Writing a Strong Introduction

Your speech introduction is the first impression you give your audience. But introductions are important in other contexts as well. The Interviewing Appendix shows how your résumé and cover letter give a potential employer an introduction to you and your abilities. If your résumé has typos or other errors, your first impression will be less than stellar—just as a disorganized or inappropriate speech introduction leaves a negative impression with your audience.

Like a lead paragraph of a news story that hooks in readers, the introduction to your speech must accomplish four crucial tasks: grab your audience’s attention, introduce your purpose and topic, offer a preview of your main points, and give your listeners a sense of who you are and why they should want to hear what you have to say. Recall the “primacy” part of the primacy–recency effect discussed earlier in this chapter. Your introduction is the first thing your audience will hear; it therefore sets the tone and the stage for the rest of your speech.