The best way to adapt the presentation with the audience by
making it more interactive .
A public speakers can use information about the audience to
adapt his or her message to the particular audience while preparing
the speech. Demographic information helps the speaker anticipate
the audience and imagine how they will respond to different aspects
of the message. While structuring the message, the speaker should
keep his or her imagined, theoretical audience in mind and
anticipate how they might respond to the speech as follows:
- What experiences and events does the speaker share with the
audience? In what ways is the speaker similar to the audience? The
speaker can then apply this knowledge in his or her message to meet
the audience on common ground and identify with them.
- Analogies involve the linking of the unknown to the familiar.
What examples or analogies can the speaker use that the audience is
likely to find familiar?
- Speakers should use words that the audience will understand.
This is sometimes referred to as diction, which is the speaker’s
selection of the right words and style of expression.
- Beware of jargon, or specialized language. The
language that the speaker is familiar with from sports or work may
not be familiar to an audience that does not participate in the
same sport or work environment.
- If the speaker comes from a different language culture than the
audience or speaks a different dialect, he or she must be careful
to select phrases and words that the audience would use to encode
the speech’s message.
- The speaker may have to set aside his or her own attitudes,
values, and beliefs in order to temporarily adopt the viewpoint of
the audience. What sources will the audience accept as authorities
that might be different from the authorities that the speaker cites
to support his or her arguments, or beliefs?
- If the audience may react negatively to some portion of the
message or not understand it, the speaker should change that
portion before delivery.
- The speaker can also encourage the audience to ask questions.
Traditionally, the speaker asks for questions after the
presentation is finished; however, this is not always the case. The
speaker can guide the audience to ask questions throughout the
speech by simply pausing between points, or politely asking the
audience to hold all questions until the end. If audience members
will not hold all questions until the end, the speaker should be
prepared for interruptions and rehearse accordingly.