Norton Field Guide for Speaking 9.1

Chapter 9.1
How to Survey an Audience
Copyright © 2022 W. W. Norton & Company

Introduction
• A presentation is effective only when you and your audience
connect in a meaningful way
• To make that connection, you need to learn as much as you can
about them thorough audience analysis
• This process can range from brief observations made right
before or during your presentation to using sophisticated
survey research
• There are systematic ways to research, analyze, and adapt to your
audience as you prepare and deliver your presentation
2

Audience Surveys
• A survey is a common research method that uses a set of
questions to obtain useful information and insights about the
characteristics, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of a
predetermined group of people
• A good survey should be:
• Focused on what you need to
know
• Fair
• Neutral
• Confidential
• Relevant
• Brief and simple
• Pretested
• Professional looking
3

Need to Know
• A good survey should tell you something you don’t already know
about your audience
• A good survey should also give you information you can use
POOR QUESTION: Do you exercise regularly? _____ yes ____ no
GOOD QUESTION: How often do you do exercise for more than
20 uninterrupted minutes?
____ Rarely or never
____ Once or twice a month
____ Once or more a week
____ Daily (when possible)
4

Fairness
• A good survey should be fair
• Don’t ask questions that “force survey respondents to choose an
answer that doesn’t reflect their opinion, thereby making your
data unreliable”
5

Neutrality
• Avoid asking questions that all but force people to respond in
ways that favor the survey taker’s position
• Ethical survey researchers avoid questions that evoke only the
opinions they want responders to agree with
6

Confidentiality
• A good survey is confidential
• Respondents are more likely to give you honest information about
themselves, their opinions, and their behavior if you don’t ask for
their names or other identifying information
7

Relevance, Brevity and Simplicity
• Only ask questions that are relevant to your topic and purpose
• Avoid asking too many questions
• Use simple, concrete, and grammatically correct language, and
steer clear of clichés, abbreviations, and jargon
8

Pretesting
• Pretest questions to check if respondents are interpreting their
meaning as intended
• If you discover your questions are vague or don’t gather the kind
of information you need, make changes to your questionnaire and
pretest the revision as well
9

Professional Appearance
• A good survey looks professional
• It should be formatted consistently, easy to read, and include a
clear set of instructions
10

Types of Survey Questions
• There are two broad types of survey questions:
• Open ended
• Close ended
• Consider your purpose as well as the kind of information you
think will be most useful when preparing your presentation
• Whenever possible, use more than one type of question
11

Open-Ended Questions
• Open-ended questions allow audience members to provide
detailed answers
• The answers to open-ended question are very valuable, but be
careful not to overuse them
• One or two good open-ended questions is enough, but don’t
put them back-to-back
12

Close-Ended Questions
• Close-ended questions force audience members to choose an
answer from a limited list
• The following are the general types of close-ended questions, each
of which can address different purposes:
• Multiple-Choice Questions
• Ratings
• Rank Ordering
• Demographic Questions
13

Multiple-Choice Questions (1 of 2)
• Multiple-choice questions are popular because they provide the
clearest results
• The following is an example of a multiple-choice question that
asks for a single answer:
In your opinion, what percentage of your daily communicating time do
you spend listening?
_____ More than 70 percent
_____ 40–70 percent
_____ 20–39 percent
_____ 10–19 percent
_____ Less than 10 percent
14

Multiple-Choice Questions (2 of 2)
The following is an example of a checklist that allows a fixed or
unfixed number of multiple answers:
Which beliefs and values are most important to you? You may check one
or more answers.
_____ Individuality and self-interest take precedence over group interests.
_____ All forms of authority, including government, should be viewed
with suspicion.
_____ Your personal success depends on acceptance among your peers.
_____ You should belong to an organized religious institution.
_____ All human beings are equal.
_____ America is a symbol of progress.
_____ Protecting our environment is a moral and survival issue.
15

