ANALYSING THE AUDIENCE

Know the definition of audience analysis: determining the important characteristics of an audience in order to chose the best style, format and information/arguments when writing or speaking. Understanding the identity, personality and characteristics brought to a situation by the specific type of audience. Know the purpose of audience analysis: Having knowledge of a specific audience allows the writer or speaker to understand the social situation in which he or she writes. It allows the writer to come up with a strategy to adapt arguments to best suit an audience. Conducting audience analysis informs a speaker or writer about the people he or she is talking to. This is important because based on what is found out in the audience analysis a writer/speaker can adjust his work to relate to an audience in the best way possible. It allows a writer/speaker to be able to succeed in their goal of writing or speaking whatever that may be. If a speaker/writer wants to persuade, inform, motivate, excite, scare, warn or cheer up an audience, then analyzing those people to which he/she is talking can allow them to pick the best words, stories, tone, style and delivery to use when writing or talking to that specific group of people. As speakers we all know the importance of properly preparing our material far enough in advance so we may have sufficient time to rehearse and "fine-tune" our speeches. Unfortunately, this is not enough to assure that your speech or presentation is well received. Your speech preparation must also include gathering information about your audience and their needs. A well prepared speech given to the wrong audience can have the same effect as a poorly prepared speech given to the correct audience. They both can fail terribly. It is critical that your preparation efforts include some amount of audience analysis. The more you know and understand about your audience and their needs, the better you can prepare your speech to assure that you meet their needs. Speech preparation should use what I like to call the 9 P's. Prior Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance of the

Person Putting on the Presentation. Nothing will relax you more than to know you have properly prepared. The stage fright or speech anxiety felt by many speakers is due to not knowing enough about the speaking environment or the audience. The more you know about your speaking environment and your audience, the more relaxed you will be when delivering your speech. Many speakers, however, often overlook the need to include any kind of audience analysis as part of their speech preparation. Proper audience analysis will assure that you give the right speech to the right audience. Most professional speakers send their clients a multi-page questionnaire in order to gather enough information about them and the speaking event to properly customize their speeches. Using the word "A-U-D-I-E-N-C-E" as an acronym, I have defined some general audience analysis categories that these surveys should include. A nalysis - Who are they? How many will be there? U nderstanding - What is their knowledge of the subject? D emographics - What is their age, sex, educational background? I nterest - Why are they there? Who asked them to be there? E nvironment - Where will I stand? Can they all see & hear me? N eeds - What are their needs? What are your needs as the speaker? C ustomized - What specific needs do you need to address? E xpectations - What do they expect to learn or hear from you?

Develop specific questions which fit into each of these eight categories and ask the client or audience to tell you what they want. Essentially, ask them what they need and give it to them.

TIPS Analysis/Understanding: Defining the background of the audience aids the writer in determining what information is already understood and what information needs to be included. Nevertheless you will need to add more

information so that the audience can understand and reach the conclusion that your document intends. Demographics/Interest/Environment: Demographic characteristics of the audience can help determine the style and content of a document. Age groups, areas of residence, gender, and political preferences for example, are some of the characteristics to focus on. Paying attention to these aspects of the audience can also help sidestep any offensive remarks or topics that the audience would not relate to or appreciate. Needs/Customization: If there is more than one audience, you can write sections specifically pertaining to the corresponding audiences, or write in one particular fashion that applies across the board. Similarly, if there is a wide variability in the audience, cater to the majority--write to the majority of the people that will be reading the document. References to other sources with alternative information may need to be included to aid the minority of the readers.