A CASE STUDY: MIA

With her main points organized, it was time for Mia to plan her introduction and conclusion.

After Mia organized the body of her speech with main points and supporting materials, she budgeted some time the next day to draft her introduction and conclusion. She considered several different options for her attention-getter. This was an important decision if she wanted to pull her audience into the speech. She thought about using a quotation from an emigrant about the importance of smartphones or possibly an anecdote about how an emigrant had used a smartphone. In the end, she decided to ask a rhetorical question that would encourage audience members to think about what they might need if they were emigrating from a war-torn country.

Mia already had drafted her thesis, so next she considered how to connect the topic to the audience. She knew that a number of her classmates’ families had their own stories of emigration and that they were regularly on their smartphones, so she decided to use this combination. Then she considered her own credibility, emphasizing the research she had done to prepare for the speech. Finally, she drafted a clear preview of her three main points.

For her conclusion, Mia began with a summary of each main point. She then thought about tying her attention-getter and clincher together by asking listeners another rhetorical question after they had heard about the usefulness of smartphones. But she had an even more dramatic story of an emigrant, Mohamed, who was with other emigrants on a boat that lost its engine in the Mediterranean. Mohamed used his smartphone to find his latitude and longitude coordinates and texted them to his cousin in Hawaii, leading to his rescue. The narrative could be combined with a visual aid showing the actual text exchanges between Mohamed and his cousin. This would be a memorable way to end her presentation!

Look for the and throughout the chapter for adaptive quizzing and online video activities.

A CASE STUDY: JACOB

And this is how Jacob planned his introduction and conclusion.

Jacob knew he wanted to begin with the story of his favorite basketball player. For a minute, he wondered if Anthony Davis was actually a good example for his speech: Davis had signed a multimillion-dollar pro contract, far more than any proposed salary for college players. But, no. He had a plan, and he was sticking to it.

Jacob still needed to add to his introduction. He knew that his instructor was always talking about citing research sources. So as part of his introduction, Jacob listed his research sources. This would give him credibility and, he believed, spare him the need to cite sources as he used them in his speech.

Jacob didn’t feel a need to write a conclusion, now that he had over one thousand words. He’d come up with something when he delivered his speech. An off-the-cuff ending probably would make it more exciting, anyway.

Look for the and throughout the chapter for adaptive quizzing and online video activities.