaced, left-aligned, in the same font and size as the rest of the paper.
- No page break is required before the conclusion — it simply continues on the page after your last body paragraph.
- If your conclusion quotes or paraphrases a source, it follows the standard in-text citation format. A conclusion that introduces a brand-new source (especially as an afterthought) is generally a drafting problem, not a formatting one.
- The running header keeps your last name and page number in the top-right corner.
- In MLA, the list of Works Cited begins on a new page after the conclusion — the conclusion itself never shares a page layout with it.
That is the complete set of formatting requirements. Everything else in this guide is advice about writing well, and it holds for an MLA paper just as it holds for any academic essay.
The Job of a Conclusion
A conclusion answers the question "so what?" It does three things:
- Reassert the thesis. Restate the paper's central claim in fresh words, now that the evidence has been presented.
- Synthesize, not summarize. Show how the essay's points fit together and what the combination demonstrates — rather than listing them one by one.
- Close the frame. Give the essay a sense of completion, often by returning to an idea from the introduction without repeating it.
The distinction between "synthesize" and "summarize" is the one students struggle with most. A summary repeat the points: "This essay showed that Parasite uses the apartment, the noise, and the characters to establish class tensions." A synthesis draws a conclusion from the whole: "Read together, the apartment, the noise, and the family's movements reveal that Parasite treats space as the physical form of class — a reading that recasts the film's dark collapse as the only possible ending." One restates the itinerary; the other completes the argument.
Restating the Thesis Without Repeating It
Copying the introduction's thesis sentence into the conclusion is the most common closing mistake in student writing. The conclusion should re-state the claim — same argument, different words, and ideally a sharper or more confident version of it, because by now the evidence has been laid out.
Compare an introduction thesis with the same claim restated at the end:
Introduction thesis: Across the setting, the sound design, and the first character we meet, Parasite and The Silence of the Lambs turn domestic space into a forecast of the story to come.
Conclusion restatement: In both films, then, the domestic interior is not decoration but prophecy: it tells the audience what kind of story is coming and traps the characters inside its logic.
The argument is the same. The language is new, and the closing version can be bolder ("prophecy") because the essay has earned that confidence.
How Long Should a Conclusion Be?
Roughly one paragraph for a short essay, and rarely more than two for an undergraduate research paper. A conclusion that runs a full page is usually doing something the body should have done — introducing new evidence, arguing a new point, or over-apologizing with qualifiers ("perhaps," "arguably," "in many ways"). If you catch the conclusion introducing a source you never cited earlier, stop: that evidence belongs in the body, or the new claim belongs out of the paper.
Formatting a Conclusion in a Longer Paper
In a short essay the conclusion needs no heading — it follows the last body paragraph on the page. In a longer paper that uses section headings, a "Conclusion" heading is fine if the other sections have headings; keep it flush left like every other internal heading. The heading "Conclusion" is not centered, bolded, or italicized any more than your other section headings are. (See the section headings guide for the full styling rules.)
A Complete Example
Here is a conclusion written in the voice of the introduction used in our MLA introduction guide, so you can see the two as a pair:
In both films, then, the domestic interior is not decoration but prophecy. Parasite opens by showing us a family living below street level and spends the rest of the story dramatizing what it costs to rise; The Silence of the Lambs begins with a woman who has built her life on control and then moves her steadily into a space where control is impossible. Each opening scene is a compressed version of the film that follows — the apartment and the lake house forecast the fall and the chase before a single title card appears. What the two films share is not style but trust in the audience: both directors assume that if the room is built correctly, the story will follow, and both are right.
The closing restates the thesis ("space as prophecy"), synthesizes both sections of evidence in one sentence without listing them mechanically, and ends on a wider claim about directorial technique ("trust in the audience") that the essay's evidence can support. It introduces no new film, no new source, and no hedge.
Closing With the Broader Significance
A conclusion can earn a final sentence about why the essay's argument matters beyond the paper's own text — the so-what that connects the analysis to something the reader could use. This is not a new argument and not an essay-length tangent; it is one sentence that broadens the claim's importance without leaving the evidence behind.
In the sample essay, the closing sentence does this with a claim about directorial technique ("both directors assume that if the room is built correctly, the story will follow, and both are right"). It stays inside the paper's evidence — the two films the whole essay analyzed — but states a takeaway that applies more widely. If you can write your paper's point in one fresh sentence that an intelligent reader could repeat to someone else, you have found the note on which to end.
What to avoid when reaching for this sentence: a call to action aimed at the reader ("Next time you watch a film, pay attention to the first scene"), a personal reflection ("This changed how I watch movies"), or an abstract moral ("We must all remember that space matters"). Keep the significance anchored in the material the essay has already established.
Conclusion Checklist
- Restates the thesis in fresh words, with the confidence the body has earned.
- Synthesizes the paper's points rather than listing them.
- Introduces no new source, no new evidence, and no new argument.
- Closes with a note of broader significance tied to the existing evidence.
- Runs one paragraph (short essays) to two (longer papers), with normal indentation and spacing.
- Leaves the running header in place; the Works Cited page follows on a new page.
Common Mistakes
- Copying the introduction's thesis sentence word for word.
- Summarizing the paper point by point instead of synthesizing.
- Introducing new evidence or a new citation in the final paragraph.
- Sudden hedging: "In conclusion, I may not have fully proven that…"
- Padding with filler like "In today's society" or "All in all."
- Ending with a cliffhanger or rhetorical question that abandons the argument.
Finish the Paper Correctly
After the conclusion, the Works Cited page starts on its own page. Use the free MLA Formatter to lay out the whole paper, build the Works Cited page with the Works Cited Generator, then verify with the Format Checker.