A thought-circle is simply the notion of ending your speech at essentially the same place you started your speech. “Closing the circle” so-to-speak. Human beings feel comfortable with a sense of closure in their lives…..no loose ends. So, it is helpful for the audience to hear something familiar when they get to the conclusion. For instance, if you tell us a story in your introduction, you should return to the same story in the conclusion. If you use a statistic for an attention getter, you should repeat the same statistic again in the conclusion. In a speech, this will have the added benefit of letting the audience know that you are finished, so you don’t have to be worried about getting stranded at the front of the room!!

Now that you know what TO DO in a conclusion (summarize and close the thought circle), it is probably a good idea to review what NOT TO DO as well. Good conclusions DO NOT:

1.  Apologize (“gosh, I’m sorry my speech sucked”).  There really shouldn't be anything to apologize for.  You have worked REALLY hard to give a fantastic presentation, so there won't be any need for an apology.  On the off chance this doesn't happen, apologizing here won't fix anything.  It will just make it worse :(.

2.  Introduce new material (only review what has already been covered; your audience won’t retain anything new at this point).  Don't bring up anything new or ramble on about an unrelated topic.  The only items presented here should be things we have heard before.

3.  Chicken-out with a “thank you” instead of a real conclusion (at this point, there is nothing to thank the audience for…..feel free to thank them after the applause….then there is actually something to be thankful for!).  Many people default to a 'thanks' just to get the speech over with, but you want to leave your audience with a powerful last impression......and 'thanks' isn't it :).

This is the last impression your audience is going to have of the entire speech! You want to leave them with a strong final impression that gives them a sense of closure and polishes off the entire presentation.

Test yourself: What does the speaker in the sample outline use for a thought circle? How is this represented on the outline?

Step 3: Delivering The Speech