No matter how hard you prepare ahead of time, things may not go exactly as planned on the day of your speech. For speeches in the classroom, you may find that the projector for your visual aids is not available or that another student has the same topic as you. For speeches outside the classroom, you might learn that the audience will be much larger (or smaller) than you had anticipated, or that the amount of time available for your speech has been cut in half because a previous speaker has droned on for too long.
If something like this happens to you, don’t panic. Find another way to present your visual aids. Modify your introduction to mention the other stu- dent’s speech on your topic. Adjust your delivery to the changed audience size. If you find that you have less time than you had planned, condense your speech to its most essential points and present them in the time avail- able. Your listeners will sympathize with your predicament and will appreciate
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Adapting to the Audience 115
your regard for their time. This will more than compensate for your lost speaking time.
Finally, be sure to keep an eye out during your speech for audience feed- back. If your listeners are sitting forward in their chairs, looking at you with interest, and nodding their heads in approval, you can assume that things are going well. But suppose you find them frowning or responding with quiz- zical looks. Then you may need to back up and go over your point again, as in this example:
Brandi Michaels, an economics major, had worked diligently to make sure her speech on the U.S. trade deficit was not too technical for her classmates. She explained everything from the ground up, prepared two excellent visual aids, and practiced giving the speech to her best friend, a music major and self-confessed
“economics imbecile.”
On the day of Brandi’s speech, everything went well until she got to her second main point, when she noticed that several of her classmates seemed puz- zled by the relationship between international trade deficits and the U.S. cost of living. Knowing they would be lost for the rest of the speech if they didn’t under- stand that relationship, Brandi paused and said, “I can see some of you are con- fused by my explanation. Let me try it again from a different angle.”
As Brandi went through the material again, she could see her classmates nodding their heads in understanding. She could now go on with her speech, confident that her audience was ready to go with her.
Adapting to your audience is one of the most important keys to suc- cessful public speaking. Like other aspects of speechmaking, it is sometimes easier said than done. But once you master it, you’ll see that it pays divi- dends in more personal facets of your life—when you adapt to an audience of one.
In political campaigns, poll-taking helps the candidates keep track of public opinion. For classroom speeches, you can use an audience- analysis questionnaire to gauge the knowledge and opinions of your listeners.
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116 CHAPTER 6 Analyzing the Audience
Good speakers are audience-centered. They know that the aim of speechmaking is to gain a desired response from listeners. When working on your speeches, keep three questions in mind: To whom am I speaking? What do I want them to know, believe, or do as a result of my speech? What is the most effective way of
composing and presenting my speech to accomplish that aim?
To be an effective speaker, you should know something about the psychology of audiences. People are egocentric. They typically approach speeches with one question uppermost in mind: “Why is this impor-
tant to me ?” Therefore, you need to study your audience and adapt your speech to their beliefs and interests.
The first stage in learning about your audience is to identify demographic traits such as age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, group membership, and racial, ethnic, or cultural background. The sec- ond stage is identifying traits of the audience unique to the speaking situation. These traits include the size of the audience, attitudes influ- enced by the physical setting, and your listeners’ disposition toward the topic, toward you as a speaker, and toward the occasion.
For speeches outside the classroom, you can best get information about the audience by asking the person who invites you to speak. For classroom speeches, you can learn about your audience by observation and conversation. You also can circulate an audience-analysis questionnaire.
Once you complete the audience analysis, you must adapt your speech so it will be clear and convincing to your listeners. Put yourself in their place. Try to hear the speech as they will. Anticipate questions and objections, and try to answer them in advance. When you deliver your speech, keep an eye out for audience feedback and adjust your remarks in response.
Summary
believ com
si enc topic
audience-centeredness (98) identification (98)
egocentrism (100)
demographic audience analysis (101) stereotyping (101)
situational audience analysis (106) attitude (108)
fixed-alternative questions (111) scale questions (111)
open-ended questions (111)
Key Terms
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:
1. Why must a public speaker be audience-centered?
2. What does it mean to say that people are egocentric? What implications does the egocentrism of audiences hold for you as a public speaker?
3. What are the six demographic traits of audiences discussed in this chapter? Why is each important to audience analysis?
Review Questions
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Exercises for Critical Thinking 117
4. What is situational audience analysis? What factors do you need to consider in situational audience analysis?
5. How can you get information about an audience?
6. What are the three kinds of questions used in questionnaires? Why is it a good idea to use all three in audience analysis?
7. What methods can you use to adapt your speech to your audience before the speech? During the speech?
For further review, go to the LearnSmart study module for this chapter.
