How to Communicate: Responding To Audience Questions
HOW TO COMMUNICATE|Video Skills
RESPONDING TO AUDIENCE QUESTIONS
One way to improve your public speaking skills is by adapting to different audience behaviors. Learn how to handle questions from listeners by completing the How to Communicate video activity below.
CONSIDER THIS:
You are giving an informative speech to your communication class. Drawing on social science research, you explain why some online videos posted by ordinary people go viral and are seen by millions. After concluding your speech, you have time to answer questions from the audience.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
A question and answer period is a chance to connect interpersonally with your audience while engaging them further in the speech topic. As part of your speech preparation, anticipate possible questions that may come up. While watching the video, consider how communication skills like active listening, perception, and immediacy can help you competently manage audience interaction. Then, test your knowledge of key skills, and create your own responses to the What if? video prompts on the next page.
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HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS PREPARED. To deal with any awkward silence when you open for questions, have a few questions ready to ask (and answer) yourself to get things started. Taking this first step can encourage a quiet audience to open up. (“One question I had while researching this topic was whether you need to buy a high quality video camera to produce good video.”)
ACTIVELY LISTEN TO QUESTIONS. Repeat questions to ensure you understand them, and for the benefit of others in the audience who may not have heard it. Avoid evaluations (“That’s a really good question”) as they may imply that some questions are better than others.
INVOLVE YOUR AUDIENCE. Make eye contact with the person asking the question, but address your response to the entire audience. You don’t want to talk one-on-one with the questioner, causing others to feel excluded.
BE BRIEF AND COMPLETE WITH YOUR ANSWERS. Look for opportunities to refer back to key points in your speech. If you don’t know the answer to a question, say so. (“As I pointed out earlier, television shows—like Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and The Ellen DeGeneres Show—have a place for posting fan videos on their Web sites. That’s how some viral videos first get noticed.”)
STICK TO A TIME LIMIT. Give the audience your contact information in case they want to follow up with additional questions. Have a prepared closing remark that ends the question-and-answer period on a positive note. (“That’s all the time we have. Let me close by saying what a pleasure it has been…”)