When a speaker walks out on a platform and faces the audience he at once attracts the spontaneous attention of practically everybody in that audience. This much is easy. The problem that now confronts the speaker is to begin his speech by saying something which will turn this spontaneous attention into fixed attention. By fixed attention is meant such attention as willingly follows the train of thought which the speaker has to present. If the introduction is properly prepared this fixed attention will be the result, but if the introduction is not properly prepared the natural attention of the audience quickly degenerates into what we may term Assumed Attention.
B. Assumed attention.
This kind of attention is not given willingly, but is assumed by the audience merely because it happens that the speaker has placed himself on the platform and there is nothing left for the audience to do but to listen to him. Now this assumed attention on the part of the listeners may pass through several degrees of intensity, depending upon the kind of audience and the degree of the lack of skill with which the speaker proceeds. At first the speaker is treated to the ordinary manner of any audience not especially interested in what is being said. This attitude quickly degenerates into indifference, a point at which the audience does not care what the speaker says or whether he says anything. Such a condition as this often continues throughout an entire speech, and the sooner the speaker realizes that fact and brings his argument to an end the better. The next stage of assumed attention is that of abstraction. At this stage the speaker does not even receive the indifferent attention of the listeners. The mind of each individual before him wanders off to some subject in which he is interested personally and the speaker might just as well be talking to empty seats. Usually this is the least desirable stage of assumed attention. Under some conditions, however, it is possible to reach a still less desirable stage, which we may call, for the purpose of making an exhaustive division of this subject, incivility. At this stage the individuals of the audience manifest their displeasure by talking among themselves, and making uncomplimentary remarks about the speaker.
The above discussion will serve to make clear the kind of attention the speaker must attempt to create by means of his introduction. We shall now consider some of the methods by which the proper kind of attention may be secured.
2. Methods of securing proper attention.
A. Immediate statement of purpose.
One of the most effective methods of securing the natural attention of the audience is by an immediate statement of the purpose of the discourse. It will be remembered that in the preparation of the brief the student was cautioned against the evils of a long introduction. He will also recall that the introduction was to contain only the main issues and the essential steps in the analysis by which they were reached. This same brevity should characterize the introduction to the argument. The audience is naturally interested in what the speaker believes and the reasons for his arguing in favor of or against the proposition. Therefore he may gain the fixed attention by stating at once just what he purposes to do. An extreme form of this kind of introduction would be as follows:
“There are two reasons why we maintain that the Federal Government should levy a progressive inheritance tax; first, because the national government needs it as a source of revenue; and second, because it will remedy the evils resulting from ‘swollen’ fortunes.
“The Federal Government needs this tax as a source of revenue because, etc.”
This introduction is an immediate statement of the purpose of the argument and will secure the attention of either reader or hearer.