Rhetorical Functions in Academic Speaking: Drawing

conclusions
Examples
Read the following conclusions:

So we've seen that water-related problems continue to affect millions of people

and, contrary to what most people believe, future water supplies will not last for
ever. So the situation is very serious, especially in view of the UN estimates of
what we will need in the future. Of course, there are many projects trying to
provide ever-increasing supplies of water and these indicate that a growing
number of countries are aware of the present problems and of those to come.
However, these more often than not are highly expensive and not very practical.
They are also very time-consuming and time is a commodity which is in short
supply. So, while research in these areas is important, we feel that the eventual
solution would definitely be to conserve water worldwide and control pollution.
In other words, we need to respect our most valuable natural resource much
more than we do.

In conclusion, it is certainly true that the twentieth century gave us some

advantages by, for example, making us richer, healthier and freer to enjoy our
lives. However, in our opinion, it did not make us wiser. The twentieth century
also made our earth dirtier, our people less humane, and our spiritual lives
poorer. We should, of course, continue to enjoy the benefits of technological
advancements because they free us to pursue our interests and goals. However,
we must make a concerted effort to preserve our natural environment for future
generations. Moreover, we should take the time now to make our lives more
meaningful in an increasingly impersonal, computerised world.

Language
...

In short,
In a word,
In brief,
To sum up,
To conclude,

To summarise
In conclusion,
On the whole,
Altogether,
In all,

It is

accepted
argued
held
believed

generally
widely

Therefore,
Thus,
On this basis,
Given this,

it

can
may

be

that

concluded
deduced
inferred

that

Table 1

From
the

In conclusion,
Finally

table
figures
data
results
information

it

can
may

we/may say
it can/may be said

be

seen
concluded
shown
estimated
calculated
inferred

that

that