Assignment: Infant Death Syndrome,”Assignment: Infant Death SyndromeAssignment: Infant Death SyndromeAssignment: Infant Death SyndromeIf your audience is linguistically diverse or composed primarily of listeners whose first language is not English, you may want to choose an introduction strategy other than humor. Because much humor is created by verbal plays on words, people who do not speak English as their native language may not perceive the humor in an anecdote or quip that you intended to be funny. And humor rarely translates well. Former President Jimmy Carter recalls speaking at a university near Kyoto, Japan, and being startled by unexpectedly hearty laughter in response to a short humorous an- ecdote he related. When he later asked his interpreter how he had translated the story so successfully, the interpreter finally admitted sheepishly, “I told them, ‘President Carter has just told a funny story. Everyone laugh.’”13Just as certain audiences may preclude your use of a humorous introduction, so may certain subjects—for example, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and rape. Used with discretion, however, humor can provide a lively, interesting, and appropriate in- troduction for many speeches.Questions Remember the pet peeves listed at the beginning of this chapter? Another pet peeve for some is beginning a speech with a question (“How many of you . . . ?”). The prob- lem is not so much the strategy itself but the lack of mindfulness in the “How many of you?” phrasing. A thoughtful rhetorical question, on the other hand, can prompt your listeners’ mental participation in your introduction, getting their attention and giving them a reason to listen. President and CEO of Coca-Cola, Muhtar Kent, began a speech to investors and financial analysts by asking,Are we ready for tomorrow, today?14rhetorical question A question intended to provoke thought, rather than elicit an answerCONSIDER THEAUDIENCEEffective Introductions 191And Richard opened his speech on teenage suicide with this simple question:Have you ever been alone in the dark?15To turn questions into an effective introduction, the speaker must do more than just think of good questions to ask. He or she must also deliver the questions effec- tively. Effective delivery includes pausing briefly after each question so that audience members have time to try to formulate a mental answer. After all, the main advantage of questions as an introductory technique is to hook the audience by getting them to engage in a mental dialogue with you. The speaker who delivers questions most ef- fectively is also one who may look down at notes while he or she asks the question, but who then reestablishes eye contact with listeners. As we discuss in Chapter 11, eye contact signals that the communication channel is open. Establishing eye contact with your audience following a question gives them additional motivation to think of an answer.Although it does not happen frequently, an audience member may blurt out a vocal response to a question intended to be rhetorical. If you plan to open a speech with a rhetorical question, be aware of this possibility, and plan appropriate reac- tions. If the topic is light, a Jay Leno–style return quip may win over the audience and turn the interruption into an asset. If the topic is more serious or the interruption is inappropriate or contrary to what you expected, you might reply with something like “Perhaps most of the rest of you were thinking . . . ,” or you might answer the ques- tion yourself.Questions are commonly combined with another method of introduction. For example, University of Akron president Luis Proenza opened a speech on new strate- gies for success in higher education with a question followed by a startling statistic:What if the airplane had advanced as far and as fast as the computer? Today’s jumbo jet would carry one hundred thousand passengers, and it would fly them to the moon and back for $12.50 at 23,400 miles per hour.16Either by themselves or in tandem with another method of introduction, ques- tions can provide effective openings for speeches. Like quotations, however, questions can also be crutches for speakers who have not taken the time to explore other op- tions. Unless you can think of a truly engaging question, work to develop one of the other introduction strategies.References to Historical Events What American is not familiar with the opening line of Lincoln’s classic Gettysburg Address: “Four score 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”? Note that Lincoln’s famous opening sentence refers to the historical context of his speech. You, too, may find a way to begin a speech by making a refer- ence to a historic event.Every day is the anniversary of something. Perhaps you could begin a speech by drawing a relationship between a historic event that happened on this day and your speech objective.You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker

failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

• The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

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