Anticipating Your Audience’s Response

As speech instructors, we openly confess that we get tired of hearing speeches on gun control, abortion, and euthanasia. These topics are surely worthy of thoughtful public discourse, but we’ve heard the same arguments over and over, and we’re interested in learning about new topics. All audience members feel this way from time to time. You may be required to attend meetings at work that have nothing to do with your projects or your job; you may sit through a sermon at your house of worship that feels unrelated to your life experiences. When you are the speaker, it’s always useful to remember these experiences and to do your best to ensure that you don’t cause your audience to react the same way! Considering a few practical points, and adapting your speech accordingly, can certainly help:

As was the case on gathering demographic and psychographic information on your audience members, you may wonder exactly how you go about finding information to anticipate your audience’s reaction to your speech. Luckily, there are a few steps you can take that may yield incredibly helpful information.

All of the information you gain about your audience members—from their expectations and situational constraints to their demographics and possible reactions—sets the stage for you to move forward in developing an effective and appropriate speech. The next step is choosing your topic.