Conclusion of your Bachelor Thesis

The role of the conclusion

The conclusion is the final section of your Bachelor thesis, in which you summarize the results of your investigation. It forms the conclusion of your argumentation and ensures that the readership obtains a clear overview of your research. You refer to the research question that you asked at the beginning and summarize the most important findings concisely.

Important components of the conclusion

• Summary of key findings: Summarize the main results of your research briefly. Avoid repeating all the details, but focus on the essentials.
• Answering the research question: The research question that you posed in the introduction should be answered clearly in the conclusion.
• No new information: The conclusion is not the place for new data or further ideas. Everything you mention in the conclusion should have already been addressed in the paper.
• Avoid examples or quotes: The conclusion is a summary of the results. It is not necessary to reuse examples or direct quotes from your research.

Tense and style in the conclusion

In the conclusion of your Bachelor thesis you should mainly use thePresent tenseto formulate general statements. However, if you look back on your own research steps, use thePast tense.

Example: "The results show that the use of social media has a significant impact on brand perception." (present tense). "This study investigated how different social media platforms affect purchasing behavior." (past tense).

Structure of the Conclusion

Your conclusion should be clearly structured and bring together the most important results. A proven structure could look like this:

• Repetition of the research question
• Summary of the central results
• Answering the research question
• Brief outlook on possible further research

Example: "The central research question of this work was: 'To what extent do social media campaigns influence customer loyalty in the fashion industry?' The results show that regular, interactive campaigns significantly increase customer loyalty. Further research could investigate how different platforms address specific target groups differently."

Differences between Conclusion and Discussion

There is often confusion about how the conclusion differs from the discussion. In theDiscussion you analyze the results in detail and put them in the context of existing research. TheConclusion on the other hand, is a concise summary and answer to the research question without deeper interpretation.

Example: In the discussion, you could explain the unexpected results of your survey and discuss possible reasons for this. In the conclusion, you would only briefly summarize these results and highlight the answer to your research question.