INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION ASSIGNMENT
Instructions: This assignment is designed to heighten your awareness of the variety of
ways a speaker can attract an audience’s attention at the beginning of a speech and
make a speech memorable through its concluding device. In the table below, click on
the link for the speech, watch the first 1-2 minutes of each speech, and then the
conclusions, beginning at the times noted. Listed below are types of attention-getters
and concluding devices. In the table, fill in the blank cells with the type of attentiongetter and concluding device that each speech uses. Note that several answers may be
possible and that some concluding sections begin with their concluding device while
others end with it. When you have finished, compare your answers to the Saylor
Foundation’s “Introductions and Conclusions Answer Key.”

Types of attention-getters: Reference to Subject, Reference to Audience,
Reference to Occasion, Quotation, Reference to Current Events, Historical
Reference, Anecdote, Startling Statement, Question, Humor, Personal
Reference, Visual Aids, Creative Techniques

Types of concluding devices: Challenge, Quotation, Summary, Visualizing the
Future, Appeal for Action, Inspiration, Advice, Proposing a Solution, Question,
Reference to Audience, Humor, Re-use Introduction Device
(Hyperlinked) Speeches
Type of
Attention-Getter
Type of
Concluding Device
Informative Speech: "Night
Terrors"
Conclusion begins at 6:29
Informative Speech:
"Money Laundering"
Conclusion begins at 8:35
Sample Informative
Speech: “Acupuncture”
Conclusion begins at 6:22
Informative Speech:
"Piezoelectricity"
Conclusion begins at 7:26
Informative Speech: "What
is Art?"
Conclusion begins at 7:16
Informative Speech: "The
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Adverse Health Effects of
Too Much Sugar"
Conclusion begins at 6:20
Informative Speech: "The
Smell of Cancer"
Conclusion begins at 8:19
Sample Informative
Speech: “Tornados”
Conclusion begins at 10:25
Another Sample Informative
Speech: “The Great Wall of
China”
Conclusion begins at 4:18
Sample Speech #4:
“Multicultural, Multilingual”
Conclusion begins at 6:40
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Saylor URL: www.saylor.org/comm101 Unit 9
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