Activity: Audience and Purpose Analysis with AI

This activity will help you develop your understanding of audience and purpose in argumentative writing. You’ll use AI as a tool to explore how different audiences might react to the same argument and how you can tailor your writing to be more persuasive.

Instructions:

1. Choose an Argument: Select a controversial topic that you’re interested in arguing. It should be a topic with multiple perspectives and potential counterarguments.

2. Draft a Short Argument (1-2 paragraphs): Write a concise argument presenting your viewpoint on the chosen topic. Focus on making your point clearly and providing some supporting reasons. Don’t worry about perfect grammar or style at this stage; the focus is on the argument itself.

3. Define Three Target Audiences: Identify three distinct audiences for your argument. These audiences should differ in their perspectives, values, or prior knowledge related to your topic. For example:

   • Audience 1: People who strongly agree with your position.
   • Audience 2: People who are neutral or undecided on the issue.
   • Audience 3: People who strongly disagree with your position.

4. AI Interaction: Audience Analysis: Use an AI writing tool (e.g., ChatGPT, Bard, etc.). For each of your target audiences, provide the AI with your short argument and a prompt similar to the following:

   “I’m trying to persuade [Audience 1/2/3] to agree with my argument that [state your argument]. Considering their perspective and values, what are some potential objections or counterarguments they might raise? How might they react to my argument, and what could I do to make it more persuasive to them?”

5. Analyze AI Feedback: Carefully review the AI’s responses for each audience. Pay attention to the different objections and counterarguments the AI generates. How do these vary depending on the audience’s perspective? What specific aspects of your argument does the AI identify as potentially problematic or unpersuasive for each audience?

6. Revision Strategies: Based on the AI’s feedback, brainstorm ways to revise your argument to make it more effective for each audience. Consider:

   • Addressing Counterarguments: How can you directly address the objections and counterarguments raised by the AI?
   • Tailoring Language and Tone: How can you adjust your language and tone to resonate better with each audience?
   • Providing Additional Evidence or Explanation: What additional evidence or explanations could you provide to strengthen your argument for each audience?

7. Reflection: Write a short reflection on what you learned from this activity. How did interacting with the AI help you understand the importance of audience awareness in argumentative writing? Did you realize any blind spots in your own argument? How will you apply these insights to future writing assignments?

Example AI Prompt:

“I’m trying to persuade people who strongly disagree with my position on gun control to agree with my argument that stricter gun control laws are necessary to reduce gun violence. Considering their perspective and values, what are some potential objections or counterarguments they might raise? How might they react to my argument, and what could I do to make it more persuasive to them?”

Revised Discussion Board Activity

Instructions:

This activity will help us collectively develop our understanding of audience and purpose in argumentative writing. We’ll be working together to explore how different audiences might react to the same argument and how we can tailor our writing to be more persuasive.

Part 1: Argument and Audience Exploration (Initial Post)

1. Choose an Argument: Select a controversial topic that you’re interested in arguing. It should be a topic with multiple perspectives and potential counterarguments.
2. Draft a Short Argument (1-2 paragraphs): Write a concise argument presenting your viewpoint on the chosen topic. Focus on making your point clearly and providing some supporting reasons.
3. Explore Three Potential Audiences: Identify three distinct audiences for your argument. These audiences should differ in their perspectives, values, or prior knowledge related to your topic. For each audience, briefly describe:
   • Their general viewpoint on the topic.
   • What values or beliefs are likely to influence their perspective.
   • How you think they might initially react to your argument.
4. Present Your Argument and Audiences: In your initial post, share your short argument and your descriptions of the three potential audiences.

Part 2: Peer Audience Analysis and Revision Strategies (Peer Responses)

1. Select an Audience: Read the arguments and audience descriptions posted by your classmates. Choose one of your classmates’ arguments and one of their three audiences to analyze.
2. Provide Audience Analysis: From the perspective of the chosen audience, provide specific objections or counterarguments they might raise to your classmate’s argument. Explain your reasoning.
3. Offer Revision Strategies: Based on your analysis, suggest concrete ways your classmate could revise their argument to make it more persuasive to that audience. Consider:
   • Addressing specific counterarguments.
   • Tailoring language and tone.
   • Providing additional evidence or explanations.

Part 3: Reflection and Refinement (Follow-Up)

1. Reflect on Feedback: After receiving feedback from your peers, reflect on the different perspectives and revision strategies offered.
2. Share Insights: In a follow-up post, share what you learned from your peers’ analysis. Did they identify any blind spots in your argument?
3. Refine Your Approach: Briefly describe how you plan to refine your argument based on the feedback received, considering all three of your audiences.
4. Discuss Overall Learning: Discuss how this collaborative activity helped you understand the importance of audience awareness in argumentative writing and how you will apply these insights to future writing assignments.