138 – Endings
Clearly, much of what we have suggested is speculative. In particular, our
grammatical suggestions require extensive justification which it is not
possible to provide here. It may therefore turn out that some or all of our
proposals are ill-founded. Our main purpose has been to re-open
discussion of comparative structures with a view to revising the older
type of analysis, which we believe to have been unsatisfactory in that it
assigned superficial status to the linguistic expression of what we believe
to be a fundamental linguistic, logical and intellectual operation.
In effect, the authors are saying, we cannot be sure that we have got
the details of the grammar right, but we are sure, nevertheless, that
the general approach to analysis we have taken is the most fruitful
one. (A ‘nevertheless’ to begin the fourth sentence would have been
helpful to the reader.)
You will see from this extract that the authors have done
something else besides suggesting and recapitulating. In the second
and third sentences they have also raised the matter of the relation between their paper and the further study of this topic: their
own grammatical proposals require ‘extensive justification’. This is
an example of another characteristic feature of conclusions, a feature
I am inclined to think is the most important.
This is that a conclusion will often look at the implications
of the work carried out in the essay. ‘Implication’, like ‘suggest’, is a
commonly recurring word in conclusions to academic papers. Implications can be expressed in a variety of ways, some being particularly
favoured in certain disciplines. When we ask ourselves a question
about implications, we must add the corollary ‘Implications for what?’
Here are some of the favourite answers:
r the implications for the further study of the subject
(proposing);
r the implications for our assessment of present or past
approaches to the subject (revaluing);
r the implications of my narrowly focused, empirical work for
more general, more theoretical, or different but related
issues (generalising, extrapolating);
Clearly, much of what we have suggested is speculative. In particular, our
grammatical suggestions require extensive justification which it is not
possible to provide here. It may therefore turn out that some or all of our
proposals are ill-founded. Our main purpose has been to re-open
discussion of comparative structures with a view to revising the older
type of analysis, which we believe to have been unsatisfactory in that it
assigned superficial status to the linguistic expression of what we believe
to be a fundamental linguistic, logical and intellectual operation.
In effect, the authors are saying, we cannot be sure that we have got
the details of the grammar right, but we are sure, nevertheless, that
the general approach to analysis we have taken is the most fruitful
one. (A ‘nevertheless’ to begin the fourth sentence would have been
helpful to the reader.)
You will see from this extract that the authors have done
something else besides suggesting and recapitulating. In the second
and third sentences they have also raised the matter of the relation between their paper and the further study of this topic: their
own grammatical proposals require ‘extensive justification’. This is
an example of another characteristic feature of conclusions, a feature
I am inclined to think is the most important.
This is that a conclusion will often look at the implications
of the work carried out in the essay. ‘Implication’, like ‘suggest’, is a
commonly recurring word in conclusions to academic papers. Implications can be expressed in a variety of ways, some being particularly
favoured in certain disciplines. When we ask ourselves a question
about implications, we must add the corollary ‘Implications for what?’
Here are some of the favourite answers:
r the implications for the further study of the subject
(proposing);
r the implications for our assessment of present or past
approaches to the subject (revaluing);
r the implications of my narrowly focused, empirical work for
more general, more theoretical, or different but related
issues (generalising, extrapolating);