PurposeI reviewed a memorandum from Salem Hospital's Chief Finance and Strategy Officer to all their staff members; for the Rhetorical Analysis assignment. The purpose of this document is to inform the staff members of their company about the financial status that Salem Hospital is currently in. I will be analyzing the audience by providing an audience analysis, a brief discussion of the conventions and appeals of this document, and lastly, I will be ending with a conclusion of my impressions on this document.Audience AnalysisThe financial report/memo was written by Salem Hospital's Chief of Finance and Strategy Office. This memo was intended for a primary audience of the staff members from the …show more content…
The secondary audience could be the volunteers, I listed the volunteers as a secondary audience because, although they are included in the "To: " part of the memo, they aren't affected by the elimination of the 150 positions. They're volunteers, so they don't get paid to contribute to the hospital, however other information does pertain to the volunteers, for example, wards being combined with other wards. This is why I classified them as a secondary audience, the primary purpose of the memo was to inform the staff of the financial situation which in no way would affect the volunteers position. A tertiary audience could potentially be patients, there are things changing in Salem Hospital that should be made known to the patients as well. Lastly, a gatekeeper would be the board of directors in charge of the decisions that happen within the company (Salem Hospital), of course they would have to look over an important document like that before it goes out to the company …show more content…
Although the context of the document was very well thought out and planned, it was a bit too long. A six-page memo may lose the interest of many staff members. If there is information you would like your audience (primary, secondary, and tertiary) to know, then maybe it is best to shorten the memo and get straight to the point. As stated in our Technical Writing textbook, many people don't read a memo thoroughly, most just skim through a memo; potentially leaving out vital information. Missing vital information in work places such as a hospital can be very dangerous. Any mistake done by a staff member could potentially end in a law suit by the victim. Although the document provided by Salem Hospital isn't putting any patients at risk (only current employees), it is important to always get to the point when writing a memo in a work place, especially hospitals. Another convention mistake I came upon was the lack of formatting. Yes, there were bullet points provided, but only for two sentences. Not to mention the graphs provided in the document were difficult to understand. There should be a concise explanation of what each and every graph entails. According to the Technical Writing textbook, if you send something to your readers without explaining your