What is the conclusion of a speech?

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1 Restate Your Thesis
2 Provide Circular Closure
3 Make Use of Signal Phrases
4 Define the Topic's Significance
Effective ways to end a speech
How do you conclude a speaking speech?
Why is the conclusion of a speech important?
Do speeches have a conclusion?

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Your speech may have an attention-grabbing introduction, solid research and convincing arguments, but your conclusion can make or break whether your audience walks away affected by your message. A strong speech conclusion provides closure by revisiting and reinforcing the main points and emphasizing the significance of your topic. Reviewing the purpose and objectives of your speech can help you compose a conclusion that challenges and resonates with listeners.

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1 Restate Your Thesis

Just like in an essay, your speech's thesis statement determines its direction and purpose. Reviewing your thesis statement can reveal the major points your conclusion needs to address. Try isolating the primary claim your speech makes and how it sets the course for the evidence and examples you present later. Then, rephrase your thesis statement in the conclusion to remind audiences of where the speech began and where you've brought them. Don't assume the audience will remember your thesis statement or major points; briefly restating them reinforces the ideas in their minds.

2 Provide Circular Closure

Ideally, your speech's introduction captures your audiences attention using a statistic, story, quotation or rhetorical question. Revisiting that same tactic in the conclusion can signal that the speech is coming to a close as well as bring the content full circle for audiences. If your speech is about distracted driving, for example, your introduction might share that it caused 1 in 5 car accidents in 2011. You can mirror this introduction in your ending by reminding audiences to think twice before they drive inattentively, or they could be driving the 1 car in 5 that becomes a statistic.

3 Make Use of Signal Phrases

One way your conclusion brings closure to your speech is by using words that communicate to audiences that the message has come to its end. Phrases and words such as "finally," "in conclusion," "in summary" and "as we have seen" can direct listeners to pay attention to the final thoughts they should take away from the speech. Avoid using these phrases in any place other than the conclusion, since giving audiences a false impression of when the speech is over can distract them and cause them to miss important information.

4 Define the Topic's Significance

Ultimately, your speech's conclusion must answer the question "So what?"; it explains why audiences should care about the subject. The tactics you use to accomplish this vary according to the type of speech you're giving. If you're presenting an informational speech about musician Johnny Cash, you might show the topic's importance by offering examples of his continued influence on music. By contrast, a persuasive speech's conclusion should present a clear call to action. If your topic is animal abuse, for instance, you might urge audiences to adopt rescue animals instead of buying from pet stores or give to their local humane society.

About the Author

Kori Morgan holds a Bachelor of Arts in professional writing and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and has been crafting online and print educational materials since 2006. She taught creative writing and composition at West Virginia University and the University of Akron and her fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals.

You might recall from the section of this website on introductions the fact that audiences tend to put a lot of emphasis on their first and final impressions of a speaker (technically known as the primacy/recency effect). Because of this, it is very important to finish your speech with something great. If you have ever seen a stand-up comedian perform, you will find that they save their best jokes for the end of their set, for this very reason.

To end your speech with impact, you can use a lot of the devices discussed in the attention-getting section of the introductions page such as: quotations, jokes, anecdotes, audience involvement, questions, etc.

One of the best ways to conclude a speech is to tie the conclusion into the introduction. For example, you might begin your speech by telling a suspenseful story that relates to your topic, but save the end of the story for the very end of your speech. Or refer back to the same quotation. Or refer to the joke that you told. Any of these strategies will give your speech a sense of connection and closure, and will leave the audience with a great final impression.

If you are delivering a persuasive speech, you might try a slightly different ending because your goal is not just to be remembered, it’s to inspire people to take action. One way to do this is to issue a call-to-action. This means that you specifically tell your audience what actions you expect them to take related to your speech. Another way to inspire action with the conclusion of your speech is to appeal to their emotions. If you create a desired emotion within your audience, and then leave them with that emotion, they will take that emotion with them. For example: If you leave them feeling guilty about not-recycling by painting a bleak picture about the state of the Earth that their grandchildren will live in, then they might recall that emotion the next time they choose not to recycle and alter their behavior.

Leaving a strong final impression is the most important aspect of the conclusion, but their are some other necessary steps as well:

Making a smooth transition from the body of the speech to the conclusion is crucial. To do this, use a signpost known as a concluding statement. The most common concluding statements include: “in conclusion”, “I leave you with”, “finally today”, and other similarly obvious endings.
Just as it is important to preview a speech in the introduction, it is important to summarize the speech in the conclusion. The more the audience hears your main points, the more likely they are to remember them. By previewing, discussing, and summarizing your main points your audience will be exposed to them at least three times during your speech.

A good conclusion should be about 5-10% of the total speech length. Anything shorter that 5% means that the ending has come too abruptly. Anything more that 10%, and the audience may become restless. This brings up another point: If it sounds like a conclusion, you need to finish your speech in a reasonable amount of time. The conclusion is not the place to add new material.

Effective ways to end a speech

Summarize the main speech topics or main points.
Repeat a few keywords or phrases by using the rhetorical figure of speech repetition.
State how your points prove your general and specific goal.
Restate and reinforce the central idea.
Repeat the tie between the needs and interests of the listeners, and your thesis.
Refer back to an anecdote or quotation in the introduction text.
Offer a so-called moral of the story.
Call them to act and offer them how-to-do-it steps.
List the benefits or available applications; very effective ways to end a speech.
Restate the problem and provide your solution in two sentences.
Visualize the outcome of your call to action with a prop or visual aid.
Transform your central idea or even the discourse title into an easy to remember slogan.
Recite a couple of lines from songs, poems or citations and quotes from a historical presentation.
End with a heart-felt human interest story in which all comes together.
Finish with a clinching personal anecdote.
Close with an illustrative design example.
End with a joke or funny remark. Must say that only choose these ways to end a speech if it’s really funny.
Connect your speech topics with the common grounds and thoughts of the public speaking audience. This way to end a speech brings the overall speech topic in their hearts and minds.
Ask a rhetorical question and answer with an easy to remember oneliner.
Give the ultimate answer on an important question you proposed earlier in your introduction.
Surprise with a shocking fact or figure that empahizes the need for change.
Draw the contours of the ideal situation you propose. Visualize that they will see paradise if they do, think or act as you want.

How do you conclude a speaking speech?

Other Ways to Say In Conclusion.

In summary,….

After all is said and done,...

All in all,….

All things considered,….

As a result,….

As a final observation,….

At the end of the day….

Briefly to conclude….

Why is the conclusion of a speech important?

Key Takeaways A strong conclusion is very important because it's a speaker's final chance to really explain the importance of her or his message and allows the speaker to both signal the end of the speech and help the audience to remember the main ideas.

Do speeches have a conclusion?

The introduction and conclusion are essential to a speech. The audience will remember the main ideas even If the middle of the speech is a mess or nerves overtake the speaker.

Speech conclusion example