The structure of PhD conclusion chapters

This paper considers the generic structure of Conclusion chapters in PhD theses or dissertations. From a corpus of 45 PhD theses covering a range of disciplines, chapters playing a concluding role were identified and analysed for their functional moves and steps. Most Conclusions were found to restate purpose, consolidate research space with a varied array of steps, recommend future research and cover practical applications, implications or recommendations. However a minority were found to focus more on the field than on the thesis itself. These field-oriented Conclusions tended to adopt a problem-solution text structure, or in one case, an argument structure. Variations in focus and structure between disciplines were also found.