There are four important elements of a public speaking situation or Rhetorical Situation.
The elements are:
Understanding who you will be speaking to is critical if you are going to give a meaningful presentation.
The reason for this is simple.
Without a clear idea of who you will be addressing, you cannot understand what changes you need to make to be effective.
It is also the ethical thing to do.
To prepare a speech without thinking about the audience means that you will not have their needs in mind.
For example, you may end up talking about something they already know and understand completely and waste their time or talk "over their heads" which means they would not get anything out of your speech.
We often do audience analysis without even thinking about what it is.
It is such an important part of all our communication strategies.
For example, when you are telling your friends about the exciting weekend you had you will disclose different information and emphasize different activities and even use different language than if you are telling your parents, siblings or even a professor or coworker.
The reason you do this is because you know that it is not appropriate to speak to everyone in the same manner and that different people will have a different reaction to what you tell them. You may have a friend who would think it is a good thing that you got blind drunk or that you were drag racing along Rt. 40 on Saturday night, but you know that your mother would be angry and concerned if you were to tell her those things; and you know that if you were to tell me, your professor, about this I might think that you were not a serious student.
The advantages of beginning the process of preparing a speech by learning all you can about your audience is that you will then be able to adapt your speech to meet their needs which will help them to want to listen.
Audience analysis will help you to identify what problem or need exists for the audience, how they feel regarding the topic, what they know, what they believe etc.
Even if you already know what topic you will be talking about, audience analysis is the process that helps you to understand the intersections between your topic and goals and the needs of the audience.Sometimes your audience analysis will help you to come up with a topic if you do not already know what you will be speaking about.
Once you know who your audience is you can identify a need or problem that you may be able to resolve and that would make a great idea for a speech topic.
What is audience analysis?
Always when you are preparing a speech you need to think about what is important for the audience to know or do and to find a way to move them closer to your goal.
Keep in mind that you have an opportunity to change the world with your speech.
It may be a small change with a small group of people but it can still have a big effect if you work at it.
Prior to the speech
The purpose of the audience analysis prior to the speech is to provide speakers with enough data about their audience so that they develop their presentation build their ethos, develop pathos, and create logos by appealing to the values, beliefs and attitudes of the audience.
As part of the invention cannon you will investigate who will be in your audience and determine what they know and feel about your topic. Without this data you cannot begin to develop a speech.
During the Speech
While you are speaking you are constantly doing audience analysis to determine if the audience is able to follow your main points so that you can adapt to their needs.
When you as a speaker see that you are losing the attention of the audience, you can adjust your volume, pace, or move on to a new point.
If the audience looks confused then you can provide another example, use an internal summary, or restate your main point to clear up their confusion.
It is the nonverbal feedback of the audience that provides the information that the speaker uses during the speech for their audience analysis.
After the Speech
When the audience asks questions the speaker can determine what points in the presentation where clear and what needs to be explained further.
If the audience does not ask any questions, the speaker needs to determine whether that is because their points were clear or if the audience was bored or confused or just not interested.
Sometimes the speaker is able to ask questions of the audience regarding how well the audience grasped their message or where they can improve the presentation.
Audiences who enjoyed a presentation will often say so to the speaker.
And, of course, the kind of applause and non-verbal feedback the audience gives the speaker will indicate how much they enjoyed or were moved by the presentation.
I remember a eulogy I gave at the funeral of a friend was difficult for me but I knew I had been successful when the family members of my friend asked me for a copy of the speech and shared with me examples from her life that supported the points I had made in the presentation.
You may be doing a presentation to people who you already know so that makes the first step easier.
You can use your knowledge of the audience to determine who will be present for your speech and what they already know and feel about your topic.
Sometimes you will not know your audience so you need to be more creative in finding out who will be present for your speech and understanding their knowledge and attitudes towards your topic.
If you are invited to do a presentation you can ask the person who has invited you to tell you about the audience. For example, if you are asked to do a toast at a retirement party you might ask who will be present.
Will it be just the department?
Will it be management or just workers?
I have been asked to do speeches in the past to different groups such as a women's group in a local community and so I was able to ask the woman who invited me the ages of the women attending and for some information about their background. I have to admit that my speech was not as interesting to the audience as I expected it to be and I realized that I had not understood the expectations of the audience.
To gain more insight into your audience you may want to speak to some of them ahead of time or you may want to speak to people who are similar to them so that you can learn about their expectations, knowledge, and experience.
You are trying to learn the identity of the audience.
You want to know what role the members of the audience have in their community and how those roles predict and define their interests, values, and beliefs.
Surveying your audience, or a similar group, is a very useful tool to help to determine the demographics and psychographics of the audience.
On a survey you can ask for demographic information;
you can ask questions to determine what the audience already knows about the topic;
and you can also determine their interests and experiences regarding the topic.
The demographic and psychographic information will allow you to understand the diversity of the audience and to predict what they might know and believe about your topic.
Knowing the beliefs, attitudes, and values of the audience is very important in adapting your topic to each particular audience.
The web site Six Minute Speaking and Presentation Skills has an excellent and extensive guide to Audience Analysis. Click on the link below.
Six Minutes Speaking and Presentation Skills: Audience Analysis
You choose a topic that you believe is important for people to know about.
For example, let's say you are interested in health issues and believe that a healthy diet, exercise and reducing stress are good for avoiding heart disease which is the #1 killer in the country.
So, you have a topic.
Now let's adapt that topic to three different audiences.
Audience 1: College athletes.
These are students who are already aware of their bodies and are currently working out each day even if they are not paying a lot of attention to their diets.
So, what approach will you take with them? These are people who are currently aware of their own health and taking care of their bodies so I would suggest that you build on that and focus your speech on how they can maintain a healthy lifestyle after college when they will probably be working and no longer in organized athletics.
The approach you will take is to identify the need for them to strengthen their commitment to living a healthy lifestyle.
Audience 2: adults in a retirement community.
These adults have either already developed life-long heart-healthy habits or damage to their hearts is already done so the important aspect here is to encourage them to continue to be active and eat healthy.
You may identify for them the resources of the community such as the fitness center and the dietitian and exercise program times etc. and stress for them the importance of regular medical check-ups and complying with medical treatment such as taking medications on time.
Audience 3: a group of 10 year old cub scouts.
This group cannot possibly see that far ahead nor are they concerned that they may develop heart disease in their lifetimes.
So you really need to be creative with this group.
My goal with them would be to get them to be awed by the wonder of the human heart and how amazing it is!
I would purchase a pig's heart and bring that as a visual aid.
I would show them the way it is constructed and how the blood is pumped and allow them to touch and feel it.
I would help them to see how small but important their own hearts are.
I would convey to them how their own hearts have to last a lifetime.
I would want the experience to be exciting and fun for them so that I would be building a memory that they would not forget which would influence them to value their hearts for the rest of their lives.
I would remember that it is impossible to do everything in one speech and trust that if they have this awesome understanding of their hearts then later when they hear what they can do to protect their hearts they would be ready to take care of it.