Chapter 5-Adapting to Audiences

personal pronouns

"we", "us", and "our"- pronouns that directly link the speaker to members of the audience (pg.82) as the speaker using these, you create a sense of common ground that you and your audience would work together to form a common understanding of a topic

forming a specific audience adaptation plan

1) what is my audience's initial disposition toward my topic? what can i do to enhance audience interest? 2) what common ground do audience members share with one another and with me? how and where can i use personal pronouns, rhetorical questions, and common experiences to enhance the perception of common ground? 3) how relevant will the audience find this material? how can i demonstrate that the material is timely, proximate, and has personal impact for audience members? 4) what can i do to enhance my credibility? how did i develop my expertise on this topic, and how can i share that with the audience? how can i demonstrate my trustworthiness as i speak? what will i do to help the audience perceive me as personable? 5) how can i make it easier for audience members to comprehend and remember the info? what types of material can i use to appeal to different learning style preferences? what key terms will i need to define? what new concepts might i develop a itch vivid language and examples? what new ideas might i want to compare to ones the audience is already familiar with? 6) what language or cultural differences do audience members have with one another and with me? if i will be speaking in a second language, how will i increase the likelihood that the audience will understand me? what cultural differences do i need to be sensitive to, and what culturally appropriate material might i search for and use?

rhetorical questions

Questions phrased to stimulate a mental response rather than an actual spoken response from the audience (pg.82) they highlight similar attitudes among the speaker and audience and pique interest about the upcoming content

common ground

The background, knowledge, attitudes, experiences, and philosophies audience members and the speaker share (pg.82) as the speaker, your goal is to identify and highlight this.

learning style

a person's preferred way of receiving info (pg.87) you should present your ideas in ways that make it easy for all audience members to understand and remember what you're saying because everyone has different preferred learning styles.

transitions

a sentence or two that summarizes one main point and introduces the next one (pg.88) this helps the audience follow along

relevance

adapting the info in a speech so that audience members view it as important to them (pg.83) the audience will pay attention and are interested when there's ideas that affect them personally in some way. you can demonstrate this by emphasizing timeliness, proximity, and personal impact of the ideas you share throughout your speech.

kolb's cycle of learning

feeling ——> watching = stage 1: divergers watching ——> thinking = stage 2: assimulators thinking ——> doing = stage 3: convergers doing ——> feeling = stage 4: accommodators (pg.87)

knowledge and expertise

how well you convince your audience that you are qualified to speak on the topic (pg.85) ex: sharing personal stories or experiences about your topic

timeliness

showing how info is useful now or in the near future (pg.83) ex: referencing recent statistics about texting and driving and talking on the phone while driving

credibility

the audience's perception that you are knowledgeable, trustworthy, and personable (pg.84)

trustworthiness

the extent to which the audience can believe that what you say is accurate, true, and in their best interests (pg.85) people asses trustworthiness by the speaker's character and motives. good character is honesty, industrious, dependable, and ethical. ex: when you credit the source of your info you demonstrate good character. you are showing that you didn't make up the info (honesty) and you are not plagiarizing (ethics)

personableness

the extent to which you project an agreeable or pleasing personality (pg.85) we have more confidence in the people we like. we quickly decided how much we like a new person beaded on our first impressions. this is based on impression formation and management

initial audience disposition

the knowledge of and opinions about your topic that your listeners have before they hear you speak (pg.81)

proximity

the relevance of information to personal space (pg.84) people pay more attention to info related to our "territory" (us, our family, our neighborhood, our city, state, or country) ex: "let me bring this close to home for you..."

emphasize personal impact

when you emphasize a serious physical, economic, or psychological impact of your topic, audience members are interested in what you have to say (pg.84) ex: "you might want to jot this down because it will be on the test" is an example of emphasizing personal impact because remembering it will help you get a better grade on the test