1. Advertisers are usually very conscious of their audience. Choose an issue of a popular magazine such as Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, or the like. From that issue select three advertisements to analyze. Try to determine the audience being appealed to in each advertisement, and analyze the appeals (verbal and visual) used to persuade buyers. How might the appeals differ if the ads were designed to persuade a different audience?
2. Below are three general speech topics and, for each, two hypothetical audiences to which a speech might be delivered. For each topic, write a brief paragraph explaining how you might adjust your specific purpose and message according to the demographic characteristics of the audience.
a. Topic: “Data Encryption”
Audience #1: 50% computer science majors, 30% physics majors, 20% fine arts majors
Audience #2: 40% business majors, 40% history majors, 20% computer science majors
b. Topic: “Sexual Assault: The Biggest Campus Crime”
Audience #1: 80% female, 20% male Audience #2: 80% male, 20% female
c. Topic: “The Fall of the Berlin Wall”
Audience #1: Day class: 70% age 18 to 22, 30% age 23 and over
Audience #2: Evening class: 50% age 35 and over, 30% age 23 to 34, 20% age 18 to 22
3. For your next speech, design and circulate among your classmates an audience- analysis questionnaire like that discussed on pages 111–113. Use all three kinds of questions explained in the text: fixed-alternative, scale, and open-ended.
After you have tabulated the results of the questionnaire, write an analysis explaining what the questionnaire reveals about your audience and what steps you must take to adapt your speech to the audience.
Exercises for Critical Thinking
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119
Advantages of Visual Aids Kinds of Visual Aids
Guidelines for Preparing Visual Aids
Guidelines for Presenting Visual Aids
Gathering Materials
7
Visual Aids Aids
Preparing
Presenting Using Your Own Knowledge and Experience
Doing Library Research Searching the Internet Interviewing
Tips for Doing Research
S uppose you are planning a trip to India. You want to know the major sites so you can work out an itinerary. You also need to know what things will cost, where the hostels are located, and how the train and bus systems work. How do you go about gathering all this information?
You can talk to people who have traveled in India and get ideas from them. You can consult guide- books. You can search the Internet for information. If you have traveled to South Asia before, you can draw on that experience. Since you want your trip to be a success, you gather as much information as you can before you leave.
Gathering materials for a speech is like gathering information for any project. There are many resources available if you take advantage of them. You can interview people with specialized knowledge. You can do research on the Internet or in the library. Sometimes you can use your- self as a resource—whenever you have personal experience or above- average knowledge about a subject. Let’s turn first to the resource of your own experience.
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120 CHAPTER 7 Gathering Materials
Using Your Own Knowledge and Experience
Everybody is an expert on something, whether it is video games, child care, or backpacking. As we saw in Chapter 5, we often speak best about subjects with which we are familiar. This is why many teachers encourage students to capitalize on their own knowledge and experience in developing speech topics.
When you choose a topic from your own experience, you may be tempted to depersonalize it by relying solely on facts and figures from books and the Internet. Such outside information is almost always necessary. But supple- menting it with the personal touch can really bring your speeches to life.
One student, afflicted with diabetes, chose to explain how a person can live with the disease on a daily basis. He cited statistics on the incidence of diabetes in the United States, identified symptoms of the disease, and explained how it is treated. Along the way, he illustrated his points by talking about his personal experiences. Here is part of what he said:
Being a diabetic presents a challenge one cannot afford to lose. On a personal note, I have tried not to let my diabetes affect my lifestyle. Last year, I spent nine months traveling in Central and South America. The trip was very memorable, but I had one particularly frightening experience that quickly makes you realize just how vulnerable a diabetic is. On the fifth day of a two-week excursion down the Amazon River, our canoe tipped, dumping everything into the water.
Although I recovered my pack, part of its contents—including my insulin—
were swallowed up by the river. Without insulin, I could not eat any food, for if I did, my blood sugar level would become too high and I could eventually go into convulsions, slip into a coma, and die. We returned back up the Amazon and traveled three days until we reached the first village and I could radio for more medicine. I was hot and hungry, but alive.
This speech has color and emotion. By drawing on his own experience, the speaker conveyed his point more meaningfully than he could have in any other way.
Even if your life stories are not that dramatic, you can still put them to work for you. By thinking over your past experiences—gathering material from yourself—you can find many supporting materials for your speeches.
Doing Library Research
Even in this age of the Internet, you will get some of the information for your speeches from the library. It contains many resources to help you find what you need, including librarians, the catalogue, reference works, and data- bases. We’ll look at each in turn.