traci's lists of ten

Traci's 13th List of Ten:
Ten Audience Analysis Exercises
Posted to ACW-L, WCenter, NCTE-Talk, and TEACH on 10/30/98.

These audience analysis techniques ask students to think about their readers from a slightly different point of view (as an opponent in a soccer game, for instance), or to think about the similarities and differences that they have to their readers. The exercises lean more toward persuasive and informative writing assignments. Though they could be rephrased or adapted for other uses.
  1. Your job in your paper is convince a group of people to change their minds and adopt your point of view on a current issue. Think of your audience as a group of players on an opposing soccer team (or other athletic team). Whenever two teams meet, they analyze each other's skills and devise strategies to help them do their best. For instance, you might notice that the goalie is a little slower moving to block balls on the left side of the net. After noting that weakness, you'd create a new playing strategy to help score a point -- you'd try to kick to the goalie's left side. What are the strengths of the opposing position that your audience holds? What are the weaknesses? What strategies can you devise based on these strengths and weaknesses?

  2. Have a Devil's Advocate discussion. Each person in your group will present a position on an issue and the facts and details that support that position. Once someone has posted a position, the rest of your group members play devil's advocate -- responding to the position by suggesting counter-positions and counter-arguments. Give as many responses to the writer's position as you can. As your group members give counter-positions, respond to the issues. Debate each person's topic for at least 15 minutes. When you finish with one writer in your group, move to the next one until everyone in the group has had a chance to share a topic.

    Once everyone has finished, look over the notes for your topic. Which positions are your readers likely to believe? Which of the arguments would they be likely to make? What counter-arguments are convincing? Use the list to focus on the things that matter to your readers.

    NOTE: If students are working online (in an InterChange session or MOO session), you can save a transcript; if they're working in an oral discussion setting, have someone from each group take notes for the writer. Students could also complete this exercise in email.

  3. Create your own graphic organizer to brainstorm on your audience's position and think about your writing task. On a sheet of paper, draw a continuum like this:

    Complete
    Agreement

    Some
    Agreement

    Some
    Disagreement

    Complete
    Disagreement

     

     

     

     


    Under the columns, sketch out the points and related issues that you and a reader who adopts the opposing position share, based on the headings in the organizer. For instance, say you were writing that more money should be budgeted for classroom equipment and an opposing reader argues that money should be budgeted instead for teachers' salaries. You and your reader both agree that more money should be spend on education, so you are in complete agreement. You probably also agree that money spent on schools should be used for educational reasons (not for something like replacing the shrubbery on the school's property). But you disagree completely on the educational goals the the money should help fulfill.

    For your topic, simply think through similar positions -- what things do you and an opponent agree on? What would you have similar ideas about? What would you disagree about?

  4. Put yourself in your reader's place. What doubts does your reader have about your position? What ideas is your reader skeptical of? After you list the things that your reader is likely to doubt, go back through the list and try to come up with two or three reasons that your reader has these doubts. You can create a chart like this one to help organize your notes:

    Reader's Doubts

    Reasons

    doubt that we can find good equipment for the school within a reasonable budget

    prices for computer equipment are high and it may require a lot of work to find good equipment that we can afford. who will pay for that work?

    Once you're created a list of all the doubts, go back to your chart and add a third column, counter-points. For each of the doubts that is listed, add a response in the counter-point column that will help clear up the reader's doubt.

    Reader's Doubts

    Reasons

    Counter-Points

    doubt that we can find good equipment for the school within a reasonable budget

    prices for computer equipment are high and it may require a lot of work to find good equipment that we can afford. who will pay for that work?

    Educational leasing & purchase plans are available that make the price lower than it would usually be. Most companies will provide some help on designing and choosing the equipment.



  5. Consider the political situation surrounding the issue that you're writing about. How is your audience affected by the issue? Will they gain something? lose something? both? What territorial rights are involved? Will your readers need to change the way that they do something? How will they feel about any changes that are necessary?

