ENGH 302B Virginia Commonwealth Issue Audience and Genre Analysis Worksheet NAME OF YOUR DISCIPLINE: YOUR refined and narrowed

ENGH 302B Virginia Commonwealth Issue Audience and Genre Analysis Worksheet NAME OF YOUR DISCIPLINE:

YOUR refined and narrowed RESEARCH QUESTION:

1. THE ISSUE: Describe the appropriately narrowed, current, and unresolved issue relevant to your field of study. Explain what caused this controversial issue to arise and why people disagree about how it should be resolved. Make sure it is either about to happen or is just getting underway, which means it has arisen as a controversy within the last 18-24 months.

2. THE AUDIENCE: Identify and describe a primary audience who has direct influence over the issue you researched and analyzed in your annotated bibliography. Explain the audience’s vested interest (decision-making authority) in the issue and describe any current events or trends that may be currently affecting your audience’s interests. Use credible evidence to indicate the source of your information, integrate it effectively and ethically, and cite it accurately.

3. AUDIENCE’S POSITION (the audience’s argument): What position does the audience have on the issue you chose? Note that audiences do not always spell out their positions. You will need to conduct research in newspapers, trade publications, and journals to collect the necessary information about your audience’s position. Use credible evidence to indicate the source of your information, integrate it effectively and ethically, and cite it accurately.

4. AUDIENCE BIAS: What values and beliefs does your audience have that would create biases against your position? Remember that everyone involved in a controversy will have biases, so having them is not a sign of weakness. It just means you would need to consider those biases when writing to the audience. Use credible evidence to indicate the source of your information, integrate it effectively and ethically, and cite it accurately.

5. YOUR POSITION ON THE ISSUE: Identify and explain your stance on this issue and why you disagree with the audience. THE FIRST SENTENCE OF YOUR RESPONSE WILL BE YOUR THESIS, OR THE ANSWER TO YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION THAT YOU WILL SUPPORT WITH EVIDENCE.

Provide reasons for your position. Use credible evidence to indicate the source of your information, integrate it effectively and ethically, and cite it accurately. Use the evidence to defend your position.

6. CONCESSION and COUNTERARGUMENT: Describe elements of your audience’s position that you sympathize with (concession) so that you can acknowledge the counterarguments to your stance. Next, refute what you can about the audience’s position with evidence-based counterargument of your own. Use credible evidence to indicate the source of your information, integrate it effectively and ethically, and cite it accurately.