These are 1.To catch the audience’s interest and attention, 2. To turn a broad topic into a specific one, and 3. To communicate the essential main idea or message of the speech.

A solid introduction - as detailed in presentation tips for public speaking - should include all 3 of these components, and generally in that order. A catchy opening could be a quote, a story, a joke, a question, a problem needing solving, a statistic, or anything else you can think of that will draw your listener in. However you open your introduction, be sure that it leads smoothly and naturally into the subject matter of your speech, and specifically to your message or main idea.

Next, to move from the general to the specific, from the broad topic to the narrow main ideas, consider starting with some background information on the subject of your speech, setting the stage for the message to come.