Who am I writing for? What are my audience's beliefs or assumptions?
I am writing for incoming Freshman in the field of Environmental Science. Overall, the students in my field will support the science behind climate change and humans impact on the environment and agree with the importance of calling the public to action.
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What position might they take on this issue? How will I need to respond to this position?
Due to their interest in the environment, they are likely to side with the call to the population and governments of the world to address climate change. They may not, however, agree with this message coming from a religious figurehead such as the Pope, as this has been an issue of conflicting beliefs across all ages and field. I will be responding to any possible qualms from the audience by highlighting the inherent rhetorical and moral strength that comes from such an influential figure, no matter his deep connection to Catholicism. The conservative and religious portion of, at least the US population, may be swayed by the words of the voice of their own religion. Connecting protection of the environment with ethics by means of religion may even be the jump-start in environmental science.
What will they want to know?
They will want to know exactly what the Pope's position on the environment is, and how he addressed it. This background information will be presented in the beginning of my essay to present the situation and then move on to addressing the rhetorical power of this event. This article focuses on addressing the impact of the speech and who it will impact. It is not a discussion on the merit of climate change, so I will be focusing on the public reaction to the speech.
How might they react to my argument?
I do not think that they will be vehemently opposed to my essay, as most likely we share the same ideas regarding environmental science. There will be confusion and concern, as no one really knows what the extent of the impact of this speech will be on the actions of the US government and population. This is an issue that is only a few months old, in terms of when the Pope released his encyclical, so the nature of a developing issue is that the audience will not know exactly how to react to the situation.
How am I trying to relate to or connect with my audience?
I will used the shared ideas on environmental science, such as supporting the possible devastating effect of climate change and humans on the entire environment, to showcase how such a public event could have a positive impact on the support for our field. Objectively, this speech could result in a lot more jobs, research, and funding to the field if the general population takes the side of the Pope. The possibility of the environment to benefit from this speech is a shared interest amoungst the environmental science field is a uniting factor I can use to my advantage for rhetorical strength in my essay.
Are there specific words, ideas, or modes of presentations that will help me relate to them in any way?
Staying away from overtly religious words might help focus the audience on the possible impact on our field, rather than the confusing religious association might cause. I will be addressing the moral and ethical concerns created by this issue in the public, but my end goal is to highlight the possible long-term benefits of the speech.
REFLECTION:
After reading Bri and Chelsea's blogs I found that I was missing including the audience of my essay being the incoming freshman. I was more so addressing the audience of the article than that of the final project. Bri addressed mainly the incoming freshman, but I still felt like it was important to address the audience of the article as well. Chelsea mentioned another factor of the audience being those supporting controversy. I tended to focus on my audience being those invested in environmental science, as the article was written in an environmental news source and my essay being written for such students. Still, it is possible for the flip-side of the argument to be a part of the audience.
This post was very well-developed. You clearly understand the audience that you are writing for and know what they believe in. Being able to identify the specific beliefs and values will make it much easier to direct your essay in order to suit the needs of your audience.
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