Day 4: Analyzing Audience

Objectives:

Students will be able to

•  understand the fundamental role that audience plays in the stages of the writing process.
•  identify both explicit and implicit audience.
•  understand how reader orientation differs across cultures.
•  Evaluate audience focus and markers in the student's own diagnostic essay and judge its effectiveness based on their knowledge of the audience in writing.
• Strategize revision of the current audience to the newly written audience description so that is more effective.

Module 1.1 (cont.)

 Thinking about your Audience when writing

Elicit how we can know when something is written for a particular audience. How do things change when the audience changes?

Audience and Purpose/Handout: 

1. Consider the following differences between the two: vocabulary, examples used, sentence structure, use of pronouns, specifics mentioned, organization, tone
2. What did the writer include in the first example that she left out in the second? Why?
3. What did she include in the second that she left out in the first? Why?  

Writing Across Cultures
Video

Think back to your Diagnostic Essay: Who is your audience?

1. Who do you think the audience for the diagnostic is? 

2. How can you tell from your writing?

3. Discuss the accurate audience (someone from the opposite side since it s a persuasive/argumentative essay).
4. Is there something you would change with this new perspective, why?

5. Open a Word document and reflect on the importance of having audience, about what you see in your diagnostic essay regarding this, and how you can improve this piece of writing by focusing on a specific audience.

Homework:  
Continue with the audience analysis of your diagnostic essay. Remember, now that you have a specific audience in mind, go over each of the different sections of your diagnostic, what is adequate to keep because it is appropriate for this essay, what needs to be changed to fit the needs of this new reader(s), what kind of changes should be implemented, etc.  Record all these thoughts and reflections on the Word document you started in class and put on Dropbox. This audience analysis must be completed by next class.
Don't hesitate to email me  if you have any questions (torresx2@illinois.edu). You can also come to my office hours (Office 4052, 4th floor, FLB - Mondays and Wednesdays 4:00 - 5:00, or by appointment.)

Sources

 ESL 115 TA Resources. Audience: Communication Model (Lesson). Retrieved from

 http://esl115ta.blogspot.com/2013/01/audience-communication-model-lesson.html

 Jayes J. and Menendez, B. Prompt for Reflective Essay #1. Retrieved from 

 http://esl115ta.blogspot.com/2012/01/reflective-essay-1.html