Canned conclusion phrases
- Id
- canned-conclusion-phrase
- Status
- Contested
- Severity
- low
- Detection
- deterministic
- Evidence grade
- corroborated
- Languages
- en
- Added
- 2026-08-15
- Updated
- 2026-08-17
Credible people dispute that this signals anything at all.
What it is
A phrase that announces an ending instead of being one. In conclusion, in summary and to sum up were taught as essay scaffolding long before any of this, and they remain correct in genres that require an explicit summary move. Contested for that reason. The pattern is sentence-initial and requires the punctuation that follows the phrase in its scaffolding use, so in summary judgment and a stray all in all mid-sentence both escape.
Why it reads as machine-made
The phrase does the work of ending without the work of concluding. What follows it is usually the opening restated, which is a separate tell with its own entry: this one is about the announcement, and the structural entry on signposted conclusions is about the restatement.
Specimens
In conclusion, consistency matters more than volume when you are building an audience. Showing up on a schedule you can keep is worth more than a burst you cannot repeat, and most people learn that the expensive way. An audience notices the rhythm long before it notices any single post. That is the part worth holding on to.
We posted three times a week for a quarter, then nine times a week for the next one. The nine-a-week quarter got more impressions and fewer replies. We went back to three.
Figures in this repair are invented for the specimen. The repair ends by stopping, which is what an ending is.
How it is detected
- Pattern
- ^\s*(?:in\s+conclusion|in\s+summary|to\s+summari[sz]e|to\s+sum\s+up|all\s+in\s+all)\s*[,:]
- Flags
- i
- Scope
- sentence
Who writes this way legitimately
Taught essay scaffolding puts these phrases in place and rewards them, so student writing and the writing of anyone recently graded is full of them. Several genres require an explicit summary move: abstracts, executive summaries, appellate briefs and any document whose reader may only read the last paragraph. Spoken registers put the phrase in for a listener who cannot scroll back. The pattern requires sentence-initial position and the comma or colon that follows the scaffolding use, which is why in summary judgment the court found for the tenant does not fire, and why an ordinary all in all with no punctuation after it does not either. A reviewer should read what follows the phrase, because the announcement is harmless and the restatement is the real problem.
Model attribution
No family attribution, and the phrase is old enough that any attribution would be wrong.
Platform notes
- wikipedia
- Editors record the closing formula among current signs while keeping their own caution that formal prose alone indicates nothing.
Status history
| Date | Status | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-15 | Contested | Contested. Named by four independent lists, and simultaneously the standard closing move taught in school essay instruction and required by the structure of an abstract, an executive summary or a legal brief. The signal is about the genre it appears in more than about the sentence. |
Sources
- 01Wikipedia: Signs of AI writingcommunityaccessed 2026-08-14
- 02vale-ai-tells, 111 machine-checkable rulescommunityaccessed 2026-08-14
- 03chrisgherbert gist, ChatGPT clichescommunityaccessed 2026-08-14
Inverted source. Its own purpose runs counter to this index. It is cited for what it records about model output, and never as sole support for an entry.
- 04is-this-ai-slop word and phrase listcommunityaccessed 2026-08-14
CC BY 4.0 / The AI Tells Index, feedsquad.com/ai-tells