Speech Structure: Mastering the Introduction

Hi there!

It looks like you guys have put a lot of work into the creativity activities last week. We have no doubt that now you can easily generate ideas for any speech and look at the problem from different perspectives.

Once you have clarified the purpose of your speech and come up with creative ideas for its content, it is high time to start working on the speech structure.

Traditionally, every speech as well as any neat text consists of three parts which are introduction, body, and conclusion. There is no point in arguing which one is the most important as they all perform their own function. However, it is a thought-through introduction that helps you to get the audience attention and set the right mood for your speech. Moreover, it is the introduction where you state the topic sentence and give a brief plan of your talk. That is why we are going to focus on the introduction this week.

We suggest that you go over the course book chapter 4.1 and tutorials in this blog, then complete the tasks after each tutorial and email the word document with your answers to Yulia (irychkov@go.olemiss.edu).

Please, contact Yulia if you have any questions or concerns about the tasks.

These tasks are due Sunday, November, 4th.

Best of luck

TASK 1. 
In chapter 4.1 The Introduction Can “Make or Break” You as a Speaker, five most common attention-getters for introduction are mentioned, which are:

• Asking questions
• Making references 
• Making a startling statement
• Giving a quotation
• Telling a story

Watch the following public speech performances and identify the technique(s) used in the introduction (attention-getter) in each performance. 

1. “How will we survive when the population hits 10 billion?” by Charles C. Mann  at TED2018 https://www.ted.com/talks/charles_c_mann_how_will_we_survive_when_the_population_hits_10_billion 
2. “Still Standing” by Ramona J. Smith at the 2018 Toastmasters International World Champion of Public Speaking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tev43VNRIc 
3. “Every kid needs a champion” by Rita Pierson at TED Talks Education https://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion/discussion?...en
4. “How great leaders inspire action” by Simon Sinek at TEDxPuget Sound  https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?referrer=playlist-the_most_popular_talks_of_all 
5. “Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model” by Cameron Russell at TEDxMidAtlantic https://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_russell_looks_aren_t_everything_believe_me_i_m_a_model?referrer=playlist-the_most_popular_talks_of_all&language=en 

TASK 2. 
Once you got the audience attention, you smoothly move towards the thesis statement. I am using the word “smoothly” here on purpose to underline the necessity of this transit between the attention-getter and vocalizing the topic sentence, the main message of your speech.

Get back to the performances you have just watched and do the following for each speech:

1. Identify the thesis statement (write it down). 
2. Evaluate the transition between the attention-getter and the thesis statement on the scale from 0 (poor transition) to 3 (well-done transition). Shortly explain why you think so.