Ratings (1 of 2)
• Ratings questions, often called an agree-disagree scale or a Likert
scale, ask audience members to specify their level of agreement or
disagreement about a series of statements
• The following example surveys audience feelings about speaking
in various contexts:
Indicate the degree to which each statement applies to you by marking
whether you (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) are undecided, (4)
disagree, or (5) strongly disagree.4
_____ 1. I have no fear of speaking up in conversations.
_____ 2. My thoughts become confused when I give a speech.
_____ 3. I dislike participating in group discussions.
16

Ratings (2 of 2)
The following example asks respondents to think about the
importance of specific speaking skills:
How would you rate the following items in terms of their importance
to you in becoming a more effective speaker? Circle one of the
numbers for each of the four items that represent how important or
unimportant it is as a presentation speaking skill.
Blank Extremely
important
Very
important
Somewhat
important
Not very
important
Not at all
important
1. Organizing a
presentation
5 4 3 2 1
2. Adapting to
an audience
5 4 3 2 1
3. Speaking
impromptu
5 4 3 2 1
4. Persuading
an audience
5 4 3 2 1
17

Rank Ordering (1 of 2)
• Ranking questions ask audience members to put answer options
in a preferred order, helping you understand each option’s
popularity relative to the audience as a whole
• The following example asks you to rank the features of a physical
product:
Which of the following features of your fitness tracker do you
like the most? Order the features from highest (5, the feature you
like most) to lowest (1, the feature you like least).
_____ Measuring sleep time and quality
_____ Setting fitness goals
_____ Tracking number of steps per day
_____ Monitoring active minutes
_____ Recording calories consumed
18

Rank Ordering (2 of 2)
The second example asks you to rank the quality of customer
service in five fast-food chains:
Which of the following fast-food chains provide the best customer service? Order
them from best (5, the best customer service) to worst (1, the customer service
you like the least). Do not rate the food.
_____ McDonald’s
_____ Burger King
_____ Chipotle
_____ Chick-fi l-A
_____ Wendy’s
19

Demographic Questions (1 of 2)
• Demographic survey questions collect information about audience
demographics such as age, gender, race, marital status, religion,
income, and occupation
• These answers can help you segment your audience based on who
they are and what they do
20

Demographic Questions (2 of 2)
Consider the following examples:
How would you describe your political viewpoint?
____ Very liberal
____ Slightly liberal
____ Slightly conservative
____ Very conservative
____ Prefer not to say
To which generation do you belong?
____ Greatest Generation (born 1901–27)
____ Silent Generation (1928–45)
____ Baby Boomers (1946–64)
____ Generation X (1965–80)
____ Millennials or Generation Y (1981–96)
____ Generation Z or Zoomers (1997–2012)
21

How to Use Demographic Data (1 of 3)
• Some people may be reluctant to answer questions about their
age, gender, ethnicity, religion, income, occupation, marital status,
and more because they don’t want to box themselves into a
category
• They also may want to keep that sort of information private
• However, the answers to such questions can sometimes be very
valuable
• They help you identify factors that may influence how people
will respond to your presentation
• They let you compare and contrast the responses of various
subgroups
22

• When asking about demographic information, make sure the
answer options adapt to probable characteristics of your audience
• Alternatively, you could use an open-ended question, but the
results would be more difficult to tabulate and summarize
• Try to be inclusive and avoid upsetting members who are left off a
demographic checklist when asking audience members questions
• The way you ask and use the answers to demographic questions
can vary depending on the rhetorical situation and whether you
really need to know the answers
• Always ask yourself if you really need to know the answer to this
question in order to understand and adapt to your audience
23

Consider the following example where changes in race and ethnicity
designations are adapted to by combining the categories into a single
question that alphabetizes all but the last three options:
Which of the following categories best describes you?
____ Asian or Pacific Islander
____ Black or African American
____ Hispanic or Latino
____ Native American or Alaskan Native
____ White or Caucasian
____ Multiracial or biracial
____ My race/ethnicity is not listed here.
____ I prefer to not answer this question.
24

