Short Essay #3

Short Essay #3

Audience Analysis

How do you write an effective proposal?  Recognizing what will appeal to your audience is the first step.  The key to a proposal argument is knowing the motivations of your audience.  In about 200 words identify who your audience of your proposal is and what their motivations are. 

Guidelines: For this one-page essay, pick apart your audience (this is an analysis!).  This audience should be an individual, not a vague group.  Think about what motivates this person, what will convince him or her to put your change into effect.  You could do a little research to find out some background information on them. Decide what parts of your argument will be most effective at making this audience take your side.

Think about these questions as you start to compose this one-page essay.    

• Who are they? (Really try to imagine this person—their daily routine, the people they are around all day, the types of requests they regularly see—and use this picture as a launching point for this analysis.)
• What tone will they respond to best (informal or formal? Obsequious? Concerned?) 
• Why would they want to affect the change you will propose? (For this paper, don’t focus on the proposal—that’s the major essay—think about what would influence this person to take your side. This short essay is talking about the person and their motivations, maybe their counter arguments.) 
• What counter arguments will they likely offer? Can you answer these?

After completing this short essay you should consider the following questions (before you begin drafting the major essay):  does your proposal still seem workable (that is, a change these people are likely to enact); can you change your proposal to meet their needs; can you predict the audience’s counter argument to your proposal?