Boon Yih Mah
Apr 10, 20213 min
Updated: Mar 27
When delivering an introduction in your speech, it is pivotal to be concise (10-20 percent of your speech) and creative to gain the audience's attention and interest. You need to establish credibility (perception of the speaker's qualification) and goodwill (perception of whether the speaker has the audience's best interest in mind) before giving a preview of your speech, such as the statement of introduction and the main points of the body.
To gain attention in your speech, always relate your topic to the audience and highlight its importance. You can grab more attention if you startle the audience and arouse their curiosity in the opening of your speech. You can also question the audience, begin your speech with a remarkable quotation, and tell an interesting story.
Based on the common speech evaluation criteria, the delivery of ideas must be clear, confident, effective, and articulate to create an engaging introduction to an informative speech. To clearly deliver ideas, greet the audience before introducing the topic interestingly. This can be done by having an excellent and engaging attention-getter that must be extremely appropriate and relevant to the audience.
Besides, credibility can be clearly established if the ideas are well-elaborated and relevant to the topic. This is achievable if the topic's background is explained and extremely well elaborated while the central idea is also very clearly stated.
To show confidence in delivery, the excellent use of vocal varieties, including rate, pitch, pause, and volume, is crucial to ensure the ideas are well understood. A confident speaker can deliver the introduction in a fluent and polished manner without verbal fillers, which can strengthen the impact of the speaker’s speech. To enhance the message, the pronunciation and articulation of words should be appropriate and conversational. Use appropriate gestures and posture that complement the message throughout the speech. Establish strong and direct eye contact with the audience.
Moreover, the speaker should successfully use visual aids to enhance clarity and interest, such as the appropriate number of slides and excellent timing of slides. All aspects of visual aids, such as readability and colour scheme, need to show care for audiences.
Effective and articulate delivery of ideas caters to grammatical accuracy with no errors. The speaker's confidence can be detected in language use, including appropriate choice of words, consistent use of terminologies based on the topic and situation, excellent use of sentences, and proficient transitions and signposts.
Furthermore, the speaker should adapt delivery to the audience level. This can be attained effectively and appropriately by delivering the ideas to the target audience with increased interest. Below are the 15 highlighted improvements based on the common mistakes made by the speakers when starting their speeches:
Use impressive attention-getter.
Greet the audience when starting your speech.
Speak louder with a natural tone.
Speak fluently at an appropriate speed.
Apply appropriate intonations and stresses in expressions.
Apply hand gestures and facial expressions.
Adjust your camera when presenting online.
Look at the camera or audience when presenting.
Avoid reading from the text.
Avoid using informal expressions like "guy", "wanna", "gonna", and so on.
Stay closer to your mic if you are standing to present.
Don't hold the mic to free up your hands.
Consider giving a preview of the body (main points) before ending your introduction.
Please end your introduction by saying "There are some ways..." instead of "Here are the ways...".
Manage your time well.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, students have to do their pre-recorded video presentations before doing the live presentations remotely via Microsoft Teams at their homes. This video features two pre-recorded video presentations applying two different attention-getters in their introductions of informative speeches. When watching, you can jot down the important points. After watching, you can leave your comments on YouTube.
Besides, the students also have to do their live presentations to be evaluated remotely at their respective homes. This video features two authentic student's live presentations produced from the recorded meeting via Microsoft Teams. The above two videos can be used for self-reflection and reference for other students. After watching, you can leave your comments on YouTube.
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