Maximizing Your Audience’s Listening

Despite your best efforts, you occasionally may find yourself delivering a speech to audience members who do not listen well. For example, while doing audience surveillance—paying attention to an audience’s nonverbal and verbal responses while giving a speech—you may notice some audience members who act as if they are listening but who you can tell (perhaps by their expression or lack of eye contact) are not. The good news is that there are several strategies you can use to help your audience members listen more effectively to your speech. In this section, we outline several steps that you, as a speaker, can take to both anticipate and deal with audience listening challenges.

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