Writing Project 3: The Audience Analysis
Background
The Audience Analysis assignment is the third major writing project in ENG101. This assignment is the second writing project in a series that builds up to the Rhetorical Analysis writing project in the final modules of the course. This project also gives you experience thinking about and analyzing the complexities of audience(s) in rhetorical situations.
Purpose
In this assignment, you will analyze an audience within a rhetorical situation; specifically, you will explore how an audience is constructed in a particular case. For this assignment, you have a lot of freedom in what you choose to analyze, but we suggest choosing one of the following:
● an advertisement (print or online)
● an organization’s website
● a product website
Do not feel limited by the above examples (they are only suggestions), but you might find some topics are more productive than others (for example, attempting to conduct an audience analysis on a search engine website like Google might be difficult because there is not a lot of relevant, easily identifiable information on the site about the site’s audience).
The purpose of this assignment is to understand and articulate how an audience is constructed within a particular rhetorical situation. Such understanding allows you to better recognize intended, unintended, and performed audiences.
Skills and Outcomes
● Recognizing & explaining how specific elements of a particular rhetorical situation lead to a particular invoked audience (Rhetorical Knowledge; Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing; Knowledge of Conventions)
● Differentiating and participating in different steps in the writing process to maximize its efficiency and efficacy in producing a polished project (Processes; Knowledge of
Conventions)
● Critiquing one’s work relative to the assignment rubric during review (Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing; Processes; Knowledge of Conventions)
● Generating a meaningfully-multimodal text (Rhetorical Knowledge; Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing; Processes; Knowledge of Conventions)
Tasks
● Your audience analysis should explain - in detail - at least 3 ways the rhetorical situation you have chosen to analyze invokes a particular audience. Be sure to consider
contextual elements like media and kairos, and also think about access: who is included, who is excluded, and how?
● Your project should include a primary insight that makes a judgment about which audience is invoked in the rhetorical situation. This judgement should be specific (i.e., avoid the myth of “everyone” as an audience).
● Your project is written for an audience and should be written with an audience in mind:
it should be organized in such a way that readers can follow your thinking from
paragraph to paragraph and within each paragraph. This organization should lead your reader to your primary insight in a clear manner; in other words, your primary insight should help structure your project.
● Since you are writing for a website (your ePortfolio site), you should include and integrate at least one multimodal element. You could include pictures, sounds, or even hyperlinks to other websites; but you must make sure that your reader understands why you are including these elements. Consider what media might reinforce your primary insight, capture the invoked audience, and/or appeal to your readers in another way.
Just do not forget to explicitly refer to that element and explain it to your readers.
● Your project should be approximately 500-1000 words in length.
Criteria for Success
In the following pages, you will find the criteria for success for this project’s tasks. You will use this rubric when you evaluate your final draft, but you should also think of it as a guide to use throughout the writing process.
Audience Analysis Rubric
1 = needs significant work, 2 = needs some work, 3 = satisfactory, 4 = excellent
Criteria 1 2 3 4
Task: Explains at least 3 ways a particular rhetorical situation leads to a particular invoked audience.
Outcomes: Rhetorical Knowledge; Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing
☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Task: Includes a primary insight that makes a judgment about which audience is invoked in the rhetorical situation.
Outcomes: Rhetorical Knowledge; Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing; Knowledge of Conventions
Task: Organizes the project with the reader in mind by using structured paragraphs that build to a primary insight or ultimate point.
Outcomes: Knowledge of Conventions
☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Task: Meaningfully incorporates at least one multimodal element.
Outcomes: Rhetorical Knowledge; Processes; Knowledge of Conventions ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Individual Criterion Levels Task: Explains at least 3 ways a particular
rhetorical situation leads to a particular invoked audience.
Outcomes: Rhetorical Knowledge; Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing
Levels of Achievement
4: Excellent ● Explains at least 3 ways a particular
rhetorical situation leads to a particular invoked audience in a manner easily understandable by readers
3: Satisfactory ● Explains at least 3 ways a particular
rhetorical situation leads to a particular invoked audience in a manner generally understandable by readers
2: Needs Some Work ● Explains at least 3 ways a particular rhetorical situation leads to a particular invoked audience in a manner somewhat understandable by readers
1: Needs Significant Work ● Does not explain at least 3 ways a particular rhetorical situation leads to a particular invoked audience; Or
● Explains at least 3 ways a particular rhetorical situation leads to a particular invoked audience in a manner not understandable by readers
Task: Includes a primary insight that makes a judgment about which audience is
invoked in the rhetorical situation.
Outcomes: Rhetorical Knowledge; Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing;
Knowledge of Conventions
Levels of Achievement
4: Excellent ● Includes a primary insight that makes a
clear judgment about which audience is invoked in the rhetorical situation
3: Satisfactory ● Includes a primary insight that makes a
mostly clear judgment about which audience is invoked in the rhetorical situation
2: Needs Some Work ● Includes a primary insight that makes an ambiguous judgment about which audience is invoked in the rhetorical situation
1: Needs Significant Work ● Does not include a primary insight that makes a judgment about which audience is invoked in the rhetorical situation
Task: Organizes the project with the reader in mind by using structured paragraphs that build to a primary insight or ultimate point.
Outcomes: Knowledge of Conventions
Levels of Achievement
4: Excellent ● Articulates a primary insight that the
project builds to in a clear manner
● Paragraphs always stay on topic and never change main ideas
● The audience can follow the project’s organization with no difficulty
3: Satisfactory ● Articulates a primary insight that the
project builds to in a generally clear manner
● Paragraphs generally stay on topic and rarely change main ideas
● The audience can follow the project’s organization with almost no difficulty 2: Needs Some Work ● Articulates a primary insight that the
project builds to in an ambiguous manner
● Paragraphs sometimes stay on topic and sometimes change main ideas
● The audience can follow the project’s organization with some difficulty
1: Needs Significant Work ● Does not articulates a primary insight or the project does not build to a primary insight
● Paragraphs rarely stay on topic and often change main ideas
● The audience cannot follow the project’s organization
Task: Meaningfully incorporates at least one multimodal element.
Outcomes: Rhetorical Knowledge;
Processes; Knowledge of Conventions
Levels of Achievement
4: Excellent ● Incorporates at least one multimodal element
● The multimodal element clearly enriches the project
3: Satisfactory ● Incorporates at least one multimodal
element
● The multimodal element generally enriches the project
2: Needs Some Work ● Incorporates at least one multimodal element
● The multimodal element somewhat enriches the project
1: Needs Significant Work ● Does not include a multimodal element that enriches the project
