Assignment: Effective Introductions
Assignment: Effective Introductions
Assignment: Effective Introductions
Assignment: Effective Introductions
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To end these crimes against color, we must first paint an accurate picture of the problem, then explore the causes, and finally establish solutions that will erase the practice of racial profiling.6
CONSIDER THE
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Effective Introductions 187
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Identifying your main ideas helps organize the message and enhances listeners’ learning.
The introduction to your speech, then, should get your audience’s attention, give the audience a reason to listen, introduce the subject, establish your credibility, and preview your main ideas. All this—and brevity too—may seem impossible to achieve. But it isn’t!
Effective Introductions With a little practice, you will be able to write satisfactory central ideas and pre- view statements. It may be more difficult to gain your audience’s attention and give them a reason to listen to you. Fortunately, there are several effective methods for developing speech introductions. Not every method is appropriate for every speech, but chances are that you can discover among these alternatives at least one type of introduction to fit the topic and purpose of your speech, whatever they might be.
We will discuss ten ways of introducing a speech:
● Illustrations or anecdotes ● Startling facts or statistics ● Quotations ● Humor ● Questions ● References to historical events ● References to recent events ● Personal references ● References to the occasion ● References to preceding speeches
Illustrations or Anecdotes Not surprisingly, because it is the most inherently interesting type of supporting ma- terial, an illustration or anecdote can provide the basis for an effective speech intro- duction. In fact, if you have an especially compelling illustration that you had planned to use in the body of the speech, you might do well to use it in your introduction in- stead. A relevant and interesting anecdote will introduce your subject and almost
anecdote An illustration or story
TABLE 8.1 Purposes of Your Introduction
Purpose Method
Get the audience’s attention. Use an illustration, a startling fact or statistic, a quotation, humor, a question, a reference to a historical event or to a recent event, a personal reference, a reference to the occasion, or a reference to a preceding speech.
Give the audience a reason to listen. Tell your listeners how the topic directly affects them.
Introduce the subject. Present your central idea to your audience.
Establish your credibility. Offer your credentials. Tell your listeners about your commitment to your topic.
Preview your main ideas. Tell your audience what you are going to tell them.
188 CHAPTER 8 Introducing and Concluding Your Speech
invariably gain an audience’s attention. Student speaker Matt opened his speech on the dangers associated with the chemical BPA with this extended illustration:
Three years ago Algeta McDonald’s life was taken by breast cancer. She was an absolutely amazing Italian-American woman, who was completely stubborn, but she always brought out the best in anyone she was around. Here was a woman who always ate proper foods and was conscientious of her health in general, every day of her life.
Ask anyone who knew her well what their favorite memory of Algeta was, and I can almost guarantee it’s of her carrying around a bright red Nalgene water bottle. This way, she could get her 64 daily ounces of water with certainty. Unfortunately, this happy memory of how she always had her water bottle might change with some information that has come to light recently.*
Matt’s story effectively captured the attention of his audience and introduced the subject of his speech.
Startling Facts or Statistics A second method of introducing a speech is to use a startling fact or statistic. Star- tling an audience with the extent of a situation or problem invariably catches its members’ attention, motivates them to listen further, and helps them remember af- terward what you had to say. Merry’s audience must have come to attention quickly when they heard the following statistics in her introduction:
The August 28, 2008, Globe and Mail estimates that the United States spends three billion dollars each year on cancer research, while the LA Times of February 16, 2009, reports the costs of cancer care are increasing by 15% annually—nearly three times the rate of other health care.†
Quotations Using an appropriate quotation to introduce a speech is a common practice. Often another writer or speaker has expressed an opinion on your topic that is more au- thoritative, comprehensive, or memorable than what you can say. Terrika opened her speech on the importance of community with a quotation from poet Johari Kungufu:
Sisters, Men What are we doin?
What about the babies, our children? When we was real we never had orphans or children in joints.
Come spirits drive out the nonsense from our minds and the crap from our dreams
make us remember what we need, that children are the next life. bring us back to the real bring us back to the real
”The Real.” Johari Kungufu, in her poem, specifically alludes to a time in African his- tory when children were not confused about who they were.7
A different kind of quotation, this one from an expert, was chosen by another speaker to introduce the topic of the disappearance of childhood in America:
“As a distinctive childhood culture wastes away, we watch with fascination and dis- may.” This insight of Neil Postman, author of Disappearance of Childhood, raised a poignant point. Childhood in America is vanishing.8
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
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