100 6.2 AnAlyzing your Audience
Figure 6.2 demographic Audience-Analysis Questionnaire. you can modify this
sample questionnaire according to your audience and topic.
copyrighted by Pearson education, upper Saddle river, nJDemographic Audience-Analysis Questionnaire
1.Name (optional):
2.Sex: Male Female
3.Occupation:
4.Religious affiliation:
5.Marital status: Married Single Divorced
6.Years of schooling beyond high school:
7.Major in college:
8.Annual income:
9.Age:
10.Ethnic background:
11.Hometown and state:
12.Political affiliation: Republican Democrat Other None
13.Membership in professional or fraternal organizations:Develop a Survey
- Decide what you want to know about your audience. Let your topic and the speaking oc-
casion help you to determine the kinds of questions you should pose. - Write your questions. You can ask your potential audience straightforward questions about
such demographic information as age, sex, occupation, and memberships in professional
organizations, like those shown in Figure 6.2. To determine their attitudes, you can use the
two types of questions shown in Figure 6.3:
• Open-ended questions allow for unrestricted answers without limiting answers to
choices or alternatives. Use open-ended questions when you want more detailed
information from your audience.
• Closed-ended questions offer several alternatives from which to choose. They are
very useful when you want to tabulate statistics about your audience. - Test your survey. After you develop the questions, it is wise to test them on a small group
of people to make sure the questions are clear and will encourage meaningful answers. - Administer your survey. After you have made any needed changes to clarify your questions,
you are ready to ask audience members to respond to the survey. Instead of, or in addition
to, distributing a paper-and-pencil survey, you could use e-mail, send text messages, or
invite audience members to click on a Web site or Facebook page that you’ve designed.
Several companies offer free online survey capabilities. Just be sure to allow plenty of time
to analyze the responses before your speech.
How To