Overview
Your SWOT analysis will set the stage for the rest of your research project. You will be summarizing the audience and analyzing the strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats of the audience—as they pertain to your broad research question.
Before you begin, be sure you have an approved research question to which you have committed.
Think about an audience that cares about your question and that you want to convince of something. Your audience selection will not only influence your final project, it will determine what your final project looks like.
Definition:
- According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary an audience is “a group of listeners and spectators” and analysis means “separation of a whole into its component parts.” Therefore, an audience analysis is an exercise in looking closely at an audience and breaking up audience’s characteristics into smaller parts.
- A SWOT analysis is a common genre used in business. A SWOT breaks down and examines strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a business/brand or team. A SWOT can also be used as a personal examination. In this assignment, we will be using this genre to analyze our audience, which will lead us to thinking of how we can effectively persuade this group.
- As part of a SWOT analysis, students will closely examine who makes up a particular audience, which involves doing a significant amount of research into demographics, strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats.
- Audience analysis is important because it gets students thinking about who is part of a particular group and what that group might find persuasive.
- The SWOT analysis should be a minimum of 1000 words.
- Use MLA style.
Categories:
- Introduction and Conclusion: The introduction should introduce the audience being analyzed so that the reader has enough background information to understand the SWOT analysis. The conclusion summarizes key points and reiterates whether the work was effective or ineffective. What will tie together this paper and give it a sense of closure?
- Thesis Statement and Development: The thesis statement is a sentence (or two) at the end of the introduction that presents the focus of the analysis (relate this to persuasion!). The rest of the paper should refer to the thesis at key points and develop the claim presented in the thesis. The thesis statement should take the form of a claim that can be defended or refuted; the student’s task is to develop and defend this claim in the body paragraphs.
- Strengths/Weaknesses: In the strengths and weaknesses sections, the writer will examine and analyze the internal factors that are relevant to the audience. Strengths and weakness are supported by reliable outside sources that are integrated effectively into the project.
- Opportunities/Threats: In the opportunities and threats sections, the writer will examine and analyze the external factors that affect this audience. Opportunities and threats are supported by reliable sources that are integrated effectively into the project.
- Audience Awareness and Style Choices: When you write, it is important to make sure that you are following the expectations of your audience. Think about who your audience is; what are the expectations for grammar and style that this audience would expect?
- Peer Review(s) and Revisions: Writing is a recursive process, and therefore, it is expected that everyone engages in this process with their project. You will participate in peer reviews, both giving and receiving critiques. You will then use their critiques to make improvements to your own drafts. There should be clear improvement from draft to draft as critiques are addressed and revised as appropriate.