It is one of the foundational principles of rhetoric that a speaker must take into account the audience being addressed. Every manual of rhetoric ever written includes some exhortation along the lines that a speech must be appropriate to the occasion, the place and, above all, to the audience. When Aristotle identified three elements in speech-making – the speaker, the subject and the audience – he declared the last of these to be the one that determines the speech's purpose and object. And ever since, rhetoricians have crafted their presentations according to the backgrounds, interests, and competencies of their listeners. In preparing a speech for a specific audience – be it the Roman senate, a class of school children or a conference of music scholars – a speaker will fashion the speech at hand according to the level of knowledge, predisposition and purpose of those assembled.

But how to address a more heterogeneous audience? Here, the rhetorical manuals tend to be of little help, for speeches are by their very nature events of a particular time and place, directed toward a particular audience. The few commentators on rhetoric who do address this problem advocate what amounts to little more than common sense. Orators, we are told, must seek a middle path, neither too high nor too low, neither too demanding nor too simple. Don't make your speech too sophisticated, but don't make it too plain, either. Make it just right. We might well call this the Goldilocks school of rhetoric.