[The header image from DAM's song "Who You R."]
The Audience
Your intended audience will substantially shape your final project. Imagine the difference between talking about any topic to kindergarteners, or undergraduate students, or your professor. Of course you would thoughtfully use different language, make slightly different arguments, highlight different evidence – even if you were ultimately trying to make the same big point.
Think seriously about to whom you want to address your project:
Is your audience specific or broad?
Do you know your audience well?
What do you think your audience takes for granted about your broad topic(s)?
What does your audience already know or believe about your broad topic(s)?
How do you want to change, shift, or complicate their thinking?
How do you imagine your audience will react your project?
What format, language, or framework would be most compelling to your audience?
What would help your message reach them?
Notice that there are costs and benefits in picking a larger, more general audience or a smaller, more specific audience.
Some possible audiences:
Your family (nuclear or extended)
Your dorm
Your fraternity or sorority
Your team
Your high school
The department in which you major or minor
University of Michigan undergraduates
People who live in Ann Arbor
People who live in Michigan
People who use the internet (or a specific type of social media)
Please note that this list is by no means exhaustive!
You are welcome to create your final project in a language other than English. If you do that, you will need to subtitle or translate all aspects of it into English so we can understand it. I recommend this option for people who are native speakers of or highly conversant in a language other than English.
The Audience
Your intended audience will substantially shape your final project. Imagine the difference between talking about any topic to kindergarteners, or undergraduate students, or your professor. Of course you would thoughtfully use different language, make slightly different arguments, highlight different evidence – even if you were ultimately trying to make the same big point.
Think seriously about to whom you want to address your project:
Is your audience specific or broad?
Do you know your audience well?
What do you think your audience takes for granted about your broad topic(s)?
What does your audience already know or believe about your broad topic(s)?
How do you want to change, shift, or complicate their thinking?
How do you imagine your audience will react your project?
What format, language, or framework would be most compelling to your audience?
What would help your message reach them?
Notice that there are costs and benefits in picking a larger, more general audience or a smaller, more specific audience.
Some possible audiences:
Your family (nuclear or extended)
Your dorm
Your fraternity or sorority
Your team
Your high school
The department in which you major or minor
University of Michigan undergraduates
People who live in Ann Arbor
People who live in Michigan
People who use the internet (or a specific type of social media)
Please note that this list is by no means exhaustive!
You are welcome to create your final project in a language other than English. If you do that, you will need to subtitle or translate all aspects of it into English so we can understand it. I recommend this option for people who are native speakers of or highly conversant in a language other than English.