From the course: Writing Speeches
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Adapting to audience knowledge
- Not only do you need to be aware of the size of your audience, and it's attitude, you also need to consider how knowledgeable your audience is about your topic. And that knowledge may vary widely in one audience. If you assume too much knowledge, the audience will be confused and lose interest. On the other hand, if you assume too little knowledge, your speech may sound too condescending and the audience may also lose interest. So asking, "How much does my audience know?" is an important question. As always, you can't predict or anticipate with 100% accuracy, but a general idea will help you decide how much background to give, if you can use industry jargon, or if you'll need to define terms. If your audience is at least partially knowledgeable, what new information can you add to their existing knowledge? How can you get this information about your audience? If you're giving a speech to fellow workers, you probably already know the audiences' demographics and knowledge level. If…
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