Defining my audience for my Public Discourse Paper:

· My intended audience for my paper is any type of university community whether it be faculty, students, or even parents of students. Most importantly, my paper will be targeting Miami University freshman because the new policy (sophomores being required to live on campus) will become effective next year, meaning it will directly affect us. It will be written like some sort of campus newspaper article.

· What I know about my audience is that they are/will be somewhat familiar with the policy. I know that students will be able to relate to the issue in one way or another because they have all lived in dorms before and many of them have lived in off-campus housing as well, so they have the ability to compare and contrast the two living situations. I know that parents will be interested in this as well because of how it will affect them financially.

· Much of audience is pretty familiar with my topic, especially administrators. When providing summary about the issue, it will be useful to those students and parents of students who are not familiar with the issue.

· The audience (especially students) has the ability to affect the problem, because the more students are informed about the issue, the more they will be able to voice their own opinions about it to someone who may listen. Maybe someone will stand up and start some sort of petition.

· As far as my audience’s opinion goes, they probably differ slightly. I think that most freshmen-to-be-sophomores may not necessarily agree that sophomores should life off campus, but I think that most of them would say that they should be given the choice. Parents might think the policy is a good idea seeing as they would still be under supervision of the university. And of course, the faculty believes it to be a good idea because they put it into place. In order to address the issues, I have to explain to them the benefits of living off campus.

· Most of my audience is not familiar with me personally. However, the students know me as a fellow student. The adults of my audience also know me as a student. Because of that student stereotype, my tone will need to be professional if I want to be heard.

· I want my student audience to be angry; angry that their freedom of choice has been taken away. I want my administrative audience to feel guilty for taking this right away from them and perhaps keeping them from learning the importance of independence. I want my parent audience to understand how their kids living off campus will benefit them. In order to do this, I will simply lay down the facts. Yes there are benefits to living on campus but there are also those to off-campus housing. It should be the student’s choice. Period.

· Effective evidence for this stance will be incorporating statistics that favor off-campus housing as well as providing examples that remind the reader how important the freedom of choice is.

· I think logical, ethical, and emotional appeals will be useful in this paper.

· I will overly characterize my audience by forming my arguments in ways that will favor both the wishes students and adults. The bottom line is that choice is something that shouldn’t be compromised. If we can have a say in who will run our country, I think we should have a say in where we choose to live in it.

Prospectus

In recent years, there have been a growing number of colleges and universities that are requiring not only freshman, but sophomores to live on campus. I will argue that although this policy presents its conveniences, it may be seen as unfair to those who desire to live off campus as well as forcing students to aid the university. This is an important issue to be addressed because starting in the '09-'10 school year, Miami University of Ohio will be adopting this policy. This is also interesting because from what I have personally observed, many first-years do not know about the new policy; despite the fact that it specifically affects the class of ’12 (we will be sophomores next year). Personally, before I became aware of the policy, I was not jumping up and down to live off campus however, it was nice knowing that I had the choice and I do not like the idea of having my mind made up for me, especially since I will have had a year of college experience under my belt. Because of this, I believe that it is vital that the logistics of the policy are exposed. My paper will take a journalistic tone and I will attempt to take a non-bias approach in presenting the issue. My target audience will be college students of colleges who have adapted/will be adapting this policy, specifically those attending Miami University; even more specifically, the class of 2012. I will incorporate blogs, essays, and articles written by college students because they know about college living better than anyone else. However, adult perspectives will be incorporated as well. I will begin by explaining why sophomores living on campus might not be the worst thing in the world; they will be closer to classes, no scary bills, familiarity, etc. But I will then go into how the policy may perhaps be seen as negative and how it may appear that the policy was put in place to better the university financially along with its reputation. With all of this, I will argue that the policy of sophomores being required to live off campus is not fair.

Works Cited

R., Anthony. "Anthony ." MIT Admissions. 24/02/2008. Massichusets Institute of Technology. 28 Oct 2008

.

· Anthony, a student at MIT, blogs about his experience with campus living; both when he was a freshman living on campus, and as an upperclassman, living off campus. He ultimately likes living off campus better.

Castle, Jenny. "Living Off Campus in M Street Apartments." Geroga Tech. 12/08/2008. Georga Tech. 28 Oct 2008

.

