Accommodate Audience in Oral and Written Communication

Accommodate audience/reader and context needs in oral and written communication.

Source of Text

We are exposed to a range of texts in our everyday lives. We read adverts, listen to news broadcasts that have been written by someone, receive emails, read lecture notes, notices, marketing material, magazines, newspapers and books.

These texts can be characterised by:

Author's Attitude

What an author believes and what his/her attitude to something is will have an influence on the message he/she is putting across. The attitudes and beliefs of the author may be directly stated or put across in an indirect, implied, more subtle manner. An example to illustrate this is:- when someone states: "I do not like women." they are directly stating their attitude; if they were to say: "Women are a very difficult bunch." they would be indirectly expressing a negative attitude to women; the message would be implied.

Author's Intention

Intentions

Intentions can be described as the aim or objective of something; something that somebody plans to do or achieve, e.g. “The students learnt about agricultural practices so that they would become good farmers”. Authors can have a huge variety of aims or intentions, e.g., they may wish to entertain, to educate, to convince readers of a political point of view, to persuade people to believe in a cause, to convince readers to purchase something, to express their own point of view publicly and so on.

We can usually work out what the author's intention in writing something was but sometimes their point of view may be hidden or implicit because the stated intention is not the only one. For example: in the Apartheid era, the stated intention of history textbooks was to educate learners on national and international history. However, by conveying history from certain perspective learners were educated to reinforce their position within Apartheid society, rather than to question the injustices of Apartheid.

Implicit

An implicit message is an indirect message, which can be picked up directly from the context. To imply something is to suggest it without stating it directly. If I say "Geewhizz, you are very early for lectures today!" when you are exactly on time, my implicit message to you is that you are generally late. Authors of texts often imply or suggest a message without stating it directly. We need to explore how to recognize this.

Writing Purpose and Technique

In a text that is relatively simple and aimed at the general public, where the author wished to make sure his/her purpose is clearly transmitted, shorter sentences will be used. Shorter sentences are generally easier to follow than very long complicated ones.

Look at these two texts and decide which one would be aimed at an audience consisting of computer experts and which one would be aimed at people who were not yet computer literate.

First, turn on the computer. You do this by pressing the button on the tower. Your computer is then on. Next look at the keyboard. You will see the familiar typewriter's keyboard. There will however be some additions. These additions are called Function keys. You will notice other differences as well. There is a section to the right of the keyboard. You will see numbers and words on these keys. We will learn what each one means.

Your Internet Service Provider should ensure an excellent connection to the Web at all times otherwise your browsing and searching or scrolling up and down the pages will be to no effect. As you all know, the uniform resource location of your web page will reflect either hypertext mark-up language or Javascript which is closely linked to the former, both in design and function and both of which originate with the beginnings of icon-based word-processing.

CLUE: Both the sentence length and the content tell us about the purpose and the audience.

Punctuation

Punctuation is critical to the reader as it helps us know when to pause, when to stop and when people are speaking amongst other things. A poorly punctuated piece of writing is usually very difficult to understand. If an author was composing an advert that had dialogue it would be critical both for his/her audience and purpose that the punctuation was correct. For example, look at the difference in meaning between- Ms Viljoen said I am too slow when I move, and, Ms Viljoen said: "I am too slow when I move!".

Choice of Words

The choice of words depends a great deal on whom the intended readers are and what the purpose or intention of the author is. If we want to ensure that our communication is understood by any reader we would obviously choose simple, clearly understood words. If we knew we were writing to a person, or people, who were totally familiar with the topic, we could use words they could understand. Technical jargon may not be understood by the general public. This could apply to slang as much as to jargon. Another technique used by authors is to vary the extent to which they use figurative language.

Figurative Language

Figurative language refers to language that is not literal. Literal is the actual meaning of the word, so figurative means using language that contains a non-literal sense of a word or words, "she will bite your head off if you tell her that" literally means she will use her teeth to remove your head; the sense in which it is used is figurative here, meaning "she will get very angry if you tell her that".

Humour

Humour is a way of relaxing and entertaining the reader. It is used when the purpose of the author is to entertain or amuse the reader. Humour would be out of place in a very formal text. Advertisers often make use of humour; certain companies such as ‘Vodacom’ and ‘Kulula dot com’ have very humorous advertisements.

Irony

Irony can be defined as a type of humorous device or technique based on using words to suggest the opposite of their literal meaning, e.g. "That is great news!" as a response to hearing your working hours are to be extended.

Sarcasm

Sarcasm is cutting language: remarks that mean the opposite of what they seem to say and are intended to mock or deride, or make fun of something or someone. Sarcasm and irony are effective ways of communicating for friends or in informal settings. It would generally be considered inappropriate to use sarcasm or irony when addressing people formally or people who are senior to you.

Look at these examples of sarcasm:-

In Hollywood a marriage is a success if it outlasts milk. -- Rita Rudner

I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. -- Rita Rudner

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary. -- Robert Louis Stevenson

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects. -- Lester Pearson

Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome. -- Oscar Levant

Zimbabwe kicked out its best source of income, employment and food. – Richard Perks (letter to Farmer’s Weekly May 2005)

Satire

Satire can be described as the use of wit: especially irony, sarcasm, and ridicule, to attack the evils and stupidity of humankind, e.g., the play in which politicians were represented as greedy children was a satire - it was making fun of politicians. In South Africa Pieter-Dirk Uys is the best-known satirist. His creations of Evita Bezuidenhout and others were done in order to poke fun at the Nationalist government. During the Apartheid era, his plays were sometimes prevented from being performed. Some politicians however found his satires amusing.

Visual Techniques Used by Authors

There are various camera angles that can be used for different purposes.

A low angle is used to dramatize and make the product or subject seem larger than life, e.g., a low angle shot of specific flowers to illustrate a Nature text; a low angle shot of faces to illustrate a text entitled "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

A Natural angle is used to get the audience to relate to a product in its everyday setting e.g., a series of pictures of houses could be shot using a natural angle to accompany a text on architectural styles.

You can also use an Unnatural angle where the camera is tilted during filming or shooting. This can be used to give the impression that something is looming or leaning over, e.g., a shot of tall skyscrapers in New York taken at an unnatural angle to illustrate a text on how buildings are blocking out natural light.

Cinematographic Technique (Video, TV and Movies)

A Cinematographic technique is a term that includes camera angle, lighting, background, use of music, use of accompanying text and so on. Thrillers for example are often shot using dark lighting and in dark colours to add to the suspense, e.g., the film "Seven" is very dark and grainy. (Can you think of another example?) A movie that is set outdoors such as Lord of the Rings makes great use of the natural beauty of the countryside. (Can you think of another example?) A feel-good movie like "Wondrous Oblivion" is shot using natural camera angles and with bright naturalistic lighting. (Can you think of another example?)

Adverts aimed at young people for example are often very brightly coloured and are fast-moving and make use of colloquialisms and slang. The implied message here is that young people are always on the move, busy and active and need products to suit their lifestyle. Think of cell phone adverts or adverts for Fast Food places. Can you think of any other examples of adverts aimed at young people that use a particular type of cinematographic technique?