Make your final message clear

Stay in control until the very last second and follow these steps at the “finish” of your presentation.

Firstly, pause briefly and signalclearly that you are now ready to finish the presentation. The audience will start to listen again closely at this point.

Then, make your summary, giving a brief overview of what has already been said. The summary is a reflection of your “what” and looks back. It should not be too long as you will lose your audience’s attention again, but detailed enough to cover your points. This can be a difficult balance to achieve! A good summary gives your listeners time to reflect on the content and builds up to your conclusion, making your conclusion stronger, more powerful and more effective. A conclusion without a summary can sound incomplete as your audience may not have listened to every point during the main part of the presentation and the purpose can be lost. Avoid giving any conclusions while you are making your summary.

After this, give your conclusion. This is a reflection of your “why” and looks forward to what you want people to do or think after your presentation. It should follow logically from your summary. There are different kinds of conclusions: you can make a call for action, make a recommendation or assure your audience that they’re better informed. This is the destination of your journey and the most important part of your presentation.

Finally, make your closing remarks by thanking your audience, asking for questions or passing round your presentation handouts.

B.Write Sig (Signal), Sum (Summary), Conc (Conclusion) or CR (Closing Remarks) next to the phrases below.

1. So, that brings me to the end of my presentation. …………..

2. Let me summarize what we’ve looked at. …………..

3. Thank you for your attention. …………..

4. I’ll briefly summarize the main issues. …………..

5. I’ll now hand out … …………..

6. I suggest Johannes … and Michel … …………..

7. I’d like to summarize. …………..

8. I’d like to conclude by strongly recommending … …………..

9. So, that completes our presentation. …………..

10. Let me just go over the key points again. …………

11. To sum up … …………..

12. I trust you gained an insight into … …………..

13. To conclude, I’d like to leave you with the following thought … …………..

14. Well, that covers everything I want to say. …………..

15. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them. …………..

16. At this stage, I’d like to go over … …………..

17. In my opinion, the only way forward is to … ………….

18. Thank you for listening. …………..

19. To summarize, I’ll run through my three topics. …………..

20. In conclusion, I’d like to leave you with the following idea. …………..

Find Your Voice   Highlight the phrases above that you really like or think are useful for you, keeping in mind the kinds of conclusion that you often have to make in your presentations. Do you … · make recommendations? · give information? · motivate? · inspire? · give a call to action? · persuade?