THIS QUESTION IS AIMED AT SPEECH WRITERS/PUBLIC SPEAKERS and VERY KIND, HELPFUL PEOPLE! ! :D?

[Aicha]

Ok, so I have been selected for the finals of a public speaking competition-its in front of approx 400 people!!!

Its tommorow and I have all the "pieces of the puzzle" , I just need to "fit the jigsaw together" , meaning I need your help!!!

The topic for my speech is: "Do parents understand how tough it is to be a child these days? "

So please can you think of an introduction for me that will really blow the audience away? I'm just so stuck and I REALLY need help asap!

I am being judged on:
Communication
Content
Diction and clarity
Engaging the audience... etcetera

Honestly I really really do apreciate as much help as possible!! Thank you so much!!

[Alan]

Well, a good intro should really capture the audience's attention, and a good way to do that is with statistics or facts. I haven't done any research on this topic, but you may want to start off with something like:


kids these days are living in a changing world like no previous generation has ever witnessed. In a recent survey, Blah Blah percent of kids are recorded as feeling symptoms of depression as they struggle to fit in at school. The social media has put an unbearable burden on the kids of today to appear cool in front of their fellow classmates.. Blah blah blah, then you hit them with your awesome thesis statement and move on from there.

Edit: Actually, you should probably define the age of the children you are referring to. Maybe high school? but even middle school aged kids are starting to have these same problems.