I can help you define and find examples for all three public-speaking terms. Let's start with size.

Size

Size, as the term implies, involves the size of the audience. According to Douglas Fraleigh and Joseph Tuman, the size of your audience has an impact on the type of speech you will give. You won’t give the same kind of speech to an audience of seven people that you would give to an audience of 700 people.

In their book, Fraleigh and Tuman give the example of Jeanine. She’s a marketing representative who goes from presenting in front of seven to ten people to presenting in front of hundreds of people. As you might remember, Fraleigh and Tuman explain how the bigger audience transforms her presentations. Now, she’s including common questions into her speech, since she knows she won’t be able to answer everyone’s question.

Time

In their book, Fraleigh and Tuman account for two types of time. There’s the time allotted for your speech. Maybe your speech will only be five minutes, but maybe it’ll be twenty-five minutes. There’s also the time when you give your speech. Perhaps you have to give your speech at 2:00 pm on a Wednesday. Maybe you have to give your speech at 10:30 am on a Monday.

If you’re giving your speech on a Monday, Fraleigh and Tuman suggest you come up with ways to be more engaging so as to combat any post-weekend sluggishness. Their examples include using humor, quaint stories, and even direct questions. Asking someone in the audience a direct question is a great way to snap them out of their weekend torpor.

Location

Location is the term Fraleigh and Tuman use to talk about where you will give your speech. Maybe you’ll give it inside a classroom, or maybe it’ll be outdoors.

For an example, Fraleigh and Tuman introduce a high school junior named Loren. He gives a speech outside. To make sure his important words are heard by everyone, he uses a microphone. Yet Loren didn’t think that the outdoor area would be designed to amplify sound. Loren didn’t need a microphone. In fact, his microphone made it, in Fraleigh and Tuman’s words, “too painful to hear.” That’s why you have to know all about your location before you give your speech.