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In the tech world, you don't really talk about audience. Instead, you talk about "users" and "user experience." Each of you have identified a problem with the user experience around a particular aspect of campus. Your job is to help improve that user experience.
For today's post, due two things: first, identify what you've learned in 100-200 words about audience from the reading from Monday and today. Post what you have to say by clicking on the "comment" button on this screen. Then, go to this link: studentbridgew.sharepoint.com/sites/IR/Shared%20Documents/AAG.pdf This is general enrollment data from 2021. You can also check out the BSU fact book: https://studentbridgew.sharepoint.com/sites/IR/SitePages/Factbook.aspx These are two sites where you can noodle around and find out information about your university. You can find out information about who goes here, how long they take to graduate, if they change majors a lot. It's a lot of stuff, and not totally easy to work through, but this is one way you can find information out about your audience. One more link. this one to something called the NSSE report, which is the National Survey of Student Engagement. This report positions BSU among other link institutions, and includes what students --first year and seniors report on their experiences at this institution. It's pretty interesting. This is the link to the snapshot, but you can click back and see all the different reports. I find the Frequencies link to be (long) but very interesting. Among other things, it includes things like how long people work compared to other institutions. Here is that link: studentbridgew.sharepoint.com/sites/IR/SiteAssets/Forms/AllItems.aspx?id=%2Fsites%2FIR%2FSiteAssets%2FSitePages%2FN%2FNSSE20%5FSnapshot%2Epdf&parent=%2Fsites%2FIR%2FSiteAssets%2FSitePages%2FN So, for your second post, which is a group post, indicate what you've learned about your audience and talk about what other information you'd want to know as you plan to improve their user experience of BSU.
17 Comments
Paul Sweeney
11/22/2023 11:02:11 am
The reading today in particular helped me understand better the type of language you need to use for an audience. Not just that, the idea that you may need to use different kinds of language within the same piece of writing. You may be addressing more than one audience, and those audiences may not have the same level of understanding as one another, and as such different terminology and different forms of communication may be necessary, such as certain unavoidable jargon needing to be explained for an audience that wouldn't already know what those words mean.
Emily McDermott
11/22/2023 11:04:00 am
The reading on audience analysis left me thinking about a few things. For starters, I realized how true it is that we are constantly writing with a specific target in mind. Even without fully realizing it, all those questions the reading listed were questions I ask myself all the time. The writing could be amazing, but it wouldn't matter if is not being perceived by the right readers. I also found it interesting that some audiences, like ones looking for instructions or guides, are looking to read as little as possible. We are inclined to write so much, but not everyone is looking to read that much. Therefore, an audience is crucial to keep in mind when writing.
Alex N
11/22/2023 11:04:55 am
One element I did not consider previously was the idea of audience as Users with certain characteristics. Users want to read as little as possible and still get an idea of the topic, and they prefer visualizations to text. I thought this was important because for my campus communication problem of how to do undergraduate research, people seeing my presentation would likely fall under this category of Users, focused on understanding a process. Accordingly, I need to use deductive reasoning for my project: starting with a theory and supporting it with observation. I had also never before heard of the clarification between reader-based and writer-based prose, which I think was interesting.
Abby Tenters
11/22/2023 11:06:05 am
The audience is the intended recipient of a message. These recipients have unique needs and reactions that professional communicators must keep in mind when creating modes of communication. I have learned that knowledge of the audience is essential to ensure successful communication. One must understand the readers’ needs and cultural background to communicate effectively. Audience awareness (how responsive a text (or form of communication) is to the requirements and interests of its target audience) is also important to keep in mind when drafting forms of professional communication. The audience drives the writing and the written communication appeals to the audience.
Nina Hamel
11/22/2023 11:06:25 am
Both readings focus on how to identify your audience and how to appeal to your audience. For starters, understanding who you are writing to has a major impact on how you write. Referring to the reading on analysis for technical documents, the author discusses how language changes depending on how you are speaking to. This can vary from demographics like age and culture, or careers such as engineering or health sciences. It is important that the audience clearly understands what you are trying to communicate, so using specific lingo for any particular field is important to keep in mind, especially if it is with people new to a field versus professionals. The article on audience awareness also brought up a point that I think is important to keep in mind for our professional writing projects. Users need writing to be efficient and effective. If our projects are focused on appealing to users looking to gain information about something they do not know how to do, we must present them with said information in a clear-cut and relatively quick way.
Marie Gupton
11/22/2023 11:07:18 am
After reading Markel’s Chapter 1 Intro to Technical Communication and Moxley’s Audience Awareness I learned that audience analysis for technical documents is a crucial aspect of effective communication. Tailoring content to meet the specific needs and characteristics of the intended audience enhances comprehension and engagement. This process involves assessing the audience's knowledge, expectations, and preferences to deliver information in a manner that is accessible and valuable. Identifying the audience's goals and motivations is equally important. By aligning content with the audience's interests, the document becomes more relevant and compelling.
joe dwyer
11/22/2023 11:08:09 am
One of the concepts I found most interesting was the internal dialogue aspect of audience. I think in today's world of writing we have a very hard time separating writing and audience. Writing for just yourself is a good thing I think, but it is not the focus on this particular project. However, the article seems to suggest that the writer is the first audience. Before you can explain it to others you obviously must understand it yourself. Writing through this is a nice way to test your own understanding of a topic. And the external audience and the questions they raise will also then assist you with what you need to clarify or add/subtract in your writing.
Tini Ibrahim
11/22/2023 11:08:59 am
Most of the time, an audience are mostly the ones that are intended to read a certain paper. There can be a variety of audience members, such as an instructor, decision makers, and/or anyone that is able to find the writing online. When an author writes a paper, they have to be aware of who will read their writing. They have to use language that shows who the specific audience member(s) are and what their demographics are. The author must show clear understanding in their writing. Audience member(s) should be able to follow the writing. If the author is aware that the audience member(s) know certain information, then it would be too redundant to add it. They should also know what kind of writing style they should use depending on the audience. For example, if the author is trying to convince decision makers to do something, they should use persuasive writing. The author must also consider how audience member(s) could react to their writing.
Tini Ibrahim
11/22/2023 11:59:10 am
I will be talking about how Honors students can be able to register for specific Honors classes, Honors contract, and Honors thesis. I found that not a lot of students go to faculty members willingly to talk about Undergraduate Research, which is also something that ties into Honors. If Honors students do not find out about what they can do to graduate with Honors by searching for it themselves, then they will not be able to find it at all. Therefore, this information should be more known to Honors students specifically, not just on certain websites. Only a select few students that are interested will know about it, so it will help for more of them to find out about it.
Emma
11/22/2023 11:09:03 am
In the reading "Audience and Audience Awareness" I learned more about what it truly involves. The reading had a section on analyzing your audience and I never really thought about everything mentioned, I feel like I only really focus on the question "who is my target audience". So for me it highlighted what else needs to be focused on as well. I also enjoyed in the article "Audience Analysis for Technical Documents" reading about bias-free language. I feel like often that can be forgotten so I liked how the article had a separate section on that. "What is Technical Communication" brought to light different kinds of documents that are used in technical communication.
Kaitlynn Rego
11/22/2023 11:10:33 am
Audience Awareness is how responsive a text is in order to meet the interest of its target. Taking considerations about who the audience is determines the type of content, form, and style the text is created in. The needs and level of knowledge of the audience is one of the most important aspects of audience awareness. The text needs to not only fit their interests but it has to be something they are able to read. If the text is repeating the same information they already know, it is not going to hit your intended audience, they aren't going to continue reading. On the other hand, if the text is too complex for the audience, they are not going to be able to get through it all since they don't understand it. There is nothing worse than reading a form of text that has "fancy" words that no one knows the meaning of. An example from one of the articles is when a physician is referring his patient to a specialist, they aren't going to know what "exanthema" is, but they will know "skin rash."
Xiaoqin Pan
11/22/2023 11:15:33 am
After reading those materials, I realize the biggest difference between technical communication and other kinds of writing is that technical communication pays more attention to the audience, which means whenever we present our document, we are supposed to analyze our audience’s needs. We should always keep those questions in our mind: Who specifically is our reader? Are there multiple readers? Are there any big issues we need to solve? And how can we convey our ideas to help our audience to better understand us? Since we started to write, our audience is always and only our teachers, we never think about other audience. But in our this project, the prominent thing we need to do is to make sure who is our audience. And I personally think the difference of our audience determines the way we present our document.
Alex N
11/22/2023 11:58:37 am
Demographically, Bridgewater State is largely (71%) white undergraduates from Massachusetts (93%). From the 2021 class census, 37% of students were seniors. This is notable because seniors largely do not do undergraduate research: 45% of seniors do not plan to do research with faculty, while another 17% are undecided. The largest pool of potential undergraduate researchers is the 63% of underclassmen at the school, including the 15% of first-year students. Many more first-year students (44%) plan to do research with faculty, but only 1% are actively involved during their freshman year. Only 25% of seniors, meanwhile, have done research with faculty, so less than 44% end up doing research despite having the original intent. Among programs, the most common for research are biological sciences and agriculture, of which 68% of students do undergraduate research, and art and humanities (39%). No one ethnicity or gender notably did more research than others. I’d like to know more about sophomores and juniors because most undergraduate research is probably done during these two years, so only having information on first-year students and seniors, while good for showing the progression of undergraduate research, offers us incomplete details. All in all, though, I think it’s clear there’s a lack of knowledge about how to do undergraduate research if less than half of first-year students declare an interest in research during their time at BSU – a number that only slips as students grow into seniors.
Marie Gupton
11/22/2023 12:00:51 pm
When it comes to the audience for my group. (Job Opportunities for English Majors) what came to mind included both Juniors and seniors at BSU specifically in the English department. After looking at the data I wanted to find out if there was access to new data that is more recent since the numbered of how many juniors and seniors at BSU are enrolled in the english department may help my group make sure the information is accessible and valuable to the audience.
Nina Hamel and Xiaoqin Pan
11/22/2023 12:01:25 pm
From the lens of sharing how to get involved in Departmental Honors, we decided to look at data in regards to students in their junior and senior year (as that is the time period when a student would take part in departmental honors). With an 87% retention rate and about 2,000-3,000 people in each year, that is about 6,000 students who could be eligible for departmental honors. Despite this, we are keeping in mind that this opportunity may not be wide spread information for certain students. It seems like Departmental honors gets attention through word of mouth, so for students who are upperclassmen who are commuters or work a lot may not have enough time on campus to connect with professors and other faculty who could present them with these opportunities. Other information we want to figure out is how many students from these years are in honors and whether or not Departmental honors is offered to honors students only.
Abby Tenters
11/22/2023 12:07:00 pm
Group: Emily, Abby, and Chloe
Group: Emma, Kaitlynn, Paul
11/22/2023 12:23:54 pm
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