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The Importance of Audience
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The Importance of Audience
Identifying Multiple Intelligences & Learning Styles
Running Meetings Well
How to Edit Politely
Prewriting Techniques
I always use this lesson plan in the first class, right after the introductions. I wrote it during my second semester teaching and never needed to change it.
sample tetrapaks
Sample Tetra Paks™

The goal is to shock the students into realizing that they have to think about their audiences when they write a paper. Nearly every class reinforces the same message, which seems to get through based on their final exams.

However, you will probably have to use a different item because the original Tetra Pak materials are no longer available. In 1995, I contacted Tetra Pak's public relations director, who sent me a booklet on how to design a package correctly, a printed but unfolded and unglued blank, and a paper blueline on which art directors could lay out the elements of the package (this is all done on computers now). When I tried to get more up-to-date materials a few years ago, the company wouldn't send anything and I haven't been able to find technical information online for Tetra Pak or the other juice-box manufacturers.

However, I originally got the idea from someone who had his students go out into the parking lot and change a tire following the students' instructions. So it's certainly adaptable.

Note that one of the appeals of the lesson, especially for night classes, is the unexpected jolt of sugar. I'd pick up 20 different juice boxes at the grocery store--YooHoo chocolate milk drink, certain iced teas, and JuicyJuice all come in Tetra Paks (look on the bottom of the packages)--and in summertime, I froze the boxes so they defrosted in the hour's drive to school but were still cool when we started the lesson.

top of page link graphic

Lesson plan

Major concept

The audience for a piece of technical writing changes the writing.

Generalizations

Technical (or any) communication is 1/4 research, 1/4 design, 1/4 writing, and 1/4 editing.

However, the starting point is always the audience. Everything else, all the other decisions, comes from what you find out about the audience.

Objectives

Cognitive

Students will learn that the same information can be presented many ways, and all ways are valid depending on the audience.

Behavioral

In learning to appreciate differences in audiences, the students will begin to consciously choose an appropriate method for each type of audience.

Materials

  1. Fruit juices in Tetra Paks™, paper towels, scissors, paper and pencil.
  2. Bluelines, etc., from TetraPak, Inc.

Procedures

Exercise #1: Writing for yourself

Hand out Tetra Paks™ and ask class members to write explanations of how to open and drink from the boxes. They can do anything they need to do to figure out how the containers work, including drinking the contents. 5 minutes.

top of page link graphic

Exercise #2: Writing for an audience

Pair off class members.

“One of you is a writer who has written instructions for drinking from these juice containers. Your partner, on the other hand, is a harried kindergarten teacher who has just been handed two dozen of these juices for the morning break. Many of her students may have never opened one of these boxes before, so she is going to have to use your instructions to show her students what to do. She is hoping for a dry experience.

“The teacher follows the writer's instructions. The teacher can say anything, the more the better, but the writer says nothing. Instead, the writer just takes notes about what works and what doesn't.

“If the teacher opens the juice box and there are any spills or drips at all, the instructions didn’t work.

“NO HINTS!"

After 5-10 minutes, stop and have the students switch roles. After another 5-10 minutes, stop again and ask the pairs to discuss how they would change the instructions. 20 minutes.

Class discussion:

“How successful were these instructions? What made them successful? How did you decide to change the instructions to make them more successful? What difference does it make to know your audience?"

Sample problems noticed: The instructions are too obvious, they're not obvious enough, the tone is wrong ("suck the juice"), the language level is wrong ("puncture").

top of page link graphic

Exercise #3: Writing for a technical audience

“You now have a different audience. You’ve been hired part-time by a printing plant, where you do everything that anyone asks. Your boss wants you to solve a problem for her. Graphic artists are handing in artwork that doesn't meet specs—the artwork sometimes doesn't contain the right information and it doesn’t fit on the boxes. For example, somebody recently sent in artwork that had the nutrition information bent around a corner of the box.

"Take 5 minutes to come with some ideas about how you're going to FIGURE OUT what to say to the graphic artists. In other words, how will YOU find out what exactly the dimensions of the box are? How will YOU find out what has to be on the boxes and where it goes? And how will YOU figure out what to say to graphic artists in their own language so that they understand what they’re supposed to do?

