It’s the Audience, Stupid!

Writing for Reader Expectations

Research and Writing Bootcamp, Social Sciences and Humanities

Dr. Heather Blain VorhiesFall 2013

Tollbooth Syndrome

“But when our readers are people in the working world, people who need to be informed or convinced or persuaded of the rightness of our perceptions, we need to send them persuasive instructions for how to put all this information together.” (George Gopen 155)

Writing for an American Audience

Reader Expectations

Argument and information will be organized in a

hierarchy Each paragraph will treat one controlling idea The main subject and main verb will be towards

the front of the sentence (when possible) The writer will present his or her argument

immediately The Army Way of Writing: Tell me what

you’re going to tell me, tell me, and then tell me what you told me

Reader Expectations

Glossing is often called reverse outlining. Use it for reading and for critiquing your

writing and others’. Annotate a reading paragraph by paragraph,

looking for: What is the purpose of this paragraph in the

text? (What does the paragraph do for the article?)

What is the main idea of this paragraph?

Glossing

Think of 5 questions your reader will need

answered in order to understand your research. Write these 5 questions.

Answer these questions (1-2 sentences).

An Exercise (Donald Murray)

Graduate-Level Writing

Transitioning from Student to Scholar

As graduate writers and scholars, your job is

not to report. Rather, your job is to convince fellow scholars

that your approach is viable and reasonable. Your writing will instruct your reader how to

interpret the information. What sentences in the introduction of our

sample do more than “inform”?

Graduate-Level Writing Does Not

Report

Engaging in “Scholarly

Conversation”Scholars build upon each other’s work

What is the problem? Why is this a

problem for the field and discipline?

What is the history of the problem?

Where should we go in the future?

Sample text

Template Sentences

Template sentences help establish the relationship between ideas

These are sentence patterns that recur over and over again in academic writing

“There is a growing concern that X may have an impact on X.” (Popper)

“Studies of X have indicated ______. It is not clear, however, that this conclusion applies to ______.” (Graff and Birkenstein)

Why does your work matter? Write a

paragraph (3-4 sentences) that explains the importance of your most current research interest. Why does this research matter to your

discipline? Why does this research matter to other

disciplines? Why does this research matter outside of the

university?

An Exercise

A Few Good Resources

Campus Resources

Writing Fellows: one-on-one writing consultations for graduate students www.gradwritingfellows.umd.edu

Hvorhies.wordpress.com

Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Cente

r Website University of North Carolina Writing Center We

bsite Helen Sword’s The Writer’s Diet

Web Resources

Print Resources

The Sense of Structure: Writing From the Reader’s Perspective (George D. Gopen)

Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (Joseph Williams and Joseph Bizup)

Understanding Style: Practical Ways to Improve Your Writing (Joe Glaser)

Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts (Joseph Harris)