| The concept of audience is perhaps
one of the lesser talked about topics in writing courses, but it is one
of the most important. Perhaps writing teachers tend to
de-emphasize it because the audience in a writing course is in some ways
artificial and static. Students know they are submitting essays to
a professor, an authority figure who will inevitably evaluate and grade
their work, so students have a natural inclination to seek out what the
professor as audience wants to see or read in an effort to secure the
best grade possible. This construct of a classroom and the
negotiated relationship of professor and student, authority figure and
subject, sets up an unhealthy environment where the student often writes
for the professor, as if she is performing for the reward of a
particular grade. This implicit relationship is seldom discussed
in the classroom with students, but it nonetheless is ever-present.
It's the 900 pound gorilla in the room that everyone tries to ignore,
that is until a student queries the professor with, "Well, what is it
you're really looking for anyway in this essay?... I need an 'A,' so
what do I need to do on this paper to get that grade?
It's not the best opener for a
discussion about audience, but that's often how the conversation starts.
But it's the work-reward, performance-grade dimension of the political
relationship between professor and student that I genuinely want you to
ignore. We can acknowledge its presence and accept that your
writing certainly is evaluated and rewarded a grade, but I'd like you to
set aside those dynamics for now--at least temporarily. I'd like
you to pretend that you are not in an institutional environment where
writing abilities are on stage for just one person to read. If you
can suspend the notion that a grade is attached to your writing, we can
think more openly and accurately about the topic of audience.
Why Be Aware of Audience?
First, being aware of your audience
is important because, as I mentioned during a few weeks ago, implied in
any text that you produce is the idea that you have something to
communicate. Consequently, the receiver of that information, your
audience, must be able to successfully understand your ideas, preferably
without having to ask you for clarification. Unlike more dynamic forms
of communication, like a phone call or email or text message, essay
writing generally gets one opportunity to deliver the message. And
that delivery must be performed clearly, unambiguously, succinctly, and
convincingly on the first attempt.
Not only is being aware of the
existence of an audience important, but also being aware of who
comprises your audience is highly critical to the success of your
writing. During these 18 weeks, your writing will take the form of
expository essays, but in any number of other situations, you could be
writing a report, a technical manual, a memo, an email, or a text
message on your cell phone. These writing media represent a range
of formal to casual communication methods, and you naturally select the
right mode for your audience. Consider this example. If you
initiate an invitation to have dinner with a friend, you would not send
a memo on corporate letterhead. Instead, you're more likely going
to use a text message (along with its set of abbreviations and texting
rules). Conversely, you wouldn't write a 10-page report to your
manager by using text-messaging lingo. Both of these examples
illustrate an awareness of who the audience is and the kind of writing
medium that is appropriate.
Having as much information as
possible is crucial to the success of your writing as well. A
really simple illustration is to contrast the needs and expectations of
an 8-year-old with those of your local city council. The kind of
vocabulary choices you make when you speak or write to a child are
patently different from the diction you would use when submitting a
proposal to your city council to put a traffic signal on the corner of
your street to make it a safer intersection for children. In the
latter example both age of the audience and the degree of formality are
what matter most. However, other audience considerations such as
gender, political views, ethnic background, religious beliefs, and so
forth should be part of the calculus in understanding who your audience
is.
Determining your audience actually
is the first act as a writer that you should do (I would argue) before
beginning any the process of writing. In fact, reminding yourself
who your audience is matters at every stage of the writing process since
your revisions will take into account your audience's needs and your
diction (or word choice) will be influenced by your audience's reading
and comprehension abilities.
In the non-academic world, the
consideration of audience occurs all the time, but we may not realize it
or think about it. Advertising is a media where targeting the
right audience can mean the difference between increased sales and lost
profits. Though ad often rely on stereotypes, ad companies are
frequently effective at identifying who among the television viewers
needs to see a particular ad. Consider these two examples.
Think about cleaning products for a moment. Now ask yourself who
is invariably pictured in the television commercial for Mr. Clean?
It's a woman, usually portrayed as a housewife. Why? That's
the stereotypical role society has constructed for women. Do you
ever see television ads with a man pushing a vacuum or cleaning a
bathroom with Mr. Bubbles? No. They're not the audience who
buys these cleaning products, generally speaking. Now consider the
time slot of television commercials. When are these cleaning ad
typically broadcast on television? Yes, during the morning
hours--when the stay-at-home-mom is doing housecleaning or taking care
of the kids. Consider another example. Next time you watch
the Sunday morning talk shows on politics, pay attention to what
commercials you see. They are predominantly about finances, aimed
at a male audience, and more broadly at an educated audience. The
reason is that advertising executives who are paying big dollars for
broadcast time have done their market research and focus groups and
concluded that given the viewing audience of those shows, their
advertising dollars will be best spend pitching these products.
Here's a more simple example about your own awareness of audience.
When you have to go out in public, what clothes do you wear to go
shopping at the mall? What clothes do you wear to go to a party or
to go clubbing or to attend a funeral? Your attire changes to suit
the event and fit in with your "audience." In the same way you
want to be accepted or perceived to be appropriately dressed, you want
your writing to be accepted or received well by your readers, your
audience.
To be continued... |
