CONCLUDING THE SPEECH

Preparing the Conclusion. No architect would attempt to plan a
building unless he knew the purpose for which it was to be used. No
writer of a story would start to put down words until he knew exactly
how his story was to end. He must plan to bring about a certain
conclusion. The hero and heroine must be united in marriage. The
scheming villain must be brought to justice. Or if he scorn the usual
ending of the "lived happily ever after" kind of fiction, he can plan
to kill his hero and heroine, or both; or he can decide for once that
his story shall be more like real life than is usually the case, and
have wickedness triumph over virtue. Whatever he elects to do at the
conclusion of his story, whether it be long or short, the principle of
his planning is the same--he must know what he is going to do and
adequately prepare for it during the course of, previous events.

One other thing every writer must secure. The ending of a book must be
the most interesting part of it. It must rise highest in interest. It
must be surest of appeal. Otherwise the author runs the risk of not
having people read his book through to its conclusion, and as every
book is written in the hope and expectation that it will be read
through, a book which fails to hold the attention of its readers
defeats its own purpose.

The foregoing statements are self-evident but they are set down
because their underlying principles can be transferred to a
consideration of the preparation of conclusions for speeches.

Is a Conclusion Necessary? But before we use them let us ask whether
all speeches require conclusions.

There are some people--thoughtless, if nothing worse--who habitually
end letters by adding some such expression as "Having nothing more to
say, I shall now close." Is there any sense in writing such a
sentence? If the letter comes only so far and the signature follows,
do not those items indicate that the writer has nothing more to say
and is actually closing? Why then, when a speaker has said all he has
to say, should he not simply stop and sit down? Will that not indicate
quite clearly that he has finished his speech? What effect would such
an ending have?

In the first place the speaker runs the risk of appearing at least
discourteous, if not actually rude, to his audience. To fling his
material at them, then to leave it so, would impress men and women
much as the brusque exit from a group of people in a room