"For 10 minutes, share ideas with your partner and see if you can come up with more ideas.” 15 minutes

Class discussion:

“What did you come up with?”

To find out more about the boxes themselves, look at the bottom of the box to find the manufacturer of the box (the juice company is irrelevant, except maybe to ask them how to contact the box manufacturer). The box manufacturer can send you information about the dimensions and design hints. All that you have to do is find out how to contact the manufacturer.

To find out how to communicate with the artists, some answers are: Use printed materials like the ones from TetraPak; interview and usability test your instructions with some friendly graphic artists (both expert and novice); get a graphic-arts dictionary….

Pass around the materials from Tetra Pak™. 15 minutes.

Reinforcement and assessment

Reinforcement

In later classes, the students will learn additional audience analysis techniques.

Assessment

At the end of the lesson or at the beginning of the next lesson, ask each student for his or her reaction to the lesson (students can pass). "What did you discover about writing for different audiences?"

top of page link graphic

Sample student responses

Student 1: We were asked to write the instructions to take out a juice box from its pack, open it and insert the straw into it (initially for myself and later for an imagined audience or reader of  kindergarten students.) I had to do a similar exercise for my English Composition I class; nevertheless, I learned the difference between writing for myself and writing for a group whose level of understanding will be different from mine. When I write for myself, I only note what I do not know or what I need to remember. When I write for someone else, I have to [choose] the terminology to use and the amount of background information to give. It was interesting to find out that a peer understood a couple of instructions that I wrote for the kids; the rest of the instructions did not make much sense to him. The exercise was an application of the material learnt from Chapter 1.

When I wrote my first technical log, I discovered that I liked the class discussion on how to write directions for the graphics and art director of the juice box/packet. My peers came up with points that I did not think of. It was a better exercise than writing the instructions on paper and getting it evaluated by only person.

Student 2: In this class session I learned that when writing direction you must state all the steps. For example when I was writing direction to putting the straw in a box juice, I was leaving out a lot of steps. I was assuming that since I knew how to do it they did too.

Student 3: The topic of the first class was to try different techniques for kids to learn how to get juice out of a juice box. We started this assignment by writing instructions like 1. Look for the straw, 2. Push the straw through the silver hole, 3. Drink the juice, etc. The one thing that I learned from this task is everyone learns differently, one technique might work for one kid and might not work for another. The reason why we did this assignment is for us to understand that one has to carefully choose the words used in creating instructions for people and explain them clearly so that everyone understands exactly whats going on. A good example of this is the Haiti project; we had to carefully explain each person’s role so that everyone in the group knew what they had to do in the project. We also had to take an intelligence test and from this one could see that some people learn visually, logically, and others have a linguistic intelligence, so this test proves that everyone learns differently.

Student 4: In this class, we learned how to write instructions for a particular task. Although my first impression of this exercise was that what is this? Come on we are in a university u cant teach us how write instructions on how to put a straw in the juice box, but after the whole exercise I learnt how a simple thing, which everyone would practically do the same way, the only way actually, when asked to put down in words can be done is so many different ways. This was just to show how to tackle situations accordingly. I also learned the severity of the situations when things are taken differently than what they are supposed to mean. I guess this might be a very good test for multiple intelligence with unique answer in the end.

Student 5: During the first class period, students were directed to prepare a list of detailed instructions on how to open a juice container. At the end of the exercise, comparisons were made between different sets of instructions throughout the class. These comparisons lead to a discussion on what techniques of writing instructions may work or may not work.

Some things that were considered were: (a) the terminology used must be appropriate, (b) too much detail may not always be good, (c) visual demonstration is a good way to instruct an audience, (d) the use of pictures and visual aids are good when a demonstration is not possible, (e) it is always a good idea to provide some sort of error recovery instructions, and (f) it is always important to be consistent with the terms and vocabulary used.

