Nailing Your Introduction

Explanation

Thinking about your audience is key to a good start — finding a way to show the audience that what you want to tell them is actually really interesting.

Deciding on your introduction should follow gathering the content of your speech.​​ This helps you see an aspect of your material that will make a really effective introduction.

There are many different ways to approach an introduction—humour to engage and relax the audience; springing a surprising fact or situation on the audience that comes to make perfect sense as the speech unfolds; using a personal experience that helps the audience identify with the speaker; and using an interesting story from current affairs that makes the topic feel very real to the audience.

Starting ‘small’ usually works better than jumping straight into grand ideas. People are naturally interested in things that are new to them or things that reframe what they know in a new light.

Common mistakes

— Avoid introducing yourself and thanking people. It’s better to launch right into your material.

— Giving your opinion right up front instead of leading the audience to an understanding of what you think through the evidence in your speech.

— Starting your speech with bare facts or numbers makes it hard to create a warm connection with your audience. For instance, avoid too much historical or statistical information.

— Avoid rhetorical questions. This is an overused technique that achieves little and risks the audience disagreeing with your assumed answer.

Conclusion

— Sharing ideas effectively means thinking about your audience.

— Don’t rush deciding on exactly how you’ll start your speech — get to know your material first.

— Find a way of starting that naturally suits you.