This document discusses the importance of considering audience when writing academic papers. It emphasizes that writers should understand who their audience is, what they already know about the topic, and what they need to know to understand the paper. The document provides questions for writers to ask themselves about their audience to help tailor the paper appropriately. It also stresses the importance of tone, organization, and using a "known-new contract" to ensure the audience can easily follow the line of reasoning. Overall, the key message is that understanding the audience is vital for effective academic writing.

1. Appropriately Addressing your
Audience and Purpose
Patricia MillerPatricia Miller
Enc 1102 Spring 2009Enc 1102 Spring 2009
Prof. Kyle StedmanProf. Kyle Stedman
University of South FloridaUniversity of South Florida

2. Audience?
 When writing academic
papers, it is vital to consider
your audience.
 Who will be reading this
paper?
 What do they already know
about the topic?
 What do they need to know
to understand the topic?
 Is your topic something new
and interesting? Most people
don't want to hear an
argument they've heard
before.

3. Who is your Target Audience?
 A target audience is
the specific people
or groups of people
to whom you are
writing.
 What will appeal to
these people?
 What will bore
these people or
turn them away
from your writing?

4. Clever Questions to Ask Yourself
 Who is your Audience?
 How many audiences do
you have? List them.
 What does your
audience need or want?
 What is most important
to them?
 What are they least likely
to care about?
 What do you have to say
or are you doing in your
research that might
surprise your audience?
 What do you want your
audience to think, learn,
or assume about you?
 How might you organize
your essay in a way that
will be best for your
audience?
Adapted from “Audience”

5. Know your Assignment
 Review assignment
instructions!
 Usually your instructor
will discuss the intended
audience in the
assignment description.
 If you fail to follow
assignment guidelines,
you may be failing to
meet the expectations of
your projected audience.

6. Keep your Audience Riveted!
 Write with a purpose!
 Your audience is the
reason you write.
 Consider age,
education level, and
interests of readers.
 What is your primary
goal in writing this
paper? To inform,
entertain, motivate, or
just to express
yourself?
Adapted from “Writing with a Purpose”

7. Consider your Tone
 Tone, or the manner or
style in which you write, is
directly tied to audience
appeal.
 One must decide if the
audience would respond
better to casual
colloquialisms or formal
terminology.
 Generally, when appealing
to a wide audience, a tone
of semi-formality is best.
 Frequent use of contractions
(ie: we've, they've, it's)
convey a casual tone.
 If you want to sound more
formal, use fewer
contractions (ie: we have,
they have, it is).
 Word choice is key to
keeping your audience
interested. Are you being too
verbose? Are you using terms
your audience will understand
and relate to?
Adapted from “Tone: A Matter of Attitude”

8. Organize your Thoughts so your
Audience will Follow
 Organization plays an important part in keeping your
readers entertained.
 A skilled writer will guide readers along an easy-to-
follow path. By using transitional phrases and moving
clearly from one supporting fact to the next, the writer
is assured his or her audience can follow his or her
reasoning.
 Use “telling facts” or facts that illustrate your point
instead of simply stating them. Be sure the relationship
between your topic and your fact is apparent to your
reader.
Adapted from “Telling Facts”

9. The Known-New Contract
 This is an important concept for
helping the audience to follow your
logic.
 “The basic idea of the known-new
contract is that writing feels more
fluid and connected when
sentences begin with a reference to
information already known and
then move into information that
hasn’t been mentioned yet.”
(Stedman par. 3)
 Your reader should expect changes
in topic before they occur. By
placing information from your
previous sentence into each
successive sentence, your reader
can more easily follow your line of
thought.

10. The More You Know...
 The more you understand about your
audience, the better you are able to appeal
to their taste.
 In other words, know your audience, please
your audience!

11. Works Cited
"Audience." The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. 28 April 2009. <
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/audience.html>.
Macrorie, Ken. Telling Writing. 3rd
Ed. Rochelle Park, NJ: Hayden, 1980.
Course Handout. Enc 1102, Spring 2009.
Stedman, Kyle. “Known-New Contract.” Adapted from Martha Kolln,
Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects.
Course Handout. Enc 1102, Spring 2009.
"Tone: A Matter of Attitude." 4/29/2009 <
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/tone.htm>.
"Writing with a Sense of Purpose." Capital Community College
Foundation. 29 April 2009. <
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/purpose.htm
>.