IN SEARCH OF AUTHENTICITY: AUDIENCEPresented by April Finley

Real World Writing

I asked several friends and family members (of various occupations) what writing they have had to do in the last month, both personally and professionally. Here were some of their responses:

Financial advisor – financial plans for clients; emails; letters of request; genealogy writing; contracts and agreements

Computer programmer – technical documentation; user documentation; trouble shooting; task logging; project management/planning; performance reviews

Photography/graphic arts instructor – teaching philosophy; artist statement; website; gallery application materials; art criticism writings

Doctoral student – dissertation; essays and cover letters for applications; email, Facebook; handouts

Social worker – case studies and notes/documentation on clients

Plant breeder/dean of academic programs – research articles in scientific publications; letters of recommendation; annual reports; emails; grant proposals

Sign language interpreter – surveys; training manuals; pros/cons of childcare arrangements; flyers/advertisements

Nurse – narrative notes on patients

Introduction to Audience: Audience in Advertisements

In the following “Got Milk” ads, who do you think the target audiences are? For each ad, be as specific as possible in your response.

Ad 1

Ad 2

Ad 3

Ad 4

Ad 5

6 Ways to Reach Audience

These six checkpoints for reaching audience (as listed in the English Journal) may be used on a rubric to show to students before and after writing.

Reaching audience through: 1. Establishing a common context2. Verbal expression (word choice, style,

tone)3. Appropriate conventions

6 Ways to Reach Audience, cont.4. Structure5. Support/development6. Appropriate content

Example

Two books on the holocaust during WWII address the concentration camp prisoners in two vastly different ways, due to the difference in audience.

First reading: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Second reading: From the Kingdom of Memory

(Also see: Terrible Things)

Try It

Think of five different people/types of people in your life (e.g. grandma, best friend, etc.).

Then write a sentence-long greeting you might say to each of them, focusing on the difference in language/style/tone/content that you may use for each one.

Activity

Divide into partners. I will hand each set of partners a slip of paper

naming both a scenario (purpose) and an audience.

Your task is to write to this scenario, keeping your audience in mind (see the six checkpoints for ideas regarding how to differentiate for different audiences).

You may write any genre: a conversation, a letter, etc., but choose your genre carefully, as some genres may cater to one audience more naturally than another.

Share

When you share your writing, I’ll have you read what you’ve written without telling us your intended purpose and audience.

Then, once we’ve guessed what your purpose/audience might have been, you can let us know if we were right. This will help you to evaluate how well you were able to pinpoint your audience, in particular.

Sources

Ortmeier-Hooper, Christina and Katherine E. Tirabassi. “Teaching Writing for the ‘Real World’: Community and Workplace Writing.” English Journal. May 2009. 72-80.

Trimble, John R. Writing with Style. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2000.

Wiggins, Grant. “Real-World Writing: Making Purpose and Audience Matter.” English Journal. May 2009. 29-37.