Gain the Attention and Interest of the Audience
Gain the Attention and Interest of the Audience
The first function of the introduction is to the get the attention AND the interest of the audience. The “and” here is important. Anyone can walk into a room full of people sitting quietly, and YELL AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS. That will get attention. However, it will probably not garner much interest—at least not much positive interest.
Gaining attention and interest is essential if you want the audience to listen to what you have to say, and audiences will decide fairly quickly if they want to pay attention. Standing in front of an audience, slouched, hands in pockets, cap pulled low over your head, and mumbling, “my name is… and I am going to tell you about…” is a pretty effective method of NOT getting attention and interest. Before you even open your mouth, your attire, stance and physical presence are all sending out loud signals that you have no interest in the speech, so why should the audience?
Later on in this section we will look at some specific approaches to introductions that allow you to gain attention and interest. Now, however, we will move to the second function of introductions: Gaining the goodwill of your audience.
