Blog AnalysisDiscussions play an integral role in monitoring y.docx

Blog Analysis
Discussions play an integral role in monitoring your course
participation throughout the term. You should check back to the
weekly discussions multiple times throughout the week to
engage in the discussion with your professor and peers.
Participation is only counted during the week in which this
discussion is assigned. Be sure to appropriately cite any sources
you use to support your responses with standard APA citations.
Answer the prompt question(s) thoroughly using a minimum of
150-200 words
Discussion Question:
Since you have been reading about blog composition, find a
blog you enjoy and analyze it. Then, post:
1. The name of the blog with a hyperlink (not a pasted URL).
2. Your analysis. Consider aspects we’ve covered in class such
as content, audience, and visual appeal. What works? What
doesn’t? Why?
Audience Analysis Assignment
Find a blog you enjoy online, or consider examining the blog
you are working on, to perform an audience analysis. Answer
the following in order to illustrate your understanding of
audience when composing a blog:
What are the Audience’s Demographics?
· Age
· Gender
· Location
· Relationship status
· Sexual orientation
· Income
· Family

· Education level
· Race
· Ethnicity
· Religion
· Occupation
What are the Audience’s Expectations or Needs?
· What do they know about the topic?
· Are there any misconceptions about the topic? What can they
expect to learn?
· What are their current beliefs about this issue?
· What tone or reading level does the audience expect when they
read this?
· How can you encourage audience interaction with the blog?
Visual Aid Assignment
In the blog lecture, you read about the importance of visual aids
in an online space. Write up a proposal about what visual aid
you intend to use for your blog including:
· Include a link or paste in the visual.
· What type of visual it is (picture, infographic, graph, video,
etc.)?
· How does this visual add clarity or credibility to your blog?
· How does the visual benefit the audience or add understanding
to your post?
· What made you choose this visual over the other aids you
looked into?
Writing for Non-Academic Audiences
Writing for General, Non-Academic Audiences: Benefits,
Opportunities, Issues (Links to an external site.)
SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

AUTHOR: SCOTT MONTGOMERY (Links to an external site.)
First Things
1. Why Write for the Public?
Social scientists investigate and write about society. It therefore
makes sense that they share this important work with those
whom they study, including decision-makers. In truth, the
public is very interested in what social science disciplines have
to say—about politics, foreign policy, history, economics, area
studies, studies of society, culture, and language. People are
more aware of how relevant and important knowledge is in these
fields than ever before.
A key reason is that they know or sense the world has entered a
period of major uncertainty. Major challenges to liberal
democracy, for example, have risen in many western nations,
including the U.S., even as issues related to terrorism,
immigration, climate change, religion, and more have appeared
as daily headlines. It is clear that the news media aren’t able to
do justice to the complexity of the real world without relying on
academics with real expertise in related areas. The internet is
also a factor. People spend far more time reading online
material than print. Online venues of information are where the
public now seeks answers.
This has meant a growing realm of new publishing
opportunities. As members of the academia, we have spent years
researching, debating, and communicating at the highest levels
of knowledge. We are experts in our chosen subjects and are
very often the best ones to inform the public about the
background and substance to certain issues and to provide it
with opinions that have depth and logic. Some might say we
have the obligation to do this; others would disagree. But either
way, the reality is that there are more avenues than ever before
to share our expertise in a greater arena. In short, there are
concrete reasons to write for the public. What are they?
· Such writing confirms and legitimizes the importance of your
work (and you).

· It creates and or expands your presence as a worthy,
knowledgeable source both nationally and internationally–even
globally.
· It generates influence and therefore opportunities to make new
connections and collaborations, as well as representing your
work further.
· It helps you think about your work in new ways, suggesting
new areas of research.
· It will raise your level of confidence, as a scholar and
representative of your field.
· It can produce valuable ideas for a book or a new course
· It will attract the notice of grad students (apprentices)
· It is a way to defend against intellectual malfeasance
2. What are the Proven Benefits?
Writing for a general audience develops a powerful new skill.
You don’t have to be John Stuart Mill to understand that an
ability to communicate with the greatest number provides you
with something of considerable utility. But it helps to make this
concrete. What specific, proven benefits can it yield?
· By creating a track record of publication, scholars have made
themselves more attractive to book publishers. It shows you can
write well enough and already have an audience. These are
actually very important things for a publisher.
· By urging (or forcing) you to think about and work on your
writing, the stylistic and vocabulary choices you make, it will
improve your scholarly writing.
· If you work in an area that is controversial or focused on
conflict, your research may be misinterpreted or misused by
others who write for the public. Representing your own research
for general readers is the best way to defend against this or
correct it.
· Comments from readers can be valuable, suggesting new areas
to research or write about; other articles, papers, reports, etc.
you may have missed; issues related to your work you may have
overlooked; possible collaborators in other countries or other

