Audience Awareness Three factors to remember when communicating professionally
ANGELIQUE RAY
JAYLA DENNIS
AUDRY SCHAEFER
CHEYENNE NOLAN
Table of Contents Page
1
Introduction
2
Tone
8
Purpose
12
Genre
18
Conclusion
20
Further Reading
1
Introduction “Writers must identify the kinds of audiences for which a work is intended so that discourse can be shaped to the needs of particular readers.” Myra Kogen
No matter your title in your career, knowing how to approach different audiences has a big impact on whether or not your intended message will be understood by your targeted audience. Throughout this paper, we will analyze the importance of audience awareness in multiple professional disciplines: Patrick Turney, a property manager at the Annex of New Albany Student Housing Community; Danielle Pieper, an elementary school teacher at Maryville Elementary; Johnnie Dennis, a former recruiter and policy writer at the military base on Fort Knox; and Meena Khalili, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Louisville. While discussing the professionals’ practices, three main patterns stood out: tone, purpose, and format. In order to understand these factors better, indepth analyses of the interviews and further research was conducted.
2
Tone CASE STUDY 1: MEENA Meena has three main audiences she has to be aware of: administrators, students, and clients. Her tone when communicating to these audiences is different modes can vary greatly. Writing directed toward administrators is typically the most formal writing Meena does and is usually clear and concise. Writing for clients and students can often walk the line between formal and casual—an email to a student may be similar in tone to one to a college administrator, but a presentation for a lecture will be more exciting to encourage student engagement. Writing directed to clients can also vary; communications with current clients usually will take on a respectful, formal tone similar to communications with administrators. Social media and other web posts directed toward potential clients are the more casual of the two, as this is where Meena presents and writes about her work. This type of writing typically has a more exciting tone. It is important to cater different tones to each of these audiences; for example, some of the writing Meena does for social media posts would not be suitable for an email to the Dean of Arts & Sciences (see Fig. 1 & 2).
Fig. 1 A sample of some of Meena’s client-facing writing on Instagram, selling her prints. Notice the friendly, relaxed tone, that’s still somewhat formal.
Fig. 2 A second sample of Meena’s writing on Instagram on another
purchasable print. While still friendly and relaxed, this example is much more casual, showing the range of tone she uses for client-facing writing.
3
Fig. 3 Johnnie Dennis’ letter to the Veterans Adminstration, demonstrating an immediate sense of credibility with a straightforward and honest tone.
CASE STUDY 2: JOHNNIE According to Tony Jeary, “your best hope for communication success lies in your ability to tailor the tone of the presentation to that specific audience”. Johnnie Dennis has many audiences whether it’s a coworker, contractor, a soldier, or a civilian. His tone towards his audience depends on which audience he is talking to. His tone varies based on the level of management, their knowledge of recruitment operations, or even what their strategic perspective is. He claims his tone to a specific audience mostly depends on what they need to know or how a project needs to be communicated. For example, if he is speaking to a potential soldier about recruitment, then he will use more basic terms within their communication rather than the jargon he could use with a coworker. When referring to his
audience, he will address them as “Ladies and Gentlemen,” or “team”. He refers to his audience like this simply out of mutual respect. A key factor for him when deciphering what tone to use on his audience mainly depends on who he is talking to and what situation he is in. For example in Fig. 3, Johnnie Dennis immediately began the letter to the Veterans Administration in a business manner which displays his professionalism. He also states in his letter he is “writing this letter on behalf of his coworker”, which also sets a tone that he not writing for himself, but he is writing in support of his coworker. This lets the audience understand that the tone is formal.
4
Tone
(cont.)
CASE STUDY 3: PATRICK Community Manager, Patrick Turney, practices written communication frequently in his position. Four of his main audiences include residents, parents, onsite staff, and higher management. Tone can vary greatly between all of these audiences, but typically it is formal when speaking with parents and higher management, however, much more informal when speaking to residents and onsite staff. Tone changes often from the beginning of the leasing process to the end as well, when speaking with students and parents. At first, Patrick likes to refer to his residents and their parents as Mr. and Mrs., sir and ma’am, and is very concise and clear with all communication processes. However, after a resident has moved in and Patrick has gotten the chance to know them—this is when the tone really changes to informal. For example, in Fig. 4, Patrick takes on a casual tone when texting with a resident and trying to help him solve an issue. This type of tone is very important when communicating with residents as it allows everyone to feel safe and secure when speaking with their property manager about any issues or concerns. The informal tone is also important when speaking
to his Maintenance Technicians and Community Ambassadors, as it helps to create a happy and positive work environment where the staff can freely express their ideas and concerns. Formality is very important, however, when speaking with higher management and certain parents. Patrick is very concise and clear, refers to them by their professional names, and respects their position within the company. Being able to change tone is vital to effectively communicate with varieties of audiences.
5
Fig. 4 Patrick’s more casual tone when texting with a resident of the student apartment complex he manages.
6
Tone
(cont.)
CASE STUDY 4: DANIELLE According to Daphne A. Jameson (334), she suggests in her article that in order to manage tone, writers have to be aware of their audiences’ psyches, be sensitive to the nuances of language, and be aware of how the reader will respond emotionally to the type of words you use. This is very important in Danielle’s role as a teacher because she has to write to many different audiences at different cognitive levels. Being able to adjust her tone to the psyche of the audience will help successfully deliver the message intended. When Danielle speaks with fellow teachers at her school, she uses very casual words and short sentences, whereas when she’s writing to the Principal, she elaborates her meaning for writing and uses a very formal style of writing. Even though the teachers and Principle might be on the same level of understanding, they have a different place of authority within the school, so tone has to be altered based of that. Writing to the individual’s level of understanding and title helps Danielle build credibility with the
students, parents, and members of the school. Interactions with each of them are spoken in different ways. For example, when speaking with parents, if she has a close relationship with them, she will use casual words and short sentences with maybe even so emojis. Here is an example of a conversation Danielle had with a parent she was very familiar with. They both use playful writing styles that show the type of relationship they have with each other. The parent is comfortable enough to use an emoji, and Danielle is comfortable enough to use interjections using such as “haha.” (see Fig. 5)
7
Fig. 5 Danielle adapts her tone depending on her familiarity with her students’ parents. This parent used an emoji, so Danielle is comfortable enough to use a casual “haha” in return.
However, if it is a parent she’s not familiar with, she will speak in a more formal way with clear sentences. She also speaks in a formal tone with close attention to punctuation and in-depth explanation when speaking with individuals such as the principle and members of the board. When talking with parents, she will use the first name if she is familiar with the parents, and the last name if unfamiliar. Teachers become very comfortable with each other and
these personal relationships allow teachers to address each other in emails and face to face in an informal way using first names. Even though they might know their principal on a personal level, given their status, teachers and other faculty members will address the principal by their last name and communicate with them with a professional writing style. This is also true when communicating with Board members, again to help her establish credibility as a teacher.
8
Purpose CASE STUDY 1: MEENA When writing to administrators, Meena’s purpose is usually to persuade or inform. In these cases, the audience has a direct relation to the topic Meena is writing them about. For example, Meena wrote a lecture proposal to the governing board of the Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC) (see Fig. 6). The proposal quickly informed the board of the project Meena wanted to present, and then persuaded them to choose the proposal for presentation. When writing to students, her purpose is usually to inform and entertain. In a class lecture, graphic design students will typically be somewhat familiar with the general topic, but not extremely knowledgeable since they are students. Students in graphic design are typically visual learners, so the content Meena writes needs to be both informative as well as entertaining to keep students engaged (see Fig. 7). For writing directed to clients, it can be any or all three kinds of purpose—persuasive, informative, and entertainment. For example, she could be persuading potential clients to hire her (possibly through entertaining writing), or writing correspondence to update them how a current project is going.
Fig. 6 Meena’s proposal to SECAC. Compared to the below, its tone is much more formal, due to the purpose (persuasion) and audience (a professional organization) it is for.
Fig. 7 An example of a lecture slide—compared to the proposal, this is far more casual. The humorous tone keeps the students Meena is teaching engaged in the lesson. Its purpose is to entertain and educate.
9
Fig. 8 An example of Mr. Dennis’ writing to inform his audience of something.
CASE STUDY 2: JOHNNIE The purpose of Mr. Johnnie Dennis’s communication towards his audience is to either inform, train, silicate ways of doing things or new techniques. In Fig. 8 above is an insert of a words and definitions page for a potential soldier taking an ASVAB. He has titled the insert as “Understand the Key Words on Exam” so we know that the audience would not understand these keywords. This is an example of his “informal and training” aspect of communication towards one of his audiences. Although, almost always the audience has general information in relation to the certain
topic that is brought up. Ethos is very important in his work for the US Army—it is the foundation of what they do. He and his company have to try to present themselves as professional as possible. This is important as the army is known as an extremely trusted institution.
