Ada agreed to listen to the presentation her roommate is preparing for an Ancient History class. The topic is on the history of storytelling. Ada likes all kinds of books and stories. She enjoys reading novels and watching movies, and she knows her roommate spent a lot of time researching and writing this presentation, so she is happy to listen. Her roommate begins by providing a list of ten particularly ancient stories and telling how old each of them is and where it was written. Near the end of the list, when her roommate mentions how old The Odyssey is, Ada is reminded that she has a book report due in her own history class. As her roommate mentions that we still like stories today, Ada remembers that one of her favorite books is being released as a movie this weekend. She is hoping to go see it in the theater with a couple of friends who also liked the book. She should probably message them to figure out a good time. Right then, she feels her phone buzz in her bag. She does not want to be rude to her roommate, so she ignores it. But it keeps buzzing, and she finds herself wondering if that is one of the friends she is hoping will go to the movie with her. She starts mentally writing the message she will send once she is done listening to her roommate. And then Ada notices the silence; her roommate had reached the end of her presentation. “So,” her roommate asks, “do you think it is good?”

Have you ever tried to focus on something, only to realize that your attention had drifted? Take a moment to consider how many demands you have on your attention at any moment. You might be thinking about an upcoming exam, preparing for a challenging conversation at work, figuring out plans for tonight. Perhaps you are feeling hungry or tired. And you likely have a phone in reach that allows you to be constantly communicating with friends and family or getting updates on a topic that interests you. Even when you are trying to focus, it may be buzzing in your pocket or bag to let you know that there is something else that demands your attention. All of this is true for most of the people around you, as well. We live in a world with an immense number of distractions, and our attention is a limited resource.

This is important to remember when crafting a presentation, and it is why the introduction of any presentation is the most important part: A good opening captures the attention of listeners and makes them want to listen to the rest. It connects them to the topic and helps your audience understand why the topic matters to them. No matter how insightful, persuasive, or well-crafted the body of a presentation is, it cannot accomplish its purpose if the intended audience has already tuned it out and shifted their attention elsewhere. Think about the opening example. This is what happens when a speech begins with a poor introduction. Even a committed audience member who is interested in your topic might have a lot of other things competing for their attention. Would opening with a long list cut through those distractions? Unlikely. Would a generic connection to the topic, such as “everyone likes stories,” hold their interest? Probably not. And, if you start with a weak introduction that loses your audience’s attention at the start, it is very difficult to get it back.

Beyond gaining your audience’s attention, a well-designed introduction also provides an opportunity to set your audience’s expectations. If you have ever listened to a presentation that you thought would teach you about a topic that you were really interested in, only to have that topic never come up, you know the importance of setting audience expectations. You probably left that presentation disappointed. Even if the content of the presentation was well-researched and well-delivered, if you had been led to expect something else, you likely felt let-down because it failed to align with your expectations. Overall, the goal of an introduction is to create a desire in your audience to hear what you have to say. You can then end your speech with a conclusion that helps your audience see how you have met those expectations and remember what is most important from your presentation.

This chapter will teach you how to write good introductions and conclusions.

So what makes for a good introduction? A good introduction should typically accomplish each of the following tasks: 1) Capture an audience’s attention, 2) Demonstrate the relevance of the presentation to the specific audience, 3) Establish the credibility of the speaker, 4) Clearly articulate the thesis of the presentation, 5) Provide a preview of the main points of the presentation. There are a variety of ways to accomplish each of these tasks, and the following section provides guidance on how to effectively accomplish each.

Attention Getter

The role of an attention getter is just what it sounds like—getting the audience to pay attention to what you are saying and interested in hearing more. There are many ways to accomplish this. You might ask a question. You might start with a statistic. You might tell a very brief story to get your audience invested. You might open with a famous quotation that connects to your speech in some important way. Whatever you choose to do, the first sentence of your presentation is incredibly important. Consider the following two attention getters:

Option 1: Sixty-three percent of college students report feeling stress about the transition to college.

Option 2: People consistently rank public speaking ahead of death in terms of what they most fear.

Both of these technically meet the expectations described above, but the second is much stronger. Why? Because you probably already knew that transitioning to college is stressful. But learning that people are more afraid of public speaking than death surprises most people.  In the context of a class that is going to ask everyone in the room to engage in public speaking, this surprising fact makes a good attention getter.

Relevance Statement

A Relevance Statement answers the question: Why should I care about this topic? If an Attention Getter is aimed at getting an audience member to briefly stop thinking about other things and momentarily give you their attention, a relevance statement is aimed at convincing audience members to listen to the rest of the presentation. A relevance statement should tell audience members why the topic of your presentation is important to them. A good relevance statement will make the connection between the topic and the audience as specific and personal as possible. Consider the following two relevance statements:

Option 1: Everyone experiences stress, and meditation can help reduce it.

Option 2: We are all in a class that requires public speaking, which means each one of us will experience the stress of standing in front of a crowd and speaking. Meditation offers an effective way to manage that stress, on a budget any college student can afford.

