English - (Reader|Audience)

About

In composing a paragraph, writers should also take into account their readers.

• Who is the person or who are the people who are going to be reading the paragraph?
• Are readers familiar with the topic or are they naïve?
• Keeping readers in mind helps writers develop a paragraph that allows readers to fully understand the paragraph’s message.

Considering Audience and Purpose

As you generate ideas, you will need to consider who will be reading what you will write and what the purpose of the assignment or task is. For instance, if you are writing a letter to a newspaper, the audience and purpose is likely to be much different than when you are writing a letter to your insurance company questioning a charge. Therefore, for each assignment or project, you should spend some time thinking about audience and purpose in order know which ideas you are generating are the best ones for your audience and purpose.

Considering your audience, or, in most cases, your reader, you should consider a series of questions during this first step of the writing process:

• What is it you are trying to achieve with your audience (besides a good grade)?
• Do you want to convince them something is true?
• Do you want to tell them why something is happening or the results?
• Do you want to explain how something works or what something is?
• Do you want to persuade them to take a certain stand?