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Enhancing Your Writing: Understanding and Communicating with Your Audience

This guide focuses on the essential elements of writing for a specific audience. It introduces five key questions to help identify the characteristics, knowledge, and needs of your audience, enabling better communication. You’ll learn to analyze syllabus details for insights into teacher expectations and how to tailor your writing accordingly. By profiling your intended audience before you begin, you can create more relevant and engaging content. Use this resource to strengthen your writing skills and connect effectively with your readers.

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Enhancing Your Writing: Understanding and Communicating with Your Audience

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  1. Writing for an Audience: Building on What You Know to Communicate Better

  2. Goals • Learn five main questions for considering your audience • Identify key elements in a syllabus for insight into your teacher’s expectations • Discuss your questions and concerns

  3. Five Key Questions • Do you have a specific intended audience? • Who is your intended audience? What are their personal characteristics? • What is their job, profession, or field of expertise? • What does your audience know about your topic? What could they NOT know about your topic, considering their personal characteristics? • What is their level of need/interest regarding your writing? How will your audience use your writing?

  4. Intended Audience? • BEFORE you write, ask yourself who you are writing for. • “Profile” the people who will be reading your writing. • The more specific the audience, the more focused your writing.

  5. Who Is Your Audience?

  6. Who Is Your Intended Audience? Personal characteristics: • Where they live • When they went to school (age) • Gender, class, ethnicity • Language proficiency • Time constraints

  7. Job, Profession, Expertise? • Where does your audience work? • What field is your audience in? • What subject(s) is your audience an expert in?

  8. What Does Audience Know? • No one is 100% knowledgeable or 100% ignorant • Allow for a range of abilities and knowledge • Balance accuracy of terms or complexity with explanations

  9. Audience Needs? • Making informed decisions • Intellectual challenge • Emotional investment • Entertainment/Diversion

  10. Clues to Audience in a Syllabus Key Words: • Required • Course Description, Goals, Methods • Expectations, Attendance, Participation • Format • Pace, Schedule • “I” statements • Note • Grade/Rubric

  11. Required Textbooks set the tone, tell a lot about the teacher’s philosophy/mood: • Thick, dry tomes: standardized for the subject, not personal • Novels, nonfiction essays: personal, intimate, emotional connections demanding self-investment

  12. Required II • Materials = individual preferences of the teacher, i.e., audience! • Listen in class for what to buy and when • Vocal stress or exclamation points = emotional value placed on these preferences

  13. Course . . . • Description/Methods – the overall style or layout of the class, the general way to achieve the goals • Goals/Outcomes/Objectives/By the end of the course you should . . . – The point of the class, the skills instructors will expect you to know when you take a higher-level class • Requirements – the specific tasks of the particular instructor, i.e., the audience expectations

  14. Expectations • Course participation, attendance = critical to success in any course • School/Division policies, e.g., no plagiarism! and absence limits affect grades • Behavior in class: turn cell phones off, remove hats and earbuds, respect others (Your classmates are your audience, too, and they can have strict expectations!)

  15. Format • Style of class, but more often . . . • Audience expectations of your writing! • Appearance: MLA or APA, font, point size • Feel: stapled, manageable, smooth

  16. Pace/Schedule • Self-paced = personal responsibility to be on schedule, meet the mileposts • Fast-paced = personal responsibility to be well prepared before each week begins • Schedule: identify due dates, exams, days of no classes, dates readings to be discussed

  17. “I” statements • I expect . . . I require . . . • I do not . . . I will not . . . • I collect . . . I will look for . . . • I am here to help/I am on your side • I can be reached at/My office hours are . . .

  18. NOTE: • “Note” signals very important information or an intricately detailed explanation • N.B. = (Latin) nota bene ‘note well’

  19. Grade/Rubric • Grade = level to which you met audience expectations • Rubric = the “ruler” used to measure and calculate your grade

  20. Audience Pet Peeves • Speeling Errors If you want to be taken seriously, spell well! 2. “You…you…you…” Huh? I was never there. Own your personal experiences! 3. Overwrought, overdone, overcooked verbiage K.I.S.S.—Keep It Simple, Silly!

  21. To Summarize • Ask yourself the five questions to conceptualize your audience • Review your syllabus and lecture notes for your teacher’s expectations • You are an expert on your own experiences, so be your audience’s informant while respecting their intelligence

  22. Bibliography “Audience.” Writing@CSU. 1993-2009. The Writing Center at Colorado State University. 19 Feb. 2009 <http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/processes/audmod>. “Audience Planner.” Online Technical Writing. No date. No organization. 19 Feb. 2009 <http://www.io.com/~hcexres/itcm/planners/aud_plan.html>. “Winter 2009 Classes: English.” Arts & Humanities: Student Info. Bellevue College. 7 May 2009 <http://bellevuecollege.edu/artshum/materials/Winter2009/ENGL.htm>. Hale, Stephen. “Writing for an Audience.” Georgia Perimeter College. 19 Feb 2009 http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~shale/humanities/composition/handouts/audience.html>.

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