Summarize and wrap-up
Summarize and wrap-up
A conclusion is structural in function. Just as the introduction must include a statement of the purpose of the speech, as well as a preview of the main ideas of the speech, the conclusion must include a restatement of the thesis and a review of the main ideas of the speech. The review and restatement are mirror images of the preview statement in the introduction. Structurally, the restatement and review bring the speech back to the top of the circle and remind the audience where we started. Functionally, they help cue the audience that the end of the speech is coming up.
Let’s go back to the thesis and preview example earlier in this module. Our example was from a speech on ethanol, and the sample thesis was “So right now let’s see how dependence on fossil fuels costs you money and how use of ethanol as a supplement will save you money and save the world from energy obsolescence.” The sample preview followed:
To see how we can end our dependence on fossil fuels, we will first take a look at why we as a society are so dependent upon fossil fuels in the first place, and then secondly find out what continues to cause this dependence, and third, see how ethanol as a fuel supplement will help end this dependence, and finally discover how simple it will be to implement this solution and make the world a better place for all of us.
In the conclusion of this speech, one effective method to summarize and wrap-up is to simply restate the thesis and preview—but in the past tense, since we have now heard the speech.
Today we have seen how dependence on fossil fuels costs you money and how use of ethanol as a supplement will save you money and save the world from energy obsolescence. We learned first why we as a society are so dependent upon fossil fuels in the first place, and then secondly we found out what causes this dependence, and third, we saw how ethanol as a fuel supplement will help end this dependence, and finally we discovered how simple it is to implement this solution and make the world a better place for all of us.
By restating the thesis and reviewing the main ideas, you once again take advantage of both the primacy and recency effect, and you create a complete and coherent structure to your speech.
