Good speakers are audience-centered. They know that the aim of speechmaking is to gain a desired response from listeners. When working on your speeches, keep three questions in mind: To whom am I speaking? What do I want them to know, believe, or do as a result of my speech? What is the most effective way of composing and presenting my speech to accomplish that aim? Your classroom speeches will give you excellent practice in dealing with these questions, provided you always think of your classmates as a real audience. To be an effective speaker, you should know something about the psychology of audiences. Auditory perception is selective. Even when people pay close attention, they don't process a speaker's message exactly as the speaker intended. People hear what they want to hear. People also are egocentric. They typically approach speeches with one question uppermost in mind: "Why is this important to me?" Therefore, you need to study your audience and adapt your speech directly to their beliefs and interests. The first stage in learning about your audience is to undertake a demographic audience analysis. This involves identifying important demographic traits of your audience such as age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, group membership, and racial, ethnic, or cultural background. The second stage in learning about your audience is to conduct a situational audience analysis. This involves identifying traits of the audience unique to the particular speaking situation at hand. These traits include the size of the audience, attitudes influenced by the physical setting, and your listeners' disposition toward the topic, toward you as a speaker, and toward the occasion. For speeches outside the classroom, you can best get information about the audience by asking the person who invites you to speak. If possible, you should also sound out someone else who has spoken to the same group. For your classroom speeches, you can learn much about your audience by observation and conversation. You also can do a more formal audience analysis by interviewing members of the audience or by circulating a questionnaire. Once you complete the audience analysis, you must adapt your speech so it will be clear and convincing to your listeners. Keep them in mind constantly as you prepare the speech. Put yourself in their place. Try to hear the speech as they will. Anticipate questions and objections, and try to answer them in advance. When you deliver your speech, keep an eye out for audience feedback. If you see frowns or puzzled looks on your listeners' faces, you may need to adjust your remarks in response. Like other aspects of audience adaptation, this may be difficult at first, but if you work at it, you should soon see results.
