In Search of Authenticity: Audience
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Transcript of In Search of Authenticity: Audience
IN SEARCH OF AUTHENTICITY: AUDIENCEPresented by April Finley
Real World WritingI asked several friends and family members (of
various occupations) what writing they have had to do in the last month, both personally and professionally. Here were some of their responses:
Financial advisor – financial plans for clients; emails; letters of request; genealogy writing; contracts and agreements
Computer programmer – technical documentation; user documentation; trouble shooting; task logging; project management/planning; performance reviews
Photography/graphic arts instructor – teaching philosophy; artist statement; website; gallery application materials; art criticism writings
Doctoral student – dissertation; essays and cover letters for applications; email, Facebook; handouts
Social worker – case studies and notes/documentation on clients
Plant breeder/dean of academic programs – research articles in scientific publications; letters of recommendation; annual reports; emails; grant proposals
Sign language interpreter – surveys; training manuals; pros/cons of childcare arrangements; flyers/advertisements
Nurse – narrative notes on patients
Introduction to Audience: Audience in Advertisements
In the following “Got Milk” ads, who do you think the target audiences are? For each ad, be as specific as possible in your response.
Ad 1
Ad 2
Ad 3
Ad 4
Ad 5
6 Ways to Reach AudienceThese six checkpoints for reaching
audience (as listed in the English Journal) may be used on a rubric to show to students before and after writing.
Reaching audience through: 1. Establishing a common context2. Verbal expression (word choice, style,
tone)3. Appropriate conventions
6 Ways to Reach Audience, cont.4. Structure5. Support/development6. Appropriate content
ExampleTwo books on the holocaust during WWII
address the concentration camp prisoners in two vastly different ways, due to the difference in audience.
First reading: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Second reading: From the Kingdom of Memory
(Also see: Terrible Things)
Try ItThink of five different people/types of
people in your life (e.g. grandma, best friend, etc.).
Then write a sentence-long greeting you might say to each of them, focusing on the difference in language/style/tone/content that you may use for each one.
ActivityDivide into partners. I will hand each set of partners a slip of paper naming
both a scenario (purpose) and an audience. Your task is to write to this scenario, keeping your
audience in mind (see the six checkpoints for ideas regarding how to differentiate for different audiences).
You may write any genre: a conversation, a letter, etc., but choose your genre carefully, as some genres may cater to one audience more naturally than another.
ShareWhen you share your writing, I’ll have you
read what you’ve written without telling us your intended purpose and audience.
Then, once we’ve guessed what your purpose/audience might have been, you can let us know if we were right. This will help you to evaluate how well you were able to pinpoint your audience, in particular.
SourcesOrtmeier-Hooper, Christina and Katherine E.
Tirabassi. “Teaching Writing for the ‘Real World’: Community and Workplace Writing.” English Journal. May 2009. 72-80.
Trimble, John R. Writing with Style. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2000.
Wiggins, Grant. “Real-World Writing: Making Purpose and Audience Matter.” English Journal. May 2009. 29-37.