An intriguing or startling statement is an excellent way to draw your audience in with:

a. the introduction and the conclusion

During class, Ben was tapping his pen on his desk. This was preventing Michelle from paying attention to what the professor was saying. Ben's pen tapping is an example of an environmental distraction.

a. True b. False

All of the following are associated with competent conversational skills EXCEPT

a. asking questions about the environment. b. crediting the source of ideas. c. maintaining conversational coherence. d. speaking at length about minutiae unrelated to the topic of discussion. e . indicating closure with "exit lines."