called a hook or a grabber.
I don’t want to close my eyes; it makes me feel awkward and exposed to be in a group of people with my eyes closed. Because of that, I keep my eyes open. The problem is when I keep my eyes open, I feel like some sort of horrible nonconformist rebel. I feel awkward with my eyes closed and I feel guilty if they are open. Either way, I just feel bad. Besides, half of the time when speakers tell audience members to close their eyes, they forget to tell us when we can open them. If you are wanting me to imagine a story, just tell me to imagine it, don’t make me close my eyes (rant over).
You should plan your opening to be intentional and with power. “Can everybody hear me” is a weak and uncertain statement and this is not the first impression you want to leave. Do a microphone check before the audience members arrive and have someone stand in different corners of the room to make sure you can be heard. Don’t waste your valuable speech time with questions that you should already know the answer to.
You should know that before you begin. Even if the presentations for the day are running over and you are the last speaker, you should ask the MC before you begin. Always plan your first words with power.
You should make your slides big, really big. Test out your slides in advance of your speech, walk all around the room and make sure you can read them. Have a friend check them out as well. You should know they are big enough because you planned for it and tested it.
People really hate having things taken away, not to mention that your audience may want to take notes on their devices. Chances are you are speaking to adults, let them determine if it is appropriate to have out their technology.
Stop apologizing! Stop making excuses! While these lines may be true, they just come of as excuses and can make the audience either feel like you don’t want to be there, or they just feel sorry for you.
Talking about your nervousness will make you more nervous and will make them look for signs of your nervousness. Just start your speech.
Do not start with hesitation. Plan the first words, memorize the first words, practice the first words. Do not start with “Ok, so um, now I’d like…” Plan strong and start strong.
Do Not Discuss Your Business with People Watching…Really! I Mean It! Many of us are giving and listening to presentations in an online format. I have attended numerous presentations this year through Zoom where I have to sit and watch while the organizers engage in personal small talk or deal with the details of the presentation. This is how the speech I recently attended began. “Donna, you are going to share your screen, right?” “Yes. I have my PowerPoint ready to go. Will you push “record” when I give the signal?” “Sure. Where did you say that button is again? Do you think we should wait five more minutes, I think we had more who were coming? Dave, what was the total we were expecting?” “Yeah, we had 116 sign up, but the reminders went out late so this may be all we have. We can give them a few more minutes to log on.” “Donna, How is your dog? Is she still struggling with her cone since her spay surgery? My dog never would wear the cone –she tore her stitches out and broke her wound open. It was terrible. Well, it looks like it is about time to begin, thank you everyone for coming.” If you are organizing an event online, hosting a speech online, giving a presentation online–please keep it professional. Most platforms will allow you to keep the audience in a waiting room until it is time to start. If you have a business to deal with, keep the audience out until you have everything ready to go. Once the audience is in the meeting, you should engage the audience in group-type small talk or you should just start the presentation. In professional settings, you should start the meeting on time. Why punish those who showed up on time to wait for those who aren’t there yet?
I asked my long-time friend, Bill Rogers, to write an excerpt to add to the book. I met Bill when he was the Chief Development Officer for a hospital in Northwest Arkansas and I met him again when he was reinventing himself as a college student getting a Master’s Degree in the theater. He would love to share a symbolic cup of coffee with you and give you advice about public speaking.
Perfect morning for a walk, isn’t it? Join me for a cup of coffee? Wonderful. Find us a table and I’ll get our coffee.
There you go; just like you like it. There’s nothing like a great cup of coffee on the patio of your neighborhood coffee shop, is there?
Now that you’re settled in your favorite chair, take a sip, and let that glorious caffeine kick in and do its stuff. Okay, let’s talk.
So, you were asking me about public speaking.
Well, let’s see. Where do we begin?
One of the first pieces of advice I ever received was to imagine that every member of your audience is sitting there in their underwear! Yeah, right. That never worked for me. I tried it once with a local civic group of community leaders both male and female. If the intent of that tidbit is to make you relax, it certainly didn’t work for me. It just made me more self-conscious…and more nervous. I not only got distracted, but I also lost my train of thought, I started sweating, and, of course, imagined myself standing there without clothes. Needless to say, that speech was a disaster and I’ve never used it again. I suggest you don’t either.
In the early days, I also relied very heavily on my typed-up speech. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that unless you find yourself reading it word for word as I did. Nothing is more boring nor puts an audience to sleep quicker than a speaker with their nose down reading a speech. There’s no connection and connection with your audience is key.
As you know, I love theatre and I’ve done a bit of acting over the years. Early on, I learned that the quicker I learned my lines, the more I could play, experiment, and shape my character. It relaxed me and gave me enormous freedom. It led me to find a mantra for myself: “With discipline comes freedom.” This freedom will allow you to improvise as your audience or situation dictates while still conveying the core message of your presentation. That discipline and its resulting freedom apply to public speaking of any kind and, I think, will serve you well.
Another old adage we’ve all heard is Aristotle’s advice. You know the one. No? Well, roughly, it’s to tell your audience what you’re going to say, say it, and then tell them what you just said. That’s the basic formula for public speaking. And it works as a good place to start.
However, effective speaking is much more and, to me, it starts with a story or even a simple sentence.
You know the feeling you get when you read the first sentence of a good book and it just reaches out and grabs you? That should be your goal with every presentation. One sentence to capture your audience’s attention. Something that causes them to lean forward. Something that sparks their imagination.
It doesn’t have to be all that profound either. It can be something very simple. A personal story that relates to your topic. A relevant fact or statistic that defines or illustrates the issue or subject matter at hand.
A couple of classics come to mind. The first is Alice Walker’s, “The Color of Purple.”
“You better not tell nobody but God.”
And the second one is from my favorite novel, “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee.
“When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm broken at the elbow.”
Both sentences hook you immediately. A few simple words speak volumes. After reading or hearing those words, you naturally lean in. You want to learn more. You want to find out what happens next. Every effective speech or presentation does the same thing.
Of course, make sure that the first and last thing you say to your audience is both relevant and appropriate. I share this out of an abundance of caution. I once worked for an internationally recognized and well-respected children’s research hospital and I was given the privilege to speak at a national educational convention. The room was filled wall to wall with teachers. I thought I’d be cute and add a little levity. I opened my presentation with this line, “You know, I’ve had nightmares like this…” Instead of the roars of laughter, I was expecting, a wave of silence ensued. Not only was the line not funny, but it was also wholly inappropriate and I immediately lost my audience. Not my best day. Learn from my mistakes.
Finally, let’s touch on the importance of approaching a speech as a conversation. You and I are sitting here enjoying our coffee and having a friendly, relaxed conversation. Strive for that every chance you get. You may not always have that luxury. Some speeches and presentations simply demand formality. But even in those cases, you can usually make it somewhat conversational. I always try to write my speeches in a conversational style. Like I’m talking to a friend…or trying to make a new one.
So, to recap: tell a story, learn your lines, hook your audience with a simple sentence, close with a question or call to action, use repetition, keep it conversational, treat your audience as a friend, and give yourself permission to relax.
Above all, be yourself. Allow yourself to be as relaxed as you are with those closest to you. If you’re relaxed, if you try to think of your audience as a friend, then, in most cases, they too will relax and they will root for you. Even if they disagree with what you are telling them, they will respect you and they will listen.
How about another cup?
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Advanced Public Speaking Copyright © 2021 by Lynn Meade is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
April 29, 2023
It doesn’t matter if you’re a public speaker, a school teacher, or someone who’s giving a presentation at work — we can all agree that losing your audience’s interest isn’t a good feeling.
Luckily, attention getters can mitigate this and help engage and captivate your audience. It’s a great tool to implement in the classroom, during a presentation, or during a speech.
We’ll explore what attention getters are, some great attention getter examples, and how to use them properly to make sure you can engage and keep your audience engaged.
In a nutshell, attention getters are a means of grabbing someone’s attention through a visual or auditory signal.
So, for example, if someone were to begin their presentation with an anecdote or an outrageous (but true) statement, those would qualify as attention getters. Flickering the lights on and off in a classroom is also an attention getter, even though there’s no auditory component.
Attention getters are so versatile that they can be adapted for almost any situation. Here are some of the best attention getters examples to check out.
Luckily, there are tons of speech attention getters examples. Some of the best attention getters for speeches or presentations include:
Classroom attention getters can vary by the students’ ages or grades, so we’ll break them down into three groups : elementary school, middle school, and high school.
For elementary school students, you could try:
Some options for middle school students include:
For high school students, some attention getters you could try include:
Attention getters can be pretty diverse in terms of what they’re used for. There are tons of types of attention getters, but we’ll just focus on the most common: for speeches and public speaking, and for classrooms.
Implementing attention getters in your speech or presentation is a great idea. Captivating the listeners in this way is an engaging method for ensuring your message is getting through to your target audience.
Here are some attention getter tips for public speaking that you should keep in mind.
1. Try starting with an anecdote. An anecdote is a short, personal story. These can help the audience relate to and identify with you, and it can be an interesting way to kick things off. For example, when you start your work presentation with an interesting or particularly comedic anecdote, it can help capture the attention of your audience. It can also set the tone for your entire presentation, so it’s one of the best attention getters.
2. Ask a thought-provoking question. To engage and get your audience thinking, try asking a question. You should ask a question that’s something worth pondering or will get discussion started. Your audience will wonder what you’ve got to say and this type of attention getter ensures they’re anticipating your response. In general, you should try to avoid close-ended questions. That’s because they’re usually “yes” or “no” questions and don’t provide good discussion points.
3. Be sure to make eye contact. One of the most important aspects of speaking in public is making eye contact with your audience. It’s also a great way to get the audience’s attention. It’ll show them you’re speaking or presenting directly to them when you make eye contact with individual members of your audience. Making eye contact also shows that you’re comfortable and confident as a speaker, which helps engage audiences.
4. Use some visual aids. If you’re trying to draw your audience’s attention, try using some visual aids. Using things like videos, graphics, diagrams, or slides can also emphasize key points in your speech. Visual aids can help your audience understand your presentation better and break up your speech.
5. Use your voice. The last thing you want to do during a speech or presentation is speak in a monotonic tone. This has the opposite effect on an audience and can bore them. Instead, try emphasizing important words and using various tones to engage your audience. To maintain your audience’s interest, you can also try changing up your volume, cadence, and speed during your speech.
6. Finish with a call to action. When you’re ready to wrap up, make sure you’ve still got your audience’s attention by using a call to action. Not only do they help you get their attention, but a call to action can also emphasize some of the main points you made during your speech or presentation.
If you’re a teacher or work in education, you know that managing a room of students — no matter what age — isn’t exactly easy. Getting students’ attention can be difficult too, especially in the age of the iPhone and ChatGTP. But attention getters for the classroom can be a game changer.
In the classroom, attention getters can help instructors get the attention of students using visual or auditory signals. These types are often “call and response,” meaning students hear or see the cue and respond, to show they’re paying attention.
Nowadays, some teachers even grab inspiration from TikTok. Here are five excellent attention getters from teachers on TikTok worth trying if you’ve got a classroom of kids.
If you’re trying to practice an attention getter — whether it’s for the classroom, a presentation, or a speech — there’s no better way to do so than Yoodli .
Instead of practicing in a mirror (which is helpful too!), you can have your speech expertly analyzed by an AI speech coach. Unlike other AI communication coaches, speech coach apps , or in-person coaches, Yoodli is free to start.
To begin, record or upload a video of yourself speaking. You could be practicing your speech or presentation, or simply practicing the attention getter. Once you’re done talking, Yoodli provides you with feedback and actionable insights.
In addition to a full, timestamped transcript of what was said, you’ll get metrics and analytics regarding your speaking pace, word choice, body language, and filler word usage, among others. You can then use these insights — plus Yoodli’s actionable feedback and coaching suggestions — to completely transform the way you speak and present, including the way you use attention getters.
Learn how you can use Yoodli to practice not only attention getters but also public speaking:
Although they’re often overlooked, attention getters are very important. For those giving a speech or presentation, attention getters can secure the audience’s interest and keep them engaged. This will make it more likely that they remember your presentation or speech and more importantly, what was said.
In the classroom, they’re just as important. They’re an essential tool for managing and maintaining a calm learning environment (no matter what ages the students are).
If you want to grab your audience’s attention, there’s no better way to do so than through an attention getter. These will also make sure your message — whether you’re presenting or teaching — sticks with your audience. Just make sure you practice a few attention getters before you implement them.
Getting better at speaking is getting easier. Record or upload a speech and let our AI Speech Coach analyze your speaking and give you feedback.
Attention-getting strategies.
Now that we have discussed the four basic functions of the introduction, let’s look at ten potential attention-getting strategies. This is not an exhaustive list, and many of these attention getters can be combined or adapted to fit the needs of the speaker, the occasion and the audience. Regardless of the specific strategy used for the introduction, all introductions still need to meet the four basic functions of an introduction.
You will get good attention and people will be more inclined to listen to you if you can make a statement whereby their response is… “No kidding!” – Gael Boardman
Human beings love stories. In all cultures, stories are used to communicate and share values, traditions and knowledge. Rhetorician Walter Fisher [1] argues that human beings are best understood as homo narrans , as people who tell stories. As an introductory device, stories (and anecdotes and illustrations) are very effective attention getters.
First, stories have a built-in structure that everyone recognizes and expects. Stories have a beginning, middle and end, and this built-in structure allows the audience and the speaker to immediately share this experience.
Secondly, because this built-in structure, stories as attention getters lend themselves readily to a well- structured speech. You as speaker can start the story, get right to the climax, and then stop. You have the attention of the audience; you have shared experiences with them; and now you also have the conclusion of the speech all set to go—the end of the story.
Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners. – Dale Carnegie
You are presenting this speech for a reason. The audience is present at this speech for a reason. These reasons can provide you with an effective attention getter. Referring to the occasion is often used as an introduction to tribute speeches, toasts, dedication ceremonies and historical events. Speech scholar Lloyd Bitzer [2] argues that all speeches are made at least in part in response to specific occasions, so referring to the occasion seems a good idea.
Bono, lead singer of the rock group U2 and an activist for a number of humanitarian issues, addressed the 54th annual National Prayer Breakfast, and started his speech with these words:
Well, thank you. Thank you Mr. President, First Lady, King Abdullah of Jordan, Norm [Coleman], distinguished guests. Please join me in praying that I don’t say something we’ll all regret. [3]
“National Prayer Breakfast” by Paul Morse. Public domain.
In addition to referring to the occasion, another effective attention- getting device is to refer to current events or to historical events. This style of reference again helps to create a shared experience for the speaker and the audience, as the speaker reminds all present that they have these events in common. Additionally, referring to current or historical events can also help establish goodwill and personal credibility by demonstrating that the speaker is aware of the relationship between this particular speech and what is going on in the world at that time, or what has occurred in the past.
“Abraham Lincoln” by Alexander Gardner. Public domain.
Abraham Lincoln (1863), in one of the most well-known speeches in American history, refers both to historical events and current events in the beginning of the Gettysburg Address :
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. – Maya Angelou
Most of you reading this material are doing so because you are in a public speaking or introductory communication class of some kind. And that means that most of you will be presenting your speeches right after someone else has presented his or her speech. Even if you are not in a classroom situation, many other speaking situations (such as presenting at a city council or other government meeting, or taking part in a forum or lecture series) result in speakers presenting right after another person has spoken.
“Ted Kennedy, Senator from Massachusetts” by United States Senate. Public domain.
In these situations, speakers before you may have already addressed some of the information you were planning to discuss, or perhaps have given a speech on the same topic you are now planning to address. By referring to the previous speeches, you enhance your credibility by showing your knowledge of the previous speech, and you have the opportunity to either compare or contrast your speech to the previous speeches.
Edward Kennedy, at the 1980 Democratic National Convention, began his speech with a short tribute and acknowledgement to the previous speaker, member of Congress Barbara Mikulski:
Thanks very much, Barbara Mikulski, for your very eloquent, your eloquent introduction. Distinguished legislator, great spokeswoman for economic democracy and social justice in this country, I thank you for your eloquent introduction.
One of the key considerations in choosing an appropriate topic for your speech is that you have a personal interest in that topic. An effective attention getter then, can be your description of that personal interest. By noting your personal interest, you will demonstrate your credibility by showing your knowledge and experience with this topic, and because you have a personal interest, you are more likely to present this information in a lively and clear manner—again, enhancing your credibility. Referring to your personal interest in this topic in the introduction also helps you set the stage for additional anecdotes or examples from your personal experience later in the speech.
In speaking at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, Elizabeth Glaser began her speech by acknowledging her very personal interest in the topic:
I’m Elizabeth Glaser. Eleven years ago, while giving birth to my first child, I hemorrhaged and was transfused with seven pints of blood. Four years later, I found out that I had been infected with the AIDS virus and had unknowingly passed it to my daughter, Ariel, through my breast milk, and my son, Jake, in utero. [4]
“Happy Pi Day” by Mykl Roventine. CC-BY-NC-SA .
Startling statistics startle an audience and catch its attention, and encourage that audience to listen further as you present the context of the surprising statistic. Long-time radio announcer Paul Harvey is well known for the catch phrase “And now, the rest of the story.” The same function should be at work here. When you startle the audience, you set them up to want to hear the “rest of the story.”
Be careful, though. Use of startling statistics requires that you do a number of things. First, make sure the statistic is accurate. Second, make sure the statistic is relevant to the topic of the speech. Startling an audience with an irrelevant statistic diminishes the speech and decreases your credibility. Third, make sure you then present “the rest of the story.” You need to place this startling statistic in the context of your speech so that everything fits together.
One speaker used an effective startling statistic to help introduce a speech on the dangers of heart disease:
According to the Center for Disease Control, in the United States 26.6 million adults have heart disease. This would be about 12% of adults, or three people in this room.
Analogies compare something that your audience knows and understands with something new and different. For your speech, then, you can use an analogy to show a connection between your speech topic (something new and different for the audience) and something that is known by your audience.
Analogies can be effective because they use ideas, information and values of the audience to draw a connection to your speech topic—and to you as a speaker. Analogies create connections between you and the audience.
“Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes” by National Photo Company. Public domain.
One very common (and often misquoted) analogy comes from the 1919 Supreme Court case of Schenck v United States . Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes used this analogy to support his reasoning that some forms of expression can be suppressed because they present a “clear and present danger.” Holmes noted that “[t]he most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.” [5]
One good analogy is worth three hours discussion. – Dudley Field Malone
Using a quotation from a well- known figure, or using a quotation from a lesser-known figure if the quotation is particularly suitable for your speech topic, is a common attention-getting technique. When you quote that well-known figure, you are in a sense, borrowing some of that person’s credibility for your speech, enhancing your credibility with the audience. Even when you use a less than well-known figure, the quotation can be effective if it nicely sets up your speech topic and is something to which your audience can relate.
Be careful with quotations, however. First, just using the quotation is not sufficient. You need to place the quotation in the context of your speech (as well as meet the other required functions of an introduction, of course). Second, it is easy to fall into a bad (and somewhat lazy) habit of simply finding a quotation and using it to start every speech. Third, simply using a quotation is no guarantee that your audience will find that quotation interesting or apt for the speech, and may also find the author of the quotation to be lacking in credibility—or your audience may simply not like the author of the quotation. Finally, beware of overly- long quotations (three or more sentences): Remember, this is just part of the introduction, not a main point of the speech.
“Reagan farewell salute” by White House Photographic Office. Public domain.
In his farewell address, former President Ronald Reagan (1989) utilized a very short quotation to emphasize his feelings upon leaving office.
People ask how I feel about leaving. And the fact is, “parting is such sweet sorrow.” The sweet part is California and the ranch and freedom. The sorrow — the goodbyes, of course, and leaving this beautiful place.
Using rhetorical questions in speeches is a great way to keep the audience involved. Don’t you think those kinds of questions would keep your attention? – Bo Bennett
The use of questions can be a very effective way to get attention, whether those questions are rhetorical in nature, and are only meant to be considered and pondered by the audience, or are meant to be answered by the audience (generally a good technique to get audience involvement and interest).
Rhetorical questions are designed to allow you as speaker to get the audience to think about your topic without actually speaking the answer to the question. Rhetorical questions allow you as speaker to maintain the most control over a speech situation, and allow you to guard against an inappropriate or even offensive response.
Using questions that ask for real responses, however, has additional benefits, if a speaker feels comfortable with his or her audience, and is able to handle some impromptu situations. Getting the audience to physically and verbally involve themselves in your topic guarantees that they’re paying attention. Using questions that lead to positive answers can also enhance your connection to and credibility with the audience.
Starting a speech with a question whether rhetorical or actual does require thought and practice on your part. You need to carefully consider the question and possible answers. Remember—even if you think the question is rhetorical, your audience may not know this and may answer the question. You also need to carefully deliver the question. Too often, speakers will use a question as an introduction—but then give the audience no time to either think about the answer or answer the question. You need to use timing and pause when starting with a question. You also need to be careful to use eye contact in asking questions, since you are above all asking for audience involvement, and your eye contact requests that involvement.
It is not enough for me to ask questions; I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face: What am I here for? – Abraham Joshua Heschel
In 1992, Ross Perot selected a little-known retired military figure, Admiral James Stockdale, as his Vice Presidential running mate. In the fall debates, Stockdale began his opening statement with two questions: “Who am I? Why am I here?” (Stockdale, 1992). The questions received applause and also laughter, though the later reaction to these questions was mixed at best. Some saw this as confusion on the part of Stockdale. [6] Stockdale considered these two questions to illustrate his difference from the other two “mainstream” candidates, Al Gore and then Vice President Dan Quayle. Traditional politicians, Gore and Quayle were readily recognized as compared to Stockdale.
Humor is the affectionate communication of insight. – Leo Rosten
“Audience enjoy Stallman’s jokes” by Wikimania2009 and Damiu00e1n Buonamico. CC-BY .
The use of humor in an introduction can be one of the most effective types of introductions—if done well. Humor can create a connection between the speaker and audience, can get an audience relaxed and in a receptive frame of mind, and can allow an audience to perceive the speaker (and the topic) in a positive light.
Humor done badly can destroy the speech and ruin a speaker’s credibility.
So first, a word of warning: None of us (those reading this, those teaching this class, and those writing this) are as funny as we think we are. If we were that funny, we would be making our living that way. Humor is hard. Humor can backfire. Humor is to a large extent situation-bound. Most likely, there will be a number of members of your audience who do not use English as a first language (there are plenty of people reading this who are English as a Second Language learners). Much humor requires a native understanding of English. Most likely, there will be a number of people in your audience who do not share your cultural upbringing—and humor is often culture-bound. Be careful with humor.
In general, there is basically only one safe and suitable style of humor: light and subtle self-deprecation. In other words, you as speaker are the only really safe subject for humor.
“Ann Richards” by Kenneth C. Zirkel. CC-BY-SA .
Using humor to tell stories about other people, other groups, and even other situations, may work—but it is just as likely to offend those people, members of those groups, and people in that situation. Using self-deprecating humor will not offend others, but unless you can do this with a light and subtle touch, you may be harming your credibility rather than creating a connection between yourself and the audience.
Now, with all these warnings, you may want to stay far away from humor as an introduction. Humor can work, however.
Ann Richards, at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, used humor in the introduction to her Keynote Address. Knowing the audience, Richards was able to use partisan humor to establish a connection to the audience and score points against the political opposition.
I’m delighted to be here with you this evening, because after listening to George Bush all these years, I figured you needed to know what a real Texas accent sounds like.
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The speech introduction is the first part of a speech and the first opportunity to grab the audience’s attention. The speaker should state the topic, make it relatable to the audience, establish credibility and preview the main points. You should write or finalize your introduction at the end so that it reflects what you actually said.
Listen up, audience!
No matter whether you are giving an informative speech to enlighten an audience about a certain topic or a persuasive speech aims to convince the crowd to adopt a particular viewpoint. But whichever type of speech you’re writing or delivering, one thing is true: You must create an attention-grabbing speech introduction.
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Whether in speech writing or public speaking, the role of a good intro cannot be understated. It is your best chance to captivate your audience’s attention and entice them to be with you until the rest of your speech.
It’s also your opportunity to introduce the topic and thesis statement and set up the points you’ll discuss later. So, keep in mind that you emphasize the relevance of your subject matter to the audience and contextualize it properly.
These are some of the best ways to make a compelling introduction speech.
When you look at intro samples and templates on the web, you’ll find that effective speech introductions contain key elements. And one of the most important is your attention-grabber, which will compel your audience to listen to your speech and narrative.
You must also introduce your speech topic and indicate why it matters to your audience. You should also share something about yourself, especially your credibility, to discuss a particular subject matter.
Once you’ve laid out these foundations, state your central idea or thesis statement. Tell the audience members the point of view you want them to adopt, and give them a preview of the main points you’re discussing if you’re giving a persuasive speech. If you’re writing or delivering an informative one, you can provide them with a brief speech outline or the key points you’ll touch upon throughout the body of the speech.
One of the most common public speaking tips you’ll encounter is to have a good introduction. To help you capture the audience’s attention, here are some ideas you can use in your speech.
Whether you’re a first-time speaker or a veteran, how you approach introducing yourself in a speech is important in establishing your credibility. To avoid getting called boring, you might want to shy away from the usual “Hi, everyone. I’m (your name). I (your credentials), and today I will be talking about (points of the speech).”
