 | Chapter Summary
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Two methods of topic selection are brainstorming and personal inventories.
- The topic needs to be important to you and your audience.
- The topic needs to be one that you know about and that your audience may want to know about.
- The topic needs to be one to which you are committed, to which you speak with passion and conviction.
- Once chosen, the topic needs to be narrowed to fit the time limits, the subject matter, and the audience.
Four levels of audience analysis can help you determine topic appropriateness.
- Level 1 distinguishes between voluntary and captive audiences.
- Level 2, demographic analysis, evaluates the characteristics of audience members.
- Level 3, audience and topic age and interest, analyzes the audience’s interest in and knowledge of a topic.
- Level 4 determines the audience’s attitudes, beliefs, and values.
Observation, inference, and questionnaires are three methods of audience analysis.
- Observation involves using your senses to interpret information about the specific audience.
- Inferences involve using data about the audience to draw tentative generalizations that can make the audience responses more predictable.
- Questionnaires garner demographic and attitudinal information about the audience.
Presentations should be adapted to information about the audience gathered through audience analysis.
- You should adapt your own behavior to audience expectations.
- You should adapt your verbal and nonverbal codes to this audience.
- You should adapt your topic to this audience’s knowledge and interest levels.
- You should adapt your purpose to what is possible with this audience.
Microtargeting will help you learn how your audience feels about various issues and adapt your message if appropriate. |
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