Audience Analysis

Public speaking is audience and situation centered. Every aspect of speech making, from choosing topics to delivering the actual speech, should be tailored with the audience in mind. For example, if you give a speech about traffic safety to a group of 5 year olds, you might discuss how to cross the street. However, the topic of traffic safety, if presented to a group of 50 year olds, might include defensive driving – and other extremely different sub-topics. The way in which the speech would be delivered would also be different. When presenting to 5 year olds, the use of animations and drawings may help to convey your message. When presenting to 50 year olds, you may include the use of statistics in your speech and provide concrete, real-world examples about traffic safety. This is a realistic approach to audience analysis.

Brainstorm a topic for an informative speech that is different from the topic you have chosen to present in Week Three. Then consider two different audiences that you want to deliver the speech to. In your initial post, tell us your topic, purpose, and two audiences that you might deliver the speech to. Then, describe how the delivery would be different for each audience. Be sure to reference material from Chapter 5 of the textbook to support your ideas.

Here is an example of what the format of your initial post should look like: