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.