Audience analysis allows you to make decisions about your topic and how you will present it by considering your current audience’s motivation for listening to you. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Will most people in this audience agree or disagree with me, and should I care?
- Are the people in this audience interested in the same things I am? If not, what can I define and emphasize in my speech to make it understandable and fun for them to listen?
- What ages, genders, occupations, and cultures are represented in my audience? Am I being sensitive to them, and addressing their needs?
- What level of formality and presentation style are they used to? Do I need to explain my points using numbers, pictures, or objects?
You normally should not answer these questions using instinct alone. It is highly beneficial to analyze your audience by doing the following:
- Research the location and people. What has happened in their recent news? What are some examples of their public opinion?
- Observe members of your audience in conversation and make casual conversation with them before your speech.
- If necessary for the particulars of your speech, such as determining the most valuable point in a political speech or assessing what is needed in a training speech, you might make time to send out a survey.
- Find a person, usually an authority figure, who is representative of your audience, and converse with them about the main points of your speech topic to see what fits and what does not.