Application Assignment #2: Audience Analysis/Summary -- DUE 9/8

Purpose

This assignment will help you think about the audience for your writing and how audience determines what you write and how you write it. “Just who are these guys?” -- the subtitle of the Audience Analysis chapter you read this week -- is an essential question in technical writing.

Research

Find a recent article (published in the last two or three years) written for professionals in your field of study. Click here to access the ENG220 LibGuide to access links to publications in your field of study. This may be a scholarly journal article or an article from a trade publication. It should be multiple paragraphs (at least 15) and should be on a technical topic. Trade publications are websites, magazines, or blogs that are written by and for people within the “trade” reporting on news in the field. For example, the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed are two trade publications for college instructors. 

Citation

Create a citation for the article using MLA or APA style. Here’s a link to a citation generator. If you are fluent in a different citation style from your field, such as engineering, you can use that, but please identify in your memo which style you’re using. 

Task 

Write a general summary of the article for me. Assume that I know nothing about your field of study. Write using a memo style, sent to me. Use this memo and summary as your model. Your memo and summary should be single spaced approximately 1.5 pages (600 words). Use these headings for your memo and summary:

• Article Purpose
• Major Points Discussed
• Conclusion

Under the Publication Background heading, write a paragraph describing the publication. Explain who it’s written for, its format, the type of information it covers, etc. Explain the characteristics of the genre, i.e., what do you expect in a trade publication article as opposed to a scholarly journal article? Also include information about the author, if given. Explain whether they are writing as an expert or as a journalist. Sometimes trade publications hire journalists who don’t have training in the field they are writing about.  

Under the Audience Analysis heading, write a paragraph that describes how you decided to write to me, someone who knows nothing about the topic. What information don’t I know, and what information is important for me to understand about the topic before I read the article? What information did you omit from the summary and how did you paraphrase the information to meet my needs as your audience?

For the summary, use mostly paraphrase, meaning you rewrite the main points of the article in your own words. It’s OK to directly quote one sentence, but no more. Use quotation marks and copy the sentence word-for-word. If you quote the text, you must include a parenthetical citation. Use direct attribution often (refer to the author often by last name or by “the author”). Don’t use 1st person pronouns in a summary and don’t include your opinion -- only facts and ideas presented in the article.

Watch the video below to get a few tips on writing a good summary. Because you've already taken English 111 or an equivalent course, it's assumed that you know about summary writing already.

The writing will be graded for the qualities of good writing and revision:

• Logic
• Completeness
• Accuracy
• Conciseness
• Readability
• Style
• Correctness
• Usability