Presenting lecture material, an in-class activity, and example transparencies, this paper is the first installment of a 3-part series of lecture/in-class activities that are used to get feedback from students on the effectiveness of teaching strategies in the area of audience analysis and adaptation in the classroom. The paper combines several elements in the area of speech preparation--audience information surveys, demographic traits, situational traits, and adaptation strategies. The lecture in the paper gives students practical and specific guidelines for accomplishing each task. The in-class activity in the paper helps students to assess the demographic traits of the speech audience in a collective manner. An audience demographic data sheet is attached. (RS)