When to use conclusion and conclusions in a scientific article or report?

Question

I am writing a scientific report in English. For the final part, should I use conclusion or conclusions? I am a bit confused because in my memory it’s an uncountable noun. But I saw many journal papers using either conclusion or the plural form conclusions.

Does that mean when using conclusions, there are more than one finding in the article?

grammatical number nouns

Does that mean when using conclusions, there are more than one finding in the article?

Blessed Geek · Accepted Answer

You should be able to use either the plural or singular.

By using the singular as the section header, you would be naming that section due to the act of making conclusion. Where the act of making conclusion could consist of many conclusions or a conclusion with a number of corollaries.
You could also name the section directly due to the fact that you have many points or corollaries of conclusion to make, by using the plural.

e.g.,

In conclusion, I would like to forward the following conclusions.
In conclusion, I would like to forward the following conclusion and its corollaries.

If you have only one point of conclusion or that your thesis has many corollaries to a single encompassing conclusion to be drawn, you should use the singular as the section header, obviously.

Barrie England · Answer

A conclusion usually  consists of two or three paragraphs at the end of a paper, discussing the main points and what can be learnt from them. Conclusions will normally be a list of points drawn from the research and evidence which a paper has considered.

When to use conclusion and conclusions in a scientific article or report?

2 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question