This exercise has made me aware of the importance of recognizing an audience and assessing their subject knowledge level before writing or presenting a subject. I think that this general awareness has helped me develop into a better writer, in both, school and at work.

top of page link graphic

The Importance of Audience

I always use this lesson plan in the first class, right after the introductions. I wrote it during my second semester teaching and never needed to change it.

sample tetrapaks
Sample Tetra Paks™

The goal is to shock the students into realizing that they have to think about their audiences when they write a paper. Nearly every class reinforces the same message, which seems to get through based on their final exams.

However, you will probably have to use a different item because the original Tetra Pak materials are no longer available. In 1995, I contacted Tetra Pak's public relations director, who sent me a booklet on how to design a package correctly, a printed but unfolded and unglued blank, and a paper blueline on which art directors could lay out the elements of the package (this is all done on computers now). When I tried to get more up-to-date materials a few years ago, the company wouldn't send anything and I haven't been able to find technical information online for Tetra Pak or the other juice-box manufacturers.

However, I originally got the idea from someone who had his students go out into the parking lot and change a tire following the students' instructions. So it's certainly adaptable.

Note that one of the appeals of the lesson, especially for night classes, is the unexpected jolt of sugar. I'd pick up 20 different juice boxes at the grocery store--YooHoo chocolate milk drink, certain iced teas, and JuicyJuice all come in Tetra Paks (look on the bottom of the packages)--and in summertime, I froze the boxes so they defrosted in the hour's drive to school but were still cool when we started the lesson.

top of page link graphic

Lesson plan

Major concept

The audience for a piece of technical writing changes the writing.

Generalizations

Technical (or any) communication is 1/4 research, 1/4 design, 1/4 writing, and 1/4 editing.

However, the starting point is always the audience. Everything else, all the other decisions, comes from what you find out about the audience.

Objectives

Cognitive

Students will learn that the same information can be presented many ways, and all ways are valid depending on the audience.

Behavioral

In learning to appreciate differences in audiences, the students will begin to consciously choose an appropriate method for each type of audience.

Materials

  1. Fruit juices in Tetra Paks™, paper towels, scissors, paper and pencil.
  2. Bluelines, etc., from TetraPak, Inc.

Procedures

Exercise #1: Writing for yourself

Hand out Tetra Paks™ and ask class members to write explanations of how to open and drink from the boxes. They can do anything they need to do to figure out how the containers work, including drinking the contents. 5 minutes.

top of page link graphic

Exercise #2: Writing for an audience

Pair off class members.

“One of you is a writer who has written instructions for drinking from these juice containers. Your partner, on the other hand, is a harried kindergarten teacher who has just been handed two dozen of these juices for the morning break. Many of her students may have never opened one of these boxes before, so she is going to have to use your instructions to show her students what to do. She is hoping for a dry experience.

“The teacher follows the writer's instructions. The teacher can say anything, the more the better, but the writer says nothing. Instead, the writer just takes notes about what works and what doesn't.

“If the teacher opens the juice box and there are any spills or drips at all, the instructions didn’t work.

“NO HINTS!"

After 5-10 minutes, stop and have the students switch roles. After another 5-10 minutes, stop again and ask the pairs to discuss how they would change the instructions. 20 minutes.

Class discussion:

“How successful were these instructions? What made them successful? How did you decide to change the instructions to make them more successful? What difference does it make to know your audience?"

Sample problems noticed: The instructions are too obvious, they're not obvious enough, the tone is wrong ("suck the juice"), the language level is wrong ("puncture").

top of page link graphic

Exercise #3: Writing for a technical audience

“You now have a different audience. You’ve been hired part-time by a printing plant, where you do everything that anyone asks. Your boss wants you to solve a problem for her. Graphic artists are handing in artwork that doesn't meet specs—the artwork sometimes doesn't contain the right information and it doesn’t fit on the boxes. For example, somebody recently sent in artwork that had the nutrition information bent around a corner of the box.

"Take 5 minutes to come with some ideas about how you're going to FIGURE OUT what to say to the graphic artists. In other words, how will YOU find out what exactly the dimensions of the box are? How will YOU find out what has to be on the boxes and where it goes? And how will YOU figure out what to say to graphic artists in their own language so that they understand what they’re supposed to do?

