Thomas Paralegal

You involve listeners when you connect them with your message. One of the most frequently used involvement techniques is to offer sincere, well-deserved compliments.
Does the group, the location, the occasion, or an audience member merit praise?
People like to hear good things about themselves and their community. This technique is often used in formal speeches when custom requires a speaker to make such acknowledgments before moving into the actual presentation.
These introductory remarks can be very brief, as illustrated by the opening words of President John F. Kennedy in a speech given at a White House dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners:
I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.
With this elegant tribute, Kennedy was able to honor his guests without embarrassing them or going overboard with praise. His witty reference to the genius of Thomas Jefferson also paid tribute to the past.
Involvement is especially important if your topic seems distant from the audience’s immediate concerns or experiences. A student at Kutztown University wanted to give an informative speech on the Black Plague of the Middle Ages. He knew that he had to do something dramatic to involve his audience from the outset in order to make the topic interesting and relevant. Here is how he handled it.’
As the students entered the classroom, a confederate gave each a card containing the name of a profession, such as clergyman, sailor, farmer, merchant. The number of cards for each profession was proportional to that profession’s representation in European society at the time of the plague. When the student’s name was called, he entered from the back of the room wearing an over sized black sweatshirt, hood up, cinched around the waist with a length of sash cord. He opened with a rhetorical question, “If the Black Plague were to strike Kutztown today, given the same medical limitations, how many do you think would survive?” He then asked everyone to stand, and after a pause, continued as follows: “Will all of you with a card reading ‘physician’ please sit down. In tending the sick, you have come in contact with the disease and have become one of its victims.” A student took her seat. He followed with “Will all of those identified as ‘sailor’ or ‘merchant’ please be seated. You have traveled about the country or the world and so have also come close to other victims and have sealed your fate.” Five more students sat down. He then called out the clergy, city dwellers, dock workers, soldiers, and others who would have been exposed to the disease.
By the time he finished reading the list of those most susceptible to the disease, only three of his twenty-five classmates were left standing. He then explained that if the plague were to strike Kutztown the way it did many cities during the Middle Ages, those three would have the awesome task of rebuilding society.
Your introduction need not be this dramatic to involve the audience. If you can demonstrate that what you are talking about matters to the audience, your speech will be more effective. You also can involve your listeners by relating your topic to their motivations or attitudes and by using inclusive pronouns such as we and our.