According to the "Oxford English Dictionary" ("OED"), the noun "lecture" dates from the 14th century and means the "action of reading, perusal. Also, that which is read or perused." This definition, while accurate and resonates today in many college classrooms, ignores a key feature of any lecture. The…

In this article, we describe and analyze the experience of undergraduate chemistry students who scripted episodes of a science podcast for non-expert audiences. This practice aimed to improve public communication of science and technology, often suppressed throughout science careers but relevant for developing critical thinking. In particular, the…

Academic communication crucially involves readers, or hearers, buying into an argument. The audience has to be hooked, involved and led to a desired conclusion, and this is perhaps no more urgent than in a Three Minute Thesis presentation (3MT). In this competitive environment, doctoral students present their research using only one static slide…

This research aims to analyze Mark Zuckerberg's Commencement Speech at Harvard University to explore its wording and the interaction between the speaker and the audience. A Multimodal Discourse Analysis approach (MDA), and the concepts of intertextuality and interdiscursivity were adopted in this study. The results show that intertextually, Mark…

As multimodal texts become ubiquitous in the digital age, analyzing how writers interact with readers via visuals is becoming increasingly important. Enlightened by Kress and van Leeuwen's (1996, 2001) semiotic work, D'Angelo (2010) extended Hyland's (2000) text-based metadiscourse model and proposed a new framework for analyzing the visual…

Audience analysis is essential for creating successful messages across communication fields. The audience persona is an effective tool for understanding the characteristics and needs of a target audience. Through this unit activity, students experience the process of persona development, build skills in data collection and analysis, and gain…

While the number of newspapers and the circulation of those remaining is decreasing, they are still the greatest contributor of new information into media ecosystems. Newspapers continue to pay an important role in setting the agenda, as other sources recycle and repackage their content. To assist students in learning concepts of newspapers,…

Using a mixed-methods, multi-institutional design of general education writing courses at four institutions, this study examined genre as a key factor for understanding and promoting writing development. It thus aims to provide empirical validation of decades of theoretical work on and qualitative studies of genre and the nature of genre…

This research presents findings from a classroom-based case study to determine how a global competence framework influences first-year composition (FYC) students' understanding of global competency and cosmopolitanism. Sub-questions included examining how participants demonstrated skills as global and cultural communicators, how their perceptions…

The purpose of our correlational, quantitative study was to determine if time spent using digital media (i.e. text messaging and social media) influences students' media writing self-perceptions (MWSPs). We measured students' perceived writing ability using the MWSP scale and their time spent using digital media with the social networking time use…

Framed in exploratory action research, this article reports on an experience carried out at an initial English teacher education (IELTE) programme in Argentina. A?group of four tutors noticed their student-teachers' demotivation to complete written coursework. On exploring this issue, it was found that lack of authenticity of audience in writing…

"Targeting an Audience: A Discussion of Relevant Variables and a Test of Priming" is a teaching activity created to further students' knowledge of persuasive message reception and priming--a persuasion tactic often used in advertising by brands. Explanations of intended courses, learning objectives, and rationale are provided to help…

Speakers in conversation often tailor referring expressions in ways that reflect beliefs about the knowledge and perspectives of specific addressees. In this study we examined whether such audience design can influence speakers' conceptualizations of referents beyond the conversation. In a Wizard-of-Oz paradigm, participants identified novel…

Scholarship on disability in higher education would be more useful to practitioners and make greater contributions to socially justice practice if authors made implications applicable to diverse audiences, focused on addressing ableist environments rather than changing disabled community members, promoted diverse ways of being and functioning, and…

First-year composition courses must balance a range of writing instruction priorities including genre and audience awareness with language instruction, particularly for second-language writers. Despite the attested efficacy of "dynamic" written corrective feedback for language gains in intensive English programs, little research has…