The eighth device you can use to start a speech is to surprise your audience with startling information about your topic. Often, startling statements come in the form of statistics and strange facts. The goal of a good startling statistic is that it surprises the audience and gets them engaged in your topic.

What is a startling statement?

Give an overview to the students of what a startling statement/attention getter is. (It is statement or fact that grabs the audience's attention in order to make them want to listen to your speech.)

What is a startling statement example?

Here is a sample introduction that includes a startling statement: There are an estimated fifty million dogs in the United States. That's approximately one dog for every two families in the country. In my speech today, I want to look at the ways dogs have become humans' “best friends.”