UNIT 2 SEMINAR :

GOAL

The goal of this presentation is to help students understand the audience and purpose of their writing.

We will also discuss the levels of formality in writing.

AUDIENCE: THE WHO

Audience: the readers of your document

Defining your audience can help you determine what it is you want to discuss and how you want to present the material.

WHY DETERMINE THE AUDIENCE?

Audiences can differ by way of:

Education

Age

Gender

Profession

Location

Any other demographic possible

AUDIENCE CONTINUED

Determining your audience can influence:

Diction – word choice

Sentence length

Sources used

Document length

Formality

Level of description

PURPOSE: THE WHY

Purpose = the reason you write the document

Readers need to understand why it was written in order to decide if they want to read it

Defining your purpose can help you determine how to write your document

Purpose can influence the same things as audience for much the same reasons.

GENERAL PURPOSES

Most writing is written to:

Inform

Entertain

Persuade

Teach

Analyze

Compare or Contrast

PURPOSE UNDER THE MICROSCOPE:

Our Final Project essay will inform, not try to persuade.

This does not mean that readers cannot be persuaded by our information; it simply means that we will not try to persuade or tell the audience they “should” do or think anything in particular. We present information and make logical connections.

WRITING AND FORMALITY

Formal

Avoids slang

Uses correct punctuation and mechanics

Avoids contractions and abbreviations without explanations

Examples: research papers, newspaper articles

Informal

Conversational language

May change punctuation rules

May use emoticons or abbreviations

Examples: IMs, text messages, familiar emails

Formality deals with the correctness of writing.

FORMAL VS. INFORMAL

Formal

The results of today’s survey found that 45% of the 150 students surveyed would rather take courses online than in a traditional, face-to-face classroom. The benefits were found to include anonymity, schedule flexibility, and a lack of work without a specific purpose.

Informal

The survey said something like 30% want online courses instead of f2f ones. BTW, they like that no one knows who they are and that they can work whenever, where ever. They also hate busy work, so they like taking classes online.

FITTING ALL THREE TOGETHER

Audience, purpose, and formality come together in a document.

Even in this course there are times when formal writing is appropriate when writing to peers, but informal writing is acceptable when discussing things with the instructor.

Always err on the side of caution: make it too formal, with a general purpose, for the most basic audience.

LOOKING FORWARD

Unit 3 will cover:

APA citation

Paraphrasing and quoting material