WRITING TIPS LESSON

APTS Lesson:  Audience

Some people  think of their audience as the readers. That could mean anyone and everyone. That understanding of audience is insufficient for writers. For writers, audience includes the specific readers who can do what you claim should be done. Having a specific audience helps you make the most effective choices about what content to include, what style to use, and how formal to be. For example, when I was in college and needed $20 I could have written two documents. I could have written a letter to my parents or a note to my roommate. The words and content of  the letter are going to be vastly different than for the note. My letter will be a little formal and contain information about how my classes are going in addition to the "please send money" plea. My note will be so informal I might not use complete sentences, and my content will be limited as well to something like this:  "Your mom called, call back ASAP. Loan me $20 'til Friday?" Certainly the note could not convince my parents, and the three page letter would have made my roommate throw it at me for wasting her time when she had to study for a history test. 
   
Thus, students require practice with  the actions necessary for the preparation of effective documents. The first of these actions is to identify the document's audience including details about who they are, what they know, and what they care about. Thinking about audience in such detail helps writers make the right choices about matters having to do with the other terms on this lesson's list:  purpose, style, and tone.

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Copyright Ida L. Rodgers, 2004
Updated January 16, 2012