[Tex/LaTex] How to include concluding remarks in the paper

sectioning

I was wondering if there is some standard way of including a “concluding remarks” section in a LaTeX document. I couldn't find a specific environment to do this in (I was hoping there would be something similar to the abstract environment…), and keeping in mind that I have written a 20 page paper, organized in sections and subsections, neither of the following options really satisfies me:

  1. Just adding a new section. This makes the most sense, but I only have other three sections in my paper, and they are all several pages long, while my concluding remarks occupy about a third of a page.

  2. Adding a new subsection. Although this alternative doesn't have the problem of having a huge title for a small bit of text, it has the defect that the concluding remarks would seem to refer to the last section only, while my intention is that they should refer to the whole text.

  3. Using the abstract environment and getting it to display "concluding remarks" instead of "abstract" (is it possible to do this? I tried adding [optional arguments], but it didn't recognize them), but it wouldn't be at all standard.

Sorry if this isn't a standard LaTeX question, but I'd really like to organize my text properly, and I'm convinced there is an elegant way to do it. Perhaps one of the experienced LaTeX users on this website will be able to point me in the right direction. Thanks a lot for any advice.

Best Answer

All personal preferences aside, a modification of \abstractname allows you to print an abstract with whatever title you want:

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\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lipsum
\begin{document}
\begin{abstract}
  \lipsum[1]
\end{abstract}

\section{First section} \lipsum[2]
\section{Second section} \lipsum[3]
\section{Last section} \lipsum[4]

\renewcommand{\abstractname}{Closing Remarks}
\begin{abstract}
  \lipsum[5]
\end{abstract}
\end{document}

If you want more control over the closing remark layout and formatting, a copy of the existing abstract environment is possible, from which one can play around and make something to suit.

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