Usually, someone else may have given your name and background. This gives you the liberty to begin your speech more interestingly.
You can start by stating any of the introduction lines listed above, then transition to why listening to you will matter to them. For example, if you’re talking about mental health and depression, you can follow up a surprising statistic with something like, “I know because I was a part of that statistic. Now, I’ve studied to become a therapist myself.”
To further create an air of authority, you must be mindful of your body language (taking a deep breath before speaking can help you shake off your nervousness and tension). Additionally, you must make eye contact and speak words clearly.
Now, if you’re tasked to introduce the one who will deliver the speech, it’s your responsibility to set the right atmosphere and build excitement.
One of the first things to do is know how to pronounce the speaker’s name and ensure that what you’ll say about the speaker’s credibility is factual. Since you’re only introducing the speaker, keep things simple and concise. If you want to enrich your introduction, you can ask the speaker what they want to be highlighted (Do they have a new book? Which prestigious groups are they affiliated with?).
Like what the speaker would do, you must also make eye contact to engage the audience. Practice and have a run-through before you take the stage to guarantee a smooth delivery.
Speakers and speech writers know how challenging it is to grab an audience’s attention. Here’s a good example of an introductory speech that uses statistics. This is from English restaurateur Jamie Oliver who delivered a TED Talk about food:
“Sadly, in the next 18 minutes when I do our chat, four Americans that are alive will be dead from the food that they eat.
My name’s Jamie Oliver. I’m 34 years old. I’m from Essex in England, and for the last seven years, I’ve worked fairly tirelessly to save lives in my own way. I’m not a doctor; I’m a chef, I don’t have expensive equipment or medicine. I use information, education.”
Looking for inspiration for a good introduction where your topic is bullying? Check out this sample intro from actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Millie Bobby Brown during World Children’s Day in 2019:
“In world capitals — in buildings like this — adults talk about children’s rights. But today, young people don’t want to be talked about. They want to do the talking.
Millions of people responded to UNICEF surveys and petitions about what the Convention on the Rights of the Child meant to them. In the words of one young person: ‘Be an active voice. Don’t let things go unnoticed. So today, I want to talk about an issue that is very personal to me. Something that so often goes unnoticed — but causes real suffering. Bullying.”
Below are some more speech introduction examples you can take inspiration from.
“How great leaders inspire action” by Simon Sinek : “How do you explain when things don’t go as we assume? Or better, how do you explain when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions?”
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The first few seconds of your speech will determine whether or not your audience will give you their attention. This is why you should begin with attention-grabbing openings. Attention-getter examples include stories, quotes, and questions that persuades an audience to listen.
Conveying a powerful message is important, but equally important is your ability to hook your audience instantly. An attention-getter can do this for you. This guide will look at a list of attention getters and how you can use them to gain your audience’s attention .
An attention-getter is a phrase or statement that typically opens a speech and aims to grab the audience’s attention. Such statements captivate the audience, pique their curiosity, and suggest that the speaker has something insightful to convey.
When you use attention getters in your speeches, you minimize the chances of the audience tuning out, losing focus, or even half paying attention.
An attention-getter establishes credibility, gives the audience a reason to listen, and creates a clear transition into the main subject of discussion.
Attention getters are typically a speaker’s opening statement that gets the audience’s attention. They strongly influence the audience’s focus on what the speaker is saying. Here are some attention getters that have proved effective in hooking an audience.
Using a rhetorical question in your speech can cause your audience to lean forward in their chairs and listen closely to you. The best way to use a rhetorical question is to ask a question that your audience would want to hear answered.
Questions are a great way to create curiosity and stir up interest. You invite the audience to interact and engage with you by posing a question. Questions will get your audience thinking and even taking sides.
Bold statements can be a powerful attention-getter for your speech. By proclaiming something powerfully, you catch the audience’s eye and make them pay attention to you. A bold statement is a great way to convey your passion, stress the importance of an issue, and draw attention immediately.
When you make a bold statement with the correct body language, you will exude the kind of power that will make you noticeable. Shock-value statements such as “I almost died yesterday” can keep your audience engaged.
Humor is a great attention getter because it is a brilliant way to break up lengthy speeches and relieve tension in uncomfortable situations. It also puts everyone at ease by bringing laughter to otherwise dry and complex addresses.
Humor is one of the best ways to open your audience’s minds and boost your effectiveness as a speaker. However, you can only make your audience laugh with good humor.
You must understand your audience to know what kind of joke works for them. Focus on creating a humorous text that is appropriate for your audience.
Most people believe that statistics is boring and, when incorporated into speeches, will make the audience disinterested. Using statistics and facts correctly can make your address more interesting for the audience, just like any attention-grabbing statement or rhetorical question can.
The key is to incorporate shocking and intriguing statistical information or piece of data without going extreme.
For example: “Did you know that more than 36 million U.S. adults cannot read above a third-grade level?” By intriguing your audience, you create a space to emphasize the importance of your message.
While statistics are suitable for speeches, too many of them can make your audience bored. Instead of making your audience understand graphs, give them a visual image or associate a relatable emotion with an abstract idea.
By painting a picture of your message, you appeal to your audience’s emotions and allow them to imagine what you’re saying. Begin with phrases like “imagine” or “picture this,” followed by descriptive words. Try “imagine millions of individuals being killed yearly due to the indoor air pollution we cause.” Instead of “four million premature deaths are caused by indoor air pollution yearly.”
Good stories make for a great speech. Many speakers have turned to stories to inspire, inform, and entertain an audience. Unlike data, which lacks human-interest when overused, stories are always engaging. Stories can also evoke an emotional response from anyone in the audience.
Mind-blowing relatable stories that entirely change an audience’s view on an issue are always great to tell. After all, you want to leave your audience with a wholly new perspective.
It’s great if your story has some lesson or mirroring. You could tell a personal story that relates to your topic. Stories are a great way to connect with an audience, not just at the beginning of your speech but in the body.
Quotes are another aspect of speaking that adds an element of interest. Quoting someone can be a great way to draw the audience in, especially if the quotes are eye-catching and exciting. A great quote can be the “hook” to the rest of your speech and help the audience take an interest in what you’re saying.
Use a quote relevant to your discussion topic, and double-check the source to avoid misquoting the person.
Attention getters are the basis for a compelling speech. Without them, your audience will most likely tune out. You have to give your audience a reason to listen to you. By incorporating attention-getting elements in your speech, you will undoubtedly entice more of your listeners to pay attention to what you have to say.
Try on the attention-getter examples listed above and see how captivated your audience will be.
Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.
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Speak for success.
"Be a voice not an echo." - Albert Einstein
Want to move audiences? Develop a powerful opening! Here is how to start a speech, including 12 foolproof ways to grab audiences in public speaking.
Let's talk about how to start a speech. When it comes to persuading, inspiring, or influencing an audience, your opening is by far the most important moment in your performance.
So how do you begin a presentation in ways that will get an audience on your side and start you on the road to speaking memorably?
Learn this skill and 101 tips and tricks for more successful speaking in my Public Speaking Handbook, How to Give a Speech . Also available as an Amazon bestseller!
Let's imagine that you're finally pitching to that audience of decision makers. It's the high-stakes opportunity you've been waiting for, and you've put together a killer presentation. There's just one problem: how do you start the thing off with a bang? Remember, anyone can give an ordinary presentation. It's your job to stand out from the crowd for career success.
Your Opening Sets the Tone of Your Presentation
You probably already know you need to begin with power and purpose. You're just not sure how . . . or for that matter, exactly why.
The answer is that, when it comes to influencing listeners in speeches and presentations, two concepts explain why your beginning and ending need to be particularly strong. I'll discuss both concepts here, then provide some powerful tools for your opening gambit: your speech Introduction .
Ready to set your audience on fire?
This article is available as a free PDF . Click here to download "How to Start a Speech - 12 Foolproof Ways to Grab Your Audience!" Learn and practice starting out powerfully!
Your Introduction and Conclusion Need to Be Strong
The two concepts concerning why you need to start and end strongly, are primacy and recency . Primacy states that people remember most vividly what they hear at the beginning of a speech. Recency says those same people will strongly recall what you say at the end. In terms of public speaking, this translates into your introduction and conclusion. And you really do need to start early. Here's how to create an opening your audience will remember .
In more practical terms, there are three specific reasons why your introduction needs to be engaging and interesting immediately :
(1) Audiences make judgments about you and your message in the first minute. After that point, you'll be able to change those opinions about as easily as you can change a hamster into a ham sandwich. So here's how to be strong in the first 60 seconds of your speech .
(2) Your opening sets the entire tone of your presentation (including whether you'll be interesting or not).
(3) This is when you introduce your message and tell the audience why they should listen.
Sound like a tall order? It isn't, if you use the seven key components of successful presentations . Your audience needs to be both fully engaged and predisposed favorably toward you and your message. Neither will happen unless you can grab their attention, so they're onboard when you spin your verbal magic. Keep reading to learn how that's done.
Ready to boost your influence with stakeholders? Grab your copy of my book, Speak for Leadership . Learn an executive speech coach's secrets! Get it today here or on Amazon .
Achieving the objective of a 'grabbing' opening takes thought, a bit of imagination, and yes, a little creativity. The good news is that since you know your topic well and you're psyched up for the big game (it's an audience of decision-makers, remember?), you should be well positioned to succeed.
Primacy won't have much of a chance to operate, though, if you use what I call the 'Today, I'm going to talk about . . .' opening. This is boring! Be on the lookout instead for something that will pique the interest of your listeners, and perhaps surprise them. And here's something else you absolutely need to know: 20 ways to connect with an audience for lasting influence .
A few minutes of focused thinking should be all you need to know how to come up with an effective opening. And remember to avoid that I call introducing your introduction. That sounds like this: 'Let me start out with a story . . .', or, 'I heard a very funny joke the other day . . . ' Or even the inexplicable 'Before I begin . . . ' since you've already begun!
Just tell us the story, the joke, or the in-the-know reference that will delight your listeners. But if you signal your effect beforehand, you water down its potency and its power to surprise.
So how can you be completely focused and on your game?
As a springboard to launching your presentation with verve and originality, here are a dozen rhetorical devices you can use. Each of them is an effective 'speech hook that you can use to start any speech or presentation:
You could literally think of dozens more from your own experience or that of your audience. Remember, the best grabbers engage an audience immediately, both intellectually and emotionally. Interestingly, these same devices can be used to conclude in a way that keeps your audience thinking about what you said. It's all part of my six rules for effective public speaking .
Coming up with an exciting grabber and clincher involves some work on your part. But the rewards if you're successful more than justify the effort.
How about a few examples? Here are four great openings that illustrate some of the grabbers listed above:
Jesus , Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." — Startling statement.
Bill Clinton , 1993 speech in Memphis to ministers (after having heard himself introduced as "Bishop Clinton"): "You know, in the last ten months, I've been called a lot of things, but nobody's called me a bishop yet. When I was about nine years old, my beloved and now departed grandmother, who was a very wise woman, looked at me and she said, 'You know, I believe you could be a preacher if you were just a little better boy.'" — Humor
Jane Fonda in her TED Talk "Life's Third Act": "There have been many revolutions over the last century, but perhaps none as significant as the longevity revolution. We are living on average today 34 years longer than our great-grandparents did. Think about that: that's an entire second adult lifetime that's been added to our lifespan." — Statistic.
Steve Jobs , 2005 Commencement Address at Stanford University: "Truth be told, I never graduated from college, and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today, I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it, no big deal—just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I really quit. So why'd I drop out? It started before I was born." — Story, with a seamless transition into his speech.
Like historical mysteries? — Discover my Dr. William Scarlet Mystery Series!
A haunted young artist. A trail of bodies. What is terrorizing London? Scotland Yard surgeon and psychic Dr. William Scarlet pursues a serial killer in Red Season ! Also on Amazon .
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Gary Genard is an actor, author, and expert in public speaking and overcoming speaking fear. His company, The Genard Method offers live 1:1 Zoom executive coaching and corporate group training worldwide. He was named for nine consecutive years as One of the World’s Top 30 Communication Professionals , and also named as One of America's Top 5 Speech Coaches . He is the author of the Amazon Best-Sellers How to Give a Speech and Speak for Leadership: An Executive Speech Coach's Secrets for Developing Leadership Presence . His book, Fearless Speaking , was named in 2019 as "One of the 100 Best Confidence Books of All Time." He is also the author of the Dr. William Scarlet Mysteries . Contact Gary here.
