PACT for Trouble-Spots
What could get in the way of my goals?
The audience is who you are addressing. The qualities of an audience contribute to how they read and understand. A communicator must recognize that audiences are not one-dimensional and that there are multiple types of audiences.
Purpose:
- Is there a title? Is it misleading?
- Do I establish ethos?
- Is my thesis statement strong and clear?
- Does it convey the purpose?
- Do the audiences do, think, or feel how I want them to after this communication?
- Do I have an informative or attention-catching introduction?
- Have I effectively carried out my reason for communicating (persuade, inform, etc.)?
Audience:
- Am I using the correct level of formality?
- Do I explain terms or concepts?
- Have I considered that audiences are dynamic rather than one-dimensional?
- Do I recognize that audiences’ qualities will contribute to how they read and understand?
- Have I considered the other levels audiences or who else might be reading this?
Conventions:
- Am I using the appropriate conventions (letter, memo, research paper)?
- Do I use and follow the guidelines of MLA formatting?
- Am I avoiding plagiarism (citations and work cited)?
- Have I checked the requirements of the assignment?
- Do I understand them?
- Have I asked questions for clarification when needed?
- What do I know that I need help with (spelling, grammar, thesis, organization)?
- Have I read over my paper? More than once?
- Has someone else read over my paper?