Writing an Introduction for a Speech
Writing an Introduction for Your Rhetorical Devices Speech
Before writing the introduction, think about what your audience needs to know to better understand your speech. What is the main idea of your speech? What is the mood or tone of your speech? How can you connect with the audience through shared experiences or values? How can you incorporate emotional appeal? Can you make it creative?
Your introductions should be 20-45 seconds without rushing.
Your introduction should include the following:
1. An attention getting device: a quote, a rhetorical question, a startling fact or statistic, an anecdote, a vivid image, an allusion to something important in literature or history.
2. Transition or background if necessary.
3. Something to help prepare your readers to better understand the speech: an expression of the main idea, something to set the tone or mood, a summary of the sections you are leaving out, etc.
4. The date and/or the occasion the speech was delivered.
5. Where it was delivered.
6. To whom it was delivered.
7. The author of the speech.
Arrange the information in a way that entices your audience and builds to an emotional concluding sentence. Remember to use transitional words and phrases and to combine ideas to create fluency.
Sample Introductions
Famed poet Carl Sandburg once said, “Nothing happens unless first we dream.” Most of us pursue dreams and aspirations, but one man changed the world with his dream. In a speech delivered to over 200,000 supporters during a civil rights rally on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke out for equality for all races in what many believe is the most famous and important speech of all time: “I Have a Dream.”
Famed poet Carl Sandburg once said, “Nothing happens unless first we dream.” (attention getting device: Quote)
Most of us pursue dreams and aspirations, but one man changed the world with his
Before writing the introduction, think about what your audience needs to know to better understand your speech. What is the main idea of your speech? What is the mood or tone of your speech? How can you connect with the audience through shared experiences or values? How can you incorporate emotional appeal? Can you make it creative?
Your introductions should be 20-45 seconds without rushing.
Your introduction should include the following:
1. An attention getting device: a quote, a rhetorical question, a startling fact or statistic, an anecdote, a vivid image, an allusion to something important in literature or history.
2. Transition or background if necessary.
3. Something to help prepare your readers to better understand the speech: an expression of the main idea, something to set the tone or mood, a summary of the sections you are leaving out, etc.
4. The date and/or the occasion the speech was delivered.
5. Where it was delivered.
6. To whom it was delivered.
7. The author of the speech.
Arrange the information in a way that entices your audience and builds to an emotional concluding sentence. Remember to use transitional words and phrases and to combine ideas to create fluency.
Sample Introductions
Famed poet Carl Sandburg once said, “Nothing happens unless first we dream.” Most of us pursue dreams and aspirations, but one man changed the world with his dream. In a speech delivered to over 200,000 supporters during a civil rights rally on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke out for equality for all races in what many believe is the most famous and important speech of all time: “I Have a Dream.”
Famed poet Carl Sandburg once said, “Nothing happens unless first we dream.” (attention getting device: Quote)
Most of us pursue dreams and aspirations, but one man changed the world with his