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An attention getter is a tool used at the very beginning of a presentation with the intention of engaging one’s audience. There are several different types of effective attention getters, so it’s up to the speaker to determine the best fit for their presentation based on a variety of factors. When selecting an attention getter, it may be helpful to ask yourself these questions:
As you read on, keep these questions in mind. Doing so will allow you to select the right attention getter for your presentation. To learn more about how to bring your attention getter full circle in your conclusion, click here . Below are the types of attention getters that we recommend:
A question is a great way to spark the audience’s attention by getting them involved right away. Your question can be directly or indirectly related to your topic. A critical component of asking a question, though, is indicating to your audience whether or not you’d like them to respond nonverbally. Failure to do so may result in audience members getting confused or becoming a distraction. You may lead into a question with a phrase such as “By a show of hands…” or “Take a moment and ask yourself…”. Whether or not you’d like your audience to engage with the question, we discourage allowing audience members to verbally respond. Doing so runs the risk of an audience member taking over your precious speaking time!
You can also begin your speech by telling your audience a short story. A story is a great way to engage with and relate to the audience right off the bat. It can be a personal story, a story you read about, a fable, a well-known children’s story, etc. If you’re struggling to come up with an engaging story, you may ask your audience to picture a hypothetical situation. This gives you the opportunity to set the scene and use descriptive language to illustrate the tale. Consider opening the speech with a story, building up tension to a critical point, and then pausing mid-story to begin the speech. Then, revisit the story in the closure and share the ending. When done correctly, this tactic will have the audience hanging on your every word.
A statistic or startling fact is a great way to arouse curiosity and surprise your audience. Be sure to keep the statistic relevant to your topic and don't reveal too much information before you actually begin the content of your speech. To ensure as much audience engagement as possible, choose a fact that is lesser-known.
Reminder: Consider waiting until you’ve developed your entire speech before creating an attention getter. While it may seem logical to start with writing an attention getter, it’s often easier to save it till the very end.
Prepared by GVSU Speech Lab Consultants & Carl J. Brown
Information partially adapted from Stephen Lucas' The Art of Public Speaking , Tenth Edition.
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Hook Generator
What is a hook generator.
In writing, a hook is a sentence or group of sentences that serves as an attention-grabbing opening to a piece of writing. It is a powerful tool to engage readers or listeners and encourage them to continue reading or listening. However, crafting a good hook can be challenging, and that's where a hook generator comes in.
A hook generator, also known as a hook creator or hook sentence generator, is an online tool that provides users with various ideas for hooks that they can use in their writing. These tools help writers save time and effort by providing them with different options for a hook that they can choose from.
Using a hook generator has several advantages for writers, including:
Our hook generator is easy to use and can help writers generate hooks quickly and efficiently. Here's how to use it:
Enter the topic you want to write about in the text box. This will help the generator provide relevant and specific ideas for hooks.
Click on the "Generate Hooks" button, and our hook generator will provide you with different ideas for hooks. You can select the ones that you like and save them for later use.
After generating hook ideas, you can save the ones that you think have the potential to engage your audience. You can copy and paste them into a separate document for future reference.
You can refine the hooks you've saved by making changes to them or combining different ideas to create a more unique hook.
Here are some tips for writing effective hooks:
Before writing a hook, it's essential to know your target audience. Consider what type of reader or listener you are trying to attract and what their interests and values are. This will help you create a hook that is relevant and appealing to your audience.
Hook examples:
Sharing a surprising or little-known fact can pique readers' curiosity and make them want to learn more. Starting with a fact or statistic can also establish the importance of the topic you're writing about.
Asking a question can make readers or listeners think and engage with the topic on a deeper level. Make sure the question is relevant to your topic and encourages readers to keep reading or listening.
Thought-provoking hook exa
Using a quotation from a famous person or a book related to your topic can add credibility and interest to your writing. Make sure the quotation is relevant and memorable.
Quotation hook examples:
Sharing a personal story or anecdote can help readers connect with your writing on an emotional level. Make sure the story is relevant to your topic and highlights the importance of the issue you're discussing.
Story hook examples:
Humour can be an effective way to engage readers and make them remember your writing. However, make sure the humor is appropriate and relevant to your topic.
A hook should be brief and to the point. Avoid using long, complicated sentences that may confuse or bore readers.
Concise hooks examples:
A hook should be unique and stand out from other hooks. Avoid using cliches or overused phrases that readers may have seen before.
Your hook should accurately reflect the content of your writing. Avoid using clickbait or misleading hooks that may disappoint or frustrate readers.
A good hook for an essay should be attention-grabbing and relevant to the topic. It should also be unique and creative. Here are some types of hooks in writing that you can use for your essay:
After selecting the type of hook you want to use, you can start writing your hook sentence. A good hook should be concise and to the point, but it should also grab your readers' attention.
To start a hook for an essay, you need to think about what will capture your readers' attention. You can start by asking a question, sharing a story, or providing an interesting fact. The goal is to create a hook that will make your readers want to keep reading.
Here are some examples of good hooks for essays:
Aside from our hook generator, there are several other hook generators available online that can help writers create attention-grabbing hooks for their writing. Here are some examples:
Instagram is a popular social media platform that is used by millions of people around the world. If you're looking to create reels on Instagram, you can use an Instagram hooks generator to come up with creative and engaging hook ideas.
An Instagram hooks generator is a tool that generates creative ideas and concepts for reels on the Instagram platform. It is designed to help users create attention-grabbing and visually stunning content to capture the attention of their audience.
Instagram hook tips:
Check out our AI instagram bio generator
Email marketing is an effective way to reach potential customers and promote your business. To make sure your emails get noticed, you can use an email hooks generator to come up with attention-grabbing subject lines that entice your subscribers to open your emails.
An email hooks generator is a tool that generates attention-grabbing subject lines for email marketing campaigns. It is designed to help users create subject lines that entice their subscribers to open their emails. Here are some benefits and examples of an email hooks generator:
Email hook tips:
Check out our cover letter generator and how to write letter of recommendation with AI .
Public speaking can be daunting, but a well-crafted hook can help you capture your audience's attention and keep them engaged throughout your speech. A speech hook generator can provide you with different ideas for hooks that you can use to make your speech more memorable.
A speech hook generator is a tool that generates creative and engaging ideas for speeches. It is designed to help users create attention-grabbing hooks that capture the audience's attention and keep them engaged throughout the speech.
Speech hook tips:
An essay hook generator can help you come up with creative ideas for hooks that you can use to make your essay stand out. By using a hook generator, you can save time and effort while creating a hook that will make your essay more engaging.
An essay hook generator is a tool that generates creative ideas for hooks for essays. It is designed to help users create attention-grabbing hooks that make their essays stand out.
Essay hook tips:
Writing a catchy hook is essential for creating a successful song. A song hook generator can provide you with different ideas for hooks that you can use in your songwriting.
A song hook generator is a tool that generates creative and memorable ideas for hooks for songs. It is designed to help users create catchy and memorable hooks that stick in the listener's mind.
Song hook tips:
Check out also our country song generator and song title generator .
Marketing hooks are used to grab the attention of potential customers and persuade them to buy your products or services. A marketing hook generator can provide you with different ideas for hooks that you can use in your marketing campaigns to make them more effective.
In conclusion, using a hook generator can be a valuable tool for writers who want to create attention-grabbing hooks quickly and efficiently. By following the steps outlined in this article and using a hook generator, you can create hooks that engage your audience and make your writing more memorable.
What can you do to engage their attention and leave them hungry for more?
Here are my top 10 recommended attention-grabbing techniques.
You can recognise a great speaker in micro-seconds by the way they occupy their physical space. A confident stroll to the microphone, a warm smile taking in the entire audience, and brief but telling pause before your first carefully crafted utterance will have them hanging on your next words.
Humans are hard-wired to respond to stories, which predate the written word as a form of communication. While overt key messages leave us cold, stories with implicit messages enthral, compel and move us. For maximum impact your story should be brief, punchy and highly relevant to your topic. Don’t start with: ‘I’d like to tell you a story’. Just tell it. And let the story speak for itself without spending too much time drawing out the key message at the end.
There’s no better way of commanding attention than asking a question to which a response may be required. One of my colleagues starts her presentation (on presentation skills) by asking how many people love giving presentations, and then picks on individuals to find out why they do – or don’t – love them. I often start my own presentations by asking who feels nervous at the prospect of speaking in public. A minority don’t raise their hands and I then point out that we must have some liars in the room since, as Mark Twain famously remarked: ‘There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars’. It never fails to raise a laugh, which is another way to get your audience on side.
Encapsulate your main theme in an intriguing little nutshell like business strategist Knut Haanaes in his TED talk on business failure. http://bit.ly/1RPSTb8 ‘There are two reasons companies fail: they only do more of the same or they only do what’s new.’
Unsurprisingly, most audiences are a great deal less interested in what you want to tell them than in what they have to gain from listening. If you can make this clear from the start you will motivate them to stick around for the final reveal.
Another of my colleagues, keen to stress that presentations must be targeted to the specific needs and interests of audiences, likes to quote communications expert Ken Haemer’s advice that ‘Designing a presentation without an audience in mind is like writing a love letter and addressing it: To Whom It May Concern’. Two rules about quotations: first, they must make your key point more pithily and wittily than you could in your own words; secondly, they are best used sparingly. Too many quotes and you sound like a ventriloquist’s dummy.
I was once training an international group of pharmaceutical company executives on how to talk about heart disease. One of them, from Germany, came up with the amazing statistic that more people die of heart disease in Germany every year than the total numbers killed in World War 2. Apple used to brag that more iphones were sold in the previous fiscal quarter than babies born in the entire world. I can’t attest to the factual accuracy of these statements, but they do make you sit up and think ‘wow, really?’
There is a lot of truth in the old saw that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. The ‘picture superiority effect’ tells us that concepts are more memorable if they are presented as pictures than as words. http://bit.ly/1yOFHZQ Equally importantly, pictures don’t compete with words. So while it is self-defeating to talk while displaying wordy slides (because people can’t read and listen at the same time) a powerful relevant image serves to complement and enhance the listening experience.
You see props used in TED talks to memorable effect. There’s the one where neuro-anatomist Jill Bolte Taylor uses a real brain, complete with dangling spinal column, to illustrate her description of the different functions of the two cerebral hemispheres. http://bit.do/7qZN And the one where philanthropist Bill Gates looses a swarm of (harmless) mosqitoes into the audience when talking about the battle to conquer malaria. http://bit.ly/2iCUNyT
People are motivated either to move away from pain or towards pleasure. If you can paint a graphic picture of the current pain your audience is suffering from as a result of a shared problem and the pleasure that would arise from alleviating it, you’ll tick both boxes and keep your audience hooked in to the end.
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Public speaking might be nerve-wracking. Apart from preparing the information itself and making an outline, you also need to structure it so it won’t get boring and will catch your audience’s attention.
The presentation of your information is as important as the information itself. So, to grab your audience’s attention, you should start with a catchy hook. The hook is the only possibility to make your listener interested in what you say, so do not start with a simple greeting and a self-introduction.
In this article, you’ll find nine attention getters for speeches based on the top TED Talks . You’ll learn how to write good hooks for speeches. You’ll also find the six worst speech introductions to avoid. Let’s get started!
One of the good ways to make your audience interested in you is to be honest and sincere . Telling your listener about yourself can make them relate to your more. Share your experience with them.
Here’s a speech by Elizabeth Gilbert , the author of Eat, Play, Love , where she chooses to talk about herself at the beginning of her speech. She is talking about her passion which is writing. She made her performance enjoyable to listen to by making a connection to the audience this way.
Elizabeth Gilbert: Your elusive creative genius
Telling a story is also one of the good hooks for speeches. You can make your audience resonate with you or relate to you by telling a sincere story. If you let your reader know more about you by talking about your experience, they will pay attention to what you say.
The following is a speech by Bill Gates , where he used a story from his childhood as an attention grabber. In this speech, he talks about his fear of nuclear war and how his family would hide in the barrel in case of attack.
Bill Gates: The next outbreak? We’re not ready
Next speech is by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie , a famous Nigerian author. She also uses a story as an opener for her presentation. Her story is about how she learned how to read at a very young age
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story
Asking your audience a question is also one of the best strategies to begin your performance. By asking a question, you can make your listener involved and set the directions for their thoughts.
In the following speech, Simon Sinek asks the audience an exciting question that immediately grabs their attention: How do you explain when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions?
Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action
Another option is to grab your audience’s attention by making a strong statement. A solid, exciting statement can make your listeners engaged and persuade them to listen to you. Usually, a strong opening statement is followed by a question too.
You can take a look at the speech by Julian Treasure , a leading TED speaker. He makes an interesting statement about the human’s voice, comparing it to some instrument. Later, he asks his audience a question to make them think about his topic.
