Speech Chapter 6 First The Composition The Audience May Change Every Audience Different And Even

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First, the composition of the audience may change. Every audience is different, and even
slight changes in demographics can warrant a new approach. Second, the attitudes of
Have you ever witnessed a speech in which you felt the speaker was “pandering” to
the audience? If so, describe the speech context and discuss why you felt this way.
Students are likely to describe instances in which political candidates and/or figures
Why would it matter that an audience may be made up of more women than men,
or more Asian Americans than Hispanics, or more people who trust the mainstream
media than people who don’t? How would this information affect the way you
choose to prepare for and deliver a speech?
Point out that the composition of the audience, based on either demographic or
As far as you are concerned, which of the four essential features of a speech
setting—size of the audience, physical setting, time and length of the speech, or the
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speech context/rhetorical situation-is most important to consider in preparing a
speech? Why?
What specific steps can you take to conduct an audience analysis of your target
audience in our class?
Students should be able to articulate the methods described in the chapter (interviews,
surveys, and published sources), but this discussion will be more helpful if students are
How might audience analysis help alleviate public speaking anxiety?
The more knowledge a speaker has about the audience, the more likely he or she is to feel
III. ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES
QUESTIONS
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The following questions may help you illustrate important points in the chapter and
facilitate students’ learning of this material. These questions can be used as:
homework questions
quizzes
What is audience analysis?
Audience analysis is the process of gathering and analyzing information about audience
What types of information can you obtain about your audience?
Psychographic data: Attitudes, beliefs, values, feelings toward the topic, feelings
toward the speaker, and feelings toward the occasion
Define and give an example of attitudes, beliefs, and values.
Attitudes: Our general evaluations of people, ideas, objects, or events
o Example: Not liking politicians who use music to appear cool
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Beliefs: The ways in which people perceive reality; conceptions of what is true
and what is false
o
Example: Believing in extraterrestrial life
What is a target audience?
A target audience includes those individuals within the broader audience whom you are
most likely to influence in the direction you seek.
List at least three ways to obtain information about your audience.
interviews
surveys/questionnaires
published sources
Interviews use several types of questions. Cite them, and give an example of each.
Open-ended questions (unstructured questions): Questions that seek no particular
response and allow respondents to elaborate as much as they wish
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Scale questions: A type of closed-ended question that measures the respondent’s level of
agreement or disagreement with specific issues
What sorts of information can you find in published sources?
Missions and goals
What advantages do published sources have over interviews and surveys?
The best method is a combination of methods, but published sources have some benefits
over the others because the speaker can process in-depth information without the
What factors affect the speech setting?
size of audience
physical setting/location
time or length of speech
the speech context/rhetorical situation
ACTIVITIES
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Analyzing Your Classroom Audience
Purpose: To give students experience in creating audience-analysis surveys; to allow
students to receive feedback on the surveys they create.
Instructions: Prepare a survey to conduct an audience analysis of your class. Include
both closed-ended and open-ended questions to determine audience members’ age,
gender, socioeconomic status, ethnic or cultural background, religious and political
affiliation, group affiliation, and disability.
Audience Analysis Considerations for Your Topic
Purpose: To encourage students to consider the factors in an audience-analysis survey
that are most relevant to their own intended topics.
Instructions: Consider the topic you plan to pursue for your next speech. Decide which
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Have students include this as one of the preparation steps for their next speech
assignment, and ask them to turn in their work so that you can give them feedback. This
is also a good way for the instructor to examine the progress of a student’s speech
assignment in terms of audience analysis.
Interviewing for
Audience
Analysis
Purpose: To allow students the opportunity to develop interview questions for audience
analysis; to give students experience in interviewing and note taking for audience
analysis.
Instructions: Construct a set of interview questions based on your speech topic and
purpose. Select a sample of five members of the class who represent the demographic and
dispositional qualities obtained in your survey analysis. Interview these individuals.
Make notes about which aspects of your topic seem most relevant and interesting to these
people.
Write
Your Own Survey
Purpose: To give students experience in writing survey questions on a topic.
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Instructions: Using the text guidelines for survey questions, generate a four- to five-
question survey on a topic of your choice.
Delving Deeper into Demographics
Purpose: To encourage students to analyze how each of the eight demographic
characteristics may be relevant for their chosen speech topics.
