Center for Writing Excellence Blog

Considering Audience When Writing

Hi! My name is Caroline Murphy and I’m an English major with a concentration in education with a minor in TESOL. I’m a member of class of 2024 and work as a consultant in the Writing Center.

There’s a lot to consider when beginning the process of writing, whether you’re writing for an assignment or your own enjoyment. When starting to write, one question that’s important to ask yourself is: “Who am I writing for?” The person or group of people you expect to read your work, and therefore who you’re writing for, is your audience. In this blog, I’ll be discussing some helpful tips for how you can consciously consider your audience while writing.

The easiest audience to identify is yourself. Whether you’re journaling, making a to-do list, or doing other personal writing, you’re your own audience. However, if you’re writing for another person or group of people, you need to identify them. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Writing Center has compiled a list of questions to ask yourself when beginning to write:

● Who’s your audience?

● Do you have more than one audience? If so, how many audiences do you have?

● Does your assignment itself give any clues about your audience?

● What does your audience need? What do they want? What do they value?

● What are they least likely to care about?

● What do you want your audience to think, learn, or assume about you? What impression do you want your writing or your research to convey?

Your tone, diction, style, and overall themes could be affected by your audience, whether you are writing an assignment for a professor, completing an application for a study abroad program, crafting a social media post, or writing a short story or poem. Keep in mind your audience could also change the content of your piece.

As you consider the questions above while writing, you may feel more inclined to cut out certain things that you normally would include, or include things you typically would not write. For example, the professor for your literary analysis class is asking you to write about symbolism in Jane Eyre. You might want to include more connections to specific scenes and dialogue that supports your argument, opposed to having more plot summary. Wanting to leave your audience with a lasting impression may encourage you to improve your overall writing quality.

What should you do when your audience is your professor? UNC’s Writing Center says that even if you’re writing an academic paper, it’s effective to tailor it toward a broader audience than just your professor. They obviously know about the assigned topic; however, by imagining them as the sole audience, it’s easy to write about ideas without expanding on them. This may cause the professor to assume that you don’t have a clear understanding of the topic. So, treat your professor as an “intelligent but uninformed” audience member, and provide the same context and explanation that someone not in your course would need to understand your paper’s central ideas. (UNC Chapel Hill’s Writing Center).

A final tip is to consider yourself as a member of the audience as you read your drafts. This will help you remain unattached as you reread your work and see things you usually gloss over as the writer. If you need assistance during any stage of the writing process, book an appointment with Elon’s Writing Center!