Effective Conclusions
The conclusion may be the most important part of your presentation. It is the last part of the
message the audience will hear or read. Choose your words carefully and use your conclusion to
seal your influence.
A. To plan your conclusion, ask yourself:
1. Is the speech developed in a simple or a complex fashion?
2. Does the content lead naturally to a “so what?” question?
3. What mood do I wish the audience to be in as I conclude?
4. Should I signal the ending of the speech?
B. Functions of a Conclusion
1. Summarize the main points.
a. Just as you gave a map in the introduction, give a summary in the conclusion.
b. Remind the audience of the big ideas to help solidify their memory of the
message.
c. In a technical or argumentative speech it can be particularly useful to restate your
thesis and main points exactly. For instance:
So, today I have tried to show you that conjugal visits should be allowed
in prisons. I first explained the system of conjugal visits that has been
adopted successfully in some penal institutions. Second, I made the point
that conjugal visits contribute directly to the morale and rehabilitation of
prisoners. Finally, I documented that the visitation system is beneficial to
society as a whole.
d. In some speeches you may think this is too mechanical. You may then choose to
paraphrase rather than restate exactly, summing up the content, but not in the
identical words.
To summarize-meaning is in the head of the listener. You cannot stir up
what is not already there. You communicate through all the senses. Often
the where and the when may influence those that listen to you. if you
can’t put your message in the language of your listener, you are likely to
fail.
Waldo W. Braden, “In the Heads of the Listeners,” Vital Speeches of the
Day 44, no. 2 (Nov. 1, 1977):44.
2. Restate the main idea
a. Emphasize once a again the main idea of the message with a clear, concise,
single sentence.
b. Make it memorable if appropriate.
3. Adapting to Complexity
a. A message that advances only one idea, fully developed through clear, relevant
supporting materials, needs only a simple restatement of the central point to
ensure audience understanding.
b. A message that advances ten claims about the effects of a particular bill or
governmental action needs a summary that synthesizes the different ideas into a
condensed, unified form.
4. Answering the “So What?” Question
a. If your presentation is directed toward some type of overt response, your
conclusion is the final chance to clarify what you want that response to be.
5. Creating the Appropriate Mood
a. Then plan to conclude your speech in a way that generates that mood or creates
that frame of mind that supports the influence you wish to exert in your message.
6. Signaling the Ending
a. A successful message also conveys a sense of completeness and finality.
b. You can signal the end with transition phrases:
i. “In summary...... “
ii. “As I conclude this address, let me reiterate . . . “;
iii. “The eminent poet, Robert Frost, best summarizes what I have been saying. ”
C. Types of Speech Conclusions
1. Challenge or Appeal to Listeners
a. Openly appeal for support or action, or remind the listeners of their
responsibilities in furthering a desirable end.
b. Be vivid and compelling and include a suggestion of the principal ideas or
arguments presented in the speech.
c. Leland Miles, president of the University of Bridgeport, selected this method
when urging university presidents to seek peace studies for their campuses:
Peace is not something that you pick up off the ground and say, oh look,
peace! I found peace. Peace you’ve got to work at, peace you’ve got to
create, peace you’ve got to make, peace you’ve got to produce. And the
only way I know to produce it is through education, which is our
business. Rodrigo Carazo, the president of Costa Rica, has said, “If you
want peace, educate for peace.” I agree. He has also said, “War begins in
the minds of men and women. It is therefore in the minds of men and
women that we must construct the defenses of peace. “ I say let all of us
join in building those defenses. Let all of us in our own ways attempt to
build on our respective campuses constituencies for peace. We have
constituencies for fraternities, constituencies for drugs, constituencies for
better jazz concerts. peace, by requiring some kind of internationalized
curriculum for all our students. Let’s not leave the critical task of
survival to Costa Rica alone.
d. Your ability to make sense of the world which you now enter will depend on
your determination to retain your own integrity. If you do that, the rest will
follow. Yours may not be what is often called a happy life; it may be battered by
adversity. But it will be a life of purpose, of dignity, and of meaning. And that
should be enough for anyone.
John R. Silber, “Beyond the Real World Integrity,” Vital Speeches of the Day 45,
no. 19 (July 15, 1979):604-606.
e. Robert Kennedy, in a speech to the Democratic legislative dinner, shortly after
the Watts riots of 1967, ended his speech this way:
For us as Democrats the responsibility is clear. We must reject the
council of those willing to pass laws against violence while refusing to
help eliminate rats ...
