Layer 5: “Topic Interest” and “Prior Knowledge” Analysis
Layer 5: “Topic Interest” and “Prior Knowledge” Analysis
Finally, you want to query your audience for their interest in, and prior
knowledge of, your topic. If the goal of your speech is to deliver a unique and stirring presentation (and it should be), it would make perfect sense to know ahead of time if your audience: (1) is interested in what you have to say, and (2) has any prior knowledge regarding your topic. It stands to reason that you do not want to give a boring or trite speech. That much is clear. Instead, you want to put your best work forward, and let your audience see your confidence and preparation shine through. And, it also stands to reason that you don’t want to make a speech that your audience already knows a lot about. So, your job here is to “test” your topic by sampling your audience for their topic interest and topic knowledge. Defined, topic interest is the significance of the topic to a given audience; oftentimes related precisely to the uniqueness of a speaker’s topic. Likewise, topic knowledge is the general amount of information that the audience possesses on a given topic. These are not mere definitions listed for the sake of argument; these are essential analytical components of effective speech construction.
Unlike multicultural audience analysis, evaluating your audience’s topic
interest and topic knowledge is a fairly simple task. There are two ways to go about doing this: (1) through informal question and answer dialogue in class, or (2) more formally through an actual survey. Either way, it is best to have some information, rather than none at all. Imagine if you will, the laundry list of topics that people have heard over and over and over, ad nauseam. You can probably name some yourself, right now, without giving it much thought. If you started listing some topics to yourself, please realize that this is the point of this section of this module; your audience is literally thinking the same exact thing you are. Given that, topic preparation is strategically important to your overall speech success.
Again, do not underestimate the power of asking your audience whether or not your topic actually interests them. If you find that many people are not interested in your topic, or already know a lot about it, you have just saved yourself from a potentially mind-numbing exercise. After all, do you really want to give a speech where your audience could care less about your topic—or even worse — they know more about the topic than you do yourself? Not at all! The purpose of this section is to help you search for the highly sought-after public speaking concept called uniqueness, or when a topic rises to the level of being singularly exceptional in interest and knowledge to a given audience. We know that you wish to excel in giving your speech, and indeed you shall. But first, let’s make sure that your audience is “turned on” by your topic and hasn’t already heard the subject matter so much that they, themselves, could give the speech without much (if any) preparation.
One final note: There’s an old adage in communication studies that reasons: “know what you know; know what you don’t know; and, know the difference between the two.” In other words, don’t use puffery to blind your audience about your alleged knowledge on a particular subject. Remember, there is likely to be someone in your audience who knows as much about your topic, if not more, than you do. If you get caught trying to field an embarrassing question, you might just lose the most important thing you have as a speaker: your credibility. If you know the answer, respond accordingly. If you do not know the answer, respond accordingly. But, above all, try and be a resource for your audience. They expect you to be something of a de facto expert on the topic you choose to address.
