A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, 7th edition - Kate L. Turabian 2007

Check your introduction, conclusion, and claim
Revising your draft
Part I. Research and writing: from planning to production

Some new researchers think that once they have a draft, they're done. Thoughtful writers know better. They write a first draft not for their readers, but for themselves, to see whether they can make the case they hoped to (or a better one). Then they revise their draft until they think it meets the needs and expectations of their readers. That's hard, because we all know our own work too well to read it as others will. To revise effectively, you must know what readers look for and whether your draft helps them find it. To that end, our advice may seem mechanical. But only when you can analyze your draft objectively can you avoid reading into it what you want your readers to get out of it.

We suggest revising from the top down: first the “outer frame” (introduction and conclusion), then overall organization, then sections, paragraphs, sentences, finally stylistic issues such as spelling and punctuation (for guidance on these issues, see part 3). Of course, no one revises so neatly. All of us fiddle with words as we move paragraphs around and reorganize as we revise a sentence. But you're likely to make the best revisions if you revise from whole to part, even if at the moment you're revising, a part is the only whole you have.

Many experienced researchers find that they can edit hard copy more reliably than they can edit text on their computer screen. You might edit early drafts on the screen, but you may catch more errors and get a better sense of the overall structure of your report if you read at least one later version of it on paper, as your readers will.

9.1 Check your introduction, conclusion, and claim

Your readers must recognize three things quickly and unambiguously:

where your introduction ends

where your conclusion begins

what sentences in one or both state your claim

To make the first two clearly visible, you might insert a subhead or extra space between your introduction and body and another between the body and conclusion. (Chapter 10 discusses revising your last draft introduction and conclusion in detail, particularly how and where you signal your claim.)