Introductions

The introduction to a speech is perhaps the most important part of the speech in terms of "hooking" your audience.  While you devote most of your preparation time to the body of your speech, the introduction should also be well-planned and well-rehearsed.  In fact, if your introduction goes well, chances are that the rest of your speech will also go well.

There are four goals that you should try to achieve in your introduction:
    Grab the audience's attention
    Reveal your central idea or thesis
    Build your credibility as a speaker on this topic
    Preview the main points you will cover 

Think of any late-night talk show host, like David Letterman, Jay Leno, or Jon Stewart.  In the first couple of minutes of their shows, they accomplish at least two of these goals.  They usually grab our attention by telling a few jokes, or re-capping the days news in a humorous way, and preview the rest of the show by mentioning the guests they will interview.  Their main goal in this segment is obvious:  to keep you from using the remote control to change channels, or if you do change channels, to come back after commercial break.  Your goal in the introduction is exactly the same: to keep us from using our mental channel changers.  

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