As for the talk itself, well, we have been touching on it in our discussion of such matters as the speaker’s relation to the audience, the need to provide signposts, and the use of quotations. All of our comments in earlier chapters about developing a written argument are relevant also to oral arguments, but here we should merely emphasize that because the talk is oral and the audience cannot look back to an earlier page to remind itself of some point, the speaker may have to repeat and summarize a bit more than is usual in a written essay.

Remember, too, that a reader can see when the essay ends — there is blank space at the end of the page — but a listener depends on aural cues. Nothing is more embarrassing — and less effective as argument — than a speaker who seems (to the audience) to suddenly stop and sit down. In short, give your hearers ample clues that you are ending (post such signs as “Finally” or “Last” or “Let me end by saying”), and be sure to end with a strong sentence. It probably won’t be as good as the end of the Gettysburg address (“government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”), nor will it be as good as the end of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech (“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”), but those are the models to emulate.