Analyzing My Audience

University of Houston. "Audience Frontier Fiesta" 1950
Public Domain

Below, I answer a series of questions regarding the targeted audience of my article.

Who am I writing for? What are the audience's beliefs or assumptions? 

• The target audience of this article and therefore my essay will be pre-health/medicine students , but more specifically pre-neuroscience students. This is partly due to the subject matter of the article which centers around medical technology and its possible incorporation into Neurology.
• Neurologists are interested in the well being of the patient as well as the stability of the mind. Any issue that has an impact on the condition of the mind and its psychosis is of the utmost importance to us.

What position might they take on this issue? How do I need to respond to this issue?

•  The position a neurologist might take on this issue, or any medical professional in fact, may vary in accordance to their political beliefs. The same can be said about the audience, as it is unreasonable to assume that all pre-medical students support a government funded healthcare system. 
• Even if they agree with the article's position, I believe I can persuade the readers to oppose government subsidies in the research of gene mapping by citing the many subsidized healthcare projects, and there lack of progress in finding a "medical breakthrough" in terms of cost or treatment.

What will they want to know?

• The audience would be more concerned with the logic or statistical data supporting my claim, and whether or not it disproves the original article's claim. Plus, the audience I am addressing has a strong concern with the ethics of medical practice and treatment. Therefore, I must argue that the most ethical solution to medical "inequality" is to allow the capitalist market make it more affordable to the lower classes.

How might they react to my argument?

• I believe that most student will agree with my position if I give substantial  evidence to back my argument and subsequent claims with irrefutable evidence. Plus I will try to avoid the use of emotional appeals since it is through this rhetorical technique that the article supports its ethical claims.
• Most pre-health students will agree that the excessive use of pathos in the article costs the author's argument credibility.

How am I trying to relate to or connect with my audience?

• My primary goal in my essay is to explain and dissect the rhetorical situations presented by my article, so that I can create a sound argument against the author's claim by presented data that will refute the article's statistics. Plus I can discredit the article by noting the excessive reliance with pathos to drive the article's overall claim.

Are there specific words, ideas, or models of presentation that will help me relate to the audience?

• The appeals to logic and ethics may be substantial enough to reach out to my audience and gain their support. Also, I can state as a "lower class" American I feel that there is no urgency for a government back gene research program, noting other more pressing technologies as a better alternative for such subsidies. 

Reflection:

After reading posts made by Dylan and Jessica, I found that I have a lot of work ahead of me. My audience is much more specific than I previously thought. The fact is that student who might read my thesis may have preconceptions on the issue. Preconceptions that will be difficult to debunk- if necessary- and with that in mind I must use more logical appeals in my writing to statistically prove might point.