fields. You will also receive compliments from thankful
readers—a true and sincere reward.
· As your readership will inevitably include other academics,
the range and number of citations to your work in journal
articles and books may well increase.
· Establishing a respected online presence—demonstrating a
concern for public understanding—has helped some scholars
gain research funding, including from private sources
(foundations, institutions, donors).
A common worry holds that non-academic writing won’t count
toward tenure or promotion and may even count against them.
The first part of this remains true in a significant number of
universities, though the second part is less often the case today
than in the past. Anyone seeking tenure, of course, must satisfy
the requirements their department has set. Yet such
requirements are not always fixed or inflexible: there is growing
recognition that material published for a broad readership can
bring positive attention to a department and institution. Old
school bias against writing for the public is eroding today.
It’s also true that not all social scientists decide to remain
within the halls of academia. Outside this realm, any
publication you do for general audiences is likely to count in
your favor, possibly quite strongly. If you work for an NGO,
think tank, research institute, foundation, or even a government
entity, the ability to communicate with broad audiences could
advance your career no small degree.
3. Facts and Knowledge Matter
The title of this section should require little explanation or
argument. Yet we know that isn’t the case. It is all too clear that
if the most well-informed people don’t come forward to help
guide public debate, others will. As is also clear, some of these
“others” may have only tentative loyalty to the facts on a
particular subject. Social scientists, by adding their voice on
subjects directly relevant to their expertise, can help ensure that
actual research and knowledge have a solid position in related

discussion and debate. These are not small achievements.
Again, this isn’t to argue for any obligation or necessity of
activism. The point, instead, is that the national and global
conversations about many important issues and topics remain
much poorer without the informed participation of social
scientists.
This applies not only to the public as a whole but to policy-
makers and their staffs. If you have done research on something
like the psychological state of people involved in natural
disasters, the rise in the number of felons not allowed to vote in
the U.S., or the history of Russian nationalism since 1917, you
may well have important, helpful things to say about a situation
or event that is a focus of international interest.
4. You, Your Institution, and Your Field
We hinted at this above: anytime you publish something online,
you expand your presence in the one medium that matters most
today. Some call this your intellectual “brand.” As an academic,
you may find this term uncomfortable, due to its marketing
aroma. Yet “brand” is today applied to any entity that can
benefit from a larger scale of recognition, e.g. companies,
neighborhoods, cities, activist groups, political parties,
celebrities, and institutions, and so on. In the digital universe,
“brand” has become synonymous with “recognition.”
Such being the case, whenever you publish online with your
affiliation after your name (nearly always, in other words),
attention goes to your institution and, if mentioned, your
department as well. Because many such publications are now
being picked up by other journals, blogs, tweets, and more, this
benefit is often multiplied. Indeed, it gains an exponent.
Universities are coming to recognize this advantage. A growing
number have begun to encourage it. This is not limited to
departments of political science or international studies, whose
subjects are often in the news. It can apply to most social
science, since departments and colleges not only take pride in
their faculty adding to public conversations about important

subjects but understand that this kind of activity can increase
possibilities for concrete benefits: funding (from both public
and private sources), attracting new faculty and graduate
students, and also raising the overall level of status and
influence of the institution itself.
Beyond yourself, your department, and the institution you work
for, it is your chosen field that benefits from your online
publication. The historian who writes a piece about textbook
changes, the anthropologist who examines American cultural
forms in China, the Gender Studies prof who looks at the role of
young mothers in the migrations from Syria, all draw attention
through their commentary to their background and training.
Adding to the perceived legitimacy and value of your discipline
is no trivial thing.
5. General Audiences: Who are They and What Do They Want?
Writing for general audiences used to mean making your
material as simple as possible. The rule of thumb held that the
average reading level of the public was equal to an eighth
grader. No more. Such may approximate the truth in some areas
of science (molecular genetics?); it is decidedly not the case for
social science material.
Today, the overwhelming majority of people who want to read
articles, essays, op-eds, commentary, and more about topics
related to the larger world is made up of college-educated
individuals and students. In broad terms, they are not merely
interested in the society around them. They are eager to make
sense of it. They are hungry for information, interpretations,
ideas, conclusions, and opinion. These are not neatly defined
categories, to be sure; they are meant only to provide some
notion of the range of material involved. Informal surveys of
academic authors who write for the public suggest that the more
of these elements you include in a single piece of writing, the
more appreciative your audience will be.
6. Policy Makers: A Special Market
Depending on your subject and message, your writing may reach

a special subset of educated readers: decision makers, especially
in government. If this is one of your goals in writing for non-
academic audiences—to inform or sway opinion on matters you
feel strongly about or that affect your field or the nation—then
by all means seek to join the ranks of those who are doing so.
Here are some realities to keep in mind.
Trying to publish an article on a major policy issue in the news
will be difficult, unless you already have a proven track record
related to the subject. No matter how knowledgeable you may
be, if you haven’t published a book or several articles (or both),
or if you don’t hail from one of the world’s most elite
universities, you’ll be competing against people who have these
“qualifications,” including people who may already be known to
the editor as competent and reliable. The editorial world, in
fact, is fairly conservative when it comes to selecting writers; a
particular journal or other venue usually wants to avoid as much
risk as possible on a big issue topic. You can sometimes get
around this by taking a unique angle on the subject (e.g. using
data or information that you have special purview over), or
choosing a smaller, corollary issue that you can then use as a
basis for advancing your larger point of view.
Of course, think tanks of varied stripe can be a source of
competition. Swaying decision makers’ minds is what they
attempt to do for a living. Policy makers and their staffs are
familiar with the better known among think tanks but also
understand that each has its own (limited) point of view. Think
tanks purposely choose issue areas and topics highly relevant to
government and military concerns. Of course, some places lean
heavily right, others left, and still others aim somewhere near
the center. If you have the opportunity to write for these places,
your work will most likely be read by some people with input to
the policy making process. But few, if any, policy makers or
their staff rely on think tank material alone.
Here’s an example. You write an article about research you’re
doing on a fishing grounds disagreement between Malaysia and
Indonesia near the Kepulauan Anambas islands. This article is

shared around by some readers and ends up in other publications
that cover Southeast Asia. It ends up on the “must read” list for
naval staff members of the U.S. 7th Fleet (Pacific) and a senator
on the Armed Services Committee concerned with Chinese
territorial claims in the South China Sea. Such interest in your
piece is even more likely if you make the connection to regional
territorial concerns part of the article. This works on a local
level, too. A short piece where you introduce sociological
research on life expectancy for certain professions in a
particular state, province, or city will be of immediate interest
to any government representative (national or provincial) for
this area.
Two key points are worth noting. First, people involved in
policy making always want the most current, high-quality
information available. Second, government staff members and
even intelligence agencies, no matter how thorough they may
be, do not have a monopoly on such information. As an
academic researcher, your work involves generating new
knowledge and interpretations that others might utilize. This
can put you in a special position to impact debate and opinion
and, thereby, in some measure, policy decisions too.
Style and Content
1. Familiar Territory
Writing is a skill, and like any skill, it comes from training and
practice. But it can be greatly helped by recognizing that this
skill is something you are entirely familiar with.
You know from your own reading, years of it in fact, what kind
of discourse you’re aiming at for a general audience. You’ve
read hundreds, perhaps thousands, of op-eds, news items, non-
scholarly articles, professional blogs, and much more. You
know a good article, well-written and well put together, when
you see it.
No less, you already have some skill communicating with non-
expert audiences—your teaching, especially to undergraduates.

You have real experience with explaining scholarly knowledge
to the uninitiated. These days, moreover, with so many foreign
students studying in English-speaking countries, you may have
revisited your explanatory powers (consciously or otherwise)
and adjusted them further.
Like many academics, you may sometimes weave in little
stories to your teaching, biographical or historical material,
touches of humor, a striking aside or a powerful image, even a
bit (if you’re truly daring) of personal experience. Such
elements increase your familiarity with communicating to
general audiences. If you are at all successful in your teaching,
you know a good deal about how to do this.
Fortified with this realization, you may feel a surge of
capability to forge ahead and begin writing and publishing
brilliant pieces that will inevitably elevate la condition
humaine. However possible, this isn’t likely just yet.
2. Examples: Useful Comparisons
A good way to show the truth of what has just been said is to
compare the difference between an academic piece of writing
and its re-written form for general readers. Here, then, is the
scholarly piece:
In the social sciences, post-colonial thinkers have done much to
overturn standard positive ideas of “civilization” by showing
that it was routinely associated with Western imperialism and
its promotion of racism, slavery, genocide, genderism, and
other such iniquities.1 However, it is possible to maintain that
the term was not always employed in colonial times to reinforce
such points of view or to extend them and deepen them
further.1,2 Indeed, historical study reveals that Western
attitudes toward colonialism were quite diverse and complex.
While a majority of thinkers embraced colonial “adventures”
and the profits it brought to the home country, there were others
who rejected and even denounced colonialism in various forms,
including bitter literary satire.
And here, the non-scholarly version:

What does the term “civilization” mean today? For much of the
modern era, it was a positive word, associated with things
Western. But for exactly this reason, scholars have recast it as
embodying the evils of colonialism, particularly racism,
slavery, and genocide. This new view may itself be incomplete.
It turns out that European attitudes towards the colonial seizing
of territories were complex. While many thinkers did celebrate
it, some found it odious and expressed their reaction as bitter
satire. Irish author Oliver Goldsmith was one of these.
We can see what has been done here. If we were asked to make
a list of the changes that have taken place between paragraphs 1
and 2, it might look like this:
· Sentences are shorter.
· They also vary in length.
· The first sentence poses a question to engage and even
intrigue the reader. This is one way to begin.
· The style of paragraph 2 is more colloquial (“for exactly this
reason,” “It turns out”).
· There is a clear logic and flow in the language, with
transitions.
· Words with more charge have been substituted (“evils,”
“seizing,” “hateful,” “angry”).
· The message is not dumbed down too much. The style is not
condescending; it does not say, in effect: “readers of this
article are probably not aware that…”).
· Paragraph 2 does not include everything in paragraph 1
(“genderism,” “historical study”), but has enough to convey the
essential meaning.
· Paragraph 2 is shorter.
· No footnote or reference citations are included.
· A specific person has been added.
Here, for variety’s sake, is another version, still shorter and
more concise. Some publication opportunities demand a piece
that is 800 words or less, in which case you’ll need to evaporate
a large part of whatever original paper, essay, or thesis you’re
translating.

What does “civilization” mean today? Many scholars maintain
that, as epitomized by Europe, it has an inerasable bond with
colonialism, therefore racism, genocide, and slavery. Accurate
as this is, it may not be the whole story. In fact, there were
Europeans who didn’t celebrate the colonial “adventure” but
saw it deserving of bitter satire. Irish author Oliver Goldsmith
was one of these.
As scholars of social reality, we really do know things that can
help the general public better understand and even navigate the
contemporary world. But to do this, we need to make our
knowledge and research accessible. We need to do this in ways
that are recognized as credible but also interesting. At some
level, we need to make our readers want to know what we
know.
3. Tips to Think About
Some important tips emerge from our brief comparison above.
They are things to think about as you read general interest
articles that have to do with your field or related fields (you
should do this kind of reading, if you want to write this kind of
material).
· The introduction should be brief, about 4-6 lines. It should not
simply state something but create interest. It also needs to at
least hint at what comes next.
· The main body of an article, together with its conclusion, must
be able to defeat the worst question directed at any published
writing: “So what?” So you need to tell the reader why your
material is important and interesting.
· But not so important that you deserve to brag in some fashion
or trash the work of others in your field. As the author, you are
as much a representative as an individual.
· To engage readers, it often helps to have one or more people
in your narrative, who are involved in doing something, whether
in the past, present, or future.
· In contrast to academic writing, an article for the general
reader needs to have emotion in it. There are a number of ways

to do this: using charged words (as shown in paragraph 2
above); adding a bit of human detail; adding emphasis (“this
striking idea/discovery/finding”).
· If you are arguing a position, briefly mention arguments
against it or else possible weaknesses. If relevant, also note the
work of others in the field. Being humble and generous is
attractive to readers and will generate goodwill towards your
material.
·
Writing Skill and How to Acquire It
1. Good Models are Good Mentors
All good writers learn their craft from other writers. This is true
no matter what type of authorship is involved, whether non-
fiction or poetry. Apprenticeship takes place through
disciplined emulation, by absorbing and adapting quality work
that has been published.
The first step is to identify and save models of excellent writing
in your own area or areas you wish to write in. Ask yourself
whenever reading an article: is this something I wish I had
written? If so, save it to re-read and study later on. Just one or
two examples aren’t enough; think in terms of five or more.
Think also of replacing early choices with later ones that seem
better.
It’s best to expose yourself to a range of articles for a couple of
reasons. Quality writing can’t be produced by formulae; there
are a number of effective ways to compose any specific article.
Also, choosing a fair number allows you to go through them
with an even more critical eye and choose the best three or four.
What to look for? An article is divided into:
· title
· opening (paragraph 1), starting with the first sentence
(readable in 7-10 secs)
· body
· conclusion (last paragraph), ending with powerful closing
sentence

Examine your models in terms of these parts. The workshop
presentations included on this website provide some examples
to help you do this. It is a good idea at this point to look
through these samples to help sharpen your skill at judging what
works best.
Consider asking these kinds of questions: How well does each
part work? How do the different parts fit and flow together?
Does the opening engage your interest while revealing what the
article is about? Does the body follow this up, developing it,
adding interesting details while keeping you engaged? Does the
conclusion bring everything to a meaningful end, with an
effective final sentence? If your answer to any of these
questions is “no” or “sort of,” then you need a better model.
2. HowtoUse Your “Mentors”
Once you’ve chosen several or more model articles, you need to
study them. A major goal is to absorb from these temporary
“mentors” an awareness of what sounds good and what doesn’t.
Another aim is to learn different approaches for writing each
section of an article. Ultimately, repeated study of excellence
can build over time a kind of internal voice or guide that is able
to continually produce options for the next phrase or sentence,
for the arrangement of details, and for other aspects of structure
and expression.
There are more than a few ways to study your models with these
goals in mind. Some are mentioned below, but you may have
methods of your own or know of others from friends or writing
guides that you feel are more suitable. The key is to find one or
more approaches that work well or best for you. This may
require some experimenting, which is never a waste of time in
this context. Trying out different methods will almost inevitably
teach you important things about your own proclivities as a
writer. Overall, your models provide material to adapt, emulate,
and personalize.
Here, then, are some approaches to consider:
Method 1: Choose one article to work with and simply read it

over slowly and carefully, one sentence and paragraph at a time,
paying close attention to the style (word choice, sentence
length) and to how well each part follows what came before.
Method 2: Either copy the article out, perhaps one part at a
time, perhaps selected paragraphs, or recite it in your head. The
goal here is to actually reproduce its language and flow. This
method has been used by many fiction and non-fiction writers to
“try on” the style of a great author and to absorb some of its
structures, sounds, and vocabulary.
Method 3: Go one step further and memorize parts of an article
so that you have them ready in mind. This approach would focus
on specific sentences and paragraphs that you find particularly
good. These are pieces that you can use in your own writing by
imitating their syntax while using different words. This last—
different wording—is important, of course. Plagiarism must be
avoided; nothing said here should be understood to suggest that
copying is justified. It isn’t. Note that software used to check
for plagiarism today is sometimes programmed to identify a
succession of as few as 6-8 words as probable stealing from an
older publication.
3. Tipsand Techniques
The following are a final series of ideas to help you move
forward with writing for a general audience.
1. Assume your audience will know very little about your topic.
You’ll need to explain any concepts or theories you want to
include. Avoid using any jargon if possible, or else use only one
or two terms and define them in the text.
2. If you are writing about a series of events, the development
of a theory, or some other topic with a historical dimension, be
sure to “honor chronology,” as the saying goes. Putting things
in order this way encourages you to create a story-like
narrative, which will be more engaging and successful for a
non-academic audience.
3. If your subject is your own research, keep in mind that a
general interest piece is not the place to stake a claim. This is

not really the place to demonstrate and demand you be
recognized as priority discoverer or developer of something
entirely new. You are writing about your work, somewhat
similar to a jounalist, except that unlike a third party observer
you can’t successfully praise and admire yourself.
4. Depending on your topic, you might find it helpful to begin
with a brief anecdote, vignette, or description of a scene as your
opening. You can then follow this with an explanation of what
it means or suggests in terms of your main topic, an easy way to
move into the body of the article.
5. As your models show, sentences in general interest articles
are generally shorter, often much shorter, than in academic
writing. They also use the active tense more often—the subject
performs the action of the verb, e.g. “Ruth Coyer, a sociologist
at Drake University, wondered about this and decided…”, “Her
findings revealed that…”, “Today, most sociologists reject
Coyer’s work, but my own research suggests it may have been
too easily dismissed.”
6. One way to think about the body of an article is this:
supposing the opening engages the reader’s interest, whatever
follows must answer the question “So what?” or, still more
blunt, “Tell me why should I care?” These may seem rather
brutal questions (and they are), but they accurately convey
what’s at stake for you, as the writer.
7. Pay attention in your models and other quality articles to the
use of questions. These are powerful, rhetorically speaking, in
terms of engaging the reader. They can be employed in a
number of places too—in the title (“Can Christians Truly
Understand the Qu’ran?”), as the opening sentence (“Why has
the U.S. never signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty for
nuclear weapons, a key part of the non-proliferation
landscape?”), as a transition within the body (“So what might
this tell us about how language is used by teenagers in
Singapore?”), and in some cases as the ending (“At present, we
still have no final answer to how many species of hominids may
have existed in Central Asia.”). Questions can be used several

times in a single article, but they can be over-used too. Be
aware that they are a rhetorical device with a specific purpose.
8. Most online journals and other venues want you to pitch an
article first. This is helpful, because it can prevent you from
wasting much time writing something that isn’t wanted. Some
journals ask for a brief (100-150 words) description of the
topic, why it’s important, and what your expertise is to write
about it. Others provide boxes for you to fill in with this
information. Such a pitch is often quite valuable, as it forces
you to condense and clarify your subject in as few words as
possible (no windy descriptions allowed).
9. In all cases, your subject will have a much better chance of
being accepted by an editor if you tie it to something that is in
the news or otherwise a recent or ongoing event. Timeliness is
above godliness.
10. It is very common for editors in general interest online
journals to make changes insubmitted articles. They may
substitute their own title, delete whole paragraphs, reorganize
section, add or erase subtitles, and ask for more information.
You should be ready for such hands-on treatment and not take
offense. But make sure that important things are not warped or
lost and that accuracy is maintained. Editors are not tyrants;
they want articles to be as high quality and appropriate to the
audience as possible. But they aren’t experts and can make
errors of judgment, just as writers can. You want a good
relationship with them, so if you need to reject any of their
changes it’s best to be direct and friendly and to explain why
their suggested change shouldn’t be used.
11. Last but certainly not least, if you work at a college,
university, or research institution, it is very likely they have a
media relations office. This will be staffed by knowledgeable,
experienced people who know the publishing world quite well
and would like nothing better than to help you get an article
written and placed. They have other work to do and cannot
serve as your mentor, but they can often be good guides and can
help jump start your own efforts. By all means, check out this

office and what it has to offer. You may want to do this even
before you begin to write, to discuss your topic idea and how to
approach it. But don’t expect anyone to do your work for you.
Moreover, people who work in media relations do not know
everything. The landscape of online, general interest publication
is highly dynamic and constantly evolving. Exploring it
yourself, specifically in relation to your own field, is a good
idea. You may well discover resources the media relations
people don’t yet know about and will thank you for
communicating to them.
This publication was made possible in part by a grant from
Carnegie Corporation of New York. The statements made and
views expressed are solely the responsibility of the author.
About the Author
Scott Montgomery (Links to an external site.)
Scott L. Montgomery is an author, geoscientist, and affiliate
faculty member in the Jackson School of International Studies,
University of Washington. He writes and lectures on a wide
variety of topics... More (Links to an external site.)
Identifying Audiences
Please read the following information on identifying audiences
from Purdue OWL (Links to an external site.):
The concept of audience can be very confusing for novice
researchers. Should the student's audience be her instructor
only, or should her paper attempt to reach a larger academic
crowd? These are two extremes on the pendulum-course that is
audience; the former is too narrow of an audience, while the
latter is too broad. Therefore, it is important for the student to
articulate an audience that falls somewhere in between.
It is perhaps helpful to approach the audience of a research
paper in the same way one would when preparing for an oral
presentation. Often, one changes her style, tone, diction, etc.,

when presenting to different audiences. It is the same when
writing a research paper. In fact, you may need to transform
your written work into an oral work if you find yourself
presenting at a conference someday.
The instructor should be considered only one member of the
paper's audience; he is part of the academic audience that
desires students to investigate, research, and evaluate a topic.
Try to imagine an audience that would be interested in and
benefit from your research.
For example: if the student is writing a twelve-page research
paper about ethanol and its importance as an energy source of
the future, would she write with an audience of elementary
students in mind? This would be unlikely. Instead, she would
tailor her writing to be accessible to an audience of fellow
engineers and perhaps to the scientific community in general.
What is more, she would assume the audience to be at a certain
educational level; therefore, she would not spend time in such a
short research paper defining terms and concepts already
familiar to those in the field. However, she should also avoid
the type of esoteric discussion that condescends to her audience.
Again, the student must articulate a middle-ground.
The following are questions that may help the student discern
further her audience:
· Who is the general audience I want to reach?
· Who is most likely to be interested in the research I am doing?
· What is it about my topic that interests the general audience I
have discerned?
· If the audience I am writing for is not particularly interested
in my topic, what should I do to pique its interest?
· Will each member of the broadly conceived audience agree
with what I have to say?
· If not (which will likely be the case!) what counter-arguments
should I be prepared to answer?
Remember, one of the purposes of a research paper is to add
something new to the academic community, and the first-time
researcher should understand her role as an initiate into a

particular community of scholars. As the student increases her
involvement in the field, her understanding of her audience will
grow as well. Once again, practice lies at the heart of the thing.
Creating a blog
ENG1210 | South College
What is a blog? (Web + Log = blog)
Blogs Defined
Blogs are written for the general public, not for an academic
audience. Anyone can write a blog for any reason and they may
or may not have the credentials to write on that topic. You may
have seen these range from fashion to “mommy blogs” to foodie
posts.
Blogs are often very personal genres of writing with a much
more conversational tone. You can use "I", you can talk to your
audience, you can tell personal stories as long as they are
connected to the topic.
You may even be more familiar with a variation called a “vlog,”
or video blog (like a person who gives insider looks at
amusement parks, etc.)
TOPIC and/or genre Approach

For the overall blog, not a single post, choose a topic you are
passionate about, whether that is a subject matter in your career
field or a personal hobby or interest.
Before you launch a blog, research to see if the market is
already saturated. If there are 6 million blogs about Disney
already, made choose a topic where you have less competition.
Similarly, if you wanted to write a home organization blog
about the KonMari method, what would drive an audience to
your page versus the blog of Marie Kondo, who invented that
method?
Consider what voice you will bring to the topic. There might be
1,000 blogs about vampires, but is there one that blends comedy
and fangs? If not, maybe that’s the unique take you have to
offer. A blog is a place to express your style in combination
with the information you provide. Every blog you post on the
site should have a clear angle that matches this overall tone and
genre.
Even niche can be good
You might think your topic is too oddly specific or no one
would like a blog that mixes the academic and the entertaining,
but those blogs already exist! Pop Sonnets take pop music and
transforms it into Shakespearean sonnets (how specific is
that?!). It also has several hashtags and keywords.
Another tumblr blog only captions pictures of ugly babies from
the Renaissance. While the purpose of these is obviously
comedy, there are lessons to be learned about the difference
between the spirit and tone of a blog and an academic essay.
Yours will not be this pictorial, but there’s also something to be

learned about how these visual blogs look on the page. An
audience will make judgments about a blog due to its style and
even the quality of the page in terms of looks. Consider what
will encourage that audience to keep reading.
SEO & Driving “Traffic”
One of the most difficult parts about creating a blog is driving
traffic to that blog, or finding an audience. How can a you
ensure that yours is the one people click on when there are so
many other blogs out there?
People drive traffic to their sites through social media
networking and sometimes even paid advertising to get to the
top of the search engine results. However, you can use Search
Engine Optimization (SEO) tools, like the ones covered in free
chapters here to benefit your results, such as keywords.
Wordpress also provides great advice on getting more
views/traffic.
In professional blogging, businesses often require the keywords
explained above, so those blogs come up when people are
searching for similar terms. Consider what keywords you would
use in your blogs to gain a larger audience.
Additionally, on SEO: keywords not only drive traffic to your
site, they also help you organize your ideas and stay focused on
the blog post's topic. You can reuse the keywords in your
"thesis" and "topic sentences." <--looking for ways to explain
what might be a foreign concept to them in more familiar

terms.
Consider using a Headline Analyzer like this one to see how
efficient your blog titles are. This tool measures how well the
title of your blog entry encourages clicks, shares, and likelihood
of ending up in search results. It’s a tool many SEO writers use.
Example: If you use the title, “10 Ways to Throw a Pinterest-
Worthy Party for Kids,” you might score a 66.
If you write, “10 Pinterest-Worthy Parties That Will Even Make
Your MIL Happy,” you would score a 72.
Blog Titles
Audience
Before you get started, ask yourself who your target audience
is. Who do you think will read it? Who do you want to read it?
Some aspects of this you might want to consider are
demographics, like those pictured to the left. Defining this
helps you determine the tone of your approach, what the
audience is looking for, what they like or dislike, and how you
can provide solutions to any problems they may have. You may
have seen this before framed as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Length
At minimum, blogs are 500 words. You want to convey enough
information for someone to use their time to link on your link.
Less than 500 words really can’t tell the reader much.
Since you are beginning with an essay you are going to pare
down and modify the tone of for a new audience, the aim should
be 700 to 1000 words.
Since blogs don’t have the traditional tabs to begin new
paragraphs, you want to make sure you don’t have one long
block of text, but paragraphs with spaces between each
paragraph/change in thought.
HYPERLINKS
There is no reference page on in-text citing in a blog.
Instead of citing in APA, as you would for a traditional paper,
you will include hyperlinks (pictured here). Instead of pasting
an entire URL, you will post a hyperlink to the source material
within the sentence of the blog in a place that makes sense.
For example: Microsoft Office has a tutorial on how to embed
hyperlinks into a Word document.
This symbol.
Blog Set-up
Consider a Monroe’s Motivated Sequence approach to your blog
posts. Unlike in paper, keep paragraphs short and punch– no
longer than 5-6 sentences. The layout could look the diagram to

the right, or you can follow this method:
Start with a hook and an introduction that gets the reader’s
attention.
Outline the “big promise,” need, or problem you can solve for
them.
Give the audience fixes/solutions for the problem.
Explain how their world will be better if the problem is
resolved. Describe what that future looks like.
Conclude and give the audience a “call to action” to complete.
Finding Images
You might be used to simply saving or screenshotting any image
you like from the Internet, but there are copyright laws that
prevent you from using any image you want on your blog
without paying for it. Rather that going through that, you can
also find free, stock images to use Shutterstock and Pexels.
As you might with a presentation, you want to choose a visual
that is not just for the sake of having a visual. Instead, you want
to use an image that adds depth, emotion, or understanding
about the subject– much as you would use a gif in a text or
tweet. The tone of the image should match the tone of the
subject matter you are writing about.
You do not have to limit the visual to pictures, but you can also
use graphs, infographics (example on the next slide) and videos.
Infographic example

As you can see, you can diversify blogs with more than just a
stock photo. Infographics are a great way to visually display a
lot of information without placing in the text of the blog where
an audience might skim over it. Since audiences are very visual,
this may be more effective.
You can make your own for free, or search the web for free
infographics that might’ve already been created about the
subject you are writing about.
This infographic, for example, condenses data from several
sources about Millennials and technology, but also includes the
author’s breakdown of how many times Facebook, Twitter and
Myspace were mentioned in the first seven seasons of the CW
show Supernatural.
Using the virtual space/visual appeal
In Word, right click the image and select “tight” so we can see
how the image would look with the text in a blog. The final
results look like this.
After you place it, you can shift and resize the image.
This should be pleasing to the eye and not be too crowded or
leave too much white space.
Even in word, make it look like a real blog
For example, using the “Styles” tab and selecting “Intense
Quote,” can make this headline that looks like a blog

banner/headline for the overall website name.
.MsftOfcThm_Accent4_Fill {
fill:#969FA7;
}

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