Though the introduction constitutes a small portion of the time allotted for delivering the speech, it has to contribute a significant amount of information to get the speech started right. The introduction offers the first opportunity to deliver the core message to the audience (the thesis or central idea) and give them a preview of the most important elements of that idea. If the speech lasts less than 10 minutes in length, the speaker needs to accomplish all of the following in less than two minutes: 1) Grab attention; 2) Relate to the audience; 3) Establish credibility; and 4) Provide the core of the speech, including a preview of the speech to come. In this chapter, we will focus on ways to Grab Attention of your audience.

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“It was a pleasure to burn.” —Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” —J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Well-known authors often admit that the opening line of a book is possibly the most important one in the entire book. Authors, like any other profession, need to make a living to maintain their lifestyle. This requires them to sell copies of their books, so authors must possess the capability to hook a reader within only one or two short lines to entice further reading. Most people, when searching for a new book, look first at the covers, and then to the first line of the story, and if it sufficiently grabs their attention, they continue perusing the pages. However, if those first lines fall flat, the book gets closed, set down, and likely forgotten forever.

A similar phenomenon occurs within the first few seconds of a speech. The first words uttered or the first actions that may communicate a message to an audience become absolutely critical. Borrowing from the previous analogy of a speaker to an author, imagine picking up a book that began with,

“Hi, everyone. My name is Stephen King, and today, I’d like to share a really scary story with you about homicidal clowns.”

Such a book promises little excitement, and most people would likely put it down without hesitation. In a similar light, a speaker who gets up before an audience and “warms up” with a casual greeting, small talk, and an awkward announcement of the topic tends to put off most audiences’ attention spans.

Considering that the average human transient attention span (temporary response to a stimulus) lasts around 8 seconds (Dukette & Cornish , 2009), a speaker has an extremely brief window of time in which to grab the audience’s attention and, subsequently, sustain it for the duration of the speech. In fact, the shorter the time the speaker has to speak, the more important this initial attention getter becomes. If given a limited amount of time to speak, don’t waste it on anything that does not further the purpose for speaking.

To grab an audience’s attention, try using one of the several time-honored techniques that continue to work today, despite all the various advances in technology. These include quotations, stories, rhetorical questions, shocking or unexpected information, and compelling visual aids or demonstration.

Quotations

A great quotation related to the speech topic often provides wisdom from a well-respected source that says something valuable or profound in much fewer words than most people can manage using many more. Choose quotes that demonstrate elegance, eloquence, or clever wit, yet make sure they remain relevant to the topic. Avoid using fun or humorous quotations for the sake of it, for this may make the audience feel cheated. Consider pulling quotations from websites, like BrainyQuote.com or GoodReads.com, works of literature, poetry, film, or even from personal acquaintances. Quotes can work especially great at the beginning and ending of speeches. Here are some examples:

Compelling Quote: “Good evening. Congressman John Lewis, before his passing, wrote: ‘Democracy is not a state. It is an act.'”  -Kamala Harris Victory Speech 2020

Create Laughter: “If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.”  -Theodore Roosevelt

Powerful Statement: “If we do not end the war, the war with end us.”  -H.G. Wells

Intriguing Statement:  “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”  -Mahatma Ghandi

Stories

Providing a story or a narrative helps speakers frame the topic for the audience. Stories provide speakers with a way to personalize a topic by helping audience members identify with the characters, events, or places within the story. Also, stories can entertain and engage, further reinforcing the idea of using an attention getter at the beginning of a speech. Stories can present “what if” scenarios that give the audience a hypothetical situation that illustrates the main point of the speech. Stories can also come in the form of real-life anecdotes based on personal experiences, those of others, or even events portrayed in fictional works like television, film, or literature.

Select a story for both its relevance to the topic, but more importantly, its ability to resonate, or strike a familiar chord, with the audience. Knowing the audience in advance becomes critically important when selecting the perfect story to illustrate or frame a point.

View the video below.

Asking Questions

“According to the U.N., roughly 734 million people live on less than two dollars a day. Could you?”

