Attention getting strategy

Tactics

Examples

Surprising or little-known fact

Did you know that eating blueberries can actually make you smarter by boosting neurotransmitters in your brain?

Illustration (story)

In 1982, Jane Doe was raped at gunpoint in her apartment. Three weeks after the incident, Ms. Holmes identified her offender as he walked down the street, and she then notified the New York police while her boyfriend subdued the man. After 45 minutes of questioning, Manuel Aryee, the accused assailant, was released a free man.

Mystery, promise to disclose it

Why do Russian bears walk in the streets? Today I’ll open your eyes on cultural peculiarities of …

Quotation

Oscar Wilde once said, "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much”.

Comparison (contrast)

Unusual fact

The average person changes career five times during their lifetime.

"There's a disease lurking in this country. A disease that quietly strikes one American teenager every 30 seconds--over one million a year. A disease that could be controlled . . . hasn't been; a disease that could be eliminated. . . isn't. It will affect 40 percent of today's 14-year-olds at least once before they reach 20. It's not contagious, not incurable; but once you catch it-you'll suffer from its effects for the rest of your life. What is it? The disease is teenage pregnancy."

Sayings, proverbs

Choice

Or…or, maybe this way …and maybe…, is there a unique solution?

Provocative statement

The United States should control its population growth by imposing fines on parents who have more than one child.

Humor (joke, anecdote)

I was driving home from work on a cold, rainy day when I saw a scrawny cat by the side of the road. Her ribs were sticking out under her filthy, matted fur; she was clearly starving. I made the split-second decision to find a home for this cat, pulled over, lifted her up into the passenger seat, and began a journey that would change my life in ways I never could have imagined.

Make a case for your topic's relevance to the reader

Genetically modified foods are filling grocery stores all over the country; they are unavoidable at this point. If you've eaten something today, you've eaten something genetically modified today.

Take a stand against something

The hazing rituals of this university's fraternities and sororities are getting worse, not better.

Stake a position for yourself within an ongoing debate

Corporate culture is evolving toward workspaces that encourage collaboration, such as open floor plans and inviting communal areas. Our company has resisted that trend. We still have an old-school lineup of offices with closed doors surrounding a honeycomb of high-walled cubicles, and guess what—the employees never mingle! I believe it is time to give the new workplace order a chance.

Question

When was the last time you donated money to charity?

Question-countermove

So what rules our company when we do the step? You know it, I know it. It’s the desire to win and be number 1 in the market.

Identification with the audience

Draw on something you and the audience have in common: experience, values, goals, education, children, job, etc.

Words:

positive words good, effective (our effective cooperation), professional, our boys, people, young men, We are here to discuss; It is the change we need;

Uniting words:union, integrated, all, common, the same, share something, we, you and I, we together, So do I, like you.

Curiosity

"This crop is the number two cash crop in the state of Kansas. This crop's value per bushel is more than soybean, corn and wheat's values combined. Many have seen this crop as an answer to their problems. This crop has saved many family farms. This crop is also viewed as evil by many others. There are many farmers who would rather burn this crop than see what its evil effects could do to their families. This crop is illegal. Growing this crop can land you in prison. This crop is marijuana."

Guided Imagery

"Close your eyes. Come one, everyone close your eyes. Now imagine you are weightless. There is no gravity and you find yourself suddenly out of your chair. Your friends are next to you and they're weightless too. You decide to investigate and push yourself out the school door, you float up past the flag pole, past the trees, you find yourself in the middle of a cloud. You keep moving upward….You find yourself in space, floating towards the stars and all of the sudden a group of asterorids race toward you. You try to avoid them, you weave in and out, they are getting thicker and thicker, one is headed your way (she takes out the cymbals and creates a loud clang, audience members jump out of their seats). That is how some people say the planet Earth was created…"

Vocabulary: you-address, Present tenses, verbs of perception, verbs of action.

Hypothetical example

You have spent most of the night studying for an exam. But when you get up the next morning ready to take the test, you go to your front door and it won't open. So you head to the back door, and it won't open either. You are stuck in the house. It would be pretty frustrating, wouldn't it? This is exactly the kind of frustration wheelchair-bound students feel when they can't get to class because of the snow.

Reference to a Recent News Event (An occurrence that has taken place within the past year or so can be considered recent. Even a particularly significant event that is slightly older than that, such as the 1989 removal of the Berlin Wall, can quality.)

The October 23rd, 2005, issue of the New York Times reported some startling facts. It reported the findings of the Gallup Poll Organization that there are about 500,000 incidents each year in which kids are kidnapped from one of their parents by the other parent. That's a half million parental kidnappings per year."

Reference to a Historical Event

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal"?