Learning Public Speaking

Photo by Patrick Haney

Before we use them let us ask whether all speeches require conclusions.

There are some people–thoughtless, if nothing worse–who habitually
end letters by adding some such expression as “Having nothing more to
say, I shall now close.”

Is there any sense in writing such a sentence? If the letter comes only so far and the signature follows, do not those items indicate that the writer has nothing more to say and is actually closing?

Why then, when a speaker has said all she/he has to say, should he not simply stop and sit down? Will that not indicate quite clearly that she/he has finished his speech? What effect would such an ending have?

In the first place the speaker runs the risk of appearing at least discourteous, if not actually rude, to her/his audience. To fling his material at them, then to leave it so, would impress men and women much as the brusque exit from a group of people in a room would or the slamming of a door of an office.

In the second place the speaker runs the graver risk of not making clear and emphatic the purpose of her/his speech. She/He may have been quite plain and effective during the course of his explanation or argument but an audience hears a speech only once. Can she/he trust to their recollection of what he has tried to impress upon them?

Will they carry away exactly what he wants them to retain? Has he made the main topics, the chief aim, stand out prominently enough? Can he merely
stop speaking? These are quite important aspects of a grave responsibility.

In the third place–though this may be considered less important than the preceding–the speaker gives the impression that she/he has not actually “finished” his speech.

No one cares for unfinished articles, whether they be dishes of food, pieces of furniture, poems, or speeches. Without unduly stressing the fact that a speech is a carefully organized and constructed product, it may be stated that it is always a profitable effort to try to round off your remarks.

A good conclusion gives an impression of completeness, of an effective product. Audiences are delicately susceptible to these impressions.

Twenty-two centuries ago Aristotle, in criticizing Greek oratory, declared that the first purpose of the conclusion was to conciliate the audience in favor of the speaker. As human nature has not changed much in the ages since, the statement still holds true.

Speakers, then, should provide conclusions for all their speeches.

(Words of Clarence Stratton and edited by LearningPublicSpeaking.com)

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