PAGOS Plans (& Analyses)

 
overview ● purpose ● audience ● types of audience ● demographic information ● genre ● organization ● style ● extended pagos prompts

Overview

When you think about what you want to have happen as a result of your communication, you consider purpose. When you think about your audience, what they value, how they might react, what they’re interested in, their position and responsibilities, their frame of reference, etc., you consider your audience. When you think about the medium through which you will communicate—in person? on the phone? by email? etc.—you consider genre. When you think about how to begin, how to order the details, and what note to close on, you consider organization. When you think about your tone, diction, visual elements, and level of formality, you consider style.

When you think about those things, you’re thinking rhetorically–you’re thinking about all of the elements of the situation and making choices about what and how to communicate in order to achieve your purpose.

Throughout the term, we will use these five elements–purpose, audience, genre, organization, and style–in two ways:

  1. as a frame for analyzing existing sample documents to determine whether they would be successful or unsuccessful in achieving their purpose and in thinking of ways to improve them, and
  2. as a strategy for planning our own professional communication in the hopes of achieving our purpose.

In this detailed explanation and list of considerations, I’ll use second person (you) instead of third person (the writer).

The purpose of most professional writing
situations is not “to write a [thing].”
The purpose of professional writing situations is to do something—to get information, to sell a product, to encourage further contact, to build goodwill, to get a refund, to demonstrate credibility…
The purpose of professional writing is to get something done.
Is the purpose to inform? Maybe. In PAGOS plans, purpose asks
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO HAPPEN
as a result of this communication situation?
Do you want your audience to simply be informed?
Or do you want your audience to do something?
(think something? keep something in mind? change their behavior? change their attitude? understand? agree with your position? etc.)
Sometimes the purpose is simply to inform, but usually, there’s more.
The purpose of pro writing is (usually) to get something done.
✗
✔
to write a thing to do a thing
to write an instruction set to instruct a user in how to use a product
to write a description to describe a design to a potential investor
to write a report to inform a client about progress on a project

PURPOSE

  • Why are you writing?
  • What do you want to accomplish?
  • ★ What do you want to have happen as a direct result of this communication? ★
  • What is your overall goal?
  • What information do you need to include to accomplish your purpose?

Except in rare cases*, the purpose is almost never “to write an email,” or “to write a letter.” The purpose is to do something–to make a sale, to encourage further contact, to build goodwill, to get a refund, to demonstrate credibility, etc. Remember our discussion of rhetoric? Rhetoric is active and purposeful–it gets things done.

Think about it this way. Your supervisor will never come to you and say, “Jane, please write an email today,” just for the heck of it. Rather, perhaps your supervisor wants you to check in with a client to make sure they’re satisfied with your product (and perhaps, you write an email as a means for doing that). Your supervisor will never come to you and say “or ”Jim, create a report.” Rather, your boss wants to choose a new widget supplier based on quality and price (and you may write a recommendation report that compares potential suppliers and recommends one based on those criteria). The purpose of professional writing isn’t to write a thing… it’s to get something done.

Often, professional communications have an immediate purpose and a larger purpose or goal.

For example, say you receive an advertisement for “home improvement services” in the mail. The company responsible for the advertisement doesn’t expect you to receive the mailer, call them up, and put in an order for a bathroom remodel and hurricane shutters. Selling goods and services might be their larger purpose, but their immediate purpose is to get you to visit their website, or to call for an in-home consultation, or to consider the current state of your bathroom, or to think about the upcoming hurricane season.

So, when you consider your purpose in a communication situation, be sure to consider both the immediate purpose (what you want to have happen as a direct and immediate result of your document) and the overall purpose (the larger goal or end result).

✗
✔
to inform the audience about a project deadline to get audience to submit their projects by the deadline
to remind employees to use the online system when requesting time off for employees to use the online system to request time off
to provide information about the company dress code for employees to dress according to the company dress code
to tell students about the improtance of correct spelling and grammar to get students to proofread their work/correct their spelling and grammar
* Rare cases when the purpose is to write a thing include a “memo to file” or “letter to file” where a writer writes a document for the sake of keeping a written record.
AUDIENCE refers to your readers/listeners/viewers/users. Audience Analysis is possibly the most critical part of understanding the rhetorical situation. [. . .] Is your audience internal (within your company) or external (such as clients, suppliers, customers, other stakeholders)? Are they lateral to you (at the same position or level), upstream from you (management), or downstream from you (employees, subordinates)? Who is the primary audience? Who are the secondary audiences? These questions, and others, help you to create an understanding of your audience that will help you craft a message that is designed to effectively communicate specifically to them.
TWE Chapter 1.3, page 18-19
More on Audience in Professional Writing
Audience Analysis: Who Are These Guys? from Online Technical Writing
Adapting Your Message to Audience from Business Communication
Key Concept: Reader-Centred Writing from Technical Writing Essentials: Introduction to Professional Communications in the Technical Fields
You-Centered Business Style from Writing Commons

AUDIENCE

  • Who is the primary audience?
  • What is the audience’s background? (demographic, experiential, educational, etc.)
  • What do they value? (in context, what do they value more/most?) What are their values? What language do they use to describe those values?
  • What do they already know? What do they want to know? What do they need to know?
  • What are the benefits to them? What are the potential drawbacks? What are their potential objections?
  • How are they likely to receive and/or respond to your message?
    • Are they expecting your message?
    • How will they react emotionally – will they be pleased? discouraged? angry? indifferent? annoyed?
  • In what context/s might they read your message?
    • Will they read it in the morning? Evening? At work or home? With others? Will they read it on screen, in print, in person, or through another media/medium?
  • Who else might read/hear your message? Are there any secondary audiences to consider? Besides the primary audience, is there an initial audience? A gatekeeper? Watchdogs? (read “List & Explanation of the Five Kinds of Audiences in Business Communication” by Chirantan Basu of Demand Media in The Houston Chronicle)

Types of Audiences

Primary Audience
  • Decides whether to accept your recommendation
  • Acts on the basis of your message
Secondary Audience
  • Advise the primary audience whether to accept your recommendation
  • Implement your recommendation
  • Are affected by your recommendation
  • May examine your message years after it was written for research or legal purposes
Initial Audience
  • First audience to see message
  • May assign message
Gatekeeper
  • Has the power to stop the message rather than sending it on to other audiences
Watchdog Audiences
  • Have political, social, or economic power and may base future actions on their evaluations of your message

Demographic Information

age (or)
life stage
education
geography
gender
household
income
occupation
relationship / family status
What is Genre?: A genre is a type or category that has particular characteristics, elements, content, or formats. Horror is a genre of film. Pop is a genre of music. Haiku is a subgenre of poetry, and poetry is a genre of writing. In this class, we will use “genre” loosely to mean a “type” of writing–such as email, letter, report, etc.–that has particular characteristics common to most or all of the examples of that genre.
What are genre conventions? Genre conventions are the common characteristics—or “rules”—that are typical among members of a particular genre. Horror films usually employ scary music and dim lighting—so scary music and dim lighting are conventions of the horror genre of film.
Relationship Between Genre & Organization: Genres are familiar and recognizable. To some degree, the genre of the document shapes readers expectations of what sort of information is contained within. Genre also provides the audience some information about the document is organized and how to “use” it. For example, audiences of formal reports know they can scan the executive summary for a quick overview of what’s contained in the report, or they can read through each section more slowly. Audiences of textbooks know they don’t have to read from the first page to the last–they can often read sections out of order, browse the table of contents, or use the index to find what they’re looking for. For these reasons, a document’s genre often affects its organization.
Relationship Between Organization & General Purpose: In the same way that genre affects organization, a document’s general purpose also affects organization. There are different “best practices” and techniques for organizing information depending on whether the general purpose is positive/neutral/informative, negative, or persuasive. We will cover general purposes in more detail later.

GENRE

  • What genres might be appropriate in this situation?
    • If there is more than one appropriate genre, what are the benefits and drawbacks of each?
  • Which genre is best (or which do you choose)? Why?
  • What are the conventions (or the “rules”) of the genre(s)?

ORGANIZATION

  • How should you organize?
  • Will you start positive or end positive?
  • What will come first? Where will you put the details? How will you close?
  • Will you address your purpose first? Or provide an explanation, rationale, or persuasive details first?
  • Will you buffer bad news? Or provide it right away?
  • Does the genre influence organization? How?

STYLE

  • Will your writing style be formal? cordial, sympathetic, informative, concise? Will you write in first person or third? Active or passive (or impersonal)?
  • Will you use lists, headings, paragraphs, bullets, or graphic highlighting such as bold or italic fonts?
  • Will you use visual aids? Will you use non-textual elements such as boxes or organizational lines? Will you use clip art or color? Will you use a graphic organizer?

PAGOS Prompts [Extended]

Purpose
  • What do you want to have happen as a result of this communication situation?
  • What do you need to accomplish?
  • What is your primary purpose?
  • What is your long/er term purpose?
  • What information do you need to include in the message to accomplish your purpose?
Audience (Extended)
  • Identification:
    • who are they
    • who is the primary audience?
    • are there any secondary audiences?
  • Background:
    • what is the audience’s background?
    • what is their demographic background? experience? education? level of experience? familiarity?
  • Value/s:
    • what does the audience value?
    • how might they describe their value/s? (in what terms?)
  • Knowledge/s:
    • what does the audience already know?
    • what does the audience need to know?
    • what does the audience want to know?
  • Expectations:
    • how will the audience receive the document? (how might they react?)
    • what does the audience expect from the document?
  • Context:
    • in what context might the audience read the document?
    • what is the audience’s physical environment? time of day? mental state? are they alone or with others?
  • Benefits & Objections:
    • what are the potential benefits to the audience?
    • what are the audience’s potential objections?
Genre
  • What genres might be appropriate?
  • Which genre is best? Why?
  • What are the conventions of the genre(s)?
Organization
  • How should the message be organized? (broad to narrow, narrow to broad, frontloading, parts of a whole, chronological…)
  • What information would you include in first paragraph? body? last paragraph? (For example, will you inform or make your request first and give details after? or provide a rationale first, then info, then supplementary info?
Style
  • Beyond “professionally,” in what style will you write? (Will you be cordial, sympathetic, informative, concise, terse, conversational… ?)
  • How will you refer to your audience?
  • First person plural? e.g.: we, us, our
  • Second singular/plural? e.g.: you
  • Third person singular/plural? e.g.: they/them, employee/s, member/s, etc.
  • How will you refer to yourself/the writer (if you are) in the message? (as we? as I? as the company? etc.)
  • Will you use any lists? headings and/or subheadings? bullets? bold font? etc.?
  • Will you use any visual aids, non-textual elements, graphical elements, or other visual interest?
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