Julian Treasure: How to speak so that people want to listen
Impressive statistics might also be one of the attention-getters for speeches. Think of a statistic that impressed you when you first came across it. Then, try to avoid using simple numbers. Instead, you can compare the numbers with something else. For example, instead of saying that you spend 8 hours online a day, you can say that you spend a whole working day online.
It is crucial to choose a statistic that would be interesting to both a speaker and the audience .
The following is a speech by Robert Waldinger , a Harvard professor of psychiatry, about happiness. He begins his speech by stating the results of a survey. In that survey, millennials were asked about their life goals.
Robert Waldinger: What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness
Humor is another good way to catch the attention. Although your speech might be about a serious and formal topic, you can say something funny in the beginning. However, it would be best to be extremely careful because your joke might be offensive to someone. So, try to make a joke on a neutral topic .
Here’s a speech by Pamela Meyer on how to spot a liar. She begins her speech by making a joke about how everyone is a liar. Her joke is engaging and makes the audience curious about what else she has to say.
Pamela Meyer: How to spot a liar
What can be more engaging than actually asking your audience to do something? Your audience will pay all their attention to you if you make them interact with you. You can ask your listeners to raise their hands by asking a question.
The following speech is by Kelly McGonigal , a psychologist and Stanford lecturer, on how to make stress your friend. At the beginning of her speech, Kelly asks her audience to raise their hands if they experienced stress during the past year.
Kelly McGonigal: How to make stress your friend
The following speech is by Celeste Headlee on ten ways to have a better conversation. In her speech, she asks her audience to raise their hands if they have unfriended someone because of an offensive conversation topic.
Celeste Headlee: 10 ways to have a better conversation
Some people use the method of shocking their audience to catch their attention. You can do something your listeners do not expect . For example, you can say goodbye at the beginning of your speech or change your clothes. These actions will catch everyone’s attention, but they will only work if the topic is suitable.
In this TED Talk on how schools kill creativity by Sir Ken Robinson , he makes an unexpected move by saying that he is leaving right after saying hello to his audience.
Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?
The following speech is by Cameron Russell on how appearance is not everything. She changed her clothes on the stage as she was opening her speech.
Cameron Russell: Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model.
If you are still wondering how to start a speech, a colorful comparison might be a good option. You can use a metaphor , symbol , or another figure of speechto deliver your thought in a catchy way.
Here is a speech by Dan Gilbert on the science of happiness. In his hook, he compares two perspectives on two million years. By making this comparison, he can control the audience’s thoughts, making them think about his words.
Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness
In the following section, you’ll find the best attention grabber examples for speeches. Our examples will help you effectively get your audience’s attention and conduct a great presentation.
Wondering how to create a good hook for a speech about yourself ? Then you’re at the right place. Here are some hook ideas that proved to be effective:
Hook idea | Attention getter example |
---|---|
Let me tell you about the time I got lost in a foreign country, unable to speak the language, and had to rely on the kindness of strangers to find my way back to safety. | |
Have you ever felt like you were venturing into the unknown, unsure of where life would take you next? That’s exactly how I felt when I set off on my journey to start a new life in a different city. | |
We’ve all experienced those moments of self-doubt and uncertainty, but how we navigate through those times truly defines us. | |
Life is a rollercoaster, filled with twists, turns, and unexpected drops. Just as we hold on tight and embrace the thrill of the ride, I’ve learned to navigate through the ups and downs of my own journey, and I’m excited to take you along for the ride today. | |
Embarking on a new chapter in life is like learning to ride a bike for the first time. It’s wobbly; you might fall a few times, but you eventually find your balance with determination and perseverance. Today, I want to share with you the bumps and triumphs of my personal journey as I found my balance. |
In crafting a persuasive speech , it’s essential to captivate your audience from the very beginning. A well-crafted hook can pique their interest and draw them in, setting the stage for a compelling and impactful message. Here are a few examples of persuasive hooks:
Hook idea | Persuasive hook example |
---|---|
Have you ever stopped to think about the impact of our daily choices on the environment? What if I told you that small changes in our habits could make a world of difference? | |
Today, we stand on the brink of a global catastrophe, and it is up to us to decide whether we will be remembered as the generation that destroyed our planet or the one that took a stand to save it. | |
The rise in cyberbullying has reached alarming levels, affecting the mental well-being of our youth. We must address this issue head-on to protect the future of our society. | |
Did you know that every minute, the equivalent of a truckload of plastic appears in our oceans? This destructive trend is leading us toward an environmental catastrophe, and we must take immediate action to reverse it. | |
As a professional in the field of medicine for over 15 years, I have witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of untreated mental illness on individuals and their families. I am here today to advocate for better access to mental health resources for all. | |
In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” This powerful message resonates with the urgency of our current situation and reminds us that we can make a positive impact through our actions. |
Are you struggling to find the perfect attention getter for an informative speech ? Look no further! In this section, we’ll explore some powerful hook examples that will captivate your audience right from the start and make your presentation unforgettable.
Hook idea | Attention getter example |
---|---|
Did you know that the octopus has three hearts, blue blood, and the ability to change both its color and texture to blend into its environment? Today, we’ll explore these intelligent creatures’ fascinating world and remarkable abilities. | |
Raise your hand if you’ve ever experienced the frustration of not being able to fall asleep. Many of us have, and I’m here to share some valuable insights to help you achieve a restful night’s sleep. | |
As acclaimed physicist Stephen Hawking once said, “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.” Today, we’ll delve into this concept’s profound impact on scientific discovery. | |
Take a look at this stunning time-lapse video of the rapidly melting glaciers in the Arctic. This visual representation highlights the urgency of addressing climate change and its consequences. | |
While many people believe that social media has only negative effects on mental health, studies have shown that it can also provide a sense of community and support for individuals. Today, we’ll explore the multifaceted impact of social media on mental well-being. |
Are you tired of starting your speeches with the same old dull hooks? Well, get ready to add some humor and excitement to your next presentation with these funny attention-getters for speeches.
Hook idea | Explanation | Example |
---|---|---|
A funny anecdote or personal experience can be shared to entertain the audience, creating a humorous connection and adding a relatable element to the speech. | Let me tell you about the time I accidentally wore my pajamas to a business meeting. It was a classic case of “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” — and apparently, I wanted to be a professional napper! | |
This hook involves using humorous material from established sources, such as jokes, anecdotes, or quotes from comedians, writers, or public figures. | As Mark Twain once said, “The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.” So, if anyone offers you kale smoothies and a gym membership, just remember – it’s all for the sake of your health! | |
This type involves taking an existing humorous concept or joke and modifying it to fit the context of the speech or the specific audience, creating a personalized and amusing rendition. | Why don’t skeletons fight each other? They don’t have the guts! Speaking of guts, let’s dig into the fascinating world of human anatomy and learn about the wonders of the human body. |
As we have learned different attention-getting techniques, let’s take a look at a list of things to avoid while starting a speech.
No matter how much time you have to prepare, try to use it wisely. Even if you only have half an hour to prepare, make use of any minute you have to outline, think of a structure, and a good hook to catch your audience’s attention. | |
Technical difficulties are something we cannot control. However, we can do everything possible and check the tech in advance. Try to arrive at the place you are giving your speech early to check that everything is working correctly. | |
Apologizing can only draw attention to the issue that your audience might not have even noticed. So, try to ignore anything you are struggling with and focus on your speech. If you feel the need to apologize for something obvious, you can reverse it the way you can express your gratitude rather than being sorry. | |
Making a joke is an excellent way to start your speech off. However, your joke has to be ethical. Do not think of your audience as of your friend with whom you can talk about anything. Treat your audience with as much respect as possible. | |
Instead of asking your audience to turn off their cell phones, try to focus on making your speech interesting and engaging so that your audience wouldn’t want to distract themselves with their cell phones. | |
Do not say your name because your audience should already know it. Leave your introduction to the person who organizes the event. |
We hope the tips above will help you get ready for your performance. If you haven’t yet decided what topic to choose for your speech, feel free to use our generator to get ideas. The tool is able to make topics not only for essays, but also for speeches.
How to start a speech for school.
To start an in-class speech for students, you can talk about yourself or tell a personal story. By telling your audience a story about yourself, you can engage them. An engaged audience pays attention to what you say. Another way is to start your speech with a quote. You can also search for some samples to gain inspiration.
To start off an informative speech, you should have a catchy hook. You can try asking your audience a question or sharing your experience. After you are done with an attention grabber, you can state your thesis and move to your main points.
Start your persuasive speech with a catchy hook. You may use a quote, a joke, a story, or any other attention grabbers. A good option is to make a question to make your audience think about your topic. If you have enough information, you can also show an impressive statistic related to your topic.
You can start your motivational speech by asking your audience a question or asking them to do something. It can engage them and make them interested in what you are trying to say. Another option to engage your audience is to create a joke or to tell a story about yourself.
by Arvee Robinson
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September 28, 2020 in Persuasive Speaking Techniques , Public Speaking Techniques , Speech Development , Speech Tips and Tricks
When you begin a presentation, whether it is virtual or live, you have 3 seconds to grab your audience’s attention. In those 3 seconds they will decide whether you are going to be a good speaker. Therefore, you need to grab their attention fast. There are three great different ways I teach to grab your audience’s attention.
First, use enrolling questions . Enrolling questions are those questions that engage the audience. They get audience to raise their hands. It is important that you get this right otherwise your audience members will roll their eyes. You must use TWO questions. The second question will build off the first. For example, I might use these two questions:
Enrolling questions are always benefit driven. Your goal is to get 100% (or close to that) to raise their hand. Thus, always use a positive focused question. In other words, you would never ask something like, “How many of you have claimed bankruptcy?”
The 2nd attention grabber is a statistical statement that hits their pain point. In the medical field this is easy. But you can find statistics in business too.
In business, it might sound like “83.5% of businesses fail in the first 3 years.” This is not an actual statistic. However, when you use a statistic, make sure it is true, current, and ideally it’s an odd number. Odd numbers are psychologically more believable. When you state a statistic, you are going for the pain and shock factor. You don’t need to speak where you get that (but you can print it on a slide).
The third attention grabber is a statement of declaration . Think of this as your truth. It’s what you believe. For example, “You have 3 seconds to grab your audience’s attention.” I believe this to be true. No one told me this nor did I read this anywhere. However, from my experience I believe this to be true. It can be anything you want. Another example of a statement of declaration for shock effect is a guy who speaks on time management. He opens with, “I’m late. I’m late. I’m late.”
When developing your attention grabber, you will want to select the one that is right for your audience, right for your speech, and powerful. Furthermore, you need to deliver it in a powerful way.
Use attention grabbers for any presentation that is 1 minute or longer. You would not want to use this with a 30-second elevator speech that is designed only to answer the question, “What do you do?” When you have a longer period of time to do a self-introduction, however, you can use an attention grabber.
Do not start out with a quote by someone else. This is a big mistake I see speakers make. When you start quoting someone else, they start thinking about that person. For example, “Good isn’t good enough, you have to be outstanding, meaning you have to stand out from the rest” is a Tony Robbins quote. Now the audience is thinking about Tony not you. Remember when you are at the beginning of your talk, you are in the rapport building phase. So you are trying to keep the focus on you.
The second thing you should avoid is to never start out with a story , even if it’s about you. We don’t know you yet. You haven’t earned the audience’s attention yet. Typically, it will be too long and boring.
Thirdly, never start out with a joke . It should go without saying. You take people into the story and now they are not in the room with you. Also, you may think the joke is funny, but the crowd may not.
The secret to uplevel your opening of your talks is to craft the attention grabbers that build rapport and trust in the shortest amount of time. We go deep into crafting your content in my mastermind programs and you’ll get more in-depth presentation training in our virtual events.
Let’s recap the thre powerful attention grabbers quickly in this video.
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Mic check. 1, 2…1, 2. Ladies and gentleman, can I have your attention please? Many writers struggle with knowing how to write an attention grabber in their blogs, speeches, or even social media captions. Whatever it is that needs to be written deserves a good attention grabber if it’s going to ring successful.
We are living in an age of media and content overload. That’s why knowing how to write an attention grabber is even more important today. SEO and keyword research will help get people in the door, but your attention-grabber is what keeps your customers in the store.
Tip: Some of these attention-grabber types, though highly common and successful, can be considered cliches. If your attention-grabber feels contrived, do without, or re-write it.
Attention-grabber examples and definitions.
You might be wondering how to write an attention grabber in practice. Here are some examples of attention grabbers for speeches or articles to get you started:
The hypothetical.
Openers like these are fair to use. However, they have become so overused that it now carries a form of satire in connotation.
Does it take you forever to write a single blog post?
If you desire a proven blog writing process that will help you become a more organized and productive writer, then you’re reading the right article.
Guided imagery.
