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Texas ISD School Guide
Texas ISD School Guide







Short Stories for Teachers

Speech Introductions - How To Introduce Someone
By:Alex Thornton

You may be asked to introduce a fellow speaker. The most important distinction between an introduction and a speech that you have prepared is that an introduction should not be read from notes. There is nothing more impersonal than reading the background or biography of a fellow speaker word for word.
There are several components to a warm introduction. First of all, you want to provide some background about the speaker's credentials. Essentially, you are trying to establish that this speaker is a credible authority on that particular topic. It is important to only focus on the credentials that are relevant to the topic at hand. Otherwise you may be bogged down with a five-minute biography which is not necessary. For example, if you were introducing a politician who was going to speak about human rights violations in Africa, you would want to focus on the individual's credentials that are relevant to the topic at hand. The politician may have had a 20 year career as a software engineer for Microsoft. She may have only worked for the United Nations at an International Criminal Tribunal for one year. Nonetheless, it is her experience at the UN that is relevant and should be focused on in the introduction.

You will be required to give the speaker's name, title and perhaps any university degrees that they have attained. If the speaker has several university degrees, it is often suffice to only mention the highest degree. The Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English Literature from Fordham is not as important as the PhD in neuroscience when speaking about a scientific topic.

You also want to relate the speaker's experience and credentials to the speech topic. For example, rather than broadly mentioning that the speaker worked for the UN for one year, you should specifically mention the human rights trials that the speaker worked on.

If you know the speaker personally it always helps if you can recount a short three or four sentence story about your personal experience in dealing with the speaker. How did you meet the speaker? What were your first impressions? Any personal tidbit can give “color” to an introduction. This is no different than a personal introduction of a friend at a cocktail party. A warm introduction arouses curiosity and gives the other person some conversation pieces.
At the end of the introduction simply state “it is now my pleasure to present John Doe.”

An introduction must be brief. A 90 second introduction would be sufficient even for the president of the United States. The speaker is in the limelight. It is a major faux pas to steal the spotlight from the speaker.

Alexander Thornton is a professional speechwriter who can help you learn more about delivering a dynamite speech. If you need help with a particular type of speech such as a wedding or birthday speech you can browse our speech templates and presentation tips at www.speeches-toasts.com If you are looking for more public speaking ideas you can learn dozens of tips at www.newrulesofpublicspeaking.com.






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