There's a rule in speechmaking that's as old as the hills. It's so old it's a lump of granite. It's a law that has been passed down through the generations to the present day's public-speaking aspirant who is reading this article and looking for presentational wisdom.

The law? - "Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them."

This instruction refers to the most common - and effective - of all speech construction methods, the one which divides the presentation into three-parts; the introduction, the body and the conclusion. The first two parts are spot-on. The technique during an oral presentation for getting information into the minds of your audience is - literally - to tell them what you're going to say, readying their minds to hear something to come (the introduction)... and then say it (the body). Simple!

Something else about presenting has to do with primacy (first) and recency (last). Audiences remember what they see and hear at the beginning of a talk and also at the end. This paper is about what happens at the end; the third part of that structural law - the conclusion.
Take yourself back to high school for a moment. After a lesson running for, say, a couple of hours, the teacher might have said, "Now, let's take a look at what we've covered this morning."

What were his or her next words? They could have been, "We started by closely looking at how sedimentary rocks were formed" or "Geraldine, would you please tell us the four countries over which the Touareg peoples mostly wander" or "We've examined how sentence construction can be simplified."

They might have used those words or ones expressing similar thoughts, but, sometimes they haven't.

No, what they might have said in a loud voice, a commanding voice, maybe even with some exasperation in a desperate shriek, "DON'T PACK UP!!"

What has happened here? It's not the students' fault. They are about to re-visit what they've been studying for two hours and - as we all know - when you look at something again you're at the very beginnings of a repetitive action. Been there, done that! Speakers cannot afford to become repetitive. It's deadly! Repetition is boring, boring, boring.

Merely by suggesting that the class should go back over their work the teacher hands them an 'Uh, oh! We've been here before,' mindset and so their attention drifts. They'll start to sweep pens and rulers into their bags, whisper to a class-mate or loudly close both note and text-books. In other words, they've stopped listening. Unhappily, the same attention-drift occurs in a presentation. It's unwise to grant your audience that state-of-mind. The moment you advise, flag, telegraph, mention, hint at, tell - in whatever manner - that you're about to conclude, STOP! Finish then, because your audience will be 'gone' if you don't.

In other words, re-visiting the law (above), the third part should say, "Don't tell them what you told them."

What to do?

The ideal conclusion uses just two sentences, but they are highly specific. They have jobs to do. They:

1. Re-sell the primary message (the title of your talk), and 2. Issue a C.T.A. - Call To Action.
Let's examine those two sentences in turn.

1. Re-sell the Message. Suppose that your talk was about stock-market investment, the title of your talk being, "How to Successfully Invest in the Stock-Market Using Technical Analysis Techniques." You might have gone on to cover four major sub-topics, for example: What is technical analysis?, What are the most effective techniques?, 'Traps for young players'?, and 'Disciplined trading."

You would have stated what your title was during your introduction, setting an expectation in your audience's mind about what was to come. But, here - at the end of your talk - you paraphrase your title in terms of the general points you covered, thus, "So you can see, that provided you use technical trading techniques properly, you will make money in the market." The promise has, over the last 30 minutes, been turned into reality, and it's only the title (the main idea, the theme) that is re-visited, not all the sub pieces. You are here re-emphasising what you want your audience to understand - the single message for them to have absorbed.

2. Call To Action. The final line you utter will be a familiar one as it's borrowed from the world of advertising, for example, "Hurry while stocks last', "Call this number now" or "Test drive your new BMW this afternoon." That line at the bottom of every press ad, or uttered during both radio and television commercials is tell you to do something. It's an order, not a request. It's the confirmation of your take-home message. So, for the above, you might finish by saying something along the lines of, "To get you started on successful investing, come and see me at my company's stand straight after lunch."

A note about delivering your conclusion; after you've finished talking about your final sub-point, pause, square your shoulders, pause again (you want the audience to be really tuned into you at this point), gaze calmly out into the room and deliver your two lines - without notes. Work on those two lines and sharpen them as much as you can. Remember 'recency', your audience remembers what you did at the end.

Stand by for the applause.