Conclusion

The conclusion is the final analytical step of the project — the point at which all the earlier work is brought together into clear, defensible statements. After the data have been collected, organised, presented, analysed and interpreted, the last task is to draw meaningful conclusions from the results. A conclusion is not a fresh opinion; it is a summary of what the evidence has shown, expressed in plain language and tied directly to the objective with which the project began.

What a good conclusion does.

• It states the main findings that emerged from the analysis — for example, the typical value of a variable, how much it varied, and any relationship discovered between variables — so that a reader who studies nothing but the conclusion still learns the essential results.
• It relates the findings back to the original problem, answering the question the project set out to investigate.
• It stays faithful to the data: the conclusions must follow from the analysis actually carried out, and should not claim more than the evidence supports.

Looking ahead — predictions and suggestions. Beyond summarising, a conclusion may, where possible, look to the future. On the basis of the information collected you can try to:

• predict future prospects — for instance, how demand or a particular trend might develop; and
• offer suggestions relating to growth and to government policies, indicating what actions might improve the product, scheme or situation studied.

Such forward-looking remarks give the project practical value, turning a description of what is into guidance about what might be done. They should, however, always be presented as reasoned inferences from the data rather than as certainties. …