Writing for an audience is a basic for writing most things. You don't use technical jargon when writing to a general audience and you don't have to speak in layman's terms if you are writing for a certain audience. I like this topic overall because of it being basic and I'm sure plenty of people have written things without taking audience in consideration.
The first reading "Writing for Children Snips and Snaps" really showed someone who understood the audience. The whole thing is broken down into key points and each point describes and gives good examples of what they are talking about. The whole page makes me feel like I could write children's books. I also like the article because it gives a detailed breakdown of considerations for a specific audience.
The three other articles all focused on writing for audiences in general but they did not all come from the same position. I think all the articles make several suggestions and good points towards considering the audience. It also gives ideas and strategies toward making sure you are going to be understood by the audiences. I took from Lynn Alfino's article about writing for magazines are several things to consider for the magazine such as martial status.
The other two articles take the perspective from a student. I found the information here pretty useful being a student. I tend to be writing for a instructor. One thing that is interesting about this is in high school they teach you to write for a general audience and then it flips and you are suppose to be a writing for an instructor. I'm not sure why there is this contradiction. I like that the article from the bbc site has the word reason and audience bold. The reason for writing something may also affect what you are writing as much as audience. Say the reason you want to do the writing to make people laugh or to give information you'd consider what the audience would think is funny or what the audience should know. One thing that these three articles also point out is getting help for writing. A couple examples of this is seeking people with a better understanding of the subject or just finding someone to read over it as a general reader.
The last article also made me think a lot about there is an basic contradiction between being told to write for a general audience and then having a teacher be the only one who reads what you write. Glad I'm not the only one who feels this way.
ReplyDeleteDifferences in approaches to teaching audience (or, as is perhaps more the case, not) in writing courses remains a persistent frustration for me. I understand that there are other priorities as well as diverse opportunities of focus in other, earlier writing courses, but considering the audience is often as important as knowing the purpose. The contradiction Matt mentions is, I think, a result of this lack of adequate instruction about audience.
ReplyDeleteI really like your post. I am glad that you see the one verything that we anted to put forth to the class which is trying to give information for diffrent positions and writing for many different audiences. I really appreciate how you speak of how you should speak to the audience and acknowledging who the audience is from the get go. I am glad to see that you enjoyed our readings and I hope they can help you througout the rest of your academic career.
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