Introductions and conclusions are a crucial part of speeches. The introduction has to draw the audience in, make them interested, but also not give away too much about your topic. Not only must you have their interest, you must be able to gain their attention as well. Telling jokes or asking rhetorical questions is a fantastic way to engage the audience and I always perk up whenever a guest speaker asks the audience questions. Even if you are nervous, you have to stand tall, look presentable, and speak clearly and loudly, no one wants to listen to a speaker who looks like they rolled out of bed and are mumbling the whole time. You will also need a thesis. A thesis is the sentence in your speech that lets the audience know what you hope to talk about. Ways to get the audience's attention include telling a story, referring to the past or to another speech, unexpected statistics, asking questions, and many more. You also have to know who your audience is and possibly make changed on the spot to make sure it is appropriate. Most importantly, do not forget to stay on topic throughout your speech.
Conclusions are used to wrap up your speech. A great to end a speech is to summarize it and to reiterate the most important topics covered. Since you already gave the audience information during your speech, do not include any more information than what was already said. A way to leave an impression on the audience is to ask them a question right before they get up and leave. Whenever a speaker has come to my school and asked a question right before we were dismissed, we would talk to our friends and ask them what they thought the answer was and we would just talk about the entire speech.
The speaker in the Ted talk I watched used a lot of humor and jokes, possibly because it was kind of a heavy topic. Luma Mufleh is a soccer coach, teacher, Muslim, and an advocate for immigrants and their children. Her love for soccer started in Jordan and she later moved to America and brought her passion with her. She said herself during the Ted talk that she is not very good at public speaking, but she spoke because she had a platform. She talked about coaching these children that had nothing, they could not even afford shoes, but their love of soccer fueled them and they ended up becoming one of the best teams in the area. Luma did not let her fear stop her, she stayed on topic throughout the whole speech, and she used humor to grab the audience's attention.
Hi Caroline,
ReplyDeleteYou are right about the different ways to get the audience's attention, and the TED talk that you watched was a good example of that. The speaker did use humor, most of it self-depreciating, which is the safest type to use. She obviously felt very strongly about her topic, which was evident by her tone and inflection. She was very convincing!
Caroline,
ReplyDeleteI love how at the beginning you stressed on drawing the attention of the crowd right off the bat. As much as I love to tell stories to grab my audiences attention, I also enjoy asking questions and involving those who are listening. Either approach is a fantastic way to engage your listeners and standing tall while looking presentable goes a long way as well as you had mentioned. I may be more intrigued by the story than what the person is wearing, however if they look like they rolled out of bed that would definitely be a distraction for me!