The guided imagery angle is a capturing attention-grabber from phrase to phrase. The intention is to use strong words that describe a particular scene or moment. A balanced array of adjectives come in handy for this approach. Here’s an example of a guided imagery opener:
You pop open your car door, and sit in your driver seat. As you sit you hear the crinkle of an empty plastic bag of chips. You kick an empty water bottle as you attempt to place your foot on the brake pedal. Ironically, you need to put your new water bottle away in the cup holder and as you do, you notice french fry crumbs and random junk in the center deep cup holders. I know you can’t take it anymore. You know what you need to do; your car interior’s a mess. Let’s walk you through how to give your car a proper cleanout with this checklist. John Doe
Starting an article with a life motto can be awkward. Imagine starting your piece with “Carpe diem” (seize the day). It sounds more like something you’d say toward the end of a piece. But if you find the right life motto, it could be a nice attention-grabber. Something like, “There’s growth on the other side of hardship.”
If you are wanting to know how to write a good attention grabber, it’s going to take consistent practice, putting the hours into your writing. Some of the best writers are naturally creative, and others are hard workers. Imagine if you had both qualities!
With enough practice (and research), you’ll even learn how to write an attention grabber during the zero draft step of the writing process .
Revising the initial version of your opener is the secret ingredient to attention-grabber success. We recommend double-checking that each section of a written piece function. You want to always utilize the best and most efficient AI tools like Grammarly , to clean up all necessary revisions catered to the style of writing you are going for.
Studying the art of writing an attention-grabber will pay off for you. Remember to follow up your excellent opener with even better content for the rest of your written or spoken piece. You’ll be surprised at how learning how to write an attention grabber will help you grow your blog traffic while teaching you how to be a better writer. Now, go seize your audience’s attention!
This post was proofread by Grammarly Premium .
The essential guide to write an effective blog post in 5 steps, the 10 best toni morrison quotes for your inspiration, how to write a haiku poem, 50 successful blogging tips for how to grow your blog traffic.
Speech-based depression detection poses significant challenges for automated detection due to its unique manifestation across individuals and data scarcity. Addressing these challenges, we introduce DAAMAudioCNNLSTM and DAAMAudioTransformer, two parameter efficient and explainable models for audio feature extraction and depression detection. DAAMAudioCNNLSTM features a novel CNN-LSTM framework with multi-head Density Adaptive Attention Mechanism (DAAM), focusing dynamically on informative speech segments. DAAMAudioTransformer, leveraging a transformer encoder in place of the CNN-LSTM architecture, incorporates the same DAAM module for enhanced attention and interpretability. These approaches not only enhance detection robustness and interpretability but also achieve state-of-the-art performance: DAAMAudioCNNLSTM with an F1 macro score of 0.702 and DAAMAudioTransformer with an F1 macro score of 0.72 on the DAIC-WOZ dataset, without reliance on supplementary information such as vowel positions and speaker information during training/validation as in previous approaches. Both models’ significant explainability and efficiency in leveraging speech signals for depression detection represent a leap towards more reliable, clinically useful diagnostic tools, promising advancements in speech and mental health care. To foster further research in this domain, we make our code publicly available 1 1 1 https://github.com/sdsuai/depression_audio_processing
I introduction.
Acoustic modeling has become pivotal in identifying psychological and emotional conditions [ 1 , 2 ] . Research has consistently highlighted the efficacy of speech processing in the automated, unbiased identification of psychiatric disorders, notably Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) [ 3 ] . A diverse array of diagnostic indicators and computational strategies have been introduced for depression detection, each presenting its unique strengths and challenges [ 4 , 5 , 6 ] . Included among these are spectral [ 7 , 8 ] , prosodic [ 9 ] , vocal timbre [ 10 ] , and speech production characteristics [ 11 ] , as well as advanced computational techniques like data augmentation [ 12 ] , ensemble methods [ 13 ] , transfer learning [ 14 ] , and self-supervised pre-training [ 14 ] . Furthermore, the analysis of features related to the identity of the speaker has been explored for the detection of depression [ 15 , 16 ] , though their claimed results are not reproducible.
The realm of mental health diagnostics, especially for conditions like depression and MDD, faces significant challenges due to the scarcity and imbalance of publicly available datasets [ 17 ] . Traditional machine learning and deep learning approaches often struggle with these limitations, leading to models that may not generalize well across the diverse spectrum of depressive symptoms and severities encountered in clinical practice. This issue is compounded by the fact that depression manifests uniquely across individuals [ 18 ] , requiring diagnostic systems to be highly sensitive to subtle and varied vocal biomarkers. Previous approaches have often been constrained by their computational complexity and the extensive number of parameters, rendering them impractical for real-time applications [ 14 ] . These models, while powerful, demand significant computational resources, limiting their deployment in scenarios where quick analysis is crucial. Additionally, many existing methods are not end-to-end and/or rely on supplementary information, such as vowel classification [ 19 ] and speaker-specific details [ 15 ] , which are not always readily available or necessitate labor-intensive manual labeling.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression is a pervasive mental health disorder that significantly impacts individuals and societies worldwide [ 20 ] . It is characterized by a persistent low mood, loss of interest or pleasure in activities, and a range of physical and emotional symptoms that can severely affect a person’s ability to function in daily life [ 21 ] . Depression is not just a temporary change in mood or a sign of weakness; it is a serious medical condition that requires understanding and treatment [ 22 ] . In 2019, approximately 280 million people worldwide were living with depression, highlighting its status as a major public health concern. The prevalence of depression varies by country, with the United States reporting a rate of 8.3% among its adult population in 2021 [ 23 , 24 , 20 ] .
The integration of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks has been a promising direction in addressing these challenges, leveraging CNNs’ ability to extract rich spectral features and LSTMs’ proficiency in capturing temporal dynamics [ 25 ] . However, the effectiveness of these models can be significantly hindered by data scarcity and imbalance. To mitigate these issues, this work introduces DAAMAudioCNNLSTM, a novel lightweight hybrid CNN-LSTM model ( ≈ 280 K absent 280 𝐾 \approx 280K ≈ 280 italic_K parameters), enhanced with a multi-head Density Adaptive Attention Mechanism (DAAM) [ 26 ] . DAAM is especially well-suited for handling the challenges of depression datasets. By using Gaussian distributions, it can dynamically target the most informative parts of speech data, enabling the model to prioritize essential features even with limited and imbalanced data.
In addition to DAAMAudioCNNLSTM, we introduce the DAAMAudioTransformer, a novel transformer-based model that utilizes a similar attention mechanism but replaces the CNN-LSTM architecture with a transformer encoder. Transformer models, characterized by their self-attention mechanisms, have demonstrated remarkable success in various natural language processing tasks and are well-suited for capturing long-range dependencies and contextual relationships within the data [ 27 ] . The DAAMAudioTransformer, with 1.1M parameters, achieves the state-of-the-art F1 macro score of 0.72 on the DAIC-WOZ dataset, offering a powerful alternative to traditional architectures.
Moreover, DAAM offers significant explainability benefits, a critical consideration in the healthcare industry. By providing clear insights into which features and segments of the speech signal were deemed most important for a given diagnosis, healthcare professionals can gain a deeper understanding of the model’s decision-making process. This transparency is essential for building trust in automated diagnostic systems and facilitating their integration into clinical workflows [ 28 ] . It also opens up new avenues for research, allowing clinicians and researchers to explore the specific speech characteristics most indicative of depression, potentially uncovering novel biomarkers and contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the condition. DAAMAudioCNNLSTM and DAAMAudioTransformer, owing to the Density Adaptive Attention Mechanism, advance the field towards more explainable, trustworthy, and clinically useful diagnostic tools. By focusing on these key areas, this work aims to contribute to the broader goal of improving mental health care through technology, ensuring that patients receive timely, accurate, and personalized diagnoses. In brief, our contributions are as follows:
We introduce the DAAMAudioCNNLSTM, an enhanced and explainable version of the original DepAudioNet, incorporating a novel multi-head DAAM module. This mechanism is designed to transform input audio encodings into highly informative representations. By leveraging learnable parameters, DAAM focuses on the most salient features for the depression detection task, thereby enhancing the model’s interpretability and effectiveness.
We introduce the DAAMAudioTransformer, a transformer-based model incorporating the DAAM module, achieving a state-of-the-art F1 macro score of 0.72 on the DAIC-WOZ dataset. This model leverages the self-attention mechanisms of transformers to capture long-range dependencies and contextual relationships within the data, providing a robust alternative to traditional architectures [ 27 ] .
We establish new state-of-the-art benchmarks for the DAIC-WOZ [ 29 ] dataset by training DAAMAudioCNNLSTM and DAAMAudioTransformer to identify and aggregate the most informative features within the speech signals for accurately detecting depression. Our approaches surpass all previous end-to-end state-of-the-art models that rely solely on label information, without the need for additional data such as speaker information or vowel positions. This achievement underscores the efficiency and robustness of DAAMAudioCNNLSTM and DAAMAudioTransformer in utilizing only audio signals for depression detection, making them valuable for clinicians and researchers alike.
Depression detection has been approached from various angles, utilizing different modalities such as text, speech, and visual data. Among the early works, facial expression analysis has shown promise in identifying depressive states. For instance, the system presented by Nazira et al. (2021) [ 30 ] uses CNNs in conjunction with OpenCV and Haar Cascade Classifiers to analyze facial expressions for depression detection. This method demonstrated an accuracy of 81% and a recognition rate of 88%, highlighting the potential of visual data in mental health diagnostics. However, the need for specialized datasets and the difficulty of capturing consistent visual data limit the applicability of these methods in real-world settings.
In contrast, speech-based models offer significant advantages, including non-invasiveness and the ability to capture data in natural conversational settings. Speech carries rich information such as tone, tempo, and pauses, which can be indicative of a person’s emotional state. Moreover, speech-based systems enable real-time monitoring, making them suitable for continuous assessment of mental health. Notably, Dubagunta et al. (2019) [ 10 ] leveraged the combination of prior knowledge-based signal processing methods and CNNs to detect depression from voice source-related information. Their study demonstrated that neurophysiological changes during depression, which affect laryngeal control, can be effectively detected using this approach, offering a promising direction for future research.
DepAudioNet represents a seminal contribution to the field of automated depression detection through audio analysis. Introduced by Ma et al. (2016) [ 31 ] , DepAudioNet addresses the limitations of traditional methods that predominantly rely on hand-engineered features. It automates the feature extraction and classification processes using a combination of convolutional and recurrent neural networks. The superiority of automatic feature extraction over hand-engineered features, particularly for tasks focused on paralinguistics such as speech-based depression detection, has been well documented in the literature [ 32 ] . The convolutional layers of DepAudioNet excel at capturing spectral features from audio signals [ 33 ] , while the recurrent layers, typically LSTM networks, analyze temporal relationships within the speech data [ 34 ] . This dual approach enables the model to effectively process and interpret the complex, non-linear relationships inherent in human speech, which are often indicative of affective states such as depression.
In recent advancements, attention mechanisms have been increasingly integrated into speech-based depression detection models to enhance performance and interpretability. Zhao et al. (2015) [ 7 ] introduced a Hierarchical Attention Transfer Network (HATN) that applies hierarchical attention autoencoders to transfer attention from a source task, such as speech recognition, to a depression detection system. This approach significantly improved the efficiency of depression severity diagnosis. However, even more sophisticated attention mechanisms have emerged.
The introduction of the Density Adaptive Attention Mechanism (DAAM) marked a pivotal development in this domain. Ioannides et al. (2024) [ 26 ] proposed the multi-head DAAM within a Density Adaptive Transformer (DAT), presenting a probabilistic attention framework that integrates learnable mean offset and variance parameters within a multi-headed structure. This framework allows for dynamic recalibration of feature significance across diverse modalities, including speech, particularly addressing the non-stationary nature of speech data in depression detection. The DAAM framework has demonstrated substantial performance improvements, with accuracy gains of up to 20% over existing state-of-the-art attention models. The ability of DAAM to dynamically re-calibrate features across different genders, as explored by Koudounas et al., further underlines its versatility and effectiveness in handling complex, real-world data.
The combination of DepAudioNet and DAAM, as implemented in the current work, leverages these advancements to create a more robust and explainable model for depression detection. By integrating multi-head DAAM into the existing DepAudioNet architecture, this hybrid model not only improves classification performance but also provides a more transparent decision-making process, crucial for clinical applications.
Our proposed network architectures, which are illustrated in Figure 1 , are designed to process audio data for the detection of depression, utilizing a combination of attention mechanisms and deep learning models tailored for audio feature extraction.
