The Thesis Sentence U NIT 2 S EMINAR :

G OAL  The goal of this presentation is to help students understand the audience and purpose of their writing.  We will also discuss the levels of formality in writing.

A UDIENCE : T HE W HO  Audience: the readers of your document  Defining your audience can help you determine what it is you want to discuss and how you want to present the material.

W HY D ETERMINE THE A UDIENCE ?  Audiences can differ by way of:  Education  Age  Gender  Profession  Location  Any other demographic possible

A UDIENCE C ONTINUED  Determining your audience can influence:  Diction – word choice  Sentence length  Sources used  Document length  Formality  Level of description

P URPOSE : T HE W HY  Purpose = the reason you write the document  Readers need to understand why it was written in order to decide if they want to read it  Defining your purpose can help you determine how to write your document  Purpose can influence the same things as audience for much the same reasons.

G ENERAL P URPOSES  Most writing is written to:  Inform  Entertain  Persuade  Teach  Analyze  Compare or Contrast

P URPOSE UNDER THE MICROSCOPE :  Our Final Project essay will inform, not try to persuade.  This does not mean that readers cannot be persuaded by our information; it simply means that we will not try to persuade or tell the audience they “should” do or think anything in particular. We present information and make logical connections.

W RITING AND F ORMALITY Formal  Avoids slang  Uses correct punctuation and mechanics  Avoids contractions and abbreviations without explanations  Examples: research papers, newspaper articles Informal  Conversational language  May change punctuation rules  May use emoticons or abbreviations  Examples: IMs, text messages, familiar s Formality deals with the correctness of writing.

F ORMAL VS. I NFORMAL Formal  The results of today’s survey found that 45% of the 150 students surveyed would rather take courses online than in a traditional, face-to- face classroom. The benefits were found to include anonymity, schedule flexibility, and a lack of work without a specific purpose. Informal  The survey said something like 30% want online courses instead of f2f ones. BTW, they like that no one knows who they are and that they can work whenever, where ever. They also hate busy work, so they like taking classes online.

F ITTING A LL T HREE T OGETHER  Audience, purpose, and formality come together in a document.  Even in this course there are times when formal writing is appropriate when writing to peers, but informal writing is acceptable when discussing things with the instructor.  Always err on the side of caution: make it too formal, with a general purpose, for the most basic audience.

L OOKING F ORWARD  Unit 3 will cover:  APA citation  Paraphrasing and quoting material