ABSTRACT
Early in my postgraduate career I began to look for writing that was concerned with
presentation and found Goffman’s (1981: 137-38) observations on audiences
interesting:
Audiences hear [and read] in a way special to them … Indeed, and
fundamentally, the role of the audience is to appreciate remarks made, not to
reply in a direct way. They are to conjure up what a reply might be, but not
utter it … They give the floor but (except during the question period) rarely
get it.
