Author Archive

Factors of Audience Analysis

Friday, May 4th, 2012

Status

Status refers to the writer’s degree of authority and/or power relative to the reader. Are you writing to your boss, to a group of peers, or to someone who is junior to you’? Is your reader a client with whom you intend to continue doing business, or the general public that you can only see from a bird’s eye view’? Are you an expert presenting information to a non-specialist audience, or a novice showing to an authority how much you know about a subject? These features refer to the status of the writer and his writing.

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Factors of Audience Analysis

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

Marketing executives and consumer researchers, who have a strong interest in understanding market responses, and who, therefore, conduct extensive research in mass perceptions, take into account five factors of audience analysis:

  • Technical background
  • Status
  • Attitude
  • Demographics
  • Psychographics

Technical background refers to the readers’ knowledge (or lack of knowledge) in the topic that you are writing about. How much technical terminology should you use to avoid sounding either too condescending or too obscure? Should you begin with the big picture to put the reader into perspective, or go straight to the details that you want to focus on? Are you writing to people of the same educational background as yours (i.e. your peers), or to those of different training?

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Audience Analysis

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

Every act of writing takes place in a new context, with a unique time, place or reader to take into account. Audience adaptation refers to the skill of arranging words, organizing your thoughts, and formatting your document to best achieve your desired effect on your target audience. Audience dynamics refers to the relationship that writers form with their readers through their style, and through the amount and structure of information they provide. The audience dynamics are effective when the readers get a sense of satisfaction that the questions raised in the text were relevant to their interests and the answers or solutions provided were convincing. In contrast, audience dynamics are ineffective when the readers feel frustrated or offended because the writer’s tone is condescending, the answers or solutions provided are simplistic in relation to the complexity of the questions, or the argument is emotive and based on generalization. To maximise your ability to achieve effective audience dynamics, assess the readers’ needs, knowledge and interest by conducting an audience analysis before writing. Audience analysis is an integral part of your research.

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Essential Skills That Good Writers Must Have

Monday, April 30th, 2012
  • Understand and use essential terminology and key concepts in describing written communication.
  • Understand and use the requirements of writing investigative reports, digital texts, and management and journalistic articles.
  • Adapt written communication for a specific audience and purpose.
  • Perceive writing as a process, involving planning, drafting, editing, revising, and reviewing.
  • Become aware of the writing procedures.
  • Locate, manage, and manipulate information using a variety of printed and electronic resources.
  • Understand the uses of writing in collaborative projects and in project management.
  • Produce sophisticated arguments, and be critical of arguments and statistics used in other documents.
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Tips for Note Taking

Saturday, April 28th, 2012
  • Collect notes for each course in one place, in a separate notebook or section of a notebook.
  • Use an ‘erasable pen or pencil ‘.
  • Use a loose-leaf notebook rather than a notebook with a permanent binding.
  • Enter your notes legibly because it saves time. Make them clear.
  • Draw a box around assignments and suggested books so you can identify them quickly.
  • Mark ideas which the lecture emphasizes with a highlighter, arrow or some special symbol.
  • When the teacher looks at his/her notes, pay attention to what they say next. Check any notes you may have missed with a classmate.
  • Do an outline. For every new section of your subject, use a new bullet – then title it and use smaller bullets,(-),or number them to put information down. This is much better than just writing down everything as a new point.
  • If the teacher has given a clear outline of the topic e.g. “Today we’ll learn about 10 types of leaves..”, use numbers 1,2,…10 for the main points (types of leaves), and letters of the alphabet a, b, c etc for examples of each type.
  • Use ‘mind maps’ if you’ve learned how to draw them. Ask someone to show you the method, or Google the information. Mind maps are an excellent way to organize ideas on paper, and you can easily add examples / stories / supporting info / evidence in the right places even if your teacher mentions them much later.
  • One helpful strategy is, if your teacher writes on his or her black or whiteboard, use a bullet for anything he writes, and a dash for anything he says, and use a plus for any combination. This can help distinguish exact facts with inferences.
  • Incorporate different colors of ink, diagrams, drawings of your own. Make your notes your notes. Take advantage of how you learn (visually, aurally [by ear], or actively) and write/draw your notes according to that style.
  • Watch for signal words. Your instructor is not going to send up a rocket when he/she states an important new idea or gives an example, but she will use signals to telegraph what she is doing. Every good speaker does it, and you should expect to receive these signals
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