Communication Assessment & Learning Lab
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Knowing the Function of Jokes and Stories  

1. Helps your audience accept you.
2. Establishes a connection between yourself and the audience.
3. Establishes a connection between your audience and the speech topic.
4. Gains and maintains the audience’s attention.
5. Gets your information across creatively.
6. Emphasizes your main points (e.g., Announce your examples by saying, "Now I will offer you a quick example of what I mean" to gain the audience’s attention.).
7. Shows that you are fun and enjoy your topic.
8. Helps the audience accept and like you.
9. Enables you to relate to your audience by telling stories that involve real people because people enjoy personal experiences and stories that they can relate to.
10. Paints a picture in the mind of your audience that directly relates to your topic.