Engaging the Audience Engaging the audience refers to a speaker stimulating, inspiring, exciting, or involving the audience. Ideally, all public presentations and speeches should be engaging. Consider the context of the speaking situation and expectations of audience members. What can you say and do throughout your presentation that will arouse audience members in an effective and ethical manner?

• Ask the audience a question

o Closed ended question – small range of answers § “By a show of hands, how many of you…?” § “Guess how many people…” o Open-ended question – requires a response in the respondent’s own words § “What words come to mind when you see this picture…?” § “What are your thoughts/feelings/attitudes/experiences with….?” o If multiple responses are given, consider paraphrasing audience contributions. o Use audience responses to guide what you say next (i.e., to prove a point, as a transition).

• Use vivid language

o Use clear and descriptive language to evoke feelings and images in listeners’ minds § § § §

Describe sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and textures in detail Use alliteration - “Today, there are more than fifty fabulous fruity flavors…” Use similes - “She was as tough as a bull.” Use metaphors - “When he ate, he was a crocodile, opening wide and snapping…”

• Share a powerful and relevant personal story

o Consider Judith Black’s comment about storytelling: “your job as teller is not merely to artistically recap an experience but to process what happened, to understand how and why it touched your life, and to reshape the experience so it touches the lives of others” (www.storiesalive.com/). o Who are the characters in the story? What obstacles challenge them? How, if at all, do the characters overcome the obstacles? How does the story aid in achieving the speech purpose?

• Use repetition throughout and/or a summary of information at the end o The speaker and/or audience can repeat crucial information for emphasis, such as:

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Phrases or quotations – “Again, Steve Martin said, ‘be so good, they can’t ignore you.’” Contact information - “What’s the web address we learned about for registering to vote?”

o Summarize your key points toward the end of the presentation, or ask the audience to do so

• Demonstrate and have audience members “do it”

o Show the audience what you are speaking about. Explain and show the audience “how to.” o If you are informing or persuading the audience about how to do something, consider having some or all audience members do it during your presentation. Make it “hands-on” (i.e., “if you have a smart phone, please take it out and go to registertovote.org”). o Remember to be available to audience members who need assistance. Public Speaking Center

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www.uwlax.edu/CommStudies/PSC

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251 Murphy Library