Audience Analysis
Purpose
An effective document is written to appeal to a target audience, yet takes into consideration other audiences. As a result, you do not only have to know your audience and anticipate their response to your document, but you will also have to consider how other audiences who read your document may react. Our discussion today will provide some tips for understanding these different audiences, as well negotiating between them.
Questions
for Class Discussion
At the beginning of class, we will work together to answer the following questions. Draw your answers from the Jolliffe reading and your experiences as a writer and reader:
- What are the four features of the rhetorical? Describe them in detail.
- What is an exigence and how does it match up with the work that you have been doing in this class?
- What is a target, or primary, audience? What would a secondary audience be? an unintended audience?
- How should you negotiate between these various audience?
- Jolliffe argues that there is no sense in "preaching to the choir" (p. 140). What does he mean by this? And what exceptions to this rule can you think of?
- Jolliffe also argues that student writers should think of their instructors as an "exemplar of educated generalists." In some cases this is not the case, but in all cases the instructor represents an evaluating audience (i.e., one who will grade your work). Therefore, what do you know about your instructor's expectations. Think about the criteria for the assignments and features that you have been graded upon.
- What questions should you ask yourself to learn more about your audience?
- How do you account for diversity within a single special interest group?
last.updated 03.26.05