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by Logan Scisco
When going over the structure of an extemporaneous speech with beginners, I am guilty of glossing over the importance of the conclusion. When teaching extemp, I place a great deal of emphasis on the introduction and point structure, since the beginning of the speech provides your best impression to the judge and your points provide your analysis for the question you are speaking on. However, conclusions should not be overlooked or simply presented as “it’s the introduction in reverse.” Conclusions do matter in extemporaneous speaking and can make the difference in difficult rounds. Therefore, this strategy piece will talk about conclusion structure and why conclusions matter in extemporaneous speaking.
Conclusion Structure
The conclusion structure in extemporaneous speaking is rather simplistic, but there are some general guidelines that will serve you well. First, you want to make sure that you transition to your conclusion with enough time to actually conclude the speech. You do not want to transition to your conclusion too early, but you do not want to transition to it too late either. A good rule of thumb is to leave yourself about forty-five seconds with which to conclude. This will prevent you rushing through the conclusion to avoid going over time, but will also not leave you with so much time that you are trying to fill time to reach the time limit. Both behaviors are frowned upon by judges. If you are doing extemporaneous speaking in a state that has a strict seven minute time limit, this means that you want to transition to your conclusion shortly after you get the “one minute” signal from the judge. If you are doing extemporaneous speaking in a state that has a thirty second grace period, then you can afford to transition shortly after the “thirty second” signal is shown to you.
I highly recommended starting your conclusion by reiterating the question. This begins the conclusion with a direct focus on the topic that you just discussed and serves as a great framework for reviewing your analysis. After you review your question, you should also make sure to reiterate your answer. It is very important that when you reiterate your question and your answer that you say them correctly. For the question, this means that you should make sure that you reiterate the word-for-word order of the question and for the answer, make sure that it is consistent. If you use a thesis statement to support your answer of “yes because…” or “no because…” make sure that your phrasing matches what you used in the introduction. If you fail to do this we call it “shifting” and it can be highly distracting to the audience. If you somehow messed up your initial thesis or answer in the introduction, then go ahead and conclude with what you meant to say, but if you did it correctly in the introduction then it needs to stay that way for the conclusion.
Next, you want to reiterate what your main points were from your speech and just like when you reiterated the question and the answer, it is very important that you make sure your point “tags” have the same language that you used throughout the speech. If you cannot remember this while you are giving the speech, then make sure that at least the main idea is the same. However, its best to maintain the same point tag language when you first preview your points in the introduction, discuss them when you transition into them, and then conclude by recapping them. Also, when you are reviewing your points make sure that you put them in order and go from your first point down to your third. This might seem obvious, but I have seen extempers botch this on several occasions. When you review your points you also want to keep your focus on the tags and not the entire idea of the point. You already delivered your analysis of the point so there is no need to go on a two to three sentence diatribe about each one once you get to the conclusion.
The last step of the conclusion is most important and is one that extempers usually miss. This is linking back to your initial attention getting device (AGD). If you started the speech with quotation, make sure that you link back to that quotation at the end of the speech. If you started the speech with a joke, then you want to recap the joke quickly or if you started with a historical event or scenario then lay out its main idea. The problem in many extemporaneous speeches, especially beginners, is that they simply end the speech with their point tags. This makes the speech come off as flat. What you want to do is make your speech come full circle by going back to how you initially began. This will also serve to remind your audience about why your AGD was pertinent to your speech and it is one of the ways that judges detect whether AGD’s are “canned” based on how well they tie into the speech at the end.
You will probably find it fitting to have a “clinching sentence” or a last sentence that conveys some power at the end of the conclusion. Some speakers plan out what their last sentence is going to be in prep and memorize it. Other speakers just “wing it” if they have a gift for it. I always fell into the latter group, but some speakers do benefit by memorizing their first and last sentence of their speech. Make sure when you deliver the last sentence of the conclusion and the speech that you deliver it in a tone that sounds like a closing. Too often, speakers will maintain the same vocal tone for the last sentence and the result is that their conclusion does not sound definitive or like a conclusion at all. If the audience does not know that you are finishing the speech two bad things can happen: first, you might see a delayed applause or puzzled looks on the judges face about why the speech ended as it did and/or second, the judge may not know you are not done speaking and will not stop their timer. This can lead to you losing a valuable one or two seconds and cause you to go over time (Note: This is why you should never go all the way to the last second of the time limit, but I will talk about that more in a future strategy piece).
Why Do Conclusions Matter?
So, why is it that conclusions matter for the speech? The first reason is that a judge is likely to only pay attention to certain elements of your speech. Colin West, the 2006 NFL National Champion in United States Extemporaneous Speaking, wrote a great strategy piece for Extemp Central that is free on our website about how judges perceive speakers. That article is so good that I have recycled it when I have taught extemporaneous speaking at summer camps. Judges do not listen to all seven minutes of your speech because you have to keep in mind that they have to write comments, maintain your time signals, and then evaluate you versus other speakers. They are most likely to listen to the first thirty seconds of your speech, the first thirty seconds of your points, and then your conclusion. In fact, of all the parts of the speech they are most likely to listen to in full I would argue that it is the conclusion because they know that your speech is wrapping up. Therefore, ending with a great conclusion is a great way to leave a lasting impression on the round.
The other reason that the conclusion matters is that it recaps your speech. Imagine that you are summarizing your entire speech in the span of thirty to forty-five seconds. It is almost like the Final Focus in Public Forum Debate back when the time for the last speech was one minute in length. You should not add new information to your conclusion, but you should make sure that you deliver your conclusion with passion, energy, and make it definitive. Many speaker struggle with their conclusions because they tire by the end of the speech and their fluency goes out and/or their energy is flat. You want to make sure that you end the speech with as much energy as you began the speech. Ending flat leaves a bad impression and the most important element of the conclusion is leaving the judge with a great impression of the speech that they just watched.
To improve your conclusions, watch the closings of NFL final rounds on NFL TV. In fact, you may want to just watch the last minute of every single speech in the round and then rank them and see how the actual round turned out. What you will find is that the speakers that had the best conclusions tended to place higher. One of the best conclusions of the modern era (although I’m biased) is James Mohan’s conclusion to his speech at the 2010 NFL National Tournament in Kansas City. James tied for first in that final round and just lost out on the national championship, but it was an impressive conclusion that listed a variety of empires that had fallen in world history.