Your first planned speech this quarter is an Introductory Speech, but instead of introducing yourself, you will be introducing a classmate.  The goal is to tell us a little more about one of our classmates than just their name, which is all we get to learn in the Name Game.  The length requirement for this speech is 2-4 minutes, and it should be delivered extemporaneously, which means from brief note cards.  You are not to simply read the speech - you are to deliver it. 

In order to learn more about the classmate that you partner up with for this speech, you will need to interview him/her.  There are some sample interview questions attached to this assignment sheet, but you can feel free to ask your own questions as well.  While you can certainly tell us some basic information about your partner, such as his/her hometown, academic major, hobbies/interests, etc., these kinds of speeches become much more interesting when you ask other questions or teach us something about that person that we would not normally expect.  I am sure that you can come up with some more creative questions beyond the ones I've provided for you, and that will be important because creativity WILL account for some of your grade. 

As you ask questions and start to learn more about your partner, you will then need to decide what information you actually want to include, put that information into main points, and then add an introduction and conclusion to round out the speech.  As you learned in Chapter 4, there are some important steps to take in preparing your speech. 

First, focus your topic.  Remember that as the book explains, for a speech of this length, 2-3 main points should suffice.  While you might learn a lot about your partner through the interview process, you need to create a focus for your speech, and a rambling of scattered facts will not create that focus.  It is often helpful to find some kind of theme to tie your main points together as you organize the information you receive into main points.  This is where you get the chance to be creative.  You will watch a couple of sample speeches in class, and as you'll see, a theme can really add some creativity to the content of a speech.  Also, don't forget to try to make your main points stand out by using transitions. 

Once you have the body of the speech organized and planned, you must also add your introduction and conclusion.  With your introduction, you must first gain the attention of your audience, then transition into announcing the topic, which of course will be your partner's name.  Providing a brief preview statement of the main points you will cover is also a good idea, especially because it acts as a transition statement into the body of the speech.  For the conclusion, you first need to signal the end with phrases like "In conclusion," "To end," "Now that you know," etc.  You also need to reinforce the central idea.  In addition, your book recommends trying to end on a dramatic, clever, or thought-provoking note. 

Beyond the content of the speech, delivery will also be assessed.  As previously mentioned, you are to deliver the speech, not read it, which means that you must have good eye contact and a conversational tone as you speak.  You can use brief note cards or a brief outline, but do not put every word of your speech on your notes or you will end up losing eye contact.  To become comfortable with the information so that you can deliver it without having word for word notes, you must practice, practice, practice!  As you practice, also work on using your voice as expressively as you would in normal conversation.        

Introductory Speech Sample Interview Questions

Basic information:

Name, Family, Academic major, Work/Career, Interests

Additional questions you may want to ask:

What was the last good movie you saw? Why was it good?

What was the last good book you read? Why was it good?

What is your favorite type of music? Why?

What made you decide to go to college?

Why did you choose Baker?

What inspired you to choose the program you're studying at Baker?

What is your most/least enjoyable part of going to college?

What would you like to be doing five years from now? 10 years?

If you could go back in time, where and when would you live? Why?

If you could produce your own television talk show, what would be the subject of the discussion? Why?

If you could talk to any person (alive or dead), to whom would you speak? What would you talk about? Why did you choose this person?

If you were granted 3 wishes, what would they be?  Why?