Closing Your Speech

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The last thing you say in your speech is likely to be the most remembered. So the way you close your speech deserves a great deal of attention when you're writing it.

Your speech closing can be motivational, challenging, thoughtful, or funny. You might want to restate the main point of your speech in a different way, using different words.

Unless your subject matter is extremely serious, the best way to close a speech is generally with a funny story, or a story that has some kind of humorous twist. Laughter makes people feel good, and if you leave them laughing, they'll go away with a positive impression of you and what you told
them.

You can usually find a relevant or humorous story by doing a little research on the Internet. There are now dozens of websites that offer pages and pages of stories related to hundreds of topics. Click here to see an example.

If the subject of your speech is more serious, you could close with a touching quotation. If you don't want to leave the audience laughing, try to at least make them leave thinking.

Experienced speakers often use humor throughout their presentation, and then hit their audience with a serious thought at the close. This type of contrast has a huge impact.

If you're having a problem coming up with something funny or serious, there are some "generic" closes below that you can use to, at east, exit gracefully. These come from Tom Antion's book, Wake 'Em Up Business Presentations.

Sometimes even a dull speech can be rescued with a great close. So take pains to make sure yours leaves a lasting impression on those who came to listen to you.

"Generic" Closes

"You've heard the saying, 'All's well that ends well.' Where speeches are concerned, I believe all's well that ends, and now it's my time to end."

"When all is said and done, a lot more has usually been said than done. I think I've said enough, and it's time to be done."

"When a speaker says, 'To make a long story short,' it's usually already too late. I don't want you to feel that way about me. Goodnight"

An old-timer is someone who can remember when time was marching on instead of running out. My time is running out, so in conclusion..."

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