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The choices you make about the introduction can affect the outcome of the entire speech. In the first several minutes (one speaker pegs it at ninety seconds),¹ audience members will decide whether they are interested in the topic of your speech, whether they will believe what you say, and whether they will give you their full attention.

A good introduction serves to:

Gain Audience Attention

An introduction must first of all win the audience’s attention. Some time-honored techniques include sharing a compelling quotation or story, posing a question, providing unusual information, using humor, acknowledging the audience, and referring to the occasion.

USE A QUOTATIONA Czech proverb says, “Do not protect yourself by a fence but rather by your friends.” A quotation that elegantly and succinctly expresses a theme of the speech will draw the audience’s attention. Quotations can be culled from literature, poetry, and film, or directly from people you know.

TELL A STORYNoted speechwriter and language expert William Safire once remarked that stories are “surefire attention getters.”² Stories personalize issues by encouraging identification and making ideas relevant. And they are, importantly, entertaining. Speeches that begin with brief stories of interesting, humorous, or real-life incidents both motivate the audience to listen and promote greater understanding and retention of the speaker’s message.³

POSE QUESTIONS“Are you concerned about student loans?” Posing a question such as this can be an effective way to draw the audience’s attention to what you are about to say. Questions can be real or rhetorical. Rhetorical questions do not invite actual responses. Instead, they make the audience think.

OFFER UNUSUAL INFORMATION“Virtually no one is having babies anymore in parts of Western Europe.” Surprising audience members with startling or unusual facts and statistics is one of the surest ways to get their attention. Speakers frequently base their startling statements on statistics, a powerful means of illustrating consequences and relationships that can quickly bring points into focus.

USE HUMORHandled well, humor can build rapport and set a positive tone for the speech. Used ineffectively, however, humor can backfire. Simply telling a series of unrelated jokes without making a relevant point will detract from your purpose. And few things turn an audience off more quickly than tasteless humor. Strictly avoid humor or sarcasm that belittles others—whether on the basis of race, sex, ability, or otherwise. A good rule of thumb is that speech humor should always match the audience, topic, purpose, and occasion.

REFER TO THE AUDIENCEAudiences are won over when speakers express interest in them and show that they share in the audience’s concerns and goals. This creates goodwill and a feeling of common ground (or identification; see also Chapter 6). Finding common ground helps overcome the natural human divisions that separate people.⁴ Use your knowledge of the audience to touch briefly on areas of shared experience.

REFER TO THE OCCASIONIntroductions that include references to the speech occasion and to any relevant facts about the audience make listeners feel recognized as individuals. People appreciate the direct reference to the event, and they are interested in the meaning the speaker assigns to it.

Preview the Topic and Purpose

Once you’ve gained the audience’s attention, use the introduction to alert listeners to the speech topic and purpose (see the Quick Tip below for exceptions to this rule). Declare what your speech is about and what you hope to accomplish.

Topic and purpose are clearly revealed in this introduction to a speech by Marvin Runyon, former postmaster general of the United States:

This afternoon, I want to examine the truth of that statement—“Nothing moves people like the mail, and no one moves the mail like the U.S. Postal Service.” I want to look at where we are today as a communications industry, and where we intend to be in the days and years ahead.⁵

Establish Credibility as a Speaker

During the introduction, audience members make a decision about whether they are interested not just in your topic but also in you. They want to know why they should believe you. To build credibility, make a simple statement of your qualifications for speaking on the topic. Briefly emphasize some experience, knowledge, or perspective you have that is different from or more extensive than that of your audience.

Preview the Main Points

Once you’ve revealed the topic and purpose and established your credibility, briefly preview the main points of the speech. This helps audience members mentally organize the speech as they follow along. Introductory previews are straightforward. You simply tell the audience what the main points will be and in what order you will address them. Save your in-depth discussion of each one for the body of your speech.

Robert L. Darbelnet effectively introduces his topic, purpose, and main points with this preview statement:

My remarks today are intended to give you a sense of AAA’s ongoing efforts to improve America’s roads. Our hope is that you will join your voices to ours as we call on the federal government to do three things:

Number one: Perhaps the most important, provide adequate funding for highway maintenance and improvements.

Number two: Play a strong, responsible, yet flexible role in transportation programs.

And number three: Invest in highway safety.

Let’s see what our strengths are, what the issues are, and what we can do about them.⁷

Motivate the Audience to Accept Your Goals

A critical function of the introduction is to motivate the audience to care about your topic and believe that it is relevant to them. One way to do this is to address your topic’s practical implications and what the audience stands to gain by listening to you. Another is to convince audience members that your speech purpose is consistent with their motives and values. A student speech about the value of interview training shows how this can be accomplished:

Let me start by telling you why you need interview training. It boils down to competition. As in sports, when you’re not training, someone else is out there training to beat you. All things being equal, the person who has the best interviewing skills has got the edge.