Title: Class Discussion Part #2 Creating a profile of your reader
Course: KVCC ENG219

The purpose of this discussion is to consider the unique needs of a specific audience. Students are to create a profile of readers for their sales letter which discusses the unique selling propositions of their academic program.

1.     Brainstorm the qualities or features of an academic program you believe to be most important to students considering your school.

What’s important here is to think critically about your school and its constituents. Writing a letter of this ilk is much different for prospective community college students than it is for, say, a competitive liberal arts college.

As an example, at our small, rural community college in Maine, our student population includes a majority of “non-traditional” students, which brings with it a host of rhetorical complexities the writer will have to navigate as might things like socioeconomics and other demographic/cultural information.

Document responses and discuss how these priorities will impact the content of your sales letter. For example, if cost of attendance is a key concern, how will this be addressed in your letter?

2.      A variation of this discussion is to simply anticipate the types of questions you imagine your readers asking about the program.

3.      If your school produces a fact book or enrollment profile, study the data about the current student population before answering the above questions. In this way, you will be able to make decisions about your audience based on data rather than anecdotal evidence, impressions, or generalizations.