Resources: Notes on Life and Language in the United States

Would you like to know how to close a presentation in English?

You have made it to the conclusion of your presentation and things are going great so far.

You are almost finished.

Now you have to end it with a bang!

Remember, when you are presenting in English, the conclusion is what your audience members will recall about the whole presentation.

If you work in Boston, New York, or another large US city, you will want people to remember what you said during your presentation.

So it's important to plan your conclusion ahead of time.

Let's talk about a few things that you should add to the conclusion of your presentation.

  1. Summarize your main points:

• "To sum up..."
• "In conclusion..."
• "Therefore, as we have seen today..."

After you have summarized your presentation in a few sentences, you should give a call to action.

If you are not sure what to say, go back to our first post on how to give a business presentation in English and look and figure out what your goal is for your presentation.

Your call to action should be directly linked to your goal.

It is important to think about cultural values when you deliver the final sentence of your presentation.

American audiences expect most presentations to end on a positive note.

When you deliver your final message, your tone of voice should make the audience feel excited, motivated or driven to take action in some way.

  2. To make a call to action:

• "So I'd like to suggest..."
• "My first proposal is..."
• "Based on the information presented today, I encourage you to...."
• "So why not try..."

Remember this about American culture!

As we said earlier, audience members in the United States like to get involved and participate.

If your presentation was thought-provoking and engaging, people will probably have questions, so consider leaving some time at the end.

   3. To invite questions, you can say:

• "At this point, I would be happy to answer any questions..."
• "If there are any questions, feel free to ask..."
• "Thank you very much for listening. Does anyone have a question?"
• "Questions anyone?" (very casual)