Memorable closings

#1 Bookend Close For a bookend speech closing, refer back to your opening anecdote or quote and say, “We have arrived, now, where we began.” “So, the next time you show up for a birthday party, don’t take this (wrinkly gift bag with too much tissue paper stuffed inside), take this (attractively wrapped gift).

#2 Challenge Close Challenge your audience to apply what you have told them in the speech. If you were concluding a speech on the importance of taking action, you could say: Life is too short to sit in the audience. This is not a dress rehearsal. Take the spotlight and be the star in the play of your life.

#3 – Echo Close Focus on one word in a quotation and emphasize that word to echo your final point. For example, consider the five echoes of the word “do” in this ending to a speech on the importance of getting involved in the education process: “More than 450 years before the birth of Christ, Confucius said: ‘What I hear, I forget; what I see, I remember; what I do, I understand.’ Let’s do it together. We’ve heard what we have to do. We’ve seen what we need to do. Now is the time to do it, and, together, we can do it.”

#4 – Repetitive Close Find or create a phrase and structure it in a rhythmic, repetitive building to a crescendo ending of a motivational speech: “Architects cannot renovate it. Businesses cannot incorporate it. Churches cannot inculcate it. Developers cannot innovate it. Engineers cannot calculate it. Governments cannot legislate it. Judges cannot adjudicate it. Lawyers cannot litigate it. Manufacturers cannot fabricate it. Politicians cannot appropriate it. Scientist cannot formulate it. Technicians cannot generate it. Only you can orchestrate it.”

#5 – Title Close Give your speech a provocative title that encapsulates your message memorably. Then, use the title of your speech as your closing words to stir your audience to think more fully about what they just heard. If title of your presentation was, “What’s Holding You Back?” then an appropriate ending statement could easily be, “So, let me end my talk the way I began it, and ask the same question, “What’s Holding You Back?” Hint: Try writing the ending of your speech first to better construct the title.

#6 – Sing Song Close Ask the audience to repeat a phrase that you used several times in your speech. Let say your phrase is: “Together, we can win.” You repeat that phrase over and over again. Then just before your close, you say: “I know that all of you are talented, all of you are driven. I know that none of us can do this alone, but (pause) Together (pause) we can (pause until the audience responds.)

#7 – Callback Close Refer back to a story you told where some activity was not fully completed. Then pick up the story and close it around your theme. For example: “Remember those bubbles that four year old held so gently in his hands? Well, now those same gentle hands are now poised skillfully around the hearts of hundreds of people. Today he is a heart surgeon.”

#8 – Movie Close Make a reference to a well-known movie, song, or book. It may include a play on words. "May the transformational force be with you.“ In the word of Beyonce, “To the left, to the left.”

#9 – Quotation Close Use a famous quotation to harness the audience’s attention, much like turning on a spotlight. Short, appropriate, powerful quotes are effective as openers, and short, appropriate, powerful quotes are effective for closing For example, if you were concluding a speech on the importance of maintaining self confidence in the face of adversity, you could say: “We have to be like the bird –the bird that author Victor Hugo one observed – the bird that pauses in its flight awhile, on boughs too light, – on a branch that is likely to break– feels that branch break, yet sings, knowing she hath wings.”

#10 – Call-to-Question It is often effective to end with a rhetorical question that captures the message and leaves the audience thinking—especially one that directly ties in your call to action: “I leave you with this last thought—now, that you know the facts, ‘Are you a bully?’”

#11—Contrast Close "We can have____, or we can have ______. The choice is ours, and is based entirely on the decision we each individually make today. _____ or _____. ( I know I'm choosing _____.)“ "What choice will you make when you leave here today? Will you ____, or will you go about your normal routine?"

#12--(Very) Short Story or Anecdote Use a brief story or anecdote to drive a message. "So, coach entered the locker room after a pretty tough game in which a number of us had standout performances, and the result was … a big loss. One of our players went four for four. Coach called him by his last name, Smith, asked him to come up front, and then asked him to stand with the back of his uniform facing the rest of the players. Then he asked a kid who had just been called up from the minors, Jones, to do the same thing. He then said, 'Smith, Jones I want you to turn around.' When they did, he pointed to the front of the uniform and reminded us all: 'You play for the name on the front of the jersey not the name on the back.'

#13—Demonstration Closing Use a prop to signal the close of your speech. For example you could close a book and say: "This concludes this chapter in my life and now I stand firm to write my next chapter." Or don a cap as you conclude your speech and say: "It is time for me to head out and find the road to success.“ This can also be accomplished with a change of voice/tone (i.e. switching to a quiet, serious tone of voice)

#14—Humor You can tell a joke that loops back into your subject and repeats the lesson or main point you are making with a story that makes everyone laugh.

Ole and Sven are out hunting in Minnesota and they shoot a deer Ole and Sven are out hunting in Minnesota and they shoot a deer. They begin dragging the deer back to the truck by the tail, but they keep slipping and losing both their grip and their balance. A farmer comes along and asks them, “What are you boys doing?” They reply, “We’re dragging the deer back to the truck.” The farmer tells them, “You are not supposed to drag a deer by the tail. You’re supposed to drag the deer by the handles. They’re called antlers. You’re supposed to drag a deer by the antlers.” Ole an Sven say, “Thank you very much for the idea.” They begin pulling the deer by the antlers. After about five minutes, they are making rapid progress. Ole says to Sven, “Sven, the farmer was right. It goes a lot easier by the antlers.” Sven replies, “Yeah, but we’re getting farther and farther from the truck.” After the laughter dies down, I say… “The majority of people in life are pulling the easy way, but they are getting further and further from the ‘truck’ or their real goals and objectives.”