10
Purpose
(cont.)
CASE STUDY 3: PATRICK Patrick’s purpose for communicating can vary based on whom the message is being delivered to. When communicating with prospects, parents, onsite staff, and higher management, Patrick utilizes both persuasive and informative purposes. Persuasion is super important in his role as this is how a Community Manager can keep a full, happy property. Patrick often writes emails and proposals to higher management in order to gain approvals for property maintenance and updates. He also sends text messages and emails to prospects and parents, in order to keep their attention and persuade them to sign a housing contract with us. This is also called marketing, and Patrick agrees that audience awareness is extremely important in this purpose, as he states, “Marketing to college
students is going to be different than marketing to their parents, so we have to be able to market to two separate demographics.” Patrick is wanting a certain task done by his onsite staff, he uses persuasion techniques in order to get the job done to the extent that he wants it. While persuasion is super important, information can be even more valuable in Patrick’s role. He is constantly utilizing informative techniques when writing reports, budget plans, and emails. Providing information to his audiences can aid in his persuasion communication techniques as well.
11
Fig. 9 Danielle’s e-mail here, like Mr. Dennis’ letter from Fig. 8, is written to inform her audience.
CASE STUDY 4: DANIELLE Teachers address many issues every day. The purpose of their communications can vary from a simple lunch order to a major concern regarding a student. One of Danielle’s most common purposes for writing is to inform or be informed. Policies and procedures change often in a school so staying on top of changes is crucial. These communications need to be clear and thorough. A lot of Danielle’s emails are much like the one in Fig. 9, from her Instructional coach informing the teachers of a new procedure.
The purpose of the Instructional Coach’s email was to inform the teachers of new resources available to them. The tone was casual but informative, which was appropriate for the audience. Some communication is for persuasion when teachers want to propose a change in policy to help with the success of their classroom and school. The audience for this purpose would be the Principle or Board members, which would then be a more formal tone. If the audience is a parent and the purpose was just to give an update or reminder involving the class, a
casual tone would be acceptable. However, if the purpose was to alert the parent of an issue involving an individual student, the tone would need to be in a more professional direct tone. The purpose will most often help you in determining your tone, which then will help you in choosing the correct genre to deliver your purpose in.
12
Genre CASE STUDY 1: MEENA Due to Meena’s role as both an educator and designer, she may have to write in several different genres—abstracts, design critiques, emails, proposals, and lectures are just a few. Sometimes these genres will overlap; design critiques can be sent in PDF format over email, or an abstract and proposal will exist as the same document (as with the SECAC lecture proposal on Page 8, Fig. 6). However, some content and purposes are suited for one genre and not another. It would not make sense to email a student the written lecture and expect them to read and learn from it, as that type of information is better suited to a more condensed slide presentation. Additionally, some of Meena’s audiences that will typically never receive information from certain genres—for example, a client would not receive a lecture, and a student would never read an abstract or proposal.
13
Fig. 10 An e-mailed PDF critique for a group project. This type of writing is likely not something a client would ever see, but is very common for students and likely Meena’s co-professors.
14
Genre CASE STUDY 2: JOHNNIE The genre he uses when communicating to an audience typically is a conference, email, phone call, direct interaction, memos, or even an organizational letter. There are many modes on where he could present to an audience. For example, he sent me a few documents where some of these modes were effective, like the letter he wrote to the Veterans Administration, the memo he wrote to a potential soldier, or even the memo of the objectives for his coworkers (shown in Fig. 11). In this figure, this genre was necessary as a memo in order to distribute to coworkers for them to keep on hand. He has many options of genres that he can use for communicating to his audience and this also goes into play on what the purpose is as well. Typically work related genres are supposed to be formal.
(cont.)
15
Fig. 11 This document by Mr. Dennis is a memo so as to be quickly read and easily portable for his audience , and in this case, they are his co-workers.
16
Genre
(cont.)
CASE STUDY 3: PATRICK Patrick writes in a variety of genres and all suit different purposes. Some of these genres include budget plans, unit assignments, financial reports, emails, and text messages. The audience changes from genre to genre. Emails and text messages are general and can be utilized to communicate with all audiences— onsite staff, higher management, residents, and parents. However, budget plans and technical Excel spreadsheets are typically only shared with onsite staff or higher management—along with written or verbal explanations to help read and understand the material at
hand. One commonly used genre is email, more specifically electronic letters used when communicating important information to residents. This is an extremely important instance where the audience needs to be considered, and Patrick has all of his Community Ambassadors read over mass emails to ensure that all of the details make sense on both the property and resident side of things. “You’re reading it as residents and staff, so do you understand what is being said in it?” is one of the big questions Patrick asks his staff.