We must offer that leadership—in every legislature and school board and
city hall—which dares to speak out before it tests the shifting wind of
popular anger and confusion; that leadership which prefers facts to
illusions, actions to sullen withdrawal, sacrifice and effort to indulgence
and ease.
2. Pertinent Quotation
a. Leland Miles when concluding a challenge to his audience to act with him for
peace.
If a quotation is used in the beginning of the speech, you can tie the
speech together by a direct reference back to the earlier quotation. Chui
Lee Yap began a speech on ethnocentrism by quoting from Aldous
Huxley: “Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because
we don’t want to know.” After explaining the reasons for American
ignorance of other cultures, Chui Lee concluded by noting that “As
Huxley implied, cure of our not knowing-is our wanting to know.
3. Epitomizing Illustration
a. A speech-ending illustration should be both inclusive and conclusive:
i. inclusive of the main focus of your speech,
ii. conclusive in tone and impact.
b. Michael Twitchell used an illustration in both the opening and closing of his
speech on the causes and effects of depression:
i. Opening
ii. Have you ever felt like you were the little Dutch boy who stuck his finger in
the leaking dike? You waited and waited but the help never came. The leak
became worse and the water rushed around you and swept you away. As you
fought the flood, gasping and choking for air, you realized that the flood was
inside yourself. You were drowning and dying in your own mind. According
to the American Journal of Psychiatry, as many as half the people in this
room will be carried away by this devastating flood. What is this disaster?
Mental depression.
iii. Conclusion
iv. Let’s go back to my illustration of the little Dutch boy. He was wise to take
action and put his finger in the dike, preventing the flood. In the case of
depression, each one of us must be like the little Dutch boy’-willing to get
involved and control the harmful effects of depression.’
4. Additional Inducement
a. In his speech, Michael Twitchell elaborated at length on the effects of depression
on the family of David Twitchell. Besides tying the introduction and conclusion
together with an illustration (see above), Michael added an inducement:
Why should you really care? Why is it important? The depressed person
may be someone you know-it could be you. If you know what is
happening, you can always help. I wish I had known what depression
was in March of 1978. You see, when I said David Twitchell could be
my father, I was making a statement of fact. David is my father. I am his
middle son. My family wasn’t saved; perhaps now yours can be.
5. Expression of Personal Intention or Endorsement
a. State your own intent.
b. Wanda Coppola, a student at Towson State University, ended her speech on
computer anxiety with an endorsement of her own solution to the problem:
Finally, we who avoid computers because we don’t understand them can
enroll in a college’s or university’s introduction to computer course, as I
have done. Although it is still sometimes difficult to sit behind the
computer terminal without becoming nervous or fidgety, I am convinced
it is still worth my while. I believe all of us should become comfortable
with computers. Only in that way will we be able to perform in the job
market and the educational system, in order to become computer literate
and to function effectively in our technological society.
c. “I plan to give blood tomorrow morning and I hope to see you down there.”
D. Conclusion tips
1. Leave enough time in your speech for a solid conclusion.
a. If you are running short on time, don’t cut the conclusion since it falls at on of
the psychologically strongest parts of the message.
b. Instead, try to cut material from the middle—or at least something before the
conclusion.
2. Just like the introduction, build your ethos in the conclusion with solid, confident
nonverbal cues.
a. Look at the audience.
b. Be personal.
c. Be energetic
3. Take the time to plan a solid conclusion.
4. Avoid giving the audience a false sense of when you will finish. Few things annoy
an audience as much as thinking a speech is over, only to have the speaker go on, and
on, and on.
E. Avoid these conclusion pitfalls:
1. Do not use “thank you” as a substitute for a clincher.
2. Don’t end with an apology:
a. “I guess I’ve rambled on long enough.” “I don’t know if I’ve made this clear.”
b. “I’m not usually this hyper; it must be the coffee.”
3. Don’t trail off. Do your audience the courtesy of wrapping things up and using a
clincher.
4. Don’t introduce a whole new idea in your conclusion. The body of your speech is the
place for that.
5. Don’t make the conclusion disproportionately long. It is a summary and ending.
6. Don’t end a speech in a style or mood that is at odds with the tenor of the rest of the
speech. You do your listeners a disservice if you have kept them laughing up to the
very end only to hit them with a stark recitation of doom.
7. Don’t use the phrases “in conclusion” or “in summary” in any part of the speech
other than the actual conclusion. You will lose part of your audience while they
reorient themselves to the fact that the speech is continuing even though they thought
it was winding down.