Audience and Genre

Any public argument must be written for a specific intended audience, and much of the work that an author does is determined through analysis of the audience.

QUOI Media Group "Audience" 03/26/2011 via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Potential Audiences:
1. Aerospace engineering majors

I got the idea for focusing on the engineering aspects of the F-35 controversy from the intended audience of project two. By addressing this part of the controversy, I could write my public argument for essentially the same audience that I wrote my rhetorical analysis for in project two. Aerospace engineering students may also be curious about job outlook within the F-35 program.

To reach an audience of aerospace engineering students, I would write either a scholarly article, or an op-ed piece in a college newspaper. The scholarly article could be published in an aerospace engineering journal like Progress in Aerospace Sciences. A review of an aerospace engineering project is one example of a scholarly article in this journal. A second review of an aerospace engineering project reinforces the conventions of the genre. The newspaper piece could potentially be published in the Arizona Daily Wildcat, like this column. A second column, also posted in the Opinion section of the newspaper reveals that the conventions of this type of article are much less formal than a scholarly article, and are structurally similar to the conventions of a blog post.

2. Politicians

In an attempt to cause real change in the issue, I could target politicians with my argument to convince them to side with my opinion. The F-35 is controversial in politics, and has many lobbyists supporting it. Politicians interested in saving government money would be interested in finding large programs to cut, which are not held in high esteem by the general public.

To persuade politicians I would have to either write letters to specific politicians, or acting as a politician myself, write a proposal. Senator John McCain has long been a critic of the F-35 program, so I could write a letter to him to persuade him to stir action in congress. This letter on McCain's website is more of a supportive letter than a persuasive letter, but the conventions should be similar. Another example is this call to action letter regarding the USDA Rural Cooperative Development Grant. Congressional acts are presented in Congress by senators, or house representatives. One example of a congressional act is the Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2015. More closely related to the controversy, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2016 covers all planned DOD spending for the next year.