A speech introduction has one main goal: to focus the attention on your central idea by making a clear statement and previewing your main ideas. Write the introduction part of your persuasive speech after you have finished your thesis statement and the supporting points and arguments. Only than you are able to summarize the thesis in one attention grabbing sentence.
The goals of an speech introduction are: introduce your topic, yourself and the purpose of your speech. Make them want to hear the rest of your speech.
1. A good speech introduction is the same as making a good first impression. So, greet you audience and hosts, look at them, take a breath and then immediately catch the attention with a smashing oneliner. That first line contains your claim or assertion.
Examples of speech openers:
* Ask a thought-provoking rhetorical question and directly answer it with your claim.
* State an amazing fact or statistic they probably never have heard of.
* Offer a stirring example.
* Cite a quotation or funny remark that describes the situation you are going to talk about.
* Make an very controversial statement.
* Tell a compelling anecdote nobody knows.
* Give a definition of an expert to enhance credibility. But be creative in defining your ideas.
* If you are dealing with demonstration speech topics then show the object of you speech.
2. State the thesis or central idea. Draw the contours of the topic in a few direct and clear sentences. Help your public to fully understand the context.
3. Tell why the issue is worthwhile to think about.
4. Introduce and preview your main supporting points, view and ideas in one short sentence each.
5. Tell why they have to know the in's and out's. Tell how the speech topic idea relates to the the needs and interests of the audience.
6. List a major benefit.
7. Now that you have told you message and aroused interest, it's time to establish your credibility. Introduce yourself and your background expertise in one or two sentences. State how the theme relates to you, by showing your enthusiasm or expertise.
Then use a transition sentence to head for the body part and the main supporting points of your persuasive speech topics.
The length of the introduction paragraph has to be in balance with the total length of your speech. If you talk for let's say two or three minutes, then don't write an extended speech introduction.
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About the Author
Jim Peterson has over 10 year's experience on speech writing. He offers 1,250+ free speech topic ideas and how-to guides for any kind of public speaking and speech writing assignments at
http://www.speech-topics-help.com.
Copyright 2006 Jim A. Peterson