"For 10 minutes, share ideas with your partner and see if you can come up with more ideas.” 15 minutes

Class discussion:

“What did you come up with?”

To find out more about the boxes themselves, look at the bottom of the box to find the manufacturer of the box (the juice company is irrelevant, except maybe to ask them how to contact the box manufacturer). The box manufacturer can send you information about the dimensions and design hints. All that you have to do is find out how to contact the manufacturer.

To find out how to communicate with the artists, some answers are: Use printed materials like the ones from TetraPak; interview and usability test your instructions with some friendly graphic artists (both expert and novice); get a graphic-arts dictionary….

Pass around the materials from Tetra Pak™. 15 minutes.

Reinforcement and assessment

Reinforcement

In later classes, the students will learn additional audience analysis techniques.

Assessment

At the end of the lesson or at the beginning of the next lesson, ask each student for his or her reaction to the lesson (students can pass). "What did you discover about writing for different audiences?"

top of page link graphic

Sample student responses

Student 1: We were asked to write the instructions to take out a juice box from its pack, open it and insert the straw into it (initially for myself and later for an imagined audience or reader of  kindergarten students.) I had to do a similar exercise for my English Composition I class; nevertheless, I learned the difference between writing for myself and writing for a group whose level of understanding will be different from mine. When I write for myself, I only note what I do not know or what I need to remember. When I write for someone else, I have to [choose] the terminology to use and the amount of background information to give. It was interesting to find out that a peer understood a couple of instructions that I wrote for the kids; the rest of the instructions did not make much sense to him. The exercise was an application of the material learnt from Chapter 1.

When I wrote my first technical log, I discovered that I liked the class discussion on how to write directions for the graphics and art director of the juice box/packet. My peers came up with points that I did not think of. It was a better exercise than writing the instructions on paper and getting it evaluated by only person.

Student 2: In this class session I learned that when writing direction you must state all the steps. For example when I was writing direction to putting the straw in a box juice, I was leaving out a lot of steps. I was assuming that since I knew how to do it they did too.

Student 3: The topic of the first class was to try different techniques for kids to learn how to get juice out of a juice box. We started this assignment by writing instructions like 1. Look for the straw, 2. Push the straw through the silver hole, 3. Drink the juice, etc. The one thing that I learned from this task is everyone learns differently, one technique might work for one kid and might not work for another. The reason why we did this assignment is for us to understand that one has to carefully choose the words used in creating instructions for people and explain them clearly so that everyone understands exactly whats going on. A good example of this is the Haiti project; we had to carefully explain each person’s role so that everyone in the group knew what they had to do in the project. We also had to take an intelligence test and from this one could see that some people learn visually, logically, and others have a linguistic intelligence, so this test proves that everyone learns differently.

Student 4: In this class, we learned how to write instructions for a particular task. Although my first impression of this exercise was that what is this? Come on we are in a university u cant teach us how write instructions on how to put a straw in the juice box, but after the whole exercise I learnt how a simple thing, which everyone would practically do the same way, the only way actually, when asked to put down in words can be done is so many different ways. This was just to show how to tackle situations accordingly. I also learned the severity of the situations when things are taken differently than what they are supposed to mean. I guess this might be a very good test for multiple intelligence with unique answer in the end.

Student 5: During the first class period, students were directed to prepare a list of detailed instructions on how to open a juice container. At the end of the exercise, comparisons were made between different sets of instructions throughout the class. These comparisons lead to a discussion on what techniques of writing instructions may work or may not work.

Some things that were considered were: (a) the terminology used must be appropriate, (b) too much detail may not always be good, (c) visual demonstration is a good way to instruct an audience, (d) the use of pictures and visual aids are good when a demonstration is not possible, (e) it is always a good idea to provide some sort of error recovery instructions, and (f) it is always important to be consistent with the terms and vocabulary used.

This exercise has made me aware of the importance of recognizing an audience and assessing their subject knowledge level before writing or presenting a subject. I think that this general awareness has helped me develop into a better writer, in both, school and at work.

top of page link graphic