Reading Reflection 3 - Summary of Chapter 5

The most important part of a speech is the opening. Simply put, the opening of a speech is the hundred or so seconds that you have captured the audience’s attention, and determines how much longer you will hold that attention. If you misuse these hundred or so seconds, your speech is almost guaranteed to be a bad one; but if properly utilized, you’ve done half of the work of delivering a good speech. There are around five main types of openings: reference, question, humorous, dramatic, and novelty openings. Some openings will fit into none of those categories, while others may be a combination of them; nevertheless, most tend to fall into one of them. The most common opening are reference openings, and those simply reference something familiar to the audience and use it as an entrance for the rest of the speech. Question openings use either a real or rhetorical question as a sort of topic question for the listeners to keep in mind as the speaker delivers his speech. A fun, but slightly difficult, type of opening is the humorous one. In a humorous opening, the speaker has to utilize the right tone and timing to make a point related to the topic being discussed; furthermore, it can also be used as an icebreaker to lighten the mood. Dramatic openings use suspense and/or surprising statements to quickly capture the attention of the audience. Lastly, novelty openings utilize storytelling, product samples, or past historical events to explain or add relation of the topic to the audience. Whichever opening you choose is up to you, but it’s important to chose one that will properly fit the subject and the speaker’s style of speaking.

When you speak, you also want to make sure you include some variety in your speech. Essentially, your pitch, pace, pauses, volume, and word emphasis all work together to form variety and keep listeners engaged. Properly utilizing the five to eight different kinds of pitch will help you avoid sounding monotonous. This isn’t to be confused with the volume of one’s speech, that is more for dramatizing or riling up the audience. Likewise, maintaining a slow and relaxed pace allows the listeners to catch every word you speak. Furthermore, mastering pauses can add effect or give you time to consider the right answer for a question. Lastly, emphasizing certain words can draw attention to significant terms or sub-topics being discussed. Together, these five elements can take a seemingly boring speech and make it engaging and fun to listen to.