When Sophie Scott began speaking, I was immediately irritated by her style. Yes, she’s British and she’s got the fancy accent, but starting a speech with “Hi, I’m going to talk to you today about…” is simply the silliest way to begin a speech–the only reason that my attention was caught was that it was so juvenile. Although Scott misses the mark on her opening, she comes back strong with a comical anecdote about her parents and the first time that she remembers experiencing laughter. Personally, I would have simply started by jumping into her story and completely eliminated the robotic ‘I am giving a speech’ speech opener that everyone thinks is just so grand. Following this anecdote, Scott adds to her content a few audio clips of some hilarious laughs to engage her audience and argue her point that laughter is, in fact, contagious. Overall, Scott’s speech is effective. Her point is to explain the science behind laughter and she accomplishes this in a way that is enjoyable to follow.
Over and Out.
-Courtney