SAT® · Reading and Writing: Expression of Ideas
Summary and Conclusion Transitions
Summary and conclusion transitions signal that the writer is wrapping up, not adding more. Pick them when a sentence restates or settles what came before, never when the argument is still building.
These connectors tell a reader: stop collecting, start concluding. In short, in conclusion, and ultimately all announce that the sentence ahead compresses, restates, or settles what the previous sentences already established. That is why in short can sit after a pile of separate facts and feel right: it promises nothing new, only a verdict drawn from what you already have. The test rewards you for spotting when a passage has stopped accumulating evidence and started judging it.
The mechanism is about direction. Addition words like moreover or furthermore push a passage forward, adding a new fact to a still-growing case. Summary and conclusion words do the opposite: they close the case. That is also why ultimately cannot sit in the middle of a build-up before the point has actually arrived. Ultimately means at the end, after everything else, so using it mid-list promises an ending that hasn't happened yet, which breaks the logic even though the sentence reads smoothly. The connector has to match where the passage actually is, not just what sounds dramatic.
This sits at the end of the question ladder for a reason: the easier calls are addition versus contrast, where the direction is often obvious. Summary and conclusion transitions ask you to track an entire paragraph's shape, not just the two sentences next to the blank. Whenever you see a string of distinct facts, dates, or costs followed by a single blank, read the sentence after the blank first. If it draws one claim out of all of them, you are closing, not extending.
Key terms
- Summary transition
- A connector like in short that compresses previously stated points into one closing claim.
- Conclusion transition
- A connector like ultimately that marks the final point a passage has been building toward.
- Addition transition
- A connector like moreover that extends an argument by adding a new, separate fact.
- Build-up
- The stretch of a passage where evidence accumulates before any concluding claim is made.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow do in short, ultimately and in conclusion close a stretch of text rather than extend it?
- Common mistakeWhy doesn't 'ultimately' fit in the middle of a build-up, before the point has been reached?
- Worked exampleFind the connector before a sentence compressing three already-stated results into one claim.
Check yourself
End of topic.