Developing an Audience Research Questionaire

While reading I came across the article that discusses making audience research questionnaires to better understand your audience. I have never heard of this concept and was actually quite intrigued by it. It is interesting to see that the audience is a huge part of the speaker's presentation. By better understanding the audience a speaker can form their speech around the listeners’ demographics and psychographics. I learned that you can formulate this questionnaire in a couple different forms. The questionnaire can consist of close-ended questions, open-ended questions, or a combination of the two. The book's example of a close-ended question for demographic information was, “What is your sex? __Female __Male," (Coopman 85). An example of a close-ended question that gives psycho-graphic information is, "What changes, if any, would you make to our school's basic course requirements?" (Coopman 86). There are also two methods of distributing questionnaires which are in paper form or online, the book recommends if you do it online to do it through a surveying site because, “ These websites offer much more than ease of use and anonymous responses; often they provide tools for organizing and tabulating survey data,” (Coopman 87).

Audience Analysis and Adaptation

The concept of audience analysis and audience adaption is an important one to recognize when presenting  a speech. By analyzing your audience you can get a feel of a variety of things that can help direct your speech better to the listeners. If you can get some information on your audience such as what the majority of the audience's stand is on a certain topic. Also audience analysis and adaption teaches us that since in every audience there will be differences, it is best to welcome differences and recognize not just your own cultural identity but that of your listeners as well. The three main points to look at are demographics and psycho-graphics of an audience, the demographics explain key characteristics on the audience and psycho-graphics pick up on their views of the world. If you still feel like you need to get a better understanding a speaker can also make questionnaires ahead of time and distribute them. Another option would be just gaining main points about the listeners.

Ch. 5 Videos!

The speech buddy videos for Chapter 5 set great examples for what we should and should not do while giving speeches. While watching the video on light pollution I noticed that in its shortness, the main thing I gained from it was how descriptive the introduction was. One of the things that I reflected about my last speech was that I did not give a thorough introduction in the time allotted. The speaker was thorough in her introduction, which is also noticed by her use of note cards, and by following her outline. The video on responsible drinking helped me get some ideas for the demonstration speech. The speaker's use of data and statistics added to the importance and credibility of the speech. He did not just throw out random opinions or facts, such as "Drinking is bad for you" but instead used credible sources and real statistics to prove the point that he is trying to get across.

Chapter 6: Acknowledging Your Sources

          I really focused in on the “Acknowledging your sources” part of the chapter. The reason that this part of the reading was interesting to me was because I did not realize how necessary this part of the speech process is. Growing up and going through school has always taught us that we should always cite our sources; otherwise we could easily be seen as plagiarizing. I didn’t realize the case was the same for public speaking. Although I knew it was necessary for the bibliography of any research, the reading allowed me to see that oral citations are necessary as well. An oral citation is “a source of information that a speaker mentions, or cites during a speech,” (Coopman 117). The book shows examples of how oral citations should be written out, and the niche I got from these were that the citation is just inserted with the word flow. While giving the speech you can mention the source and then speak on the information or give the information followed by an oral citation of the source.

        When I did my reading I found this information informative as well as acknowledging where I got my research from through oral citations, therefore I decided to write about that. Nonetheless, this information is quite helpful for evaluating your speech's topics. I agree with you that looking for credible sources is a huge part of the research process, and if your source is not credible you can be lending your audience the wrong information. I like how you listed what sources you go to to find credible information because you are right sources such as Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, therefore presenting false facts.

Ch. 6-Speech Buddy Videos

When watching the Chapter 6 Speech Buddy videos, one method of research discussed caught my attention. I remembered using a source that maybe has long since been forgotten in our technology filled world. I know that I, along with many other college students go straight to the internet and online resources to find information on a research projects, we forget that we have a free live source available so easily to us. In the video the concept of conducting your research with the help of a librarian is explained, which may actually help me and perhaps my fellow classmates to take this approach when conducting research for their speeches.

            The speech on gastropods, which was an informative and persuasive speech on slugs, caught me off guard at first. I was thinking what the speaker possibly could want to inform and persuade their audience with. As the speech continued and the speaker addressed facts about slugs and their benefits to the environment, I began to think that any topic can form a well presented speech.

Week 3- Research Interviews DB #1

I have probably conducted only 2 research interviews in my lifetime, and both were done during high school. When I used to consider research, interviewing someone never crossed my mind until one research project that I had to do in high school required one of our resources to be an interview with an expert. When I came across this part of my research I began to look into what a research interview should be about. The first thing that I looked into was finding an “expert” on my topic, this meant looking for a professional in the field of my research. My topic dealt with behavioral issues with young kids I began to look for local child psychologists/psychiatrists that would be informed of specific topics that I needed information for. The second thing I did after I chose a child psychologist that was willing to set up an interview with me, was to prepare well for the interview. I did not want to show up to the interview unprepared because not only did I know that was unprofessional of me, but also because I knew that could mean jeopardizing my report for not having specific questions answered. I called ahead of time to set up an appointment and also informed her that I would be asking her about ten questions about children with behavioral problems. During my interview, I thought that preparing questions ahead of time in an organized manner helped the research interview flow smoothly from one question to the other. I thought that an improvement I could have made was to perhaps have emailed the psychologist the questions ahead of time so that she may have had better time to prepare answers in detail, instead of being put on the spot.  

Week 2: Discussion Board #3

           Chapter 2 of the book focuses on speakers building their confidence through applying various methods before and during a speech. The author brings up points that people with speech anxiety, like me, may have not considered confidence boosters before. One of the first ways that the book mentions to boost your confidence in public speaking is to come well dressed. I thought about this point and realized that coming well dressed to a speech would be a confidence booster because a speaker would come to present the speech looking professional, therefore changing the way an audience might view the speaker. Being well dressed would also allow an audience to take the speaker more seriously and help them focus on what the speaker has to say.
            Another great point that was addressed was "make no apologies or excuses" during your speech, and I agree with this. I try my best to complete my speeches without interrupting myself with apologizing. This point is valid because some audience members may not have caught your mistake, therefore when one apologizes it may just distract the audience from your speech.