Technical Writing

Audience Analysis Assignment
Part I: For this assignment, you will create an audience profile document for one of the following: 

a. your company’s employees, 


b. the parents and students at a local school, or 


c. a local organization or union to which you belong. 


Your audience profile should be written in standard paragraph format, organizing your content with headings for the different characteristics you consider. In your profile, be sure to answer the following questions: 

  Who is your audience?  

  What is your audience’s attitudes and expectations?  

  How will your audience use your document?  To help identify the members of your audience, consider the audience characteristics discussed on pages 60 and 61 in the textbook. Take some time to consider which of these characteristics will apply to your audience. Then, create your audience profile sheet using the example in Figure 4.1 of your textbook as your guide. However, remember that you will write your profile in paragraph form, and you do not need to follow the formatting of this example. Your audience profile sheet should be one page in length, and it does not need a title page.

Part II: Using the audience profile you just created, write a letter to the audience readers to persuade them to agree with you on a topic of your choice. For instance, you might create an audience profile for the employees at your company for Part I of this assignment, and then in Part II you might write a letter to the employees of the company to persuade them that they should argue in favor of working four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days. Use standard block letter format. Remember to plan, draft, revise, edit, and proofread your response.  Your letter should be a minimum of one page. Upload Parts I and II as a single document. References are not required for this assignment, but if you use any information from an outside source, it should be cited according to APA standards.  

Course Textbook 

Markel, M. (2016). Practical strategies for technical communication (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.