Visual  Device one or not.’ (I guess the moral of the story is: ‘Keep a sharp watch on your public affairs!’ Shifting now to public affairs activities. . . .)” Here is one other important guideline regarding humor: If you cannot tell an anecdote in mixed company, do not tell it at all. Rhetorical  Questions A rhetorical question is one that does not require a verbal response from the audience. It is asked merely to get the audience to think. This method, when properly used,  should  make  your  audience  want  to  hear  the answers to these questions. For greatest effect, rhetorical questions should be used in groups of three or more. For example: “How many of you here today truly understand the meaning of the term  sea  power? “How  many  of  you  are  familiar  with  the tremendous role that the sea has played in our nation’s  growth  and  development? “How important is sea power to us in the 1990s? “(Never in our history has sea power been so vital to our security as it is today, This importance will increase and the term sea power will take on new meanings. . . .)” Striking Facts or Statistics Using a startling fact or statistic is a good way to “jar” your audience into wanting to hear you clarify it. The  unexpected  always  arouses  attention.  For  example: “Four  hundred  and  fifty  aircraft  from  six carriers   churned   out   140   sorties   of   combat capability  each  day  during  DESERT  STORM, one-third of all the air missions flown during the war. Add to that more than 280 precision Tomahawk cruise missile launches and you just begin to see the complexity  of  applying  Navy-Marine  Corps  air power in DESERT STORM. Combine that with Air Force and allied air, and you have 3,000 pounds of bombs falling on the enemy every minute through the 42-day war. Now, that will rattle any army. (What about the Iraqi army? What was the war like from its perspective? Tonight we will take a look at the   Iraqi   army   during   DESERT   STORM– specifically,  the  many  logistical  problems  they encountered.)” A visual aid that arouses curiosity and is colorful and interesting can be another effective way to open a talk. For example: The  speaker  places  an  alarm  clock  on  the lectern.  It  quickly  goes  off.  Shutting  it  off,  the speaker states, “Now is the time to do something about  pollution.  (The  threat  to  our  natural environment is growing every day. It is about time we woke up to this fact and started taking a few corrective measures. For the next few minutes, I would   like   to   discuss   certain   aspects   of environmental pollution in the United States. . . .)” The  following  is  another  example  of  relating  a visual   device   to   a   more   abstract   and   complex organization: The speaker holds up a bottle of pills and says, “I have in my hand a bottle of pills. They are aspirin for  headaches,  ibuprofen  for  inflammation  and assorted aches and pains and various other kinds of pain relievers. However, they all have one thing in common: regardless of the claims, they are all designed to relieve pain. (I would like to speak to you for a few minutes about another pain reliever, WHO,  the  World  Health  Organization,  a  specialty agency of the United Nations. Specifically, I will explain  how  two  functions  of  WHO,  fieldwork  and technical  assistance,  contribute  to  the  cause  of worldwide   health.)” Remember,  the  first  portion  of  the  introduction  is the attention step. It should be related to the subject and should be geared to arouse audience interest. When condensing the above attention step concerning the United Nations into “key words,” the attention steps would appear on your key word outline described in figure  6-1  as  follows: For  the  subject:  THE  UNITED  NATIONS A.  Attention  Step-analogy-pills  and  WHO-both cure pain. LIMITED  OBJECTIVE Since  the  attention  step  is  the  first  part  of  the introduction,  the  limited  objective  is  usually  determined before any work is started on your keyword outline. The reason is that the limited objective is, very simply, a one sentence statement of what you are going to cover in your presentation. Before you can come up with an attention step that leads into the limited objective, you 6-8