What makes Option 2 the stronger relevance statement? It offers specific connections to the experience of the audience. In contrast to Option 1, which makes a more general connection to stress being a human experience, Option 2 connects the presentation to the specific activity—public speaking— that everyone in the class is engaging in. It also notes the financial limitations facing many college students, which makes low-cost solutions like meditation particularly relevant.

Credibility Statement

A Credibility Statement answers the question: Why should I listen to this person? The internet gives us access to lots of people venting their thoughts on virtually every topic imaginable; why should audience members trust you? A credibility statement is a chance to explain to your audience why your knowledge of and connection to a topic makes you a reliable source of information. In professional settings, you will likely be called upon to speak about topics on which you are professionally knowledgeable. You may be able to point to years of professional experience to establish your expertise. This is not always the case in college. You may be giving a speech on a topic that you just started researching within a few weeks of the presentation. In situations where you lack formal expertise, training, or experience on a topic, establishing a personal connection to the topic can help establish your credibility. Compare the following two relevance statements:

Option 1: I have been researching meditation for two weeks.

Option 2: As someone who personally experiences anxiety when giving speeches, I have been researching meditation for this assignment, and I have already started using what I’ve learned to help me feel more comfortable and confident when speaking.

Option 2 is clearly stronger here. Why? The speaker has just started learning about the topic and has very little expertise. Both of these credibility statements clearly acknowledge this limitation. But Option 2 demonstrates the speaker has a real connection to the topic. They become more credible because they likely share a challenging experience with the audience (anxiety when giving speeches), and have learned enough about meditation to have a solution that is effective in addressing that problem.

Thesis Statement

A Thesis Statement answers the question: What is the central point of this presentation? A thesis statement condenses the main point/argument of your presentation into a single sentence. The rest of the presentation is aimed at supporting or accomplishing your thesis statement. For an informative presentation, a thesis statement will provide a specific articulation of what the audience will learn. For a persuasive presentation, a thesis will provide a specific articulation of what should be done in response to the presentation. Compare the following two thesis statements:

Option 1: My presentation will teach you about meditation.

Option 2: Meditation offers an effective tool to manage stress and increase happiness that you can start using today.

 

What makes Option 2 better? Both are accurate, but Option 2 is much more specific. Because of this, it provides the listener a clearer understanding of what will be covered in the presentation.

Preview Statement

A Preview Statement answers the question: What are the main parts of this presentation? By telling audience members what the main parts of the presentation will be, it offers a roadmap of sorts. If the thesis tells audience members where the presentation is going, a preview statement tells them how it is going to get there. As we will cover later in this chapter, most presentations for a class will have 2-4 main points. A preview statement simply tells the audience what those points are and in what order they will be discussed. This helps audience members understand how your ideas fit together. Although it is possible to be creative with how you word a preview statement, it is usually best to be simple and clear. Consider the following preview statement:

My presentation today will describe what meditation is, how it affects the brain, and some simple meditation practices that anyone can use to improve their lives in a variety of ways.

Now, let’s combine the previous examples to see the introductions created by each. Our option 1 examples lead to the following introduction:

Sixty-three percent of college students report feeling stress about the transition to college. Everyone experiences stress, and meditation can help reduce it. I have been researching meditation for two weeks. My presentation will teach you about meditation. My presentation today will describe what meditation is, how it affects the brain, and some simple meditation practices that anyone can use to improve their lives in a variety of ways.

This introduction has all of the essential elements. But because it is too general and lacks any specific connection to the audience or speaker, it is unlikely to draw and hold the attention of audience members. Compare that to the introduction created from our option 2 examples:

People consistently rank public speaking ahead of death in terms of what they most fear. We are all in a class that requires public speaking, which means each one of us will experience the stress of standing in front of a crowd and speaking. Meditation offers an effective way to manage that stress, on a budget any student can afford. As someone who personally experiences anxiety when giving speeches, I have been researching meditation for this assignment, and I have already started using what I’ve learned to help me feel more comfortable and confident when speaking. Meditation offers an effective tool to manage stress and increase happiness that you can start using today. My presentation today will describe what meditation is, how it affects the brain, and some simple meditation practices that anyone can use to improve their lives in a variety of ways.

This introduction is far stronger It is constructed of the same parts as the previous introduction. However, because those parts are much better– the opening statistic is striking, there is a direct connection to the experiences of the specific audience, and it provides a clear articulation of what the audience will learn from the speech—they make for a much more engaging introduction. You will find that an introduction that does each of these five parts well is effective in almost any speaking situation.

Just as you should have a thoughtful and well-constructed introduction to start any presentation, you should also carefully construct the conclusion of your presentation. You have probably heard speeches in past classes or other settings in which the speaker ends abruptly by saying something like “that’s all” or “thank you.” You may have even experienced the awkward silence if a speaker simply stopped talking as they reach the end of their material, but the audience was unsure if the speaker was finished. An effective conclusion prepares an audience for the end of the presentation and takes advantage of the recency effect by ensuring the final moments of the speech review key information.

