One of the most basic principles of good public speaking is: Know Your Audience.

But what does that really mean? You can’t always be personally acquainted with all audience members. In most cases you won’t be. In some cases you may know none of them. The confusion can be largely cleared up by re-writing the rule to say: Judge Your Audience.

In today’s context that wording may be less than ideal. It’s possible to misinterpret it. It does NOT mean forming a moral opinion about the audience members. It means simply targeting your speech - both in content and style - for a particular audience.

Audience members will always vary in terms of age, education, gender, profession, experience and a wide array of other factors. But most audiences are as uniform as they are different. Most audiences for a particular event will have many things in common, determined in part by the fact that they chose to hear that particular speech.

A group composed almost exclusively of men who came to hear a speech on great golf techniques can be expected to have things in common. Though, of course, golf is popular with women and kids of both genders, too. They came to hear you talk about golf. That means they almost certainly have an interest in and have played the game.

Even an audience of diverse ages and backgrounds may still have some key things in common, if only because of their presence in the audience. Individuals who come to hear a talk about the possible effects of human-produced CO2 on global warming will certainly have a range of opinions and expertise on the subject. But they have all demonstrated an interest in the subject great enough to attend the talk.

So, target your content and style toward the audience you expect and adjust it for the audience you actually see and experience during the speech.

Before the speech you’ll need to find out as much as you can about who is likely to be listening. Are they mostly male professionals from Manhattan or are they mothers from a small farming community in Kansas? Don’t assume that one is sophisticated and the other not. Just get as much information about the actual audience as possible.

Then, on the day of the event, try to arrive early. Get a feel for who is arriving. During the speech you’ll get even more information. Pay attention to how they dress and how they act.

If they ask questions during the talk, note the content and style. Use all that to judge whether to speed up or slow down, whether to expand on certain areas and cut out others. Know your speech so well that you can tailor it during the talk. A longish story that was so amusing for one audience might go over better in a shorter version with another.

Judge your audience as carefully as you can before you meet them and when you do. Use that to make the best speech possible. For, one thing is almost guaranteed: not using it will result in a poorer speech than is possible.

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