Tshimanga 1
Michael K. Tshimanga
Dr. Longo
ENG 352-463
21 Oct 2018
Discourse Communities
1) Who are the audiences and purposes for this article?
The audience for this article is the general public. The article is written in such a way that
any ordinary person would be interested in the prospect of nuclear fusion. For example, the
author begins the article with a description of where the experiments are being conducted.
He specifically states that it looked like any other building and that he and his driver had
to double back after driving right past it [1].
The author’s purpose for writing the article like this (or at the very least, beginning the
article like this) is to familiarize a general audience with the company’s work to develop
and commercialize nuclear fusion. The author mostly explains the research that the team
conducted and their plans on bringing it to the public in an affordable way [1].
The author’s audience could also possibly be individuals and companies who are possibly
willing to invest in the technology. Much like the articles from previous weeks, the author
explains the endeavors of not only Tri-Alpha Energy, but other companies as well to try
and successfully develop nuclear fusion. While fusion research has managed to develop a
reputation of consuming a lot of time and money according to the article, it eventually
hopes to create a clean and cheap energy source, something that is likely to attract the
attention of investors [1].
Tshimanga 2
In this case, the purpose of the article is to grab the attention of those possible investors
willing to get into the nuclear fusion. Given that the article spends some of its time
discussing how long it’ll take before nuclear fusion is available to the public and some of
the other companies that are getting involved, it makes sense that the author would try to
get any investors interested in this alternative source of energy [1].
2) What strategies has the author used to accommodate...