Assignment: Ethnic and Cultural Differ- ences

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Assignment: Ethnic and Cultural Differ- ences

Assignment: Ethnic and Cultural Differ- ences

Assignment: Ethnic and Cultural Differ- ences

Audience diversity, however, involves factors beyond ethnic and cultural differ- ences. Central to our point about considering your audience is examining the full spectrum of audience diversity, not just cultural differences. Each topic we’ve re- viewed when discussing demographic and psychological aspects of an audience con- tributes to overall audience diversity. Diversity simply means differences. Audience members are diverse. The question and challenge for a public speaker is, “How do I adapt to listeners with such different backgrounds and experiences?” We offer several general strategies. You could decide to focus on a target audience, consciously use a variety of methods of adapting to listeners, seek common ground, or consider using powerful visual images to present your key points.

● Focus on a target audience. A target audience is a specific segment of your audience that you most want to address or influence. You’ve undoubtedly been a target of skilled communicators and may not have been aware that mes- sages had been tailored just for you. For example, most colleges and universities spend a considerable amount of time and money encouraging students to apply for admission. You probably received recruitment literature in the mail during your high school years. But not every student in the United States receives brochures from the same college. Colleges and universities targeted you based on your test scores, your interests, where you live, and your involvement in school- sponsored or extracurricular activities. Likewise, as a public speaker, you may want to think about the portion of your audience you most want to understand your message or to be convinced.

The challenge when consciously focusing on a target audience is not to lose or alienate the rest of your listeners—to keep the entire audience in mind while simultaneously making a specific attempt to hit your target segment. For example, Sasha was trying to convince his listeners to invest in the stock market instead of relying only on Social Security. He wisely decided to focus on the younger listeners; those approaching retirement age have already made their major investment deci- sions. Although he focused on the younger members of his audience, however, Sasha didn’t forget the mature listeners. He suggested that older listeners encourage their children or grandchildren to consider his proposal. He focused on a target au- dience, but he didn’t ignore others.

● Use diverse strategies for a diverse audience. Another approach you can adopt, either separately or in combination with a target audience focus, is to use a variety of strategies to reflect the diversity of your audience. Based on your efforts to gather information about your audience, you should know the various con- stituencies that will likely be present for your talk. Consider using several methods of reaching the different listeners in your audience. For example, review the follow- ing strategies:

target audience A specific segment of an audience that you most want to influence

Analyzing Your Audience before You Speak 93

● Use a variety of supporting materials (illustrations, examples, statistics, opinions).

● Remember the power of stories. People from most cultures appreciate a good story. And some people, such as those from Asian and Middle Eastern cultures, prefer hearing stories and parables used to make a point or support an argument, rather than facts and statistics.

● If you’re very uncertain about cultural preferences, use a balance of both logical support (statistics, facts, specific examples) and emotional support (stories and illustrations).

● Consider showing the audience an outline of your key ideas using PowerPoint™. If there is a language barrier between you and your audience, being able to read portions of your speech as they hear you speaking may improve audience members’ comprehension. If an interpreter is translating your message, an outline can also help ensure that your interpreter will com- municate your message accurately.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

  • The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

    Discussion Questions (DQ)

    • Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
    • Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
    • One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
    • I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

    Weekly Participation

    • Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
    • In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
    • Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
    • Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

    APA Format and Writing Quality

    • Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
    • Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
    • I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

    Use of Direct Quotes

    • I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
    • As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
    • It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

     

    LopesWrite Policy

    • For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
    • Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
    • Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
    • Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

    Late Policy

    • The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
    • Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
    • If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
    • I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
    • As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

    Communication

    • Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
      • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
      • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

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