1. Types of Introductions Inviting your audience to listen

2. Introduction is Important! Audience’s first impression of you Helps them decide if they should listen Gets the audience interested (hopefully!)

3. Eight kinds of Introductions Questions General to Specific Definition Examples Quotation Shocking Statement Fact Anecdote or Story

4. Questions Open ended questions Not a Yes/No answer Example 1. Why do people argue? 2.

5. General to Specific Begin with a general idea Lead from there to a specific idea which is your topic Pets are wonderful to have around the house. There are many kinds of pets, such as fish, snakes, hamsters, birds, cats and dogs. The Siamese cat is a very special pet and I’ll explain why.

6. Definition Use the dictionary definition of your topic. Ex: Fear is defined by Webster's Dictionary as … Fear was a motivating factor for the main character in the book The Long Walk.

7. Examples Use examples to show the main idea of the speech. Ex: Love comes to people in many ways. Love can be the emotion we feel when we care about a pet. It can also be the feelings we have about our siblings, parents, and other relatives. Finally, it could be a romantic relationship between a man and a woman. Shakespeare examines love in his play The Two Gentlemen of Verona in the characters of Valentine and Sylvia.

8. Quotation get the reader thinking about the main concept of the paper. Ex: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee from the depth and breadth of my heart” (Browning). People can love others in many ways, but in the play The Two Gentlemen of Verona Shakespeare examines love in the characters of Valentine and Sylvia.

9. Shocking Statement Get the reader’s attention by stating something exciting. Ex: I was sure I’d arrived on a different planet. Just because I had a new hairdo, everyone treated me like they had never seen me before. They scattered every which way to avoid me, when just the day before, my friends crowded around. I didn’t care. I loved my new hairdo.

10. Fact Research a fact having to do with your topic. Ex:There are 1143 different types of poisonous spiders in Wisconsin. Most people lump all of them into the same fearsome category. Yet, despite their similarities, these creatures differ in the harm they can do. The black widow’s venom is deadly, but the tarantula’s is only about as poisonous as a bee sting.

11. Anecdote or Incident Recount an incident, from your own life or someone else’s, that relates to the subject you will be discussing. What a day! My new school locker kept jamming, my math class was really advanced, and people kept mispronouncing my last name. It was certainly different from my old school, but Goldberg Middle School had similarities that eventually made me feel right at home.