    For even an informative announcement, there are political and power issues to consider. For instance, if you were writing a message to tell people that there is going to be construction on Main Street for the next three months, you might consider the loss of control that some of your readers will have once the city tells them that they cannot drive down the street the way that they want. Others will be frustrated by traffic congestion. Merchants on the road may feel unhappy about the noise and the effect on their businesses. Still other readers will be angry that money is being spent resurfacing Main Street when there are giant potholes in side streets.

    For all the power and territory issues involved, think about how you can best respond to your readers. What can you say to indicate that you understand the readers' position and still convince them that the change or your position is best?

  6. What does your audience know about your subject area? Begin by brainstorming or freewriting for a few minutes on your topic itself. What is it that you're writing about?

    Next, skip down a bit, and brainstorm or freewrite on what your readers know about your topic and where they have learned what they know.

    Now, think about the relationship between the subject and your readers' knowledge. Think about the special terms and jargon that you know about your topic. What will you need to define? Are there acronyms that you'll need to explain? Look back over your original brainstorming on your topic --are there ideas or words that will need details for your readers? Make a list of all the things that you'll need to deal with to help your readers understand.

  7. How will you tell that your writing is successful? When you write something, you want your readers to do or think something as a result. Perhaps you want them to change the way that they do something (for instance, participate in a recycling program on your campus rather than throwing away aluminum cans). Maybe you want them to change their minds about an issue or to modify their position a little (for instance, you might want to convince readers that a school uniform program would be good for the local public school system).

    One way to measure your success is to consider whether your readers do what you want after reading your paper. For your topic, make a list of the things that you want your readers to do or to think after reading your paper. Branch off each thing that you want readers to do or to think, and note the reasons you want them to do so. For instance, you might want readers to participate in a recycling program because it's better for the environment and because the school earns money for recycling. Remember as you move through the list to think about the reasons from the readers' point of view too. Your readers may not care that the school earns money by recycling aluminum. You have to include all the details that WILL make your readers care -- what will the money be spent on? How will the money affect your readers?

  8. Think about the background of your readers: how old are they? what kind of education do they have? what kind of families do they come from? where do they live? what beliefs and values do they hold? Choose three representative types from your audience and write a one-paragraph character sketch on each of the three that gives details on your readers. You might choose different extremes in your readership such as the most conservative readers and the most liberal reader. You could also consider gender, age, education, and so forth. The point is to choose three different kinds of people who will read your paper and think through what you know about those readers' ideas, beliefs, and backgrounds.

  9. First impressions are important. How will your readers first react to your topic? Are they likely to be interested? to be annoyed? to be appalled? That first reaction can affect everything else that your readers see in the paper. If they start out annoyed, you'll have a harder time convincing them to adopt your point of view or make the change or decisions that you ask. Once you've identified your readers' first reaction, brainstorm on the things that you can do to keep their attention. What can you say or do that will keep them reading once they know what the topic is? What techniques might you use to get their attention before they learn what your topic is? Think about that first paragraph that will introduce your ideas to your readers. How can you hook their interest and keep them reading to the end?

  10.  What if the medium were different? Think about the paper that you're working on and the ways that your knowledge of advertisements and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines can help you learn more about your readers.

    If you were writing an advertisement or public service announcement rather than a paper, where would the advertisement or announcement appear? What channel? During what shows? Or what magazine? Which section? And what would the advertisement or announcement look like? More importantly, WHY would it appear on those channels during those shows or in those sections of those particular magazines? How does the audience relate to the shows and magazines where the information would appear?

    Once you think about what you know about your readers based on where a similar advertisement or public service announcement would appear, think about similar things that you've seen. How do they get and keep the readers' attention? What techniques can you use?

Originally Posted October 30, 1998 on the Daedalus Website.

Posted Sunday, 12-Jun-2005 09:09:16 PDT
Copyright © 1998-2011 Traci Gardner, P. O. Box 11836, Blacksburg, VA 24060-1836. These materials may be referenced, linked to, and indexed, but their contents may not be duplicated without express written consent of the author. See the Copying and Sharing page for more details.