Basic Public Speaking, 2nd Edition-   The Roadmap to Confident Communications 

Douglas Parker, M.Ed.

Sizing Up Your Audience

You must try to discover the composition of your audience, and try to gauge their initial attitudes about your topic in order for you to decide upon which approach you will take in your presentation.  Different group attitudes require different methods of presentation!

If possible, try to detect certain essential factors about your audience:

-Note their special interests.

-Discover their level of formal education.

-What is the size of your audience?

-Will they have a sense of humor?

-Do they want to hear what you have to say?

-What is their cultural background?

-Do they have any inherent values you need to address?  You can discover potential values by noting their:

a) Education

b) Profession 

c) Gender

d) Age

e) Financial status

f) Religion

g) If your group is heterogeneous or homogeneous

Multiple Intelligences Review

Different people learn in different ways and have different kinds of "intelligences."  Knowing this, you can assume that your audience has certain strengths and weaknesses, as well as different learning styles.  As a part of your audience assessment,  have discussions in your group that attempt to identify which intelligences will be accommodated with your speeches and which intelligences will be unaffected. 

Once you have answered these questions, you can begin to tailor your speech to cater to their specific needs.  The more you can find out about them the better off you will be.  If you have a highly educated group, your rhetoric had better be perspicacious.  If have a religious group, perhaps you might want to use a little ecclesiastical rhetoric.  Once you begin, use this chart to help determine your speaking strategies:

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