Using transitions between your main points
Keep your audience with you!
It is important to provide clear transitions between sections of a speech. This is to help listeners know how to sort the information that they are receiving, and to allow them to tune back in if their attention started to wander.
Without clear transitions you risk losing listeners because they don’t know how to sort the information they are getting. You need to provide easy “re-entry points for listeners to renew their attention. Here are some ways you can signal a transition from one section of a speech to the next:
- Use bridging words or phrases ("finally"; “to sum up these ideas”; “now, moving on").
- Tell a personal story, to break up the speech and draw people back in.
- Use a visual prompt like an overhead, with something that sums up what was said.
- Pause, take a breath, and look at the audience.
- Change positions to grab attention (for example move to the front of the stage and keep talking).
- Set out what is going to be said in the next section ("Now I am going to move on to talk about Israel’s attempts to make peace. This will consist of three parts. First, I’m going to tell you about Israeli offers of land for peace. Second").
- Tony Blair’s special: ‘and I say to youŅ’
Make sure that transitions aren’t too short. If listeners don’t know how to ‘sort’ what is being said, they will stop listening. Transitions should make up a sizable part (around 10%?) of a speech. It is better to say a little but be well understood than to say a lot but be ignored.
| Use transitions to make your speech seamless! | ||
| Transitions that link similar ideas | Transitions that link dissimilar or contradictory ideas | Transitions used to begin paragraphs or sentences |
| again for example likewise furthermore thus also for instance moreover therefore consequently and to illustrate of course as a result accordingly another in addition similarly more importantly too besides in a like manner not surprisingly | although in spite of on the one hand nevertheless yet conversely instead on the other hand however provided that even if on the contrary otherwise still | curiously enough in essence indeed in contrast to in keeping with withal allowing for it is said that in this case in application of it may be remarked an apt example so much for here the situation is associated with by and large truly in addition to even before this as a corollary it still remains that yet it is apparent that on the positive side coupled with with respect to as the years pass it is possible that in the past in one sense to be sure if space permitted at this point |