Integration of Statistical Methods and Audience Analysis in
SPC 205, Public Speaking
Implementation Dates: September 2007 – December 2007
Description of Project: In our SPC 205 Public Speaking course, students must present a persuasive speech. A necessary component of this type of speech is audience analysis; it is important to research audience demographics so that the speaker can design his/her content to appropriately and effectively communicate the chosen topic. For instructional purposes, basic demographic data will be gathered and summarized in each section. For applied purposes students will be required to create a survey to use in class. They will then summarize and analyze the data before their persuasive speeches. In addition, demographic data gathered will be offered to MAT 120 (Probability and Statistics) instructors for use in their classes.
Outcomes for Students/Project:
Students who complete this section of SPC 205 will be able to do the following:
Explain why understanding a target audience is important in order to appropriately and effectively communicate using a persuasive speech.
Appropriately summarize demographic data numerically using the mean, the median, the mode, and percentages.
Recognize survey/questionnaire questions that are inappropriately worded.
Design a survey/questionnaire capable of assessing the attitudes of a target audience towards a chosen persuasive speech topic using questions that will yield statistically valid data.
Summarize the results of a survey/questionnaire in charts and graphs.
Interpret numerical summaries, charts, and graphs: Interpret individual demographic data summaries and responses to individual survey questions as well as relationships between demographic data and responses to survey questions.
Incorporate interpretations of data summaries into a persuasive speech.
Assignments (See attached files for actual assignments.):
1. Audience Analysis: Ms. Trumbo will hand out a questionnaire asking for the following demographic information of each SPC 205 student:
Age
Gender
Religious Preference – Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant (i.e. Baptist, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Nondenominational, etc.), Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, non-practicing, or other.
Race – American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black/Non-Hispanic, Latino/Hispanic, Caucasian/White, or other.
Group Membership (school-related activities) – Is the student involved in any campus group(s)? If involved, in what group(s)?
Marital Status – Married, divorced, widowed, single.
Children – Number children.
Ms. Amick or Ms. Hawkins will visit each section to explain how to summarize the demographic data collected using the mean, median, and mode for age and percentage and modal category gender. Students will be divided into groups of four to compute data summaries for their section for the remaining demographic variables.
2. Survey/Questionnaire: Ms. Trumbo will use a sample survey/questionnaire to demonstrate the construction of questions that will yield statistically valid data, and will administer the survey to the students each section.
Working in pairs and using Ms. Trumbo’s sample survey/questionnaire as a guide, students will create a survey/questionnaire to assess the attitudes of their classmates towards their chosen persuasive speech topics, writing one survey question of each type for each student’s topic. Students in each section will complete each others’ surveys.
Ms. Amick or Ms. Hawkins will visit each section to demonstrate summarizing and interpreting data using charts and graphs. They will use the results of Ms. Trumbo’s sample survey/questionnaire for this demonstration. Students will summarize and interpret the results of their individual surveys using charts and graphs.