The processing pipeline for both models begins with raw audio input, which is transformed into a Mel Spectrogram. Using a Hanning window, mel-spectrogram features are extracted with a Mel filterbank that includes 40 frequency bins, a window length of w = 1024 𝑤 1024 w=1024 italic_w = 1024 , and a hop length of h = 512 ℎ 512 h=512 italic_h = 512 . These features are standardized through z-normalization, yielding adjusted features represented as x ~ ~ 𝑥 \tilde{x} over~ start_ARG italic_x end_ARG , where x ~ = ( x − μ ) / σ ~ 𝑥 𝑥 𝜇 𝜎 \tilde{x}=(x-\mu)/\sigma over~ start_ARG italic_x end_ARG = ( italic_x - italic_μ ) / italic_σ . Here, x 𝑥 x italic_x is the original feature from the audio input, and μ 𝜇 \mu italic_μ and σ 𝜎 \sigma italic_σ denote the mean and standard deviation, respectively, calculated from the features of each distinct audio recording. This normalization aligns with the methods used by Ma et al. [ 31 ] and Bailey et al. [ 35 ] , ensuring consistency and mitigating class imbalance by cropping features to align with the duration of the shortest audio track. Random subsampling is applied to non-depressed (ND) instances to balance the dataset, which is then segmented into temporal portions of length N seg = 120 subscript 𝑁 seg 120 N_{\text{seg}}=120 italic_N start_POSTSUBSCRIPT seg end_POSTSUBSCRIPT = 120 for further processing.
The DAAMAudioCNNLSTM model incorporates a Gaussian-based Attention Augmented Module (DAAM) before the first layer, initialized with 4 attention heads, each utilizing 16 or 24 Gaussian distributions. This mechanism focuses on enhancing the model’s performance by weighting important spatio-temporal features within the Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs). The DAAM modifies the input tensor X 𝑋 X italic_X to X ′ superscript 𝑋 ′ X^{\prime} italic_X start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ′ end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT , computed as:
(1) |
where N 𝑁 N italic_N represents the number of Gaussian distributions in the mixture, μ 𝜇 \mu italic_μ is the mean of X 𝑋 X italic_X , and 𝜹 𝒊 subscript 𝜹 𝒊 \bm{\delta_{i}} bold_italic_δ start_POSTSUBSCRIPT bold_italic_i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT and 𝝈 𝒊 subscript 𝝈 𝒊 \bm{\sigma_{i}} bold_italic_σ start_POSTSUBSCRIPT bold_italic_i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT are learnable parameters that adjust the mean and standard deviation for each Gaussian component.
The network architecture proceeds with a convolutional layer (kernel size: 40 × 3 40 3 40\times 3 40 × 3 , stride: 1 × 1 1 1 1\times 1 1 × 1 , padding: 0 × 1 0 1 0\times 1 0 × 1 ) producing a feature map of depth D = 128 𝐷 128 D=128 italic_D = 128 and length L = 120 𝐿 120 L=120 italic_L = 120 , followed by max pooling (kernel size: 3, stride: 3, padding: 0) to reduce the length to L = 40 𝐿 40 L=40 italic_L = 40 . An LSTM layer with 3 layers of 128 hidden units captures temporal dependencies, leading to a fully connected layer that outputs the final prediction.
The DAAMAudioTransformer model enhances the processing of audio data with a CustomAttention mechanism, specifically designed for this task. Similar to DAAMAudioCNNLSTM, it starts with a Density-based attention mechanism, initialized with 4 attention heads, each using 24 Gaussian distributions. This attention mechanism selectively focuses on critical frequency bin features within the MFCCs, improving the capture of spatio-temporal characteristics.
Following the attention block, the DAAMAudioTransformer employs a series of transformer encoder layers to process the attended features. Each encoder layer comprises a multi-head self-attention mechanism and a feed-forward network (FFN), with dropout applied for regularization (dropout rate: 0.1). The transformer encoder is configured with a model dimensionality d model = 120 subscript 𝑑 model 120 d_{\text{model}}=120 italic_d start_POSTSUBSCRIPT model end_POSTSUBSCRIPT = 120 , 4 attention heads, and a feed-forward dimension d feedforward = 2048 subscript 𝑑 feedforward 2048 d_{\text{feedforward}}=2048 italic_d start_POSTSUBSCRIPT feedforward end_POSTSUBSCRIPT = 2048 . The output from the transformer encoder is passed through a fully connected layer with a sigmoid activation function to produce the final binary classification output, predicting the probability of depression.
Both models are trained using the Adam optimizer [ 36 ] , with an initial learning rate of 0.001 and a decay rate of 0.9 applied at intervals defined by λ epoch = 2 subscript 𝜆 epoch 2 \lambda_{\text{epoch}}=2 italic_λ start_POSTSUBSCRIPT epoch end_POSTSUBSCRIPT = 2 . The binary cross-entropy loss (BCELoss) is employed as the training objective, quantifying the difference between the predicted probabilities and the actual binary labels. This loss function is well-suited for binary classification tasks, driving the optimization process for both models.
In summary, the DAAMAudioCNNLSTM and DAAMAudioTransformer models leverage advanced attention mechanisms and deep learning architectures to capture both local and global dependencies in audio data, making them potent tools for depression detection in speech.
Iv-a dataset.
The Distress Analysis Interview Corpus - Wizard of Oz (DAIC-WOZ) dataset plays a central role in the development of automated methods for the detection and analysis of psychological disorders, particularly depression. Developed as part of the DARPA Detection and Computational Analysis of Psychological Signals (DCAPS) program, this dataset is designed to advance the understanding and detection of psychological stress signals with a focus on depression [ 37 , 13 ] . We have received approval to use this dataset from the University of Southern California (USC) Institute of Creative Technologies.
The DAIC-WOZ dataset consists of 189 sessions, each corresponding to an interview between a participant and a virtual interviewer named “Ellie.” These interviews were conducted in a controlled environment, with Ellie being operated by a researcher in a separate room [ 38 ] . The interviews, varying in length from 7 to 35 minutes, provide a comprehensive multimodal dataset, including audio recordings, transcribed text, facial expressions, and physiological signals. For privacy reasons, the raw visual data has not been disclosed. Instead, the dataset provides visual features extracted using the OpenFace framework and the FACET toolbox, along with raw audio files sampled at 16 kHz [ 16 ] . For the purposes of this work, the focus is primarily on the audio component of the dataset, which offers valuable insights into the verbal and paraverbal aspects of communication that are indicative of depressive symptoms.
The training segment of the dataset comprises 107 files, detailed as follows: 27 files from females without depression (ND) and 17 from females with depression (D), contributing to a female total of 44 files (41%); for males, 49 ND and 14 D files make up a total of 63 files (59%), leading to an overall distribution of 76 ND (71%) and 31 D (29%) across genders. The validation segment includes 35 files, split into 23 ND and 12 D, to facilitate machine learning applications. The average interview time across all sessions is 956.33 seconds ( ∼ similar-to \sim ∼ 15.94 minutes), with a standard deviation of 269.96 seconds ( ∼ similar-to \sim ∼ 4.50 minutes). The distribution of interview times ranges from 414.80 seconds ( ∼ similar-to \sim ∼ 6.91 minutes) to 1966.20 seconds ( ∼ similar-to \sim ∼ 32.77 minutes), illustrating the variability in session durations.
A critical feature of the DAIC-WOZ dataset is its imbalance in terms of participants’ level of depression. The dataset is heavily biased towards participants with PHQ-8 scores below 10, indicating no to mild depression. For instance, the total time allocated to interviews with participants scoring below 10 is 2,121.14 minutes ( ∼ similar-to \sim ∼ 35.35 hours), while participants scoring 10 or higher account for only 891.30 minutes ( ∼ similar-to \sim ∼ 14.86 hours). This imbalance underscores the necessity of careful handling during model development and evaluation to prevent bias towards the overrepresented class.
The dataset is divided into three subsets: Training, Testing, and Development, essential for the development and evaluation of predictive models for depression detection. The training split consists of 107 participants, categorized into depressed (D) and non-depressed (ND), with a total interview time of 454.00 minutes ( ∼ similar-to \sim ∼ 7.57 hours) for D participants and 1,160.22 minutes ( ∼ similar-to \sim ∼ 19.34 hours) for ND participants. The test split comprises 47 participants, with a total interview time of 198.92 minutes ( ∼ similar-to \sim ∼ 3.32 hours) for D participants and 598.28 minutes ( ∼ similar-to \sim ∼ 9.97 hours) for ND participants. The development split consists of 35 participants, with a total interview time of 238.38 minutes ( ∼ similar-to \sim ∼ 3.97 hours) for D participants and 362.64 minutes ( ∼ similar-to \sim ∼ 6.04 hours) for ND participants. In this study, we assess the performance of our models on the validation portion of the dataset, aligning our methodology with established practices in the literature.
Split | D Time (min) | ND Time (min) | Total Time (min) |
---|---|---|---|
Train | 454.00 | 1,160.22 | 1,614.22 |
Test | 198.92 | 598.28 | 797.20 |
Development | 238.38 | 362.64 | 601.02 |
Total | 891.30 | 2,121.14 | 3,012.44 |
Split | D Participants | ND Participants | Total Participants |
---|---|---|---|
Train | 30 | 77 | 107 |
Test | 12 | 35 | 47 |
Development | 12 | 23 | 35 |
Total | 54 | 135 | 189 |
It is important to note that the dataset contains certain known errors and special cases that need to be considered during analysis. Every file contains pre-interview interactions that must be excised to isolate the interview content. Certain sessions (e.g., 373 and 444) include lengthy interruptions, while others (e.g., 451, 458, and 480) lack the virtual agent’s transcriptions. Transcription and audio synchronization issues are present in sessions 318, 321, 341, and 362. Additionally, a labeling error was identified in the PHQ-8 scores, where interviews with scores of 10 or above were mistakenly labeled with a binary value of 0 instead of 1. The affected interviews are listed in Table III .
Participant ID | PHQ-8 Score | Incorrect Label |
320 | 11 | 0 |
325 | 10 | 0 |
335 | 12 | 0 |
344 | 11 | 0 |
352 | 10 | 0 |
356 | 10 | 0 |
380 | 10 | 0 |
386 | 11 | 0 |
409 | 10 | 0 |
413 | 10 | 0 |
418 | 10 | 0 |
422 | 12 | 0 |
433 | 10 | 0 |
459 | 16 | 0 |
Another concern is the gender distribution within the training split of the dataset, which is slightly male-biased with 59% (63) being men. Among these, only 13% (14) of the total male participants are categorized as “D”, while 16% (17) of the female participants are categorized as “D”.
In our study, we employ the Macro F1 Score as the primary evaluation metric, which offers a more robust performance measure in the context of imbalanced datasets, such as the DAIC-WOZ dataset. The Macro F1 Score is defined as the average of the F1 Scores of each class, calculated by Equation 2 .
(2) |
where Precision is the ratio of true positives to the sum of true positives and false positives, and Recall is the ratio of true positives to the sum of true positives and false negatives, averaged over all classes. Furthermore, we utilize a metric termed the Importance Factor (IF), as introduced by Ioannides et al. [ 26 ] , which is derived from the Density Attention (DA) weights in the attention module. The IF for each feature is calculated using Equation 3 .
(3) |
The IF values range from 0 to 1 (inclusively), with higher values denoting features of increased significance in the model’s decision-making process as shown by Ioannides et al. [ 26 ] . To visually depict the importance of features, we construct heatmaps based on the IF. These heatmaps are created by averaging the Density attention maps obtained during the validation phase and subsequently applying the IF metric as shown in Equation 4 .
(4) |
The resulting graphical representations serve to highlight the feature importance as determined by the model.
Model | F1 (ND) | F1 (D) | F1 (Avg.) | Number of Params |
---|---|---|---|---|
DepAudioNet ] | 0.700 | 0.520 | 0.610 | 280K |
DepAudioNet (Mel Spectrogram) ] | 0.740 | 0.539 | 0.634 | 280K |
FVTC-CNN ] | 0.460 | 0.820 | 0.640 | 19.1K |
DepAudioNet (Raw Audio) ] | 0.796 | 0.520 | 0.658 | 280K |
SpeechFormer ] | - | - | 0.694 | 33.21M |
DAAMAudioCNNLSTM ( ) | 0.792 | 0.615 | 0.694 | 280K |
DAAMAudioCNNLSTM ( ) | 0.815 | 0.643 | 0.702 | 280K |
DAAMAudioTransformer ( ) | 0.84 | 0.6 | 0.72 | 1.1M |
In Table IV , we present a benchmark comparison of various models for Speech Depression Detection, utilizing solely depression labels for training. Notably, both DAAMAudioCNNLSTM and DAAMAudioTransformer distinguish themselves through their performance metrics and architectural efficiencies.
