Your Audience

Let's start with that essay shall we?

The Examiner is your audience. Maybe in college it is your lecturer. In school, perhaps your teacher.

So what does she/he want from you?

50 pages of copy from that website? Half a reluctant page of guesswork?

Probably not…

She/He wants to see that you have understood the question and that you can answer it simply and backed up with facts.

Do it and watch your marks soar!

For speeches:

Aristotle says that the audience are “morally weak”. They would much rather be reading something more interesting, listening to someone better, going shopping on e bay...
So think about what they want.

What really interests them? What affects their lives? Their pleasures? What do they find strange and unusual?
“How much tax do you pay at the moment?”
“Does school really have to be compulsory after, say, 14?”
“Yesterday I watched someone die.”
And after the first shock, you have to keep the audience on their toes. Keep their attention.
Tony Blair was a good orator. He used the chummy “Yer know”. Funny speakers like to remind people “to keep up at the back.”

Boring speakers say, “Now I am coming on to the interesting bit...”
But words like “Actually...”, “This is not always the case...”, “You might not know this but...”
-all useful.

Boris Johnson, a superb communicator, always treats his interviewer like a slightly backward old friend. He deliberately stumbles over his words as he thinks. Then he darts in with a rapier flourish.

So always keep the audience – at weddings, at funerals, when commenting, when tweeting (?) - in mind. Especially in examinations...Just answer the question. Nothing else. That is what the examiner (your audience) wants.

Sales people and Advertisers:

You need a quick attention grabbing moment. "Wow!" Or suddenly produce the product. Or both. If you want a good sentence to start off, look here.