Unless a speaker can interest his audience, his effort will be a failure. If your topic is not one of extraordinary interest, your listeners are likely to say to themselves, so what? Who cares? A speaker can quickly lose an audience if she or he doesn’t use the introduction to get their attention and clicking their interest in getting the initial attention of your audience is usually easy-even before you utter a single word. After you are introduced, turn to your audience and they will normally give you their attention. If they don’t, then patiently look towards the audience without saying a word. In a few moments all talking and physical commotion will stop. Your listeners will be attentive. You’ll be ready to start speaking. Keeping the attention of your audience once you start talking is more difficult. Here are some methods used most to keep them Interested.
#1: Relate the topic to the audience-
People pay attention to things that affect them directly if you can relate the topic your listeners they’re much more likely to be interested in it.
#2: State the importance of your topic-
Presumably you think your speech is important, tell your audience why they should think so too.
#3: Startle the audience.
One sure fire way to arouse interest quickly is to startle all your listeners with an arresting or intriguing statement. This technique is highly effective and easy to use just be sure the starling introduction relates directly to the subject of your speech.
#4: Arouse the curiosity of the audience-
People are curious. One way to draw them into your speech is with a series of statements that progressively whet their curiosity about the subject of the speech.
#5: Question the audience-
Asking a rhetorical question is another way to get your listeners thinking about your speech sometimes even a single question will do.
#6: Begin with the quotation-
Another way to arouse the interest of your audience is to start with an attention getting quotation. You might choose a quotation from Shakespeare or Confucius, from the bible or Talmud, from Shakespeare, song, or film.
#7: Tell a story-
We all enjoy stories-especially if they are provocative, dramatic, or suspenseful. To work well as instructions, they should also be clearly relevant to the main point of the speech. Used in this way, stories are perhaps the most effective way to begin a speech.
With this information you should be on your way to be writing some amazing intros. Good luck with your speeches!
