## 6.1. In conclusion….

In the conclusion section, you answer your research question, giving a short summary of the results from the empirical chapter. Repeat your research question, and make sure that you also answer it. Do not repeat the text you have just written in the results section. Summarize the results in just one sentence. A useful tool that will help you write the conclusion is the causal model from the theory section. Revisit the model, and describe the actual relationships as you observed them in your research. If you compare the causal model reflecting the results with your initial model you immediately see which hypotheses were not supported. You can even redraw your model, omitting the arrows that turned out not to be accurate, and adding the arrows that you observed. If your research question was a ‘to what extent’ question, you can add coefficients to the causal model. In most cases, the model gets more complicated.

In your conclusion section you should keep close to the facts. Do not speculate about reasons why your hypotheses were not supported. If you have an idea about why a specific result emerged that you had not anticipated, test this idea in the results section (if possible). If that is not possible, say so in the results section and include a speculation in the discussion section, not in the conclusion. Also do not write about implications of your results for theory, policy or practice in your conclusion section. This is what the discussion section is for.