Before you prepare your presentation, you must be sure you have sufficiently considered your unique audience. Complete the following questionnaire prior to each presentation to make sure that your research and planning address your audience’s needs, interests, backgrounds, and so on. Depending on the presentation, some factors may be irrelevant. Don’t panic if you can’t discern every single trait, but you should have a sense of many or most.
Mark the number that most closely matches your feelings of preparedness regarding each statement: 5 = extremely confident; 4 = somewhat confident; 3 = unsure; 2 = somewhat unconfident; and 1 = extremely unconfident.
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1. I know the ages of my audience members. |
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2. I am aware of the socioeconomic status of my audience members. |
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3. I know the family status (marital status, children) of my audience members. |
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4. I know the religious affiliations of my audience members. |
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5. I know the political affiliations of my audience members. |
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6. I know the ethnic background of my audience members. |
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7. I know how familiar my audience members are with my presentation topic. |
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8. I know the gender of my audience members. |
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9. I am aware of the sexual orientation of my audience members. |
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10. I am aware of how my audience members view me. |
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11. I know that my topic will be interesting to my audience. |
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12. I have identified ways to motivate my audience to listen. |
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13. I have carefully considered which aspects of my topic will interest my audience. |
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14. I have learned about the interests and life situations of my audience members. |
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15. I have considered my audience’s expectations for my presentation. |
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16. I have considered the situational factors surrounding the delivery of my presentation. |
Your score: out of 80
You have low confidence in audience analysis.
You have medium confidence in audience analysis.
You have high confidence in audience analysis.
Generally, the lower your number, the greater is the need to revisit the audience analysis coverage in this chapter and seek more information about your audience members.
Source: Adapted from J. M. Wiemann (1977). Used with permission.