Wysocki-Lynch Reading

This piece was considerably easier to get through than I was anticipating when I initially looked at the 59 page PDF. I think that was partly because there was a lot of review involved, at least for me personally. Wysocki and Lynch address 7 things to consider/develop between the stages of choosing and producing your argument.

1. Sense of Purpose: What are you trying to accomplish or achieve? Will it be worth the time to your audience?
2. Audience: Know them! You need to know what they will expect, how they will respond, and what will resonate with them, in order to communicate as clearly as possible.
3. Context: The time and/or location of your argument may call for different levels of formality or different media. The context will help determine what is appropriate and what will be effective.
4. Statement of Purpose (not to be confused with number 1): After taking into consideration your purpose, audience, and context, you can more concisely define or explain what exactly you want to do and why. This will perhaps be more helpful to you than anyone.
5. Strategies: What kinds of arguments are you going to use? Think about what is important to your audience. What are there concerns or presuppositions? Always be looking for different angles to work from.
6. Medium: How are you going to present your argument? Is it going to be spoken, visual, animated? Again, purpose, audience, and context need to be considered. Which mediums are appropriate? Which are more accessible and resonant with your audience? You also have to know what your limits are in terms of skills/competence, time, money, etc. Don't choose a project that you can't finish or that you can't do well.
7. Arrangement: Think about all the pieces of your project. Try mapping things out in different ways to produce a more powerful argument. You'll run into things that don't work, for sure, but this will help you better communicate with your audience. Consider how different arrangements add or detract from your message.

I really enjoyed the practicality of this piece, especially going into our third assignment. While some of it may seem obvious, it's a good reminder to always be considering, in particular, your purpose, audience, and context. You can have a fantastic mix of strategies, beautifully arranged and portrayed through an exciting medium...but if you have neglected your audience or forgotten the context, your purpose will likely find itself stopped cold in its tracks.