Winnow Consultant and Communications Director - Dara Wilkinson Bobb has developed a model that helps the writing communicator to frame his/her writing to develop Perception and Transfer to the minds of the intended audience. This concept will help your speeches, essays, books and even your ads be more convincing to the people you have written them for.

2. Model Created by Dara Wilkinson Bobb- Winnow Consultants and Associates

3. Purpose, Audience and Context (an opinion piece)
By Dara Wilkinson Bobb MA. MFA.
Before you write a single word, ask yourself: Why are you doing it? Who is it for? Where is it
going to live?
There are many ways to convey the same information,
but you may say one thing in a different way (diction or
expression) or using a different form or structure, and
the impact will also be different. The ideas will hit you
in a distinctive way, with levels of accessibility and
acceptability particular to that piece of writing or
communication and particular to you as an individual.
The notion of appropriateness, then, is heavily based in
perception and belief. A belief in the appropriateness of something is rooted less in the “fact” of
that appropriateness and more in the perception of such. This is to say that appropriateness is
a subjective measure rather than an objective measure.
Something that is considered to be appropriate may be, for example, something socially or
morally acceptable within a particular community or space, something suited to a particular
situation, or something based on or rooted in culture, society and experience.
Much of sharing expertise to inform, persuade or entertain others involves being appropriate.
The word “appropriate” conveys several associations. We think of how culture, norms, society
and experience can inform our ideas of appropriateness. At times we associate it with social or
moral acceptability in that the word “appropriate” has connotations of being good or right as
opposed to being bad or wrong. The latter understanding of the concept is perhaps a somewhat
rigid or narrow view of appropriateness.
One possible definition of appropriate is that something is appropriate if it fits, which suggests a
harmonious relationship between two things fitting with each other, or among several variables
or factors. Depending on the situation, something appropriate to that situation is something
Before you write a single word, ask
yourself: Why are you doing it? Who is
it for? Where is it going to live?

4. that is suited to that situation.
Although facts can inform on the
level of appropriateness of
something, there is also a very
heavy dependence on perception
or belief.
Perception works on at least three
dimensions. In crafting the
information, the writer selects (or
rejects), focuses on, magnifies or
minimizes, as well as orders said
information in a specific way
according to the preference of that
writer. What began as information in a raw form has been processed through the mill of the
writer’s perceptions and packaged off. Secondly, beyond personal, individual perception, this
writer occupies a position in society determined by a matrix of culturally value-laden factors.
Some baseline demographic factors include age, race and gender, for example. Thirdly, the
perceptions of the reader colour the meanings derived. Often these are based not so much in
the denotative meanings but in connotations and
emotional underpinnings that hijack our
understanding, for better or worse, and determine
significance.
The example I like to share with students goes like
this: Imagine this. I turn to Paula and ask her,
“Do you know someone named Adam in the next
class?” and she says, “Yes, he is an extraordinary
youth.” Then, I turn to the class and exclaim, “Do
you hear that? Adam is a strange juvenile, yes!”
Technically, I just substituted synonyms for the words Paula used. Yet, I would be wrong. I
would have run Adam’s name into the ground, as they say, because “strange” has the
connotation of weirdness or a difference which warrants suspicion, whereas extraordinary has a
“Do you hear that? Adam is a strange
juvenile, YES!?!?”
Model showing contributing factors in "Perception Creation
and Transfer in Writing" created by Dara Wilkinson Bobb

5. very positive connotation. Similarly, “juvenile” has unfortunately come to be associated with a
word which typically follows it in Western society which is “delinquent” as in the term of
derision “juvenile delinquent.” Disclaimer: When I tell this story I always randomly choose
names and no innocent Paulas or Adams are actually hurt in the performance of my
experiment.
In light of this, then, one of the first guides to crafting a piece of communication is
understanding your purpose. Your purpose is, firstly, your compelling reason or your “why” for
initiating this communication. The second aspect of purpose to be considered is what the piece
was meant for, that is, the target end result or
intended outcome.
Another guide to consider is audience. The audience
refers to the person or people being addressed.
Sometimes they are addressed as individuals or
sometimes they have a group identity. Essentially,
though, the audience is the people or the person on
whom you are trying to have an impact. This can
determine how much you need to explain or
elaborate. It is also helpful to connect and engage.
In a speech, for example, you could include content that both reaches the head (cerebral) and
the heart (emotional/ shared humanity in experience). It is important to respect your audience
by being focused and not wasting their time. What is not helpful is being inflammatory and
politically incorrect (read: disrespectful) unless that is a tactic that you are using to achieve a
specific impact… and this tactic could very well backfire on you.
Finally, one must consider and be guided by context. Context refers to the circumstances, the
background, the time, place and atmosphere, and the overall situation in which something
occurs. Examples of acknowledging how context matters in shaping a piece include considering
the historical, political and cultural landscapes surrounding the writing. If a sentence is plucked
from the middle of an article, understanding the entire body of information from the article
would help you to understand the point of that sentence by examining the immediate context,
“Essentially the audience is the people that
you are trying to impact”

6. which in this case is the whole written/constructed text itself and the significance of how all the
elements work together.
Understanding context provides a good base for skilful word choice and usage. It enables the
writer to be focused and specific, to use the context as touchstones that promote relevance in
the delivery of the material. Often, a writer is trying to make a point, but it is the way that the
point addresses a particular context which makes it meaningful and powerful in terms of depth
and breadth of analysis.
One last caution: Context is different from content. Content has to do with actual pieces of
information within a body of information – the substance. Contexts are the different frames you
look through to perceive it.
END
Dara Wilkinson Bobb 2017
Dara Wilkinson Bobb is the Director of Communications and a senior
consultant at WINNOW Consultants and Associates. She is also a part-time
lecturer in English Language Skills and Communication at The University of
the West Indies as well as at UNB, Canada. In addition, Dara has earned a
First Class Honours Bachelors degree in Literature and a Masters in Fine
Arts in Creative Writing. She has decades of experience as a writing
practitioner and has been published both regionally and internationally.