This rhetorical question, or question designed to evoke a thought or emotive response from an audience, requires no answer. Starting a speech with a question like the one above immediately cuts to the point, while simultaneously provides the audience concrete information and gets them to think about the main idea of the speech. Delivering a rhetorical question effectively requires skill, though, so inexperienced public speakers should avoid using them until they gain a bit more experience. Deliver the question slowly, deliberately, and follow it with a brief pause that allows the audience to consider what they heard. Too short a pause, and the audience does not have adequate time to think, while too long a pause runs the risk of having the audience actually start responding to the question. Finding the right balance of time takes skill, but once perfected, gives the speaker a powerful opening tool for grabbing attention. In addition to this deft use of a pause, the speaker should also follow up the question by explaining how the rest of the speech will address the nature of the question.

In a quick poll the speaker poses a question that requires little commitment from the audience, other than raising a hand. For example, using the topic above, the speaker might start by saying,

“Can I get a quick show of hands for everyone in this room who currently has a job?”

Gaining a small showing of audience involvement like this provides a highly effective way to grab attention, and the critically thinking speaker can combine this technique with the rhetorical question to further drive home an important point. For example, following the question above, the speaker could say,

“Now, keep your hand up if you make less than two dollars a day at your job, just like the other 734 million people in the world who make this wage or less, according to the U.N.”

Such strategies have risks though, especially when they backfire, such as when audience members do not raise their hands as expected, or when a speaker ends up with more audience involvement than previously desired. Use discretion, and always have a backup plan.

Examples of Rhetorical and Quick Poll Questions for Introducing a Speech

“We’ve all experienced being so stressed at work that we come home and don’t feel like doing anything, haven’t we?”

(Persuading the Audience with a Rhetorical Question)

“The amount of plastic in the ocean is rising at a considerable rate. How much damage will it take for you to help reduce this?”

(Emphasize a Statement with a Rhetorical Question)

“I have a quick quiz for you all. Let’s see who can guess the most common fear among adults. The answer will lead us into our topic of discussion today: overcoming fear.” (proceed with quiz)

(Quiz the Audience with a Quick Poll)

“Who here considers themselves a visual learner?”

(Gain Buy-in with a Quick Poll)

“How many of you think that Artificial Intelligence will significantly change our lives in the next ten years?”

(Spark Thinking Toward the Topic with a Quick Poll)

Unexpected Information

“Just how big is a billion? To put this in perspective, let us look at a single second. Now, let’s figure out how much time passes in one billion seconds. Any guesses? It takes more than 31 years. If you started counting to one billion when Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast convinced some Americans that aliens had invaded the country in 1938, you’d finish counting around the time Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon.”

Using a set of statements like this to arrive at an unexpected conclusion would provide a great segue to kick off a speech explaining a concept like the federal deficit, especially if the speaker wished to put into perspective the scope of the federal budget. Statements such as these stimulate audience members’ curiosity and keep them listening for more useful information.

Another way of approaching this, but also combining the technique with gaining audience involvement, would occur if the speaker asked the following:

“Would every other male in the room raise his hand? And now, would every third female in the room raise her hand as well? According to the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, statistics show that the people with their hands in the air represent the odds of receiving a positive diagnosis for some form of cancer.”

While sobering and somewhat macabre, such involvement causes the audience to feel invested and personally related to the topic from that point forward.

Visual Aids and Demonstrations

Though other chapters cover visual aids more in depth, suffice to say, visual aids can provide a speaker with powerfully gripping opening techniques. Additionally, demonstrations may provide an audience with a visually compelling reason to listen as well.

Visual aids can look like a well-designed PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Prezi presentation. It could be one impactful image or physical article which encapsulates or demonstrates your topic.

A visual aid could also look like a student delivering an informational speech on the martial art of tai chai walking slowly and deliberately out into the center of the room, taking a deep breath, and in silence, beginning to perform various forms and poses inherent to the art. Without saying a word, such a demonstration effectively captures an audience’s interest to hear more.

Refer to Current or Historical Events

 

“Last week we noted the founding of this great college in 1886, with a big celebration in the campus commons. The first students to graduate were nursing students, and they received their diplomas in 1890. Since then, there have been thousands of nurses who got their education right here.”

 

The above example refers to both the past and the present. A nursing student attending this college might use this as a good attention getter for a speech about some element of nursing or the medical field. Generic yet personal, it immediately engages the audience and brings them personally closer to the topic and its relevance.

The purpose of an introduction is threefold: 1) orient the audience to the topic; 2) set the tone for the remainder of the speech; and 3) hook the audience’s attention and show them that their investment of time and energy spent listening will seem worth it in the end. Great introductions fulfill these purposes without giving away too much of the “good stuff,” which speakers keep in their back pocket until the body of the speech.