4. Building a Powerful Closing

Advantages to a Powerful Closing

Morrisey (1997) gives three advantages to delivering a convincing closing:

• Brings your audience from a potentially low-attention state of mind into a high-attention and more receptive state of mind.

• Allows you to summarize your main ideas, review the purpose, and appeal for audience action. Any idea you want your audience to remember needs to be repeated from three to ten (3-10) times during your presentation, either verbatim or expressed in different words with a slightly different slant.

• Your audience will leave feeling that attending your presentation was worth their time.

Reference:

Morrisey, G.L., Sechrest, T.L., & Warman, W.B. (1997). Loud and Clear: How to Prepare and Deliver Effective Business and Technical Presentations. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.

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Adapted with permission from Soil and Water Conservation District Outreach: A Handbook for Program Development, Implementation and Evaluation. Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Soil and Water Conservation, 2003.