In many ways, effective conclusions mirror effective introductions. A conclusion should have the following parts: a review statement, a restatement of relevance, a restatement of the thesis, and a strong close. The first three can be taken, with minor modifications, from the introduction.

Review Statement

A Review Statement quickly reminds the audience of the main points covered in the speech. This serves two purposes: first, it gives the audience one more overview to see how the main ideas connect. Second, it provides a clear transition into the conclusion. When your audience hears you transition from the final point of your presentation to reviewing your main points, it cues them that the presentation is nearing its end. Based on the introduction we just created, you might modify the preview statement to create a review statement such as:

Today I discussed what meditation is, how it affects the brain, and some simple practices that anyone can use to reduce their own stress.

Restate Relevance

Your conclusion should restate relevance to provide a final reminder of the connection between this topic and your specific audience members. Hopefully your audience will already be convinced of the importance of your topic by the time you reach your conclusion. However, given that we are constantly competing for audience attention and interest, it is worth providing a final reminder of why your topic matters to your audience.  For the speech we just created, you might say:

 

As we all deal with the stresses of having to give speeches, and of being college students, meditation is one way to reduce stress that we can all afford.

Restate Credibility (optional)

Hopefully, by the time you reach the end of your speech, your credibility on the topic will be clear. You can decide if you wish to take the time to remind the audience of your credibility based on how important them remembering that is to the goal of the speech. If your goal is to establish the importance of some problem so that your audience will hire you to solve it (imagine an entrepreneur pitching their service to a potential client), reminding them why they can trust you is a good idea. If your own expertise in the topic is not a key takeaway for your audience (such as you informing your class about the benefits of meditation), you do not need to include it in your conclusion.

Restate Thesis

Once you have reviewed your points and the relevance of your topic, it is time to restate your thesis and close the speech. A well-written thesis statement typically requires little revision from the introduction to the conclusion. In this case, the same exact sentence works nicely:

Meditation offers an effective tool to manage stress and increase happiness that you can start using today.

Strong Close

A Strong Close is a last sentence or sentences that alert your audience that the presentation is over and conclude it in a powerful way. As we mentioned, you have probably seen presentations with abrupt endings that leave the audience unsure if the presentation is over. This is easy to avoid if you carefully plan your final sentences. As with attention getters, there are many ways to craft a strong close to your presentation. In fact, linking your attention getter and conclusion is often an excellent way to craft a strong close. If you opened with a quotation or statistic, you might make a reference back to it. If you opened with a story, briefly return to that story in a way that ties your presentation together.

Sometimes a return to the attention getter may not work well or feel natural in a speech. In such situations, there are other ways to conclude. If you are advocating for your audience to act in a certain way, you might close with a call to action. For example, in a TEDx presentation challenging societal beauty norms, Melissa Butler (2017) closes with “So I challenge each of you: when you go home today, look at yourself in the mirror. See all of you. Look at all of your greatness that you embody. Accept it and love it. And finally, when you leave the house tomorrow, try to extend that same love and acceptance to someone who doesn’t look like you.” This strong close emphasizes the central ideas of the presentation and provides the audience with one final, memorable, call to action.

If your presentation does not lend itself to a powerful call to action, you might simply close with a provocative question that leaves your audience with something to think about. For example, in a fascinating Ted Talk about the power of language in shaping our thoughts, Cognitive Scientist Lera Boroditsky (2017) concludes, “I want to leave you with this final thought. I’ve told you about how speakers of different languages think differently, but of course that’s not about how people elsewhere think. It’s about how you think. It’s how the language that you speak shapes how you think. And that gives you the opportunity to ask yourself: Why do I think the way that I do? How could I think differently? And, also, what thoughts do I wish to create?” This strong close reconnects the topic and the audience. It reminds them that the presentation was not just scientific data on language, but rather an invitation for each listener to reflect more fully on their own words and thoughts.

Because our speech on meditation opened with particularly striking fact, it would make sense to return to it when closing the speech:

While the majority of people fear public speaking more than death, you don’t have to. You will be able to calmly and confidently speak in any situation now that you know what to do: meditate.

Combined, these elements lead to a strong conclusion to the speech:

Today I discussed what meditation is, how it affects the brain, and some simple practices that anyone can use to reduce their own stress. As we all deal with the stresses of having to give speeches, and of being college students, meditation is one way to reduce stress that we can all afford. Meditation offers an effective tool to manage stress and increase happiness that you can start using today. While the majority of people fear public speaking more than death, you don’t have to. You will be able to calmly and confidently speak in any situation now that you know what to do: meditate.

This chapter provides you the information you need to write effective introductions and conclusions. These parts of introductions and conclusions are applicable in most speaking situations, ranging from your in-class speeches to most professional presentations you may be asked to give. They also work for many types of writing. If you can get your audience’s attention, convince them of why the topic is important to them and why they should listen to you, and provide a clear thesis and preview your speech, you will have gone a long way toward getting your audience to listen. By briefly revisiting those elements in the conclusion, you help your audience remember the key ideas of your speech. The start and end of your speech are the parts your audience will remember most; make them count!