Discussion #3 - 9/14

Audience Analysis and Audience Adaptation

Audience analysis involves getting to know your audience better. When we prepare speeches it is important to know the demographics of our audience so that we can write a speech which is specifically aimed at them. Audience adaptation is the tool that we use in order to write an audience-specific speech.

For instance, if I need to make a speech about Euthanasia to an audience of doctors I would gather information about the doctors first. This would be the audience analysis portion of speech making. I would find out what the stance of these doctors is on the topic of assisted suicide. I would also gather other information about the doctors' personal experiences and preferences within the medical world. This would help me get an idea of how open my audience would or wouldn't be towards listening to my speech.

Once I would have gathered info about my audience I would try to write my speech in a way that suits the audience best. This would be the audience adaptation portion of my speech. If I find that the audience is pro-Euthanasia, I would try not to write a speech which heavily negatively about it. This adapts my speech for my audience, and in doing so, allows the audience to relate to and understand my speech better.