AudienceGenre

Determining an audience is very important for any writing process. Choosing a good design interface is trivial in the process of communicating with the audience. Different kinds of audiences exist, and they need and are interested in different things. Different readers can best understand different messages. Audience forms the key factor for the design of a document, very similarly to how they are when you determine content. Thus, the design of a PowerPoint presentation for your employees about your company will vary from that of a formal report to a client about a new project or a brochure for the visitors with a brief description of your company.The audience for a visual production may not be all too different from analyzing an audience for a solely textual work. However, unlike academic essays or short answers written on an examination, visual productions often have the potential to reach wider audiences. Additionally, unlike literature or poetry, visual documents are often more ingrained in our daily lives and encountered instead of sought. To make use of an effective visual design for a document that prompts a specific action or changes an individual’s thinking, you will want to appeal to the target audience. The following questions can be used to draft a description of your audiences.
 * Audience and Genre **


 * Target audience **
 * //Who is this design intended for? Why? //
 * //What is your relationship to this audience? //
 * //What does this audience value? Believe? What is the audiences' educational level? Expertise? What discourse communities does the audience belong to? //
 * //What type of designs would this audience have access to, be exposed to, or be most willing to seek out?//

//**Here are some tips and questions for thinking about the audience of visual documents (they are also tips you can use when composing your own). **//


 * 1) Different audiences have different taste for certain visual styles. For example, the quick cuts and extreme angles of many programs on MTV are often associated with the tastes and tolerance of a younger audience.
 * 2) People have drastically different reading speeds. In slide shows or videos with text, look for accommodations made for these differences.
 * 3) Whether by using controversial or disturbing imagery, sometimes documents purposefully seek to alienate or offend certain audience groups while piquing the curiosity of others. Do you see evidence of this and why?
 * 4) Does the document ask for or require any background familiarity with its subject matter or is it referencing a popular, visual style that certain audiences are more likely to recognize?

To make use of the appropriate design for a document that prompts an individual to action or alters her/his thinking, you have to present your argument (or information) in a design that is suitable for the purpose and audience. Therefore you will need to seek out two or three examples of the target genre and use these samples to describe the visually rhetorical parameters of the genre. Use the following questions to draft a description of the genre.
 * Genre: **


 * Target genre **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What three specific sample designs are you looking at?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Why do you think that this type of design will be most effective for your target audience?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What textual features are consistent across all of these samples? Consider doing some research to learn what others say about this type of designs. Be thorough here. You are creating a check list for yourself.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What features that only appear in one of the samples do you find effective, especially for your purpose? Why?
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What do you currently know about using a design in this genre?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sources: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/725/02/ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">http://ww2.odu.edu/~kdepew/eng327s05/GAA.html

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By Shriya Baddula,Biomedical Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology