Topic Selection and Audience Analysis

What do you need to know?Dawn Bartz

Selecting an appropriate topic for your audience

● Is it important and relevant?

● Do you have an interesting, different, unique way of presenting the topic ?

● What do you know of the demographics of your audience?

● What do you know of the interests of the audience?

● Is your topic narrow enough to allow you to go into depth?

What can you learn about your audience through observation?

● Do they like stronger speakers or more soft-spoken?

● What techniques work well? (statistics, stories, examples, visuals, etc.)

● What topics do they relate to?

Using inference to help in communication

Making a generalization based on evidence.

The more evidence gathered, the more likely that the generalization is correct.

Inferences can be indirect (observation) or direct (through deliberately gathered data).

Inferences may be drawn about your audience from observations that can occur in a classroom, for instance. They can also be drawn from research you conduct (questionnaires, demographic analysis, different questioning techniques, attitudinal surveys)

● Word concepts allow the audience to provide you with attitudinal information on topics and issues

● Ranking systems allow you to find out what the most important issues (and least important) are

● Asking questions and observing the responses (verbal and nonverbal)

Analyzing the audience through information gathering

Demographic Analysis

Research the audience

before you speak

What do you know about the organization or group that you are speaking to?

Who do you know inside the organization that can give you inside information that may be helpful to know about the membership, goals, interests, etc.?

Where will the presentation take place (a small room, lecture hall, gym, banquet, etc.)?

Adapting Purpose and Goal

In public speaking, you must be willing to adjust the information and the presentation to the audience in order to be successful.

Language

● Gestures● Movements● Facial expressions● Style (conversational,

formal, technical)● Pacing● Word choices

Topic

● What is the best approach?

● Organization of material and resources

● Understand the audience’s needs

Purpose (immediate and long range)

● What do you want the audience to take away?

● What is the long-range goal (to make a change?)

Immediate purpose: Very specific, “should be able to,” action verbs (identify, state, explain, reveal…)

Long-range: What is the end purpose?