· Jenny Castle is a Georgia Tech student who has joined a sorority after her sophomore year. She is blogging about living off campus in her sorority house and how she loves it because she feels like it is helping her transition into the real world.

Kasper, Matt. "Off-campus Jacksonville housing tough to police." The Anniston Star Police Blog. 03/10/2006. The

Anniston Star. 28 Oct 2008

tough.html>.

· Matt Kasper Blogs for The Anniston Star, “keeping tabs on crime, court and police news in east Alabama.” This blog entry is about how an apartment complex in that hosts many Jacksonville State University students has been seen to be a hindrance to students’ success because of many factors including its lack of quiet hours and crime.

Towey, Sean. "Sophomores living on campus a non-issue." The Spectator. 23/04/2008. The Spectaror: Seattle

University. 28 Oct 2008

spectator.com/media/storage/paper948/news/2008/04/23/Opinion/Sophomores.Living.OnCampus.A.No

nIssue-3384209.shtml>.

· Sean Towey of Seattle University’s “The Spectator” blogs about how the rule of sophomores living on campus is poorly enforced in the sense that they are finding ways to beat the system. Towey also notes that the university in fact could care less about whether or not sophomores live off campus as long as the residence halls remained “financially viable.”

Dorner, Drew. "Next round of planning underway for soph living requirement." The Miami Student.

9/02/2007. The Miami Student: Miami University. 28 Oct 2008

Round.Of.Planning.Underway.For.Soph.Living.Requirement-2708987.shtml>.

· Drew Dorner, a journalist for “The Miami Student”, outlines the new policy of sophomores being required to live on campus

Associated Press, "Upperclassmen live in dorms." The Lantern. 10/07/2008. The Lantern: Ohio State University. 28 Oct 2008

n.Live.In.Dorms-3472985-page2.shtml>.

· “The Lantern”, an Ohio State University newspaper notes how the trend of living on campus is growing in upperclassmen.

Board of Student Editors, "sophomores should be allowed to live off campus." WKU Herald. 03/04/2004. WKU

Herald. 28 Oct 2008

hould.Be.Allowed.To.Live.Off.Campus-625950.shtml>.

· The Board of Student Editors for the Western Kentucky University newspaper, “The WKU Herald”, have wrote an article describing why they think that sophomores should be able to live off campus.

When thinking about my public discourses paper, I’m not really sure what to do. With this very different presidential race, I find myself becoming more and more engaged in politics as well as taking a political stance. I think that a paper talking about something like how politics relates to race or sex would be a solid topic for a paper. Especially with the 2008 Presidential Election, the two have been playing a promanent role since the get-go. I think it is interesting how two simple things, the color of one's skin and what genitallia one was given, can cause such an up-roar among citizens and the media. It would be neat to study something along the lines of how these things can affect people's judgement and why.

Another topic that is more relevant to Miami students, specifically Miami freshmen, is the fact that starting next year, sophomores have to live on campus. I've been asking my friends how they feel about the issue, just in casual conversation, and surprisingly, most people that I've talked to haven't even heard about the new policy. Honestly, I'm not positive if the policy is set in stone but I have a pretty good feeling. Personally, I think that this policy is not fair. 19 and 20 year olds should be able to choose where they want to live, especially since at this point, we would have all gone through one year of college. I guess the first thing I’d like to know is why. If it is seriously to keep kids from drinking, it’s not even going to work. College students will find a way to drink. It’s sad, but true. Perhaps another reason for the change of policy is that the university is looking to get more money from students. More people living on campus equals more people paying room and board costs. Regardless, I'm interested to see how the university has defended this change. This is a controversial topic that I think would make a good paper. Maybe throw in some interviews? Statistics? I could make it work.

I was also thinking about television and how in a way it has evolved from the 50's until today. Sure, it has changed physically but that just comes with growing technology. I'm talking more about what programs come on television; what is allowed and what is not. I also think it's kind of interesting how reality television has taken over television broadcasting stations. There are many types of reality mind you: there's inspirational reality like Extreme Makeover Home Edition, there's funny reality like Punk'd, and there's trashy reality like A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, (or anything on VH1). No matter the audience that the show is aiming towards, it acts as some type of drug, drawing average people like you and me to follow them religiously. Maybe that is why we as a society are so obsesed; because they're essentially average people (aside from the fact that they're on tv). But still, the question is "why." I think this would be neat to explore.

The possibilities.