Survey Administration
• Determine the best way to distribute and collect your
questionnaires
• Online tools have made it much easier to create, distribute, and
process the results of a survey
• Depending on the likely audience, some members may not be
confident, willing, or able to answer online questions
• If you don’t have time to survey your audience, you may look for
general answers to research questions about an audience
• However, use them only as a guideline
25

Interviews and Focus Groups
• To survey your audience, consider scheduling an interview with
one or two people who know the audience better than you do, or
conducting a focus group with people who are part of the audience
you expect to address
• Interviews and focus groups offer the opportunity to pretest your
questions and identify the ones that require revisions
• They also allow you to discuss the answers with respondents
26

Interviews
• An interview is a private one-on-one conversation between you
and an audience member either in person or via media
• It can provide detailed, valuable information to help you
prepare for a presentation
• Begin by asking general questions about the audience
• Listen for common characteristics as well as information about
their opinions and behaviors, but stay focused on your purpose
• Demonstrate that your goal is to learn as much as you can in
order to tailor your presentation to their interests and needs
• Note that the answers you gain a few from interviews may not
represent the audience as a whole, or may not be completely true
27

Focus Groups (1 of 2)
• A focus group is an exploratory, qualitative research method
where people discuss a series of carefully selected questions
guided by a moderator
• Focus groups may take some effort, but they can be just as
valuable as a good survey if planned and conducted with care
• The following are some basic guidelines for conducting a
productive focus group:
• Develop Appropriate Survey Questions: Ask a few broad questions
(fewer than in a written survey) ranked in order of importance,
have group members to explain their answer, and observe how
they respond to group members who chose other answers
28

Focus Groups (2 of 2)
• The following are some basic guidelines for conducting a
productive focus group:
• Develop appropriate survey questions
• Select your participants carefully
• Pretest your questions
• Bring an agenda
• Facilitate conversation
29

Develop Appropriate Survey Questions
• Ask fewer, broader questions than in a written survey that allow
participants to provide longer answers
• Rank them in order of importance
• Ask group members to explain why they chose a particular answer
• Observe how they respond to other group members who chose
different answers
• Ask more specific follow-up questions
30

Select Your Participants Carefully
• Choose people who represent the demographics, attitudes, and
behaviors of your target audience
• Research potential participants and invite people who agree,
disagree, and are undecided
31

Pretest Your Questions
• Pretesting is just as important with focus groups as it with written
surveys
• Pretest your questions with a couple of friends or classmates who
are typical of the audience you will address
32

Bring an Agenda
• Having an agenda will help you stay on track and use your time
wisely
• Start by asking participants their names and for an explanation of
why they might attend a presentation like the one you’re
preparing
• Ask questions that probe deeper than a written survey could to
understand how people think and feel about the topic
• Use effective listening skills and clear and oral speaking styles, and
pay attention to nonverbal behavior
33

Facilitate Conversation
• Make sure you include everyone in the discussion
• Pay special attention to those who speak less, seem unwilling
to participate, or are hesitant to disagree with other members
• A focus group gives you a sense of how the full audience might
react, but keep in mind that it may not be a highly representative
sample of the audience population
34

Midpresentation Surveys and Adaptations
• Surveys involve looking at and listening carefully to people in
order to gain information about them, regardless of the setting or
mode
• Surveying, analyzing, and adapting to an audience can and should
continue as you speak
• Engage in a midpresentation survey that analyzes audience
reactions and justifies modifications to your message, especially if
your audience or their reactions are not what you expected
• Responding to the audience’s behavior and then modifying your
presentation accordingly differentiates just making a speech and
achieving your purpose
35

Credits
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 9.1.
For more resources, please visit The Norton Field Guide to Speaking:
http://digital.wwnorton.com/nfgspeaking.
Copyright © 2022 W. W. Norton & Company

Norton Field Guide for Speaking 9.1

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