| Course | BU 245 Business Communication |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 1 |
| Paper type | Audience analysis exercise |
| Length | About 1,090 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | BS in Business Management |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for BU 245 Unit 1
One Broken Truck, Two Readers: An Audience Analysis Exercise for a Bakery's 5:10 a.m. Delivery Problem
Student Name
Business, Herzing University
BU 245: Business Communication
Instructor Name
January 22, 2026
One Broken Truck, Two Readers: An Audience Analysis Exercise for a Bakery's 5:10 a.m. Delivery Problem
Most business messages fail before the first word is written, because the writer has not decided who the message is for and what that person can do with it. This exercise analyzes the audience for one message in one situation. The organization is Lakeshore Bread Company, a composite commercial bakery in Milwaukee with 64 employees that delivers bread each morning to 38 grocery stores and about 20 cafes. The writer is the bakery's operations coordinator. The exercise describes the situation, identifies the primary reader by role and authority, records the secondary readers, chooses a channel with a reason and ends with two openings of the same news written for two different readers.
The Situation
At 5:10 a.m. on Tuesday, January 13, 2026, one of Lakeshore's four delivery trucks would not start after an overnight low of about 4 degrees. The truck carries the south route, which serves 11 grocery stores that expect bread on their shelves before they open at 7 a.m. The remaining three trucks are loaded and leaving on their own routes. The coordinator has two jobs in the next half hour. The first is to get approval to rent a box truck from a nearby rental agency, which quoted $289 for the day, so the south route can leave by about 6:30 a.m. The second is to tell the 11 stores that their bread will arrive between 90 minutes and two hours late.
The Primary Reader
The primary reader of the first message is Marcus Hale, Lakeshore's director of operations. His role matters more than his name, because the message depends on what he can approve. Under the bakery's purchasing policy, the director of operations can authorize unplanned expenses up to $500 without the owner's sign-off, so a $289 rental is within his authority. What he already knows is limited: he knows the fleet is old and that cold mornings are hard on it, but he does not yet know that the south truck failed or that a rental is available. What he will do with the message is decide in a few minutes, probably on his phone while driving to work. What he is likely to resist is spending money if a cheaper option exists, such as splitting the south route among the other three trucks.
This analysis shapes the message in three ways. The request has to come first, because a reader deciding on a phone reads the top of a message and little else. Pernice (2017) reported from eye-tracking research that readers often scan screens in an F-shaped pattern, reading the first lines and the left edge and skipping much of the rest. The cost has to be stated, because it is the number Marcus needs to decide. And the obvious alternative has to be answered before he raises it: splitting the route would make all four routes late, not one.
The Secondary Readers
Two secondary readers matter even though the coordinator does not write to them directly. The first is Ellen Brandt, the owner. Marcus will probably forward the message to her, since a truck failure raises the question of whether to replace the fleet. She will read it later in the day, at a desk, and she will read it for what it says about a pattern, not just about this morning. The coordinator therefore includes the truck's age and the fact that it is the second cold-weather failure this winter, a detail Marcus does not need to approve the rental but Ellen will need when she reads the forward.
The second secondary audience is the stores' receiving managers, who will receive a separate message. They are not affected by the rental decision but by the delay. Treating them as a separate audience prevents a common error: sending one message to everyone, which buries the store managers' only question, when the bread will arrive, under internal details they do not care about.
Choosing a Channel
The message to Marcus goes by text message, followed by a phone call if he does not reply within five minutes. Email would be slower to reach him while he is driving, and a phone call alone would leave no record of the cost he approved, which Ellen and the bookkeeper will want later. The message to the 11 stores goes by email to each receiving manager, copied to the store's general inbox, because each store needs a written arrival window that the night and morning crews can both see. The federal government's plain language guidance makes the same point about channel and audience from a different direction: content should be written for its specific audience, in the form that audience will actually use (Digital.gov, n.d.).
Two Openings of the Same News
The difference between the two readers is clearest when the same news is written for each. The opening for Marcus, the reader with authority, puts the decision first: "Marcus, the south truck will not start and I need your OK to rent a box truck for today at $289 so the route can leave by 6:30. Splitting the route across the other three trucks would make all four routes late."
The opening for a store receiving manager, the reader affected by the news, puts the effect first: "Good morning. Your bread from Lakeshore will arrive between 7:30 and 8:00 this morning instead of before 7:00, because one of our trucks failed in the cold. Your full order is loaded and on the way."
The facts are identical, but everything else differs. The first opening asks for action and gives the number needed to decide. The second asks for nothing and answers the only question the reader has. Minto (2009) argued that business writing should lead with the answer to the reader's question and support it afterward, and each opening does that for a different question.
