We have finally reached the last major section of your paper, i.e., the last section inherently related to your study, unlike other additional sections that may be included or not, e.g., acknowledgments, conflict of interests, funding, etc.
Given that the conclusion is the last section your audience reads, it is as important as your introduction, where you also need to leave a good impression. Given that it is closely related to your abstract (actually it is and some may confuse them with each other), some readers may directly jump to your conclusion to get a full essence of what your study is about to decide whether or not they should continue to read your whole paper.
Despite the belief that a conclusion summarizes the content, it is far more important. Your conclusion should be re-emphasizing your research significance, reiterating why the study is important and thus leaving a good and lasting impression on your readership. While your conclusion can include a concise summary, it should provide your readers with a sense of closure. Your closure's impression should inspire the reader's curiosity about the topic, encouraging them to "reflect" on what they have just read. Quite simply, your conclusion should make your readers able to know why they should care about this topic. It also answers the fundamental question: "What should readers remember about this research?"
The first step is to remind your reader about your research problem. Although you have mentioned it many times and discussed it in detail in a number of sections, your conclusion is an additional and last chance for you to zoom back out and connect specifics of your study to a much larger context. You need however to focus not to repeat yourself in a verbatim way, taking back exactly what you wrote in the introduction.
Drawing examples from Scribbr, if your paper is an argumentative paper, and say your topic and research problem is exploring how to reduce agriculture's environmental impact through new measures. Instead of re-saying:
"The environmental impact of livestock farming needs to be addressed."
You may restate like this:
"While the role of cattle in climate change is by now common knowledge, countries like the Netherlands continually fail to confront this issue with the urgency it deserves."
If your paper is an empirical paper, and your problem is on the relationship of Instagram use with body image issues, you may restate like: "As social media becomes increasingly central to young people's everyday lives, it is important to understand how different platforms affect their developing self-conception.”
Next, given that you are "concluding," you should briefly summarize your paper's key points, clearly showing how those points address the research problem. For argumentative papers, you may first restate your thesis and main arguments, showing how these arguments support the thesis. You should also be acknowledging other research counterarguments, while showing why your stance holds.
An example in an argumentative paper summary is as follows:
"The evidence is clear: To create a truly futureproof agricultural sector, Dutch farmers must be incentivized to transition from livestock farming to sustainable vegetable farming. As well as dramatically lowering emissions, plant-based agriculture, if approached in the right way, can produce more food with less land, providing opportunities for nature regeneration areas that will themselves contribute to climate targets. Although this approach would have economic ramifications, from a long-term perspective, it would represent a significant step towards a more sustainable and resilient national economy."
If your paper is an empirical paper, you may start by summarizing your findings, yet without too much or excessive detail. After this, you should state how your findings can help answer your research question. An example for an empirical paper summary is as follows:
“By testing the effect of daily Instagram use among teenage girls, this study established that highly visual social media does indeed have a significant effect on body image concerns, with a strong correlation between the amount of time spent on the platform and participants’ self-reported dissatisfaction with their appearance. However, the strength of this effect was moderated by pre-test self-esteem ratings: Participants with higher self-esteem were less likely to experience an increase in body image concerns after using Instagram. This suggests that, while Instagram does impact body image, it is also important to consider the wider social and psychological context in which this usage occurs: Teenagers who are already predisposed to self-esteem issues may be at greater risk of experiencing negative effects.”
After you have provided this summary, you should be ending your conclusion with your research's broader implications, where you once again emphasize the significance and importance of your findings.
Further, at this point, you should also be proposing directions for future research.
For argumentative papers, you may be emphasizing your call to action for people you care about who hold what you are doing, e.g., policymakers and practitioners. By doing so, you need to emphasize how important and impactful your argument is in a broader context. An example of an argumentative paper call for action is as follows:
"Transitioning to sustainable vegetable farming will make the Netherlands greener and healthier, setting an example for other European governments. Farmers, policymakers, and consumers must focus on the future, not just on their own short-term interests, and work to implement this transition now."