Secondly, just because the audience is present, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are there to listen. Perhaps they came to be seen, to escape something else or to meet with another attendee. You can motivate an audience to listen by giving a preview of the speech from their perspective of the audience. Let them know what they will learn and how it will benefit them. Good introductions merge together three essential elements: i the speaker, ii the subject, and iii the audience.
The order in which you choose to address these elements is generally unimportant. A common error is to focus solely on the speaker to the exclusion of the other two elements. A key to a good introduction is preparation and practice together with a healthy dose of enthusiasm. These need not take long once you understand how to go about them.
Returning to our three essential elements, preparation involves learning about the speaker, the topical nature of the subject and the audience's interests and concerns. Sprague, J. The speaker's compact handbook, 4th ed. Portland: Ringgold, Inc. Vrooman, S. The zombie guide to public speaking: Why most presentations fail, and what you can do to avoid joining the horde. Place of publication not identified: CreateSpace. Make an appointment. Meet our consultants.
Student resources. The last consideration when picking an attention-getting device involves the speech occasion. Different occasions will necessitate different tones, or particular styles or manners of speaking. When selecting an attention-getter, you want to make sure that the attention-getter sets the tone for the speech.
Miller Miller, E. Speech introductions and conclusions. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 32 , — The rest of this section is going to examine these eleven attention-getting devices. The first attention-getting method to consider is to tell your audience the subject of your speech. This device is probably the most direct, but it may also be the least interesting of the possible attention-getters.
This sentence explicitly tells an audience that the speech they are about to hear is about the importance of understanding statistics. The second attention-getting device to consider is a direct reference to the audience. As human resource professionals, you and I know the importance of talent management.
In this example, the speaker reminds the audience of their shared status as human resource professionals and uses the common ground to acknowledge the importance of talent management in human resources. If not, you can also use a number of sources that compile useful quotations from noted individuals. Here are some other websites that contain useful databases of quotations for almost any topic:. For example, consider this attention-getter for a persuasive speech on frivolous lawsuits:.
During their escape the duo attempted to rappel from the roof of the jail using a makeshift ladder of bed sheets. After being quickly apprehended, Gomez filed a lawsuit against the jail for making it too easy for him to escape.
In this case, the speaker is highlighting a news event that illustrates what a frivolous lawsuit is, setting up the speech topic of a need for change in how such lawsuits are handled. Obviously, this strategy is closely related to the previous one, except that instead of a recent news event you are reaching further back in history to find a relevant reference. For example, if you are giving a speech on the Iraq War that began in , you could refer back to the Vietnam War as way of making a comparison:.
The result was a long-running war of attrition in which many American lives were lost and the country of Vietnam suffered tremendous damage and destruction. Today, we see a similar war being waged in Iraq.
American lives are being lost, and stability has not yet returned to the region. An anecdote A brief account or story of an interesting or humorous event. Remember, your entire introduction should only be 10 to 15 percent of your speech, so your attention-getter must be very short.
For example, here is an anecdote a speaker could use to begin a speech on how disconnected people are from the real world because of technology:. In July , a high school girl named Alexa Longueira was walking along a main boulevard near her home on Staten Island, New York, typing in a message on her cell phone. Not paying attention to the world around her, she took a step and fell right into an open manhole. Whitney, L. Girl learns the hard way. A second type of anecdote is a parable or fable.
A parable or fable An allegorical anecdote designed to teach general life lessons. For the same speech on how disconnected people are with the real world because of technology, the speaker could have used the Fable of The Boy and the Filberts:. The ancient Greek writer Aesop told a fable about a boy who put his hand into a pitcher of filberts. The boy grabbed as many of the delicious nuts as he possibly could.
Instead of dropping some of them so that his hand would fit, he burst into tears and cried about his predicament. The moral of the story? New York, NY: Wm. After recounting this anecdote, the speaker could easily relate the fable to the notion that the technology in our society leads us to try to do too many things at once. While parables and fables are short and entertaining, their application to your speech topic should be clear.
The eighth device you can use to start a speech is to surprise your audience with startling information about your topic. Often, startling statements come in the form of statistics and strange facts. The goal of a good startling statistic is that it surprises the audience and gets them engaged in your topic. Although startling statements are fun, it is important to use them ethically. First, make sure that your startling statement is factual.
