September 29

Audiences and Rhetorical Situations

In your opinion, what important aspects must we consider about an audience when we present an argument?  Have you ever had an experience or seen a situation in which a presentation was inappropriate for an audience?  What was the result?  Describe the situation in detail.  (Appropriately)

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Posted September 29, 2011 by tashak38 in category Uncategorized

About the Author

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area--Big Up to the East Bay

15 thoughts on “Audiences and Rhetorical Situations

  1. Nina Ho

    Important aspects we must consider about an audience when presenting an argument are:
    – realizing the differences among individuals within a given culture or group.
    – to not assume that everyone share your cultural valures, ethical principles, or political assumptions.
    – make sure that the correct, and appropiate words are used without being too blunt to your audience.

    A situation I am often faced with where the presentation is not appropiate for the audience is in Church. My pastor was born and raised in the Philippines, therefore, the things he discusses about his experiences does not relate to most of the Church members. Most of the members were born in America, and they have adapted to the American culture. They do not have any realization about the Filipino culture or lifestyle. When he sets up examples for us to “easily” understand a bible scripture, the result of it is confusion. They do not properly understand what the scripture means in the end.

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  2. Mendelssohn V

    When we speak to a determined audience we must consider their beliefs, religion, race and class (low, middle, high) this to prevent from saying something inappropriate that might not be from their pleasantness, if the speaker makes this mistake his audience could anger with him or not take him seriously, nobody likes to be offended.

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  3. Sabrina T.

    When presenting an argument, you must consider the audience’s age, perspective, and beliefs. You need to understand how other people look at an argument, so that you can strengthen it, and present it in such a way that will get people thinking. You have to be careful, though, not to offend anybody, or you will lower your credibility and nobody will listen to the actual argument.
    I remember this social gathering I attended last year. My friend had told me that I should go to see a whole bunch of local bands that a few people I knew played in. My friends and I were there, having a good time, when this “hip hop artist” comes up on stage and starts rapping. We were no critics, but the gathering we were attending was indeed for rock music, so it was a bit inappropriate for him to be up on stage.

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  4. Maria

    When writting something you have to know who your audience is and who might read it. Know what they understand about the subject. An example of when a presentation was unapropiate is in the VMAs , when Jay Z ofended Taylor Swift in public. It was inapropiate because of the people that made up the audience, including artist, Taylor Swift, and Beyonce. He should have not done that. The result was he got asked to leave, it was appropiate because it needed action to be taken agaist.

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  5. Jessika C.

    An important aspect we must consider about an audience when we present an argument is how to approach it in a respectful manner. Not to disrepect them in any kind of way. Everyone is different, formal, non-formal, silly, serious, etc. You should know what tone to use and who to use it to. An experience I recall is talking to an AVID representative and I made sure I didn’t use any slang. I was really formal and used proper english so she would be able to take me serious and ill be able to get into AVID. It all paid off since I’ve been in AVID for 4 years now.

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  6. Ellce C.

    When presenting an argument we must always consider our audience. The way an argument is presented should be professional enough to be understood by all types of readers. Last week during class when I was explaining my story about my situation with the careless medical assistant that gave me my shots, I felt that at the beginning I was not talking the way I normally do in class. I should have been more formal in my tone of speaking and I felt that a lot of the people listening to my story took it more as gossip and not as a serious experience. As a result I felt like my student structure was brought down.

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  7. Valerie

    We must consider who our audience is before we present our opinion/arguement, if you don’t, then you are more likely to offend them rather than getting your point across.

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  8. Stefany S.

    In my opinion the important aspect in an audience is how you present your subject and how well you do it. You wanna make sure you have evidence for your argument and your audience can listen exactly to your words.Ive seen a guy who used to be in my class that was white and he said that all mexicans were dirty and illegal and should go back to Mexico. Most of the class was mexican and they were clearly offended and started to want to beat him up. Sometimes you have to know who youre audience is.

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  9. George

    An important aspect to consider when present to a certain audience is their attitudes and views on the subject. Presenting an idea to an audience with contrasting beliefs is meaningless. For example, If a blackman were to preach about how Jesus may have been a black man, to an audience who are members of the KKK, it may prove to be dangerous and absurd. I believe you must carefully consider the views of your audience when presenting an idea.
    I have not been in a situation in which a presentation was inappropriate for the audience. However, I can assume that It would not go well, unless the presenter had great coercion skills and the audience were unbiased and openminded.

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  10. Francisco

    In my opinion the aspect we must consider about an audience when we present an arguement is being appropriate. We should not be rude or put any disturbing statements.

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  11. Eva

    We must always consider the audiences point of view when presenting an argument. The way they think needs to be put into consideration. An experience I have had when the situation was presented and the audince did not belong. At youth group, we were playing muscial chairs and a young lady was in charge of the music being used. She was playing random songs which should’ve been familiar to all who was present. A vulgar song was played and everyone was disfigured. The song was quickly changed and everyone was back on their way being happy and fighting over chairs.

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  12. Omar

    Recently I was in a situation at my church, Saint Clements. And my class instructor was telling a story of her son going to Marine Boot Camp for two weeks. And the instructor had presented her story in such an ignorant way to reach out to people emotionally, but with lies. She said that American Military forces are blood thirsty killers, she told the class that all they taught her son at boot camp was “kill, kill, kill” it angered me because she spoke about such a prestigous group of people and demoralized them to look like degenerate killers. All American Millitary forces are taught one simple thing, “Protect and Serve” not “kill, kill ,kill,” they kill those who threat protection of the poeple. I was too angered to correct her, because I have family members and very close friends giving their all to their country when ignorant people just speak out against them.

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  13. Jose C

    In my opinion the aspects that we must consider about the audience when presenting an argument you must be polite and explain your topic with much details. Yes i have had an experience the audience was offended with what i said. I apologized to the audience i did not think they would take it the wrong way. The result was that i lost a lot of the audience members and some stop caring about what i was talking about.

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  14. Mayra

    It is important to consider the audience while presenting an argument because your audience will not consider your argument if you dont consider your audience. If you don’t think of your audience it will be like talking to nothing or nobody and that will be pointless. Your audience is important in presenting your argument because they are the ones to read and/or listen to your argument. Without them your argument is not an argument and just a statement with no one to opiniate on it.

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  15. Shamsher Khan

    You must consider all aspects in a argument in example race,age,religion you do not want to offend your audience like when i was younger i was at the supermarket over here foodmax and i was singing a song it did have the N word in it and i said that word outloud and the cash register was african american it was not the right time or place to be singing outloud to that type of song.My mother gave me a long talk afterwards on what type of music i play on my ipod.

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