Real Communication An Introduction

344 Part 4  Public Speaking

That’s why it’s important to anticipate how your particular audience members

might respond to your speech—even before you officially choose your topic and

conduct your research.

Anticipating Your Audience’s Response

As speech instructors, we openly confess that we get tired of hearing speeches on

gun control, abortion, and euthanasia. These topics are surely worthy of thought-

ful public discourse, but we’ve heard the same arguments over and over, and we’re

interested in learning about new topics. All audience members feel this way from

time to time. You may be required to attend meetings at work that have noth-

ing to do with your projects or your job; you may sit through a sermon at your

house of worship that feels unrelated to your life experiences. When you are the

speaker, it’s always useful to remember these experiences and to do your best to

ensure that you don’t cause your audience to react the same way! Considering a

few practical points, and adapting your speech accordingly, can certainly help:

c Consider audience motivation. Is your audience choosing to listen to your

speech or are they required to attend? Voluntary audiences tend to be moti-

vated to listen because they have chosen to hear what you say. The audience

members in your class, however, are usually required to listen—and some

of them may be entirely unmotivated to do so. Therefore, you must work

to choose a relevant, engaging topic that they will care about and to engage

them with your delivery skills (a topic we’ll address in Chapter 14).

c Seek common ground. Do you and your audience members share certain

opinions or experiences with one another? If so, you can capitalize on this

homogeny—or sameness—by delivering a message that will keep their

attention. For example, when his university changed its taxation policies

for graduate students receiving stipends, Eduardo delivered a presenta-

tion informing his fellow students of the steps they would need to take to

ensure proper tax withholding. It didn’t matter that the students hailed from

assorted fields and departments because they were all stuck dealing with the

same confusing tax questions.

ANGELINA JOLIE often
dons stylish all-black outfits in
her role as an activist, but she
alters her image based on the
audience and context: formal
wear for a press conference,
casual clothes for field work.
(left) ROGER L. WOLLENBERG/UPI/
Landov; (right) AP Photo/Boris Heger,
UNHCR