DAAMAudioCNNLSTM, with 280K parameters, is particularly noteworthy for its lightweight architecture, which contrasts favorably with other models in the literature, such as SpeechFormer [ 14 ] , which utilizes 33M parameters. The low parameter count of DAAMAudioCNNLSTM results in a model that is more computationally efficient, facilitating faster training and inference times. This efficiency is advantageous in scenarios with limited computational resources, translating into reduced energy consumption and lower operational costs, making it a more sustainable choice for large-scale deployment, especially in mobile and edge computing environments where power and computational capabilities are constrained.
The DAAMAudioTransformer, on the other hand, while more parameter-heavy with 1.1M parameters, offers a more sophisticated approach to feature extraction and data processing. Its architecture integrates custom attention mechanisms with transformer encoder layers, enabling it to capture both local and global dependencies in audio data effectively. Despite its higher parameter count, the DAAMAudioTransformer remains significantly smaller than other state-of-the-art models like WavLM, which contains 316M parameters [ 40 ] .
When comparing performance metrics, DAAMAudioCNNLSTM achieved an F1 score of 0.815 for ND classifications and 0.643 for D classifications, leading to a macro F1 score of 0.702. This score underscores its strong ability to balance precision and recall across different categories. The DAAMAudioTransformer, however, slightly outperforms DAAMAudioCNNLSTM in the ND category, with an F1 score of 0.84 for ND classifications and 0.6 for D classifications, resulting in a higher macro F1 score of 0.72. This makes DAAMAudioTransformer particularly effective in detecting non-depressive states, which is a significant achievement considering its more complex architecture.
The lower parameter count in DAAMAudioCNNLSTM implies a reduced propensity for overfitting, adhering to the principle of Occam’s razor [ 41 ] . This enhances the model’s generalizability to unseen data, a critical factor for real-world applications where data diversity can be substantial. In contrast, while the DAAMAudioTransformer’s larger size does introduce more computational demands, it also allows for a more nuanced understanding of the input data, particularly in capturing a broader spectrum of frequency bins, which contributes to its superior performance in ND detection.
Head | Mean Offsets (Min, Max) | (Min, Max) |
---|---|---|
0 | (-0.04, -0.04) | ( , 1.59) |
1 | (-0.04, -0.04) | ( , 5.43) |
2 | (0.02, 0.02) | ( , 99.60) |
3 | (-0.03, -0.01) | ( , 33.64) |
Head | Mean Offsets (Min, Max) | (Min, Max) |
---|---|---|
0 | (0.02, 0.02) | ( , 5.29) |
1 | (-0.04, -0.04) | ( , 12.18) |
2 | (0.01, 0.03) | ( , 14.14) |
3 | (-0.01, 0.02) | ( , 19.00) |
Head | Mean Offsets (Min, Max) | (Min, Max) |
---|---|---|
0 | (0.0, 0.0) | (0.001346, 4.067) |
1 | (0.0, 0.0) | (0.003184, 3.139) |
2 | (0.0, 0.0) | (0.000101, 11.445) |
3 | (-0.01096, -0.01070) | (0.002957, 7.206) |
Both models employ attention mechanisms that are crucial for their performance in speech depression detection. DAAMAudioCNNLSTM utilizes a DAAM module that distributes focus across four attention heads, each operating on a subset of the 40 Mel frequency bins derived from the speech signal. The attention distribution is quantified by two parameters per head: the mean offset ( δ 𝛿 \delta italic_δ ) and the standard deviation ( σ 𝜎 \sigma italic_σ ). For DAAMAudioCNNLSTM, the mean offset values are confined within a narrow range ( δ ∈ [ − 0.04 , 0.02 ] 𝛿 0.04 0.02 \delta\in[-0.04,0.02] italic_δ ∈ [ - 0.04 , 0.02 ] ), indicating consistent adjustments to the attention weights across all heads.
DAAMAudioTransformer also displays a detailed attention mechanism. The analysis of its attention heads reveals that while the mean offsets are consistently centered at 0.0 for some heads, there is a broader variance across others, particularly in Heads 2 and 3. This broader variance allows for a wider spread of focus, making the model highly adaptable to changes in the audio spectrum. The variance ( σ 2 superscript 𝜎 2 \sigma^{2} italic_σ start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 2 end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) values range from [ 0.001346 , 4.067 ] 0.001346 4.067 [0.001346,4.067] [ 0.001346 , 4.067 ] for Head 0 to [ 0.000101 , 11.445 ] 0.000101 11.445 [0.000101,11.445] [ 0.000101 , 11.445 ] for Head 2, suggesting an adaptable focus that can adjust to varying audio features.
In terms of classification performance, the DAAMAudioTransformer model shows a balanced accuracy of 0.7065, with an accuracy of 0.913 for the ND category and 0.5 for the D category. The confusion matrix for DAAMAudioTransformer indicates that the model made fewer errors in predicting ND states compared to D states, highlighting its strength in recognizing non-depressive features. The model’s ability to handle both high and low frequencies effectively is further demonstrated by the IF analysis, where Bin 14 (141.74 Hz - 251.84 Hz), Bin 4 (856.36 Hz - 1059.93 Hz), and Bin 30 (2006.13 Hz - 2360.09 Hz) were assigned the highest importance, reflecting a comprehensive focus across a wide range of frequencies.
Both models were trained with 4 attention heads and 24 Gaussian distributions per head. The DAAMAudioCNNLSTM model primarily focuses on higher frequencies, particularly those associated with vocal energy and the naturalness of speech, such as the 2006.13 Hz - 2360.09 Hz range. This focus suggests its effectiveness in detecting subtle features in speech that contribute to a more natural and pleasant listening experience.
Conversely, the DAAMAudioTransformer targets a broader spectrum that includes both lower and mid-range frequencies, specifically focusing on the 141.74 Hz - 251.84 Hz range and the 856.36 Hz - 1059.93 Hz range. These frequencies are more central to the average male and female voice ranges, capturing essential prosodic elements and vocal characteristics that are critical for detecting emotional states like depression.
The emphasis on these specific frequency ranges is particularly significant in the context of Explainable AI (XAI). By identifying and analyzing which frequency bands are given priority by the model’s attention mechanism, researchers and clinicians can gain insights into the acoustic features that are most indicative of depressive symptoms. This level of interpretability is crucial for validating the model’s decisions and ensuring that it aligns with human understanding of speech patterns associated with depression.
For example, the DAAMAudioTransformer’s attention to the 141.74 Hz - 251.84 Hz range corresponds to fundamental frequencies often linked to the human voice’s core pitch, which can be altered in cases of depression. The attention to the 856.36 Hz - 1059.93 Hz range captures harmonics and other speech characteristics that contribute to the overall tonal quality of the voice, which may also be affected in depressive states. By focusing on these ranges, the DAAMAudioTransformer not only achieves high performance metrics but also provides a pathway for explainability, helping experts understand why certain predictions are made, thus making the model more trustworthy in clinical applications.
This broader focus likely contributes to its superior performance in detecting non-depressive states, as it allows the model to capture a wider array of vocal features that are indicative of normal emotional states. The ability to discern between these frequency bands and correlate them with depression-related features enhances the model’s robustness and its utility in real-world applications where interpretability and accuracy are paramount.
This work introduces two novel networks –DAAMAudioCNNLSTM and DAAMAudioTransformer—designed for the detection of depression directly from speech signals. DAAMAudioCNNLSTM combines a CNN-LSTM architecture with a lightweight Density Adaptive Attention Mechanism, achieving a state-of-the-art F1 macro score of 0.702 on the DAIC-WOZ dataset. Similarly, DAAMAudioTransformer leverages a transformer-based architecture with custom Density attention mechanisms, capturing both local and global dependencies in the audio data, resulting in a outperforming F1 macro score of 0.72 on the same Dataset. Importantly, both models achieve these results without relying on supplementary data labels beyond depression states.
Both DAAMAudioCNNLSTM and DAAMAudioTransformer excel in explainability, efficiency in processing speech signals, and transparency in their decision-making processes, making them strong candidates for clinical adoption. These models not only set new benchmarks for speech-based mental health assessment but also pave the way for future research into acoustic biomarkers of depression through explainable artificial intelligence. Their potential for clinical application highlights significant advancements in automated depression diagnostics and in the broader domain of speech-related health.
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COMMENTS
9 Good Attention Getters for Speech Introductions. If you followed the steps above, that means you've worked hard on your presentation. You've spent time and energy gathering information, structuring precisely, and creating engrossing slides. Keep your audience's attention away from their phones.
15 Powerful Attention Getters for Any Type of Speech
To use an anecdote as an attention-grabber, choose a story that is relevant to your topic and audience. The story should have a clear beginning, middle, and end, and it should illustrate a key point or lesson. Use vivid sensory details to bring the story to life, and practice telling the story out loud to refine your delivery.
Good Attention Getters for Speeches with 10+ Examples! - Orai
11 Best Attention Getters For a Captivating Speech
An attention-getter is the device a speaker uses at the beginning of a speech to capture an audience's interest and make them interested in the speech's topic. Typically, there are four things to consider in choosing a specific attention-getting device: Appropriateness or relevance to audience. Purpose of speech. Topic.
Typical Patterns for Speech Openings. Get the audience's attention-called a hook or a grabber. Establish rapport and tell the audience why you care about the topic of why you are credible to speak on the topic. Introduce the speech thesis/preview/good idea. Tell the audience why they should care about this topic.
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First, stories have a built-in structure that everyone recognizes and expects. Stories have a beginning, middle and end, and this built-in structure allows the audience and the speaker to immediately share this experience. Secondly, because this built-in structure, stories as attention getters lend themselves readily to a well- structured speech.
Here are what I believe are the four key elements of a successful speech hook, along with speech introduction examples. Keep in mind, they should occur as early in your speech as possible, so you tap into the critical first 60 seconds of a speech. What then does a good speech hook do? (1) It resonates with the audience.
The speech introduction is the first part of a speech and the first opportunity to grab the audience's attention. The speaker should state the topic, make it relatable to the audience, establish credibility and preview the main points. You should write or finalize your introduction at the end so that it reflects what you actually said.
6. a Good Story. 7. Quotes. To Wrap Up. The first few seconds of your speech will determine whether or not your audience will give you their attention. This is why you should begin with attention-grabbing openings. Attention-getter examples include stories, quotes, and questions that persuades an audience to listen. Conveying a powerful message ...
After that point, you'll be able to change those opinions about as easily as you can change a hamster into a ham sandwich. So here's how to be strong in the first 60 seconds of your speech. (2) Your opening sets the entire tone of your presentation (including whether you'll be interesting or not). (3) This is when you introduce your message and ...
Let's take a closer look at the most popular presentation hooks. 1. Tell a story. Telling a compelling story is a good way to start a presentation. Research shows that brain is hardwired for storytelling. Have you ever noticed how kids begin attentively listening to their parents after the words: "Once upon a time.".
26 Ways To Start a Speech and Capture People's Attention
Attention Getters. An attention getter is a tool used at the very beginning of a presentation with the intention of engaging one's audience. There are several different types of effective attention getters, so it's up to the speaker to determine the best fit for their presentation based on a variety of factors.
how to write an introduction. The attention grabber, also known as a "hook", is the first sentence that the reader will see, and its purpose is to grab the reader's attention. A few common attention grabbers are: - A short, meaningful quote that relates to your topic. - Think of a quote that interested you during your research.
A speech hook generator is a tool that generates creative and engaging ideas for speeches. It is designed to help users create attention-grabbing hooks that capture the audience's attention and keep them engaged throughout the speech. Speech hook tips: Use a personal story or anecdote that relates to the topic of the speech
Here are my top 10 recommended attention-grabbing techniques. Command the stage. You can recognise a great speaker in micro-seconds by the way they occupy their physical space. A confident stroll to the microphone, a warm smile taking in the entire audience, and brief but telling pause before your first carefully crafted utterance will have ...
In the following section, you'll find the best attention grabber examples for speeches. Our examples will help you effectively get your audience's attention and conduct a great presentation. Attention-Getter Examples for Self-Introduction Speech. Wondering how to create a good hook for a speech about yourself? Then you're at the right place.
Use attention grabbers for any presentation that is 1 minute or longer. You would not want to use this with a 30-second elevator speech that is designed only to answer the question, "What do you do?" When you have a longer period of time to do a self-introduction, however, you can use an attention grabber. Common Mistakes Speakers Make with ...
An attention-grabber is a 'startling statement' in the beginning of your work that catches your reader's desire to continue reading. It's the intro of a writing piece where that "gotcha" moment occurs. Some writers are skilled in writing headlines that are attention grabbers. So, if you are learning how to be a better writer, you ...
The introduction of the Density Adaptive Attention Mechanism (DAAM) marked a pivotal development in this domain. Ioannides et al. (2024) [ 26 ] proposed the multi-head DAAM within a Density Adaptive Transformer (DAT), presenting a probabilistic attention framework that integrates learnable mean offset and variance parameters within a multi ...