What the Exercise Shows
Audience analysis is not a separate task done before writing. It decides what goes first, what is included and what is left out. For Marcus, the rental cost and the rejected alternative are essential and the store arrival times are not. For the store managers, the arrival window is essential and the rental is irrelevant. For Ellen, reading later, the truck's age and history are the point. A single message written to all three would have served none of them well, and the half hour the coordinator had would have been spent answering follow-up questions instead of getting the bread on the road.
References
Digital.gov. (n.d.). Plain language guide series. U.S. General Services Administration. https://digital.gov/guides/plain-language
Minto, B. (2009). The pyramid principle: Logic in writing and thinking (3rd ed.). Pearson Education.
Pernice, K. (2017, November 12). F-shaped pattern of reading on the web: Misunderstood, but still relevant (even on mobile). Nielsen Norman Group. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/
The Herzing BU 245 Unit 1 instructions
The Unit 1 instructions ask you to analyze the audience for a business message before you write it. Most versions supply or ask you to create a workplace situation, then want the primary reader identified by role, the reader's knowledge, needs, likely reaction and authority described, and any secondary readers noted. Many sections ask you to choose a channel and explain why. The strongest submissions finish by showing the analysis at work, usually with a short opening or full draft written for the reader. Expect a compact paper in APA 7 with a few sources on audience or plain language. Personal workplace examples are usually allowed if confidential details are removed.
Inside the BU 245 Unit 1 example
The sample sets the situation in one short section with exact times and costs, so every later choice has something to refer to. The primary reader section works through four questions about the director of operations: his approval limit, what he already knows, how he will read on a phone and which cheaper option he will raise. A secondary readers section explains why the owner and the stores need different content. The channel section picks a text message and phone call for the director and an email for the stores. The final demonstration prints two openings with identical facts and different order, and a short close explains how the analysis decided what each reader received and what each did not.
Reading the BU 245 Unit 1 rubric
Herzing's criteria for this exercise usually cover identification of the audience, depth of analysis, application to a message and writing quality. Naming the reader earns a few points; full credit goes to analysis that ties the reader's authority and situation to specific choices, as the sample does with the $500 approval limit. Depth is judged by attention to secondary readers and likely objections, which many submissions skip. The application criterion rewards a demonstration, such as the two openings, over a description of what the writer would do. Writing quality covers clear organization, correct APA citations and a professional tone. Instructors also give credit when channel choices are explained rather than assumed.
BU 245 Unit 1 help before you submit
A frequent problem in Unit 1 is describing the audience with adjectives, busy or important, instead of facts about what the reader can do and needs to know. Another is forgetting secondary readers, even though business messages are often forwarded. Some papers analyze the audience well and then write one message for everyone, which throws the analysis away. Channel choices are often missing or unexplained. Students also stop at analysis without showing a single sentence written for the reader. Finally, keep the scenario concrete; a situation with a time, a cost and a decision gives the analysis something to work on, while a general case such as communicating with a manager does not.
Get a BU 245 Unit 1 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 1 instructions and the rubric your BU 245 classroom posts, with the scenario if your section supplies one. We write a custom example that fixes the situation, records authority before attitude, treats secondary readers separately, justifies the channel and prints two openings with the differences named. First custom sample free, back in 24 to 48 hours.
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BU 245 Unit 1 questions, answered
Does the exercise need an actual message in it?
Check the instructions, but include something written even where they leave it open. An analysis with no message attached cannot show that the findings did any work, and the rubric rows rewarding application usually have nothing to attach to. Two short openings, or a single paragraph addressed to the reader you profiled, are enough to make the analysis visible.
What if the scenario does not name a reader?
Choose one and say who they are in a line: the role, the authority the role carries and the relationship to the writer. Fixing the reader is the analysis, so leaving it open makes everything after it approximate. Where the situation is open too, keep it ordinary, a request for equipment or a schedule change, since routine cases show the reasoning most clearly.
Can I analyze my own supervisor as the audience?
Write the profile around a constructed reader instead. What you know about a real supervisor's preferences, pressures and history is theirs rather than yours to submit, and coursework goes to at least one other reader. A composite built from the same kind of role scores identically, and saying in a line that the reader is constructed costs nothing.
Where can I find a free BU 245 Unit 1 sample paper?
The full BU 245 Unit 1 audience analysis is published above for free, with both openings and the margin notes. If your instructor supplied a different scenario, send it over and a matching example will be written for you without charge, usually within two days.
Does BU 245 Unit 1 need a sample message?
Most rubrics reward one. The sample ends with two short openings of the same news written for different readers, which shows the analysis turning into writing. A full message is not always required, but at least one written demonstration usually earns the application points.