Second, make sure that your startling statement is relevant to your speech and not just thrown in for shock value. There are two types of questions commonly used as attention-getters: response questions and rhetorical questions. A response question A question that the audience is expected to answer in some manner. If so, stand up.
A rhetorical question A question for which no actual response is expected. How many students on this campus have had sexual intercourse? Of those who have had sex, how many have been tested for HIV? Humor is an amazing tool when used properly. We cannot begin to explain all the amazing facets of humor within this text, but we can say that humor is a great way of focusing an audience on what you are saying.
However, humor is a double-edged sword. If you do not wield the sword carefully, you can turn your audience against you very quickly. When using humor, you really need to know your audience and understand what they will find humorous. Think about how incompetent the character of Michael Scott seems on the television program The Office , in large part because of his ineffective use of humor. We always recommend that you test out humor of any kind on a sample of potential audience members prior to actually using it during a speech.
Humor can be incorporated into several of the attention-getting devices mentioned. You could use a humorous anecdote, quotation, or current event. So when looking for humorous attention-getters you want to make sure that the humor is nonoffensive to your audiences and relevant to your speech.
The Chamfort quotation could be great for a speech on the ills of modern society, but probably not for a speech on the state of modern religious conflict.
The tenth device you may consider to start a speech is to refer to a story about yourself that is relevant for your topic. Some of the best speeches are ones that come from personal knowledge and experience. If you are an expert or have firsthand experience related to your topic, sharing this information with the audience is a great way to show that you are credible during your attention-getter.
For example, if you had a gastric bypass surgery and you wanted to give an informative speech about the procedure, you could introduce your speech in this way:. In the fall of , I decided that it was time that I took my life into my own hands. After suffering for years with the disease of obesity, I decided to take a leap of faith and get a gastric bypass in an attempt to finally beat the disease.
Your speech topic is the purpose of the attention-getter, not the other way around. Another pitfall in using a personal example is that it may be too personal for you to maintain your composure. While this is an extreme example, we strongly recommend that you avoid any material that could get you overly choked up while speaking. When speakers have an emotional breakdown during their speech, audience members stop listening to the message and become very uncomfortable.
The last device we mention for starting a speech is to refer directly to the speaking occasion. This attention-getter is only useful if the speech is being delivered for a specific occasion.
Because of its specific nature, this attention-getter is the least likely to be used for speeches being delivered for college courses.
In this section, we are going to explore the five remaining parts of an effective introduction: linking to your topic, reasons to listen, stating credibility, thesis statement, and preview. After the attention-getter, the second major part of an introduction is called the link to topic. The link to topic is the shortest part of an introduction and occurs when a speaker demonstrates how an attention-getting device relates to the topic of a speech.
Often the attention-getter and the link to topic are very clear. In this case, the attention-getter clearly flows directly to the topic. However, some attention-getters need further explanation to get to the topic of the speech. For example, both of the anecdote examples the girl falling into the manhole while texting and the boy and the filberts need further explanation to connect clearly to the speech topic i.
In this example, the third sentence here explains that the attention-getter was an anecdote that illustrates a real issue. The fourth sentence then introduces the actual topic of the speech. We are constantly trying to grab so much or do so much that it prevents us from accomplishing our goals.
In this example, we added three new sentences to the attention-getter to connect it to the speech topic. Once you have linked an attention-getter to the topic of your speech, you need to explain to your audience why your topic is important. Sometimes you can include the significance of your topic in the same sentence as your link to the topic, but other times you may need to spell out in one or two sentences why your specific topic is important.
Nothing is worse than having to sit through a speech that has nothing to do with you. How would you react to the speaker? Most of us would be pretty annoyed at having had our time wasted in this way. Imagine your preview like a road sign showing the major city in that direction, not all the smaller stops along the way.
It is important that the main points are previewed in the respective order that they will be presented in order to demonstrate your organization as a speaker, to prepare the audience for the flow of the speech, and to help the audience find their place in case of a momentary day dream. Skip to main content. Refining your Speech. Search for:. Try It.
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