Start here · the long version
What task 2 conclusion really asks you to write
A conclusion restates the position the essay argued, in words that are not the introduction’s, and stops. It adds nothing, proves nothing and introduces nobody new.
Why it is not a summary, and why copying the introduction fails
The instinct is to summarise, and the instinct produces the two failures that make conclusions worthless. The first is copying: an examiner who reads the same sentence twice, once at the top and once at the bottom, has been given no new language and no new thinking, and the words in it are counted once. The second is listing: three sentences that recap what each body paragraph said, which tells a reader who has just read them nothing they do not already know.
What a conclusion is for is narrower and easier. It answers the question again, now that the reasoning is behind it, and it shows that the answer survived the argument. That is why the vocabulary is mostly about referring back — “the evidence presented”, “for the reasons outlined” — rather than about restating content. You point at what you did; you do not do it again.
The paraphrasing pressure here is real and it is the reason this paragraph has its own vocabulary at all. Your position has already been stated once in your own words, so the conclusion needs a second set. This is where a writer who only knows one way to say their position runs out, and either copies or waffles.
Signal it“In conclusion”, “To conclude”. One of them, once. Examiners look for the paragraph and a signposted one is easier to find.
Refer, do not repeat“For the reasons outlined above”. Point at the argument instead of running it again.
Restate the positionThe same answer, different words. Not the same sentence with two adjectives changed.
Nothing newA new reason in the conclusion is a reason with no paragraph to support it.
The recommendation question
Whether to end with a recommendation depends entirely on what was asked. A problem–solution prompt invites one, and closing without it leaves the task half answered. An opinion prompt does not: “governments should therefore act immediately” at the end of an essay that was asked to what extent you agree has answered a different question, and it introduces a proposal the body never argued.
When a recommendation does belong, it needs the same specificity as any proposal in a body paragraph. “Something must be done” is not a recommendation, and it is the phrase that appears when the writer knows a conclusion should feel forward-looking and has nothing concrete to put there.
What it costs you to skip this
A missing conclusion costs on Task Response, and it is the easiest mark in the whole paper to lose because the paragraph is four sentences long. A copied one costs almost as much: it produces no new language for Lexical Resource and demonstrates no new thinking. And a conclusion that introduces a fresh reason damages the essay backwards, because that reason now has no paragraph supporting it.
Where it stops applying
It does not argue, does not add evidence and does not concede anything new. If the essay never took a position, no conclusion can rescue it — there is nothing to restate. And a recommendation only belongs where the prompt asked for one: appended to an opinion essay it answers a question nobody asked.
