Audience Analysis Assignment

Check Canvas for due dates on this assignment.

Understanding your audience is important to making any text successful, par;cularly technical
wri;ng documents. For a report or proposal, whether or not you understand your audience will
o>en determine whether the report is read and considered, or whether the proposal will be
approved or rejected. So effec;ve technical writers spend a lot of ;me thinking about whom
their audience is, what they want and need, and how to shape their wri;ng to fit the audience’s
wants and needs.


This assignment requires you to think about the audience for your report in a deliberate and
methodical way. By doing this, you’ll be able to beHer shape your text to fit your audience.

This assignment will help you to learn skills related to following course outcomes:

• Mee;ng the needs of mul;ple audiences

• Cri;cal thinking
• Purpose-driven wri;ng

Make sure you give each ques;on serious thought, and that you don’t rush through comple;ng
this worksheet. You must download this from Canvas and type in the answers, save it, and
then submit it to Turni9n.com.

Audience and Purpose

Who is the primary audience for your report?

The primary audience for the report is the college administra;on.

Who are two secondary audiences for your report?

One secondary audience for the report is the students. Another secondary audience is the
faculty and staff.

What is your rela9onship with the primary audience?

As a member of student government, I would have encountered the college administra;on
before while working on other projects. I may not know the members of the college
administra;on personally, but the posi;on in student government would give me inherent
credibility.
What is the purpose of document?
The purpose of the document is to inform the college administra;on of the issues of the Paper
Cut system.

How will the primary audience use the document?

The primary audience will use the document as a source of informa;on to make a decision
about whether Paper Cut has issues and if the issues of Paper Cut are worth addressing. If they
decide the issues are worth addressing, the document will help them decide how serious they
are.

What is the primary audience’s knowledge level and technical background in rela9on to the
ideas in the report?
There is one person with high exper;se in the Paper Cut system, but the rest of the
administra;on would be aware of the Paper Cut system without necessarily understanding all of
the workings. The administra;on may also not be aware of the student interface with the
system. They may or may not be aware of the amount given each quarter.

What is the primary audience’s prior knowledge about this topic?

They may have heard from other individual students at one point about the problems of Paper
Cut but never a cohesive report.

What informa9on does the primary audience need in order to fully understand your report?
They would need to know the following about the students opinions:
- Approximately what percent of students print on campus?
- How many students run out of Paper Cut funds?
- What is the average pages printed per quarter by each student?
- What would it cost the college to rollover funds?
- Would the college be able to rollover all of the funds or par;al?

They would need to know the following about the interface func;onality:
- How o>en do people/students print to the wrong loca;ons?
- How o>en do people/students print mul;ple copies by accident?
- There is no display of the remaining balance when prin;ng.
- Can the system carryover the funds without a major overhaul?
Are there any cultural considera9ons that you need to keep in mind?
Administrators some;mes believe that students complain about issues without understanding
all that goes into the problem.

What are some of the probable ques9ons the primary audience will have aDer reading your
report?
Are the problems bad enough to demand a solu;on?
Would it be fiscally viable to rollover funds?
What could some solu;ons be?

Audience’s Probable ATtude and Personality

What is the primary audience’s aEtude toward topic?

They probably want to respond to student demand, but are cau;ous about the importance of
the issue.

What are some of the probable objec9ons the primary audience will have?
The rollover of Paper Cut funds may lead to an increased cost in supplies, but more students will
be sa;sfied or feeling secure in their posi;on when prin;ng. Also, if the amount printed on
campus doesn’t increase significantly, the impact would be minimal.
They may have more work resul;ng from a decision to look further into the issues, though the
informa;on in the report should be enough for them to form an opinion on the subject.

What is the primary audience’s probable aEtude toward you as a writer?

As a member of the student government, they would probably be recep;ve to the informa;on.
Though, they would want real data to back up the claim.

What is the organiza9onal climate of the primary audience?

The college administra;on is generally recep;ve to change when the change is well jus;fied.

Who will be the people most affected by the project and your report?
The students and the faculty will probably be the most affected by the report.
What is your primary audience’s probable reac9on to your report?
They will probably be willing to look into it further, but are open to addressing the issues if it is
discovered that the issues are significant.

Audience Expecta;ons about the Document

What kinds of source material will the primary audience want to see?
The primary audience will want to see student surveys, interviews from credible sources, and
cost es;mates for the change in the system.

What are some of the poten9al problems that your report might cause for the primary
audience?
The report might create more work for the administra;on if they decide to move forward with a
solu;on by making them create a commiHee to inves;gate further.
Giving students more money on the paper cut account could make it important for faculty to
print less to counteract the cost of student prin;ng, and faculty may not want to respond. Also,
they may need to hire someone to get the Paper Cut system to rollover the funds.

About how long and how detailed should your report be for this audience?
The report should be about 2-6 pages. The report should contain many details about the
student opinions and possible affects of rolling over paper cut as well as cost versus benefit
analysis.

What is the ideal format and medium for this audience and report?
The ideal format and medium for this report would be something that could work as both a
physical and an e-document.

What kind of tone should you use in this document for this audience?
The tone of the report should be respecZul. I should not seem like a know-it-all, but I should
seem well informed on the topic.
WriHen Analysis


Now, go back and review your answers. What overall impression do you have of your primary
audience? What are their needs in terms of understanding and agreeing with your report? How
can you use this informa;on to create a report that will effec;vely communicate the data and
your ideas in the report?

Keeping these ques;ons in mind, write a detailed summary (about 2-3 paragraphs) that explains
the major concerns and needs of your primary audience, the goals of your report, and the
specific ways you’ll address your audience while furthering your goal.

The goal of the report is to iden;fy the issues associated with the Paper Cut system and

present those issues to the college’s administra;on. The most important thing to address within

the report is student’s opinions and usage facts as well as informa;on about the student

interface of Paper Cut. The informa;on within the report must be stated in such a way that it

will be informa;ve without being pompous because administra;ons are some;mes of the

opinion that students complain about issues that aren’t that bad. I expect the college

administra;on to be cau;ously open to the idea of evalua;ng the Paper Cut system as long as

the informa;on is presented in a clear manner.

An important aspect to keep in mind while wri;ng the report is to address and counter

possible objec;ons to changing the system, such as money or extra workload. Also, data such as

student surveys, interviews from knowledgable sources, and poten;al cost es;mates for the

change should be included in the report to lend credibility to the claim. The more data provided

for the administra;on and the clearer the connec;ons in the report, the less likely that they will

dismiss the issues addressed in the report as insignificant, if the report finds that Paper Cut is as

big of an issue as we, the students, perceive it as.