By Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D.
You may be amazed at how much writing you have to do in an online course. Besides writing term papers, you’re also collaborating with fellow students, sending e-mails, and posting entries on the discussion board. As you enter the stage of writing a paper, you suddenly realize that writing is not just about writing. You’re not working in a vacuum, but instead, are interacting with others. But, who are they? In all online courses, it is important to identify your audience.
Here are a few key questions:
-- Who is your primary audience?
-- What kind of writing is your audience expecting of you?
-- What form do they expect your writing to take? Essay? Comments? Draft?
-- What are the core values of your audience? Are there ways you might appeal to them?
-- Do you need to be careful not to offend your audience? How? Are there controversial topics you should avoid?
-- Does your audience have an agenda? Are you expected to show that you understand points of view and perspectives? What do you do if you disagree with them?
Establishing Credibility with Your Audience - Mastery of Subject Matter.
In order to be taken seriously and to establish credibility, it is important to show that you know what you’re talking about. You need to establish your knowledge and ability to analyze, discuss, and locate a evidence.
-- How will you show that you understand the subject matter?
-- Are you keeping a neutral tone? If not, why?
-- Do you need to try to appeal to the emotions of your audience? How will you do this? How can you instill a sense of urgency?
-- How will you maintain a balanced and fair ethos?
-- Is there a certain specialized vocabulary that you must employ in order to be taken seriously?
Identifying a Secondary Audience.
Will you have a dual-stage deployment of your content? Here are some of the ways that you may have more than one audience for the same piece of writing.
-- Private, One-on-One Peer Review: One-on-one review by another student before you submit your paper for public evaluation (in the discussion board area) or to your professor.
-- Public Peer Review: Public discussion of your work via shared ideas in the discussion area. In this case, the review is public, which is to say that more than one person will see your work. Keep in mind that what people say in a public forum may be different than what they send you in one-on-one correspondence. Their reactions are likely to be mediated and influenced by the other comments that have been posted.
-- Non-Public, One-on-One Communication with your Instructor: As the instructor reviews your work, you may find that the expectations that he or she has are quite different from others. Your work may be further reviewed as a part of an overall course review done by the department or the institution.
Strategies of Accommodation.
You may find yourself needing to please several different individuals who possess different outlooks and attitudes. How can you satisfy all your audience members?
-- Structure your argument to acknowledge all likely audience views and perspectives;
-- Take a position. Support your views with statistics and expert opinions.
-- Present counter-arguments to disarm the dissenting views.
-- Present evidence in the form of statistics, case studies, analogues, testimonials, and expert views from journals, media, and other sources. Be cautious when using journals, and make sure they are targeted to your audience and purpose.
Cultural Diversity and Issues of Ethos. Ethos, which is the overall tone of your paper, is critical. Make sure it aligns with your audience’s cultural values and expectations. Make sure you are balanced, fair, and that you avoid potentially dangerous humor and strident diatribes.
You will be writing across the curriculum, and will be expected to be persuasive, credible, thorough, and ethical. But, all these attributes are in the eye of the beholder, so, again, it’s important to understand your audience.
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