Know Your Audience – Learn to Write for More than Your Professor

Guest Blogger Katie Stewart ’16

Katie282F13Hi, my name is Katie Stewart, and I am a sophomore concentrating in Professional Writing and Rhetoric in the English major. I am currently taking CUPID Studio, and I am working with two other students to write and publish the Fall 2013 edition of the department newsletter, The Back Cover.

We were given an InDesign layout with required fonts and colors, but aside from these guidelines, we have the freedom to write about anything related to English students or events on campus. Our issue of The Back Cover will include articles about events on campus, student blogs, and professors. This is a fantastic project, especially for beginners like me, because the layout is provided and my group’s job is to fill in the template with our own articles and photographs. I have never used InDesign before, so creating a layout for the newsletter would have been very difficult. Because the members of my group and I do not have to focus on developing our own layout, we can direct our attention to choosing interesting topics for our articles and creating original content.

Katie_BCmasthead As a relatively new English major, this project has been a great learning experience. I was given the opportunity to dabble in journalism and create a newsletter that informs current students, prospective students, and faculty about events and what people in the English department have accomplished. The best part about this project is that it is real. It is not just something for our professor to look over and grade. This project is a publication that students and faculty at Elon will have the opportunity to read.

Also this semester, I am currently taking ENG 215 Introduction to Professional Writing and Rhetoric.; this course places a very important focus on adapting to specific audiences when writing. When deciding what to write about in The Back Cover, my group had to consider the audience we are writing for and how they might react to our articles. Our primary audience is of course the English department, but we also must remember that prospective students and even students and faculty outside of the department could get their hands on this newsletter. Intro to PWR helped me better understand this particular audience, and it taught me how make my writing appealing to readers of The Back Cover.

The most important advice I can give to students working on a writing project is to think about who will be reading your work. Is it your professor? Your classmates? An outside audience? Even if the only reader is your professor, try to create an audience for your work so that you have a goal to reach. Who is your audience, and what do you want to present to them in your writing?

Taking CUPID Studio and writing The Back Cover has taught me that an English degree can take a student anywhere professionally. I’ve learned that I have the ability to write clearly and effectively, a skill that everyone should work towards perfecting. The practicality of an English major is explained in this New York Times editorial. Hands-on projects in any field of study are what help students realize that they chose the right major – or not. I know that the Professional Writing and Rhetoric program is perfect for me because I am a writer.

Every company, every non-profit organization, and every school needs writers.

As a relatively new English major, this project has been a great learning experience. I was given the opportunity to dabble in journalism and create a newsletter that informs current students, prospective students, and faculty about events and what people in the English department have accomplished. The best part about this project is that it is real. It is not just something for our professor to look over and grade. This project is a publication that students and faculty at Elon will have the opportunity to read.

Also this semester, I am currently taking ENG 215 Introduction to Professional Writing and Rhetoric.; this course places a very important focus on adapting to specific audiences when writing. When deciding what to write about in The Back Cover, my group had to consider the audience we are writing for and how they might react to our articles. Our primary audience is of course the English department, but we also must remember that prospective students and even students and faculty outside of the department could get their hands on this newsletter. Intro to PWR helped me better understand this particular audience, and it taught me how make my writing appealing to readers of The Back Cover.

The most important advice I can give to students working on a writing project is to think about who will be reading your work. Is it your professor? Your classmates? An outside audience? Even if the only reader is your professor, try to create an audience for your work so that you have a goal to reach. Who is your audience, and what do you want to present to them in your writing?

Taking CUPID Studio and writing The Back Cover has taught me that an English degree can take a student anywhere professionally. I’ve learned that I have the ability to write clearly and effectively, a skill that everyone should work towards perfecting. The practicality of an English major is explained in this New York Times editorial. Hands-on projects in any field of study are what help students realize that they chose the right major – or not. I know that the Professional Writing and Rhetoric program is perfect for me because I am a writer.

Every company, every non-profit organization, and every school needs writers.

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