• 1.1: Audience Analysis

    • Business Communication for Success: "Getting to Know Your Audience"

      Read Section 3.4. Pay attention to the key takeaways regarding the ways to better understand your audience. Complete Exercise 1 to analyze yourself as an audience. Then use the same approach to identify an audience you may encounter professional or personally. How do their demographic traits influence their thinking and your ability to persuade or inform them?

    • The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: "Audience" Page

      Read the full document. Keep in mind that in the workplace often times the person requesting that you prepare a document isn’t the intended or final audience for the communication, just as the professor in a class isn’t necessarily the final audience for a document. Once you have read this document, think of a recent time when you needed to communicate information or directions. Use your experience of this communication to answer the questions listed under "How Do I Identify My Audience and What they Want from Me?" Based on this analysis, what information did you need to provide to the audience for the communication to be effective?

    • ProsWrite: "Tutorial on Context in Professional Writing: Audience" Page

      Watch the video. Pay close attention to how the speaker breaks down what might motivate or be important to the intended audience for your message and how that might contrast with your own motivations or beliefs. Make sure you pause the video as needed to practice your understanding during the "Apply Your Knowledge" activities.

    • Writing Activity: The Audience-Writer Relationship Assignment
      In a page or more, 150-250 words, analyze the audience-writer relationship for a policy change proposal between yourself and a supervisor. Identify the value differences, power differences, and social differences between you and your audience. How does the expertise and sensitivity of the audience affect their readiness to understand this communication? How does this analysis influence the content of your message?

    • 1.1.1: Who are They and What do They Know?

      • David McMurrey's "Audience Analysis: Just Who are These Guys?" Page
        Read the sections on Types of Audiences and Audience Analysis. Imagine you need to recommend a supervisor the acquisition of a new tool, piece of equipment, or computer program in the workplace. Which category would your audience fall into: experts, technicians, executives or non-specialists? Is it possible that the request you need to communicate to could impact multiple audiences? How would the content and delivery change for each different audience?

    • 1.1.2: What do They Need to Know or Do?

      • Writing Tips: Know Your Audience Page
        This video makes a great point about what your audience needs to do after reading your communication. When we begin a writing project, we must identify what action we want our audience to take after engaging with our communication. What will motivate them to take that action? Identify a time when you needed someone to take action. How did you communicate with them to make sure you gained compliance? What factors within the audience did you consider in crafting that communication?