If that is not the conclusion， check the first sentence. Rarely does the co
nclusion come in the middle of an argument.
When determining the meaning of a conclusion， be careful not to read any mor
esintosit than what the author states. Although arguments are not worded as
precisely as games， you still need to read them with more care than you woul
d use in your everyday reading.
As with games， read the words and sentences of an argument precisely， and us
e their literal meaning.
For example， consider the meaning of some in the sentence “Some of Mary's fr
iends went to the party.“ It would be unwarranted， based on this statement，
to assume that some of Mary's friends did not go to the party. Although it m
ay seem deceiving to say that some of Mary's friends went to the party when
in fact all of them did， it is nonetheless technically consistent with the m
eaning of some.
Some means “at least one and perhaps all.”
As mentioned before， the conclusion usually comes at the end of an argument，
sometimes at the beginning， and rarely in the middle. Writers use certain w
ords to indicate that the conclusion is about to be stated. Following is a l
ist of the most common conclusion indicators：
Conclusion Indicators
hence therefore
so accordingly
thus consequently
follows that shows that
conclude that implies
as a result means that
Most often the conclusion of an argument is put in the form of a statement.
Sometimes， however， the conclusion is given as a command or obligation.
责任编辑：sealion1986
