How we change what others think, feel, believe and do

Summarizing

Techniques > Public speaking > Preparing the Presentation > Summarizing

Description | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

Summarize the presentation in a brief paragraph or so. Note the main topics you covered and perhaps the important points within these.

Example

Well there you go. We've take a trip around the new building materials on the market, we've considered the physical properties of these and looked at some architectural innovations that these will allow.

Discussion

The purpose of summarizing is to help the audience remember what you said. You know it all, of course, and it can be difficult to understand how little they are likely to be able to recall, even an hour after the talk. A way to help this is to leverage the recency effect, in which people are more likely to remember the last thing they heard rather than one of the points in the middle of the talk.

A summary is not necessarily the same as stating key points, although these can be blended into smooth finish to your talk.