Sketching Your Audiences Identity

Instructions: To help you identify an audience for your Writing Project 3 persuasive essay,
complete the following worksheet1. Keep in mind the following concepts.
Audience: Like the term author, the term audience is a fairly loose term.
Audience refers to any recipient of communication. Audiences can read, hear, see, or feel
different kinds of communication through different kinds of media. Also like authors,
audiences are humans whose specific activities are affected by specific backgrounds.
Backgrounds: The same sorts of factors that affect authors backgrounds also
affect audiences individual backgrounds. Most importantly, these factors affect how
audiences receive different pieces of communication; what they assume about the author;
and the context in which they hear, read, or appreciate what the author states.
Audience-Targeted Claims: An argumentative or persuasive piece of writing must
begin with a debatable thesis or claim. In other words, the claim must be something that
people could reasonably have differing opinions on. If your claim is something generally
agreed upon or accepted as fact then there is no need to persuade your audience.

What is your primary claim and supporting reasoning in Writing Project 3?

Example: ___________ is___________, because___________, ___________, and ___________.

Apples are better than oranges, because they are easier to eat, have greater nutritional
value, and come in a greater variety of flavors.

Parents can be major influences to whether or not their child will abuse drugs in
many ways. Some of these ways include a parent's parenting style, whether or not a
parent exposes their child to drugs directly, or even through transgenerational
inheritance.

Completing this worksheet will help you identify the primary dimensions of your audience.
Demographic Analysis: Who is in your audience? What are their individual and group
characteristics?
Psychological Analysis: What does your audience know and believe? What do they
think about your topic? What does your audience need to learn in order to understand your
argument?
Contextual Analysis: When and where are you presenting? Why is this audience
listening to you?

What is your target audiences implicit demographic profile?

Criteria Analysis of Your Audience How does this knowledge help you
tweak your message?

How old are they? Adolescence +

1 Based on Six Minutes: Speaking & Presentation Skills and the OWL Purdue
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Men? Women? Mixed

Mixed?

Race, culture, or All races in Western culture It is unknown to me how other cultures
ethnicity? perceive drug usage or go about
parenting their children so this
information could be completely
irrelevant to them.

Primary language? English

Profession? Any

Religion? Any

Educational level? Any

Organizational What?
membership?

Personality type?

Other relevant Drug users/

qualities? e.g. marital Parents/
status, avid readers, Parents that abuse drugs
cell-phone users,
marathon runners

Homogenous or Either
heterogeneous
audience?

Size of audience? Large/ Varies It has to be able to be appealing to

such a large, varied audience

Key similarities or
differences with you?

Peers? Superiors?
Subordinates?
Remember: Dont be disappointed if few criteria yield useful insights. Even one content tweak to
align with your audience may make your message more impactful.

What is your target audiences implicit psychological profile?

Criteria Analysis of Your Audience How does this knowledge help you
tweak your message?

What do they know They may know about how

about your topic? being exposed to drugs can
What dont they influence drug abuse. But
know? maybe know less about
transgenerational inheritance.

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What do they want to They need to understand how It allows me to go into the project
know? What do they much of an influence parents knowing that I have to present multiple
need to know? can have on their kids in different scenarios that can lead to the
multiple different ways same result.

What specialized ??
terminology are they
familiar with?

What concepts, Drug abuse

processes, or tools
are they familiar
with?

Do some in audience Yes

know more about the
topic than you?

Are they neutral, or Many will probably agree.

do they agree with or However, there are some the
oppose your disagree and some that
message? remain neutral

What are the most

important values to
the audience?

What problems do
they have?

Is their attendance Voluntary

voluntary or
mandatory?

What have they been

through in recent
days or weeks?

What style of
presentation does the
audience expect?
Remember: Dont be disappointed if few criteria yield useful insights. Even one content tweak to
align with your audience may make your message more impactful.

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What is your target audiences implicit contextual profile?

Criteria Analysis of Your Audience How does this knowledge

help you tweak your
message?

Is their attendance
voluntary or
mandatory?

What have they been

through in recent
days or weeks?

What style of
presentation does the
audience expect?

What are people

wearing?

What time of day are

you speaking?

What distractions
exist in the room (or
elsewhere) for you to
contend with?
Remember: Dont be disappointed if few criteria yield useful insights. Even one content tweak to
align with your audience may make your message more impactful.