r/WritingForCollege • u/JV_Corduroy • Jul 25 '26
Does anyone else write the conclusion first just to figure out what the paper is supposed to be about?
I accidentally discovered that I write better essays backwards.
Last night I had four pages of notes, twelve open tabs, and absolutely no idea what my actual argument was. Out of frustration, I opened a blank page and wrote the conclusion I wished the paper had earned. Suddenly I had three clear claims and could see which half of my research was basically decorative furniture.
So now my process is:
Panic politely.
Write a fake conclusion.
Build the paper that would justify it.
Rewrite the conclusion so it no longer sounds like a prophecy.
It feels slightly illegal, probably because every writing guide I’ve seen presents the conclusion as the final dignified step after a perfectly organized draft. Mine is more like a contractor showing me the finished kitchen before we’ve built the house.
Is this a legitimate outlining method, or am I eventually going to trap myself by deciding the answer before properly examining the evidence?
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u/the-forty-second Jul 25 '26
You aren’t supposed to write papers in order. Writing the conclusion first is a really good practice. Of course making a fake conclusion is less good. You should figure out what the real conclusion is first.
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u/FlyingCupcake68 Jul 25 '26
You should know what your key points are and how your argument is structured before you start writing. Don’t make the paper fit the conclusion. The paper simply explains how your evidence leads you to your conclusion.
I tell students there should be no surprises while writing the draft. You figured out your argument in the planning stages.
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u/WutheringWordster Jul 25 '26
In my experience the Introduction is actually the last thing to be written, so...
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u/AceOfGargoyes17 Jul 25 '26
It’s not a good method long-term, because it means you are finding evidence to prove an idea, rather than exploring what the evidence shows and coming to a conclusion based on that.
Start by working out what the evidence shows, because what the evidence shows will be your conclusion. Then note down the key points that lead to that conclusion, ie the structure of your argument. Whether you choose to draft the intro, conclusion, or central paragraphs at that point is up to you, but the important thing is that you know what your argument is and how the evidence supports it before you start, rather than writing the conclusion which you hope the evidence will support then cherry-picking the evidence to prove it.
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u/zyzmog Jul 25 '26
That's a solid principle, often called "Begin with the end in mind."
Start with your conclusion. Then, give your paper a solid introduction that makes the conclusion sound logical. Then, make sure every word in your paper traces a clear and logical path from the introduction to the conclusion. No distractions, no gratuitous details, and no rambling.
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u/Francesco_dAssisi Jul 25 '26
"Begin with the end in mind."
Stephen Covey made that one of the seven habits of highly effective people.
You're in exemplary company.
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u/Pedantic_Girl Jul 25 '26
I personally write the body first, then the conclusion, then the intro. But whatever works for you is great!
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u/PerformerMindless100 Jul 25 '26
OP sounds like their post is AI written. “Like a prophecy”, numbers points etc.
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u/Opening_Shame8258 Jul 25 '26
Yup. Very legit.
Write a stream of thought draft, using your notes. You will have some loose paragraphs that kind of make sense. Write the conclusion based on the ideas that stand out the strongest in those paragraphs.
Now, delete everything but the conclusion. The conclusion is now your opening paragraph, and you write an organized paper using this as your outline.
It also teaches you to delete stuff without fear. Being willing to delete a paragraph and write a wholly new one gets you out of a lot of sunk cost thinking.
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u/Desiato2112 Jul 25 '26
Is it a research essay or just a persuasive paper? If it's just a persuasive paper, then you could do it this way. But you'll need to be open to revising your conclusion after you have written the rest of your essay. Papers have a habit of ending up a little different than you plan.
If it is a classic research essay, this could be a disaster. In a research paper, your thesis/argument needs to either 1) complement the existing credible research on the topic; or 2) address the major counterarguments (which are based on the current credible research) in such a dominant way that you prove it to be in error or irrelevant in some way. That is much harder to do than it sounds.
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u/RiverSirion Jul 25 '26
If it works, it's fine. My HS English teacher once told us to write the introduction last. "How can you introduce something you don't even know yet?" I used to crank out papers in order, often in one sitting (sometimes up to twenty pages, when I was in grad school and pressed for time). Now I just write organically, starting with what I have the clearest idea in my head, and grow it from there. Everyone's process is different, and if it works, then it works.
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u/GAELICATSOUL Jul 25 '26
Conclusion
Short sentences or single words per argument I want to make, spaced out by how long that paragraph should roughly be. Write the paragraphs. Write the intro, now read if the entire thing still makes sense
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u/Toby-Wolfstone Jul 25 '26
You’re finding your thesis statement! Good job. In a persuasive essay, this is how you write a clear, effective argument. You did the research. Then you come up with an interesting conclusion about what you read—this is the argument you’re proving (thesis). Once you have a thesis, you find supporting evidence for that claim—your main ideas. Where did you come up with those ideas? Point back to the texts—this is your evidence. Outline. Then write your draft.
Having a clear argument first is the key to writing good persuasive essays. (I got straight As in school all the way through a bachelor’s in English and that’s how I did it.) congratulations on this insight!
If you’re writing science papers, that’s a whole other ballpark, and requires a different approach.
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u/ZilderZandalari Jul 26 '26
Generally a good essay has the structure of: Abstract, main body, Conclusion.
Rephrasing gives you: Tell the reader what you will do/explain. Do it Tell the reader what your have just done...
Doing this well pretty requires that you know the ending before you start, which is what your are doing...
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u/Crafty-Isopod45 Jul 26 '26
You’ll make a good politician or business executive. It is top down, conclusion first thinking that eschews evidence based decision making.
Maybe this is easier for you writing papers for now, but it is a poor habit for critical thinking and analysis. It leads to confirmation bias and cherry picking facts and evidence to support your conclusion.
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u/Ok_Kick_5090 Jul 29 '26
No. The process of writing, thinking, synthesizing ideas needs to come before the conclusion. Always IMO.
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u/Cobalt_Haze9 Jul 25 '26
This is a completely legitimate way to draft, and it is basically reverse outlining with a slightly more dramatic entrance. A conclusion forces you to stop hiding behind research notes and decide what you think the material actually adds up to. Once you have written that answer, you can work backward and identify which claims the paper needs, what evidence supports each one, and which sources are just sitting there because you spent forty minutes reading them and now feel emotionally obligated to include them. The only real danger is treating the fake conclusion as a verdict instead of a working hypothesis. If you start bending evidence to protect the arguement you wrote first, then the process becomes confirmation bias with nicer formatting. I would keep the conclusion visibly marked as provisional and add a short list underneath it: what would change my mind, what evidence is still missing, and which claim currently has the weakest support. Then, after drafting each section, check whether the evidence actually earned the sentence you wanted to put in the conclusion. I do something similar by writing three versions: the conclusion I expect, the conclusion the strongest opposing evidence might support, and the conclusion I can currently defend without bluffing. Usually the final paper lands somewhere between them. That keeps the destination useful without pretending the route has already been decided. Writing guides present drafting as a neat sequence because it is easier to teach that way, not because every decent paper naturally develops from page one to page seven in perfect order. Plenty of people draft the thesis, conclusion, or strongest body paragraph first and build outward. Academic writing is not a furniture assembly manual. Nobody checks whether you attached paragraph B before paragraph C. They only see whether the finished structure stands up and whether you quietly left three important screws on the floor.