Courses: Persuasion, Marketing, Advanced Public Speaking, Argumentation. Objectives: The aims of this assignment are to introduce students to the concept of data mining as a tool for audience analysis and to improve students' ability to adapt a message to a specific audience.

Courses: Public Speaking, Rhetorical Criticism, Persuasion, Political Communication, and Media Communication. Objectives: By the end of this activity, students should be able to: explain the key components of Lloyd Bitzer's rhetorical situation; assess and navigate various conditions affecting various speaking situations; conduct audience analysis…

Teaching students to understand the importance of audience analysis can be challenging. In fact, many public-speaking texts suggest methods for engaging audience analysis that is not always practical or possible (e.g., polling audiences before you speak to them). One practical way of understanding audience analysis is to see it at work in the text…

This article, the first of a two-part series, offers readers 13 teaching innovations debuted at the 2017 Association for Business Communication's annual conference in Dublin, Ireland. Assignment topics presented here include communication strategy and message-packaging skills, deep communication insights, and career and personal development.…

When working with students to prepare oral presentations, the question--"What makes an effective visual aid?"--often arises. Most teachers realize the value of visual aids, but what makes them effective is sometimes unclear. There seems to be a disconnect between what the teacher, the textbook, and the student actually perceive to be a "good"…

This article describes an exercise that involves providing students with a basic understanding and demonstration of audience adaptation and then asking them to practice and evaluate the skill. In this exercise the instructor begins by providing students with background on analyzing and adapting to audiences. Then the instructor collects several…

Argues that by closely examining, editing, and rewriting actual autobiographical texts, students can learn how their own writer-oriented materials can be transformed into reader-oriented materials. (RAE)

Presents a procedural model for use as a prewriting strategy to help students "decenter" or distance themselves from their writing and avoid the generalities that characterize egocentric writing. The model provides opposing viewpoints in a student's analysis of problems or issues. (HTH)

Describes having students in a business communication class subscribe to and participate in e-mail-based electronic conferences in order to learn audience analysis. (SR)

Identifies different types of statements that make up the structure of a lecture, including concepts, definitions, formulas, theories, models, and predictive statements. The selection of statements and their relationship to pedagogical processes is described, and the importance of knowledge of the abilities of the intended audience is discussed.…

Describes a writing exercise to help technical writing students determine the appropriate methods of extension for technical definitions, decide which terms need to be defined for a particular audience, and place definitions effectively in the document. (MM)

Citizenship education is an important part of the development of young adults, enabling them to learn about their rights and responsibilities, and to understand how society works. Video is an effective medium for young people to express their views and, through involvement in a production process, they are able to learn more about putting forward…

Presents a brainstorming aid for students whose technical writing assignments focus on real problems they must discover on their own. (SRT)

Describes an exercise in which students report on rhetorical choices they make when preparing speeches, based on analyzing their public speaking class as an audience. (PD)

Suggests assigning students a spontaneous "how-to" paper the first day of class to clarify the need for audience and purpose considerations. (HTH)