Analyzing my Audience

For this blog post I will discuss the audience of my article, based on questions posed by the text The Student's Guide to First-Year Writing.

Chisholm, Sarah. "Audience." 10/05/15 via MediaMiser

1. I am writing for students who are just entering the field I am in, which in my case is business. I should assume that they are interested in business and that they have little knowledge about my topic, or how to rhetorically analyze sources and situations. It is hard to say what exactly their beliefs are, as it can vary greatly from student to student.

2. In the case of the Toshiba situation, I can assume that my audience will take the side against Toshiba, and they will agree that the inflated profits were immoral and wrong. As this is my position, as well as the position of the article, I don't need to cater anything specifically towards the beliefs of the audience, as the view I will take should be fairly widely accepted.

3. For the most part the audience will want to know, what exactly tarnished the reputation of Toshiba. Expanding on this, they will want the details of the scandal in how Toshiba was dishonest, what the repercussions of it were, and how the CEO handled the public outcry and his own resignation. 

4. As I mentioned before, the article's perspective, my perspective, and the audience's perspective, are all aligned for the most part. For this reason I expect my audience to agree with the argument that I make.

5. I am trying to relate to my audience in a intelligent and persuasive manner. This will be done by making my article professional and approachable, because the more the audience relates, the more my argument resonates with them. 

6. The primary idea with which I will connect with my audience is stressing the values that are prevalent in the article, the Japanese cultures of Toshiba, and the American culture of The New York Times. These shared values will help me connect with my audience, and help them relate to my words and arguments. Having shared ideas and beliefs will make my words that much more persuasive and appealing.




After reading Zayla and Bailey's posts I realized two things. First, I think I did a pretty good job with this post. The two that I read were similar in length and content, and answered the questions very directly and concisely. This reassured me that I am doing the assignments right. Second, I found that from now on in posts like this I should probably include the questions posed by the text as part of my post. Although most of my readers know the questions I am answering, as they are answering them as well, having them present in the post for context is always helpful.