http://tc.eserver.org/authors/Van_De_Mieroop,_Dorien,_Jaap_de_Jong_and_Bas_Andeweg A bibliography of works by Van De Mieroop, Dorien, Jaap de Jong and Bas Andeweg in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Van_De_Mieroop,_Dorien,_Jaap_de_Jong_and_Bas_Andeweg http://tc.eserver.org/31021.html http://tc.eserver.org/31021.html This article investigates the introductions of 40 professional speeches from a rhetorical perspective to address the problems audiences seem to have with presentations about engineering. The authors use an exordial model that they derived from classical manuals on rhetoric. This model enumerates and groups rhetorical exordial techniques into 3 main functions: attentum, benevolum, and docilem . The study shows that rhetorically complete introductions are rare. Most of the speakers seemed to prefer a content-oriented, direct approach (docilem) in their introductions and seldom used techniques to garner the audience's attention (attentum) or sympathy (benevolum). The article concludes with an evaluation of the exordial model and a discussion of the study's pedagogical implications.