Identifying Readers by Craig Crumbly

Identifying your audience when speaking about a topic or writing about a topic is very important. Keeping the audience in mind can help one focus on what they are writing and to specifically get their point across. For example, an army recruiter would not speak to an elementary school about how important it is to join the army. The children are too young to understand what war is and too young fight for their country. When focusing on the readers you are trying to identify use the following questions for assistance:

1. Who is your audience
2. How many audiences do you have?
3. what does your audience need? What do they want?
4. What is most important to them?
5. What are they least likely to care about?
6. What do you want your audience to think, learn, or assume about you? What impression do you want your writing or research to convey?

Asking yourself these questions while preparing your speech or paper will help target the audience you intend to inform. In business it is important to identify proper readers so a company can move foward in a positive direction

Cited:

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/audience.html

Tips for Organizing your Presentation Effectively - by Jonathan Koshko

Organizing and planning a presentation can be tricky. You have to make sure that the audience can clearly understand and comprehend what your views and ideas presented are. Here are a few tips to help you organize an effective presentation:


- Decide the purpose of your presentation. Are you trying to persuade, inform, entertain, inspire?

- Be precise, definite, and straightforward when wording your speech. Use transitions to help your audience understand your message clearly. They are also effective tools to keep your presentation flowing.

- Make sure to include an introduction, a body, and a conclusion; just like the structure of a written essay.

- Consider the points you want to make and pick the strongest points that support your purpose. Present them in an order that is unique and will allow the audience to remember the purpose of your presentation.

- Make sure to research your audience. You do not want to say something that can be taken offensively.



Oliu, Walter E., Charles T. Brusaw, and Gerald J. Alred. Writing that Works Communicating Effectively on the Job. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006.

Tips on How to be Persuasive in One’s Professional Writing by Eusebio Moreno.

“The purpose of persuasive writing is to ask your reader to agree with your position about the subject you are writing about. In doing so, you may be requesting from them to change their present opinion, working procedure or habits. The following tips can help you be persuasive in your professional writing:

1. To be persuasive, it is of critical importance to strive to keep your reader’s needs, as well as your own, clearly in mind.

2. It is important to acknowledge that people tend to resist change and in order to overcome this natural resistance to change, you’ll have to establish the need for your recommendations and support it with convincing, objective evidence.

3. Always address your audience with a respectful and courteous tone and language.

4. When writing to persuade your audience, do not overlook opposing points of view. Try to demonstrate the advantage of your viewpoint over those of others.

5. Finally, use the appropriate medium for communicating with your audience.” (Alfred, Brusaw and Oliu, p.71, 74)


Following this tips, can help you be persuasive in your professional writing.

Bibliography:
Alfred, Gerald J., Charles T. Brusaw, and Walter E. Oliu. Writing That Works Communicating Effectively on the Job. 3rd ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.

Instant Messaging at Work by Chris Hudak

Preparing for a Job Search - Kyle Ramos