96 6 AnAlyzing your Audience
Learning Objectives
6.1 List three steps in becoming an audience-centered speaker.
6.2 Describe informal and formal methods of gathering information
about your audience.
6.3 Explain how to analyze information about your audience.
6.4 Identify and use strategies for adapting to your audience.
6.5 Develop methods of analyzing your audience before you speak by
seeking demographic, psychological, and situational information
about your audience and the speaking occasion.
6.6 Identify methods of assessing and adapting to your audience’s
reactions while your speech is in progress.
6.7 Identify methods of assessing audience reactions after you have
concluded your speech.It seemed harmless enough. Charles Williams was asked to speak to a Cub Scout
pack about his experience as a young cowboy in Texas. The boys were learning
to tie knots, and Williams, a retired rancher, could tell them how to make a lariat
and how to make and use other knots.
His speech started out well. He seemed to be adapting to his young audi-
ence. However, for some reason, Williams thought the boys might also enjoy
learning how to exterminate the screwworm, a pesky parasite of cattle. In the
middle of his talk about roping cattle, he launched into a presentation about the
techniques for sterilizing male screwworms. The parents in the audience fidg-
eted in their seats. The seven- and eight-year-olds didn’t have the foggiest idea
what a screwworm was, what sterilization was, or how male and female screw-
worms mate.
It got worse; his audience analysis skills deteriorated even more. Williams
next talked about castrating cattle. Twenty-five minutes later, he finally finished6.5 Analyzing Your Audience before You
Speak
Demographic Audience Analysis
Psychological Audience Analysis
Situational Audience Analysis
6.6 Adapting to Your Audience as You
Speak
Identifying Nonverbal Audience
CuesResponding to Nonverbal Cues
Strategies for Customizing Your
Message to Your Audience
6.7 Analyzing Your Audience after You
Speak
Nonverbal Responses
Verbal Responses
Survey Responses
Behavioral Responses