17
CASE STUDY 4: DANIELLE The forms of communication for Danielle are limited to three major forms: email, google docs, and an app called Dojo, with the majority being email. With Google Drive, teachers communicate with board members for quick announcements that do not require feedback such as policy changes. Also, Google Drive is where teachers will submit their lesson plans in a slideshow for approval from their curriculum coach and principle. They also communicate with board members through Google Drive. The tone used in these forms of written communication is usually an informal and informative style. The Dojo app is used between parents and students and is much like text messaging. These exchanges are also informative and casual. This app keeps teachers personal numbers private while giving the parents access to ask questions after school hours. If there is an issue with the student, the teachers will send a formal email requesting a conference with the parents instead of asking to meet them through the dojo app. The majority of communication is through email. Emails are typically written in a more formal style of writing. With email, signing off can indicate the type of relationship you have with the person you’re
communicating. Having a cell phone where emails come straight to her fingertips, Danielle has to be aware that even though she is out of class, her writing still needs to come across as professional. Replying from her cell phone also comes with the tag at the end “sent from iPhone”. In a study conducted by Marlow, Lacerenzad, & Iwig (2017) looking at whether people remove or leave the “sent from iPhone” tagline, indicated that majority of people do not remove the tagline. Even though Danielle is trying to respond in a professional tone, leaving the tagline can indicate to someone why the email may contain grammatical errors and why it might be shorter than normal. Aside from using email, Google Drive, and the Dojo app, teachers also have bulletin boards in the classrooms with fun learning strategies. These bulletin boards typically include pictures and symbols that would draw in the students’ attention. Every year she chooses bulletin boards with strategies she thinks will benefit that particular class. This communication with the children through the bulletin board is informative but fun for the children to relate to and help remember.
18
Conclusion Whatever your position in the professional world, knowing how to address your audience can make or break your career. Through tone, you are able to approach your audience in a professional, relatable way that will help ensure that your intended message is understood. When establishing the tone you need to address your audience in, you then need to choose a solid purpose that the audience will understand. Having a clear tone and a strong purpose will make the interaction easier for both you and the audience and will help aid in satisfying your intended purpose. With having the appropriate tone for the audience to relate to and a strong purpose for why you are addressing them, you have to choose the correct genre to deliver your purpose. Choosing between forms such as emails, flyers, memos, etc. can have a huge impact on the success of the purpose being delivered. Addressing your audiences appropriately and considering these three factors—the tone you use, the purpose you are writing for, and the genre you are using—will ultimately make you seem more credible and capable.
In architecture, a balanced triangle is an extremely strong and stable shape that can provide the foundation and structure for a complex building. Tone, purpose, and genre are all equally important components of writing with audience in mind. They interact and work together in order to create strong communication—but, only with the writer’s full understanding of their audience. We are proposing a mnemonic device based on this concept to help readers remember and realize the importance of these concepts. At the center of the triangle is audience awareness, supported by the three components: tone, purpose, and genre. If we always remember our audience when communicating, we can use this device to remember the components that should make up our communications.
20
Further Reading Berkenkotter, Carol. “Understanding a Writer’s Awareness of Audience.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 32, no. 4, 1981, pp. 388–399. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/356601. Daphne A. Jameson “Management Consulting and Teaching: Lessons Learned Teaching Professionals to Control Tone in Writing.” Business Communication Quarterly, vol. 72, no. 3, 2009, pp. 333-338. http://dx.doi. org/10.1177/1080569909340626 Jeary, Tony. “Establishing the Proper Tone Ensures Speaking Success.” Presentations 12.11 (1998): 26. ProQuest. Web. 8 Nov. 2018. Kogen, Myra. “The Role of Audience in Business and Technical Writing.” ABCA Bulletin, vol. 46, no. 4, 1983, pp. 2–4., doi:10.1177/108056998304600403. Marlow, S., Lacerenza, C., Iwig, C. “The Influence of Textual Cues on First Impressions of an Email Sender.” Business of Professional Communication Quarterly, 81(2), 149-166. 2007
ENGL. 306-04 BUSINESS WRITING PROF. STEVE SMITH FALL 2018