Have ever experienced or seen an airplane landing? As the plane begins to descend, it gradually speeds down. The wheels come out and as the expert pilot touches down with the nose of the aircraft aligned with the middle of the air strip, you hardly feel a bump. The landing is smooth and steady and slowly the carrier comes to a stop altogether.
The conclusion of a good essay just like that. It is deliberate and directed as it 'descends' towards its final stop.
Step 1 is called the review: here, you either paraphrase the thesis or the main points, or do both. Step 2 is the 'memorable statement'. This is where you want to leave a lasting positive impression on the reader.
Before we discuss the options for the 'memorable statement', keep the big picture in focus: The conclusion is the only part of the essay (after the introduction and some random segments here and there), where the examiner actually rests his eye balls and processes what you have written. More crucially, this is where they make up their mind about your grade!
And so your parting shot (the memorable statement) had better be good!
The good news is that all the techniques that help to capture the reader's attention at the outset are also the tricks that can work their magic at the end of the essay.
And so you may close your essay with a rhetorical question, a quotation, a story, a striking fact or a story. In addition, you might consider clinching the essay by returning to the theme of the attention-getter. Alternatively, you may look forward to the consequences or implications of your arguments; or propose some recommendations, depending on the topic.
At all costs, you must avoid a helicopter landing: abrupt, unexpected and unforeseeable.
