Introduction Speech

Objectives

1. To develop interviewing skills, and reduce uncertainty.

2. To prepare and organize an introduction.

3. To observe how others introduce one another using technology.

4. To learn about our classmates.

5. To create a visual aid.

6. To Have Fun!

Instructions: Everyone in class will have an interview partner. You will interview your partner and prepare, organize, and introduce your partner. The goal is to introduce your classmate to our class. To help us better understand our classmate you will include some type of visual representation of your partner by using a visual aid in your introduction.

Gathering the Information: An Interview
You will open up a biosheet on the computer and fill it out completely--well as best you can. I sent you a biosheet attached with the first email I sent. You can find one online also: The BioSheet is in MS Word Format. Once you fill out the BioSheet you will save it to your computer. Once you save it to your computer or to a disk you can then send it to your interview partner as an attachment. First you will exchange bio-sheets with a classmate/interview partner that I will designate. Then you will take the bio-sheet that you receive from your interview partner and develop an interview schedule to interview your classmate. You may use some of the information from the bio-sheet to develop a list of questions to interview a classmate in order to reduce uncertainty, and to become familiar with the interviewing process.

You will interview your classmate and be interviewed by your classmate and introduce each other to our class. The purpose of the interview is to find out unique and interesting information about that individual so that you can introduce him or her to the class. Your partner will interview you for the same purpose. Since you will be introducing each other to the class, finding out about your partner's hometown, major field of study, hobbies and interests, and similar kinds of information will be important. In addition, you will want to find out something unique about that individual. Your goal is to go beyond a list of information and provide a unique and interesting description of your classmate. Your interview schedule will include an opening, a body with at least 10 open questions, and a closing. You will record the information (field notes) gathered from your interview with your classmate and develop an outline based on the information you would like to share with our class about the person you interviewed. You will then share the information with our class in the form of a memorable presentation. You will also include a Visual Aid in your introduction. This could be a picture, clipart, a drawing, painting, collage, and/or some form of visual representation of the person you will be introducing.

Sample Interview Schedule Template There is a sample interview schedule online—click the link above. The template is in Microsoft Word and you can use it for your own interview schedule by putting in your own questions and tailoring the opening and closing to fit you, your interviewee and your mode of interviewing. This will save you some time and all you have to do is fill in your own information and questions.

Organizing the Information After the interviews are complete, organize your information from the particulars (name, major, hometown, etc.) to the general description of something unique, special, or important about the individual you are introducing. Remember to include that person's name in your opening and closing of the introduction.

Visual Aid The visual aid you use is dependant on your creativity and how much fun you want to have with this. You can use a digital picture that your partner send you, a drawing of your own, a collage, a painting, a pastel, or anything that you feel will visually represent the person you are introducing. You don't have to be an artist a well dressed stick figure may work. You could use a PowerPoint presentation. Anything that is visual and will help us understand your classmate better will work.

Delivering the Introduction You can present your introduction in several forms: It could be an essay with an introduction, body, and conclusion. You could include a PowerPoint presentation. You could just use a PowerPoint presentation to introduce your partner. You will also need an introduction, body and a conclusion. You could make a Web Page to introduce your partner and send our class the link to the page or send me the page and I can put it up on our server. Be creative, and have fun. As you prepare your introduction, remember that you are asking your classmates to greet or welcome the uniqueness of your partner. You want your classmates to remember his or her name and something particular and /or unique about that individual--So your energy and your enthusiasm must come across in your introduction. An enthusiastic introduction will evoke an enthusiastic reception, of your partner, with your audience. Your enthusiasm builds ours. So build our enthusiasm for our classmate in your introduction. Have fun!!