I. GOAL
In this Audience Analysis & Extended Definition Assignment, you will define a term according to the needs/Rhetorical Situation (Links to an external site.) of three specific audiences of your choosing. Without the rhetorical situation, the term you choose would exist within a vacuum, such as a Wikipedia entry, or a chapter from a textbook.
Thus, with a detailed Audience Analysis/Rhetorical Situation (similar to what in his presentations Dr. Lipuma calls the “package”: the sender, the target, and the medium) you will have all of the meaningful parameters within which you will tailor the information you want to provide. (Remember the EEG example on the Module 1 introduction page?)
II. REQUIREMENTS
For your first COMPLETE draft (that is, if it is not complete, you will not receive credit), you will provide:
1. Three Audience Analyses (100-150 words each; 300-450 words total – these are strict word limits): Identify three different rhetorical contexts that you are or have recently been a part of. These can be jobs, internships, clubs and/or committees. These CANNOT be classes you’ve taken/are taking for which you’re only role is/was as a student. We are, after all, in a “Professional” writing course, in which one of our goals is to begin thinking beyond the confines of the classroom. Nevertheless, if you happened to be a lab or teaching assistant for a certain course, you may use that context. For example, if you took ENES100 last semester, you cannot use that. However, if you took ENES100 a couple of semesters ago, and last semester you served as a teaching fellow, then you can you that. For each description, identify:
a) the name of the company/organization/committee/etc and what they do/are responsible for/etc;
b) your title within the company/organization/committee/etc and your role/responsibilities; and
c) a summary of the other people/titles/organizational hierarchy, along with their roles and responsibilities.
2. Three Extended Definitions, each according to the format linked here (Links to an external site.) (200-300 wordseach; 600-900 words total – these are strict word limits) – For each of your three chosen audiences/rhetorical contexts, you will create an extended definition in which you define one of the terms provided in the following sections, tailoring each definition for the specific needs/competencies/etc of each of your three audiences/rhetorical contexts. For example, if my three rhetorical contexts were:
a) ENGL393: Technical Writing professor
b) Professional Writing Program (PWP) Blended Learning Coordinator
c) TLTC Elevate Fellow
I would then choose one of the topics below (for example: blended learning), and define it for each of my three rhetorical contexts. For example, the way I would discuss blended learning to students would be different than how I would discuss it to fellow professors. I might cover similar terms, but I would focus on some items more so than others. Moreover, for one I would write from the perspective of taking a blended learning course while in the other I would write from the perspective of administering or developing a blended learning course.
III. TERM SELECTION
As discussed above, you are to choose just one (1) of the following terms that you will then define/tailor for each of your three audiences/rhetorical contexts. If you are unfamiliar with the terms, be sure to research online in order to fully understand. You MAY choose your own term; but you must get approval from me, your instructor, first (in order to check that it is appropriate for the purpose of this assignment). In the end, you are encouraged to be creative in order to tailor your definition to your different audiences.
Suggested Terms (Choose one)
• Transportation management system
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Blended Learning
• Synergy
• Workflow
• A term of your own that you run by your instructor first
IV. FURTHER GUIDANCE
The point of this assignment is not to reproduce what is already available elsewhere, but to create something new that has been created/tailored for a very specific audience with a unique background and other characteristics. To do well on this assignment, you will want to showcase your ability to tailor information for specific audiences. In some cases, you might find that choosing a term that you aren’t initially familiar with might give you the most opportunities for showcasing your strengths as a writer.