How you conclude your essay depends in large part on what your task is. If you’re writing a rhetorical analysis of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, you’re probably not going to be asked to determine if the speech was effective. History has already decided that! But if you’re analyzing a contemporary argument, effectiveness might be a key part of your assignment. Or, you might be asked to do a rhetorical analysis to explain why a speech or letter from the past flopped.

We’ll start with the easier of the two. If you’re writing a rhetorical analysis where effectiveness is not part of your job, then your conclusion should emphasize your claim about how techniques and strategies helped the writer or speaker achieve his or her purpose. Don’t rehash every point you’ve made, but use the conclusion as an opportunity to restate your key points. As you stress the link between rhetorical strategies and author’s purpose, it’s also helpful to revisit audience and occasion. But remember: if you’re writing a rhetorical analysis under time constraints, the conclusion can be very brief, no more than a few sentences.

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Writing a conclusion where you are asked to gauge the effectiveness of a speaker’s use of rhetorical strategies can be a bit more challenging because you’re essentially writing an argument about an argument.

If your conclusion is yes, the text is effective, then focus on the most interesting ways the writer or speaker builds the argument. What strategies are particularly clever or insightful ways to reach the audience? If your conclusion is that the writer or speaker falls short, then focus on the most significant problems—and why they are problems. Does the writer fail to understand precisely who his or her audience is, for instance? Or does he or she emphasize reason to the point of making a valid but boring argument that does not engage emotions? If you conclude that, overall, a writer or speaker does not succeed in achieving his or her purpose, it’s often a good strategy on your part to begin with something that is effective and then move on to the vulnerabilities and problems.