This assignment works well for face-to-face classes and online courses. Students must
think critically about how diverse audiences will interpret their speech purpose and topic.
This assignment is most helpful when preparing for persuasive speeches.
Evaluate
Your Classroom Speaking Environment
Purpose: To encourage students to consider the affect the speaking environment will
have on their upcoming speeches in their classroom.
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This activity empowers students by giving them an opportunity to control their own
Evaluating Audience
Analysis in a Completed
Speech (also for online
courses)
Purpose: To see the result of audience analysis through completion of an entire speech.
Instructions: Assign students to select a speech from television or the Internet in which
they believe the speaker did a good job of appealing to his or her audience. Have them
prepare a brief analysis of their selected speeches in which they answer the following:
1. Can you identify instances in which the speaker is targeting his or her message to
the audience? What techniques does the speaker use to appeal to the audience?
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Uncovering Audience
Psychology: Identifying Feelings about the
Topic, Speaker,
and Occasion
Purpose: To learn to consider information about an audience for audience analysis.
Instructions: Divide the class into two groups.
Assign each group one of the following
hypothetical speech assignments. (Alternatively, you might wish to engage
the class in a
classroom discussion.)
Topic: Welfare to Work Laws: Should Welfare Recipients Undergo Drug Testing?
Speaker: A professor specializing in the history of welfare
Occasion: A lecture at a
university
Audience 1: senior Republican lawmakers
Audience 1: senators and representatives
Audience 2: journalists
Audience 3: lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union
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For each of these audiences, how might feelings about the
speaker differ? How might
feelings about the
topic
differ? How might feelings about the
occasion
differ?
Creating Questionnaires
Purpose: To learn to construct effective questionnaires.
Instructions: Either the instructor or the students should generate a list of five
controversial topics. These topics could be potential future persuasive speech topics.
Discussion: Once each group has completed the questionnaires, initiate a classroom
discussion on the appropriateness and relevance of each question. Did students include
fixed alternative questions? Scale questions? Open-ended questions?
What Kind of Audience Member Are You? (also for online courses)
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Purpose: To help students think critically about their own demographic characteristics
Instructions: Ask each student to write a brief profile about themselves, using the seven
demographic characteristics described in Chapter 6. Make sure you allow students the
freedom to refrain from discussing anything that they feel uncomfortable sharing with the
entire class. As a general guideline, each demographic characteristic might warrant a two-
IV. GROUP
ACTIVITIES
How
Well Do You Know
Your Classroom
Audience?
Instructions: The classroom provides an excellent laboratory for practicing audience
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both men and women who represent different age groups. Values, beliefs, and political
compare your answers with those of your classmates.
1. What is the age range of your class? ______________
2. What is the average age? ______________
3. What are most of your classmates?
4. What is the ratio of men to women?
5. What percentage of your classmates anticipates pursuing a graduate degree?
6. What percentage of your class holds a part-time or full-time job?
7. Which religious category do you think most of your classmates would identify as
their own?
8. Which political party do you think is most heavily represented in your class?
9. List three issues that you consider to be of great importance to your classmates:
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________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
How do your answers compare with those of your classmates? In what ways can this
profile of your class be useful in preparing your next speech assignment?
How likely are you to get an accurate profile of an audience without conducting a well-
planned audience analysis?
Students can work individually or in groups when anticipating classmates’ answers to the
Audience
Analysis in a Campaign Speech
Purpose: To illustrate a speech in which audience analysis is critically important; to give
students an opportunity to apply what they have learned about audience analysis to a
political campaign speech.
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have students write a detailed critique of the speakers audience analysis using the
material taught in Chapter 6.
Students should be encouraged to offer specific (and constructive) feedback, as if they
were a campaign consultant or manager. What advice would they offer this candidate to
improve his/her audience analysis? What methods could be utilized to effectively reach
the target audience? Should the candidate rewrite portions of his/her speech because it
panders to the audience?
Same
Topic, Different Audience
Purpose: To encourage students to consider how the approach to a message must be
adapted based on different audiences.
Instructions: Ask students to form small groups and identify three civic or political
speech topics that are currently being discussed by the media. Students should answer the
following questions for each one of their topic selections.
1. How might audience members of various religious affiliations feel about this
topic?
2. How might audience members of various political affiliations feel about this
topic?
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After students have discussed these questions, have them present their topics and answers

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