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O.K. The moment we’ve all been waiting for, the Peroratio or final appeal. This is where you make your last stand and close out your presentation.

The key ingredients to a good Peroratio are:

The strongest and most eloquent arguments in support of your topic,

Just enough emotion to evoke a response in your audience,

A call to action.

Here are some examples:

Job Interview: “I believe that I’ve illustrated that I’m a good match for this position. I’m excited to get started and help your department meet its goals. Is there any reason why you can’t offer me the job right now?”

Sales Pitch: “The Acme Widget saves you time and money. It will give you the time you need to spend with your family and enjoy your life. How would you like to pay for this?”
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O.K. You’ve introduced yourself. You’ve laid out what you’re going to say. You’ve even discussed evidence that backs you up. You’re ready close, right?

Wrong. Now you must go through what the classical Greek and Roman orators called the Refutatio.

This is the part of your presentation where you address counter arguments, doubts and concerns. For example,

If this is a job interview, you might say something like “I recognize that I do not have all the requirements of the job …”

If this is a presentation to convince the audience to take some action, you might say “Some may argue that …”

If this is a sales pitch, you might say “You have probably looked at my competitors and I recognize that they have good features to offer too …”

But, guess what? There’s a “but”! All of these counter arguments you bring up can easily be refuted. So you do just that:
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So far, I’ve discussed the opening or exordium and the narratio or brief outline of the speech. With these two parts, you’ve warmed up the audience to you and your topic. Now its time to get down to business.

The next part of a presentation is the Partitio. Here is where you set out the main arguments that you want to make.

If this is a speech to convince the audience of your views, you might says something like “What we need to do to address this problem is …”.

If this is a sales speech, you might say “The reason my products or services are particularly suited to solve your problem is …”.

If this is an expository or educational presentation, such as our dog-training example, you might say “The first thing you need to establish is your dominance in the pack. Your dog much know that you are the alpha dog.”
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In last week’s post I discussed how to open a presentation. This is where you gain your audience’s sympathy and convinced them that you know what you’re talking about. The next step, or narratio, is to tell them what you are going to tell them in your presentation.

In the narratio, you give the audience a brief outline of what you’re going to be telling them in the rest of the speech. To continue the dog-training analogy, you might say this next:

Dogs are pack animals, that is they live in packs or groups. There is a certain psychology that goes along with this way of living — a psychology that you can use to train your dog to behave in ways that promote peace and harmony in your relationship with him or her.
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Public oratory — what is now referred to as public speaking — was a valued skill to those to live in classical Greece and Rome. The classical techniques of rhetoric used by famed orators such as Socrates, Plato and Cicero still apply today. Over the next few posts, I’ll cover some of these techniques and how you can use them to improve your public speaking skills.

Exordium

The exordium, or the opening of a presentation, has two goals:

1. To gain the sympathy of the listeners — get your audience to like you before you try to persuade them to your way of thinking; and

2. To clearly establish your own credibility — show your audience that you are the right person to be speaking about your topic.

The Greeks and Romans felt that what you say first to a “captive” audience is much less important that what you leave them with at the end of the speech. Therefore the beginning is the best time to get the “niceties” out of the way.
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