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last.updated 2.12.06

Audience and Assessment

Purpose

As we have learned over the last few weeks, each field has it own rituals for disciplining its writers. In less archaic language, we need to be aware of the expectations and conventions for writing as we move from context to context. Different discourse communities, thus different audiences, do not always assess a single text the same way. We will look at how different, but similar, audiences read the same texts and discuss the relevance of this awareness to your own future writing situations.

Article Reviews

We will listen to article reviews by MaryCate and Shanon.

Discussion–Abbott & Eubanks

We will address the following questions...

• What questions do you have about Abbott & Eubanks article?
• What were Abbott & Eubank's research questions? What did they do to collect data? How did they justify this approach? Do you think that this was the best approach for answering these questions? why?
• What major conclusions did the researchers come to about these different audiences?
• Do the two audiences they worked with–academics and practitioners–share the same discourse community? Do you think that either one of the audiences has a more authoritative reading of these documents? explain why or why not.
• Last week many of you argued that academic discourse is needed to give students the foundations needed to write within their disciplinary contexts. How does Abbott & Eubank's conclusions support or refute the position you took last week?
• What is your perspectives on these four documents the focus groups looked at? Be prepared to justify your explanation. Feel free to respond to the various opinions reported from the focus groups.
• Both Abbott & Eubanks and Grabill (week 2) published their scholarship in technical/professional writing journals, yet the presentation and structure of their respective articles is quite different. Which one did you find more effective overall and why? How did you see each one responding to the respective subject matter of their scholarship?