How important is audience?

Let's find out. Open up a word document and write the three emails described below. When you've finished writing those letters, re-read them and determine what your purpose was in writing each letter. What kind of research might help you achieve each purpose?

The senario: I have just informed you that there is a special fee now being charged for enrollment in Rhetoric 160. By the end of next week, you will need to come up with an additional $1,000.00 to take this class. Since you must have this class to graduate, you must come up with this money now or somewhere down the line.

  1. Write an email to the university Provost (the big wig, the decider, the CEO of OU) discussing this problem;
  2. write an email to your parents discussing this problem;
  3. and then write an email to your best friend discussing this problem.

You may write all three letters in a single word document, but make certain you save that document to the desktop before you get too far into writing it & save often.

Be prepared for a class discussion about your tone, language choices, grammar, purposes, etc for each email.


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