In conclusion, …

To conclude:

Finally, …

we are able to draw a number of conclusions

Concluding this section, we can say that …

From this, we can draw several conclusions:

We can conclude from the data that …

Concluding this section, it may be argued that …

it is reasonable to conclude that …

One conclusion might be that …

a number of tentative conclusions can be drawn:

However, it would be rash to conclude that …

The answer etc. probably lies somewhere between these two poles.

Contribution

This study, thesis, paper etc.

… has attempted to …

… has shown or demonstrated …

… has focused attention on …

… may stimulate the debate on …

… extends previous work on …

… has put forward an explanation of or for …

… has put forward a tentative explanation of or for …

… has provided evidence of or for …

… has provided convincing or conclusive evidence of or for …

… has provided conclusive support for …

… has provided empirical validation of or for …

… has made a contribution towards …

… contributes to our understanding of …

… may contribute towards a better understanding of …

… has gone some way towards understanding or explaining …

… has been able to make a number of generalizations about …

… differs from previous research in a number of respects

… differs from previous research in that …

… offers an alternative view or interpretation of …

… has highlighted a number of problems with or in …

… has drawn attention to a number of problem areas in existing theory

To our knowledge, this is the first examination of …

This, to our knowledge, is the first study to …

This approach etc.

… has enabled better explanation of …

… has enabled underlying principles to be identified more clearly

we were or have been able to link … and …

an explanation for …

a key insight into …

… is a new and interesting observation

the theory developed in this study

This underlines the importance of …

The advantages of this approach are …

It is clear from the current study that …

a number of tentative conclusions on …

A number of key issues have been addressed in this study.

One of the most important contributions of this study is …

… represents one of the main contributions of this study

identified by the investigation

identified in the study

We were able to document a number of cases of …

The results exceed those previously achieved

The results suggest, contrary to current theory, that …

In contrast to previous research on … , this study has attempted to …

Developments viewed in isolation by earlier studies are here considered together.

Next: Limitations

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