IDENTIFYING AUDIENCE AND PURPOSE As yu mve further int yur research, it can be helpful t step back and name the purpse and audience yu think yur writing will serve. The prcess belw will help yu sift thrugh all yu have been learning and cnverge n a directin statement t guide yu mving frward. Identify yur purpse fr writing. Tpic: Essential r Fcusing questin: Purpse: Hw yu will achieve this purpse? What tpics yu will tell (define/state) What tpics yu will shw (explain/describe) Identify yur audience. Wh are yu writing this fr? Why des this audience need t hear what yu have t say? What needs r expectatins des yu audience have? What questins can yu imagine yur audience asking? Hw d yu need t sund t that audience? What can yu d t achieve that tne? What shuld be the level f language? Is it cncrete r abstract r smewhere in between?
Shuld yu use street slang r the lgical argument f a prfessr f philsphy? What "persn" shuld yu wrk in? Shuld yu use 'I' r 'we' r 'yu' r they' r all f these? What are the range and the surces f allusins? D these cme frm high r lw culture, r bth? Shuld yu cite a medieval thelgian r a prfessinal wrestler? Hw ften shuld yu use metaphrs and ther figures f speech? D yu want t sund mre like the pet, whse wrk is thick with figurative images, r the jurnalist, wh nly uses them fr special effect? What shuld be the length and structure f the typical sentence? Is it shrt and simple? Lng and cmplex? Or mixed? What shuld be the distance frm neutrality? Shuld yu be bjective, partisan, r passinate? Develp yur directin statement/assertin: Once yu have cllected an abundance f infrmatin, yu need t take what yu have learned and decide what yu want t say abut it. Return t the rugh thinking yu did at the beginning f this prcess and evaluate it in light f yur chsen audience. This paper will... A directin statement, as Ry Peter Clark says, gives yu a view ver the hrizn befre [yu begin] drafting the stry. It prvides the language [yu need] t share [yur] hpes with ther writers, editrs, and readers. It can be tested, expanded, revised... during the drafting prcess.
Directin statements shuld be shrt and precise. Yur gal is t say exactly, in as few wrds as pssible, the pint r purpse f yur writing. Here are a few tls t help yu think abut and clarify yur missin. Find ne that wrks best fr yu and fr each particular writing prject. Jhn Steinbeck wrte, I have fund that smetimes it helps t pick ut ne persn, a real persn yu knw, r an imagined persn and write t that ne. Answer these three questins as precisely and succinctly as yu can. Wh, what ne persn, am I writing this t? What, exactly, d I want t say t this persn? Why des this persn need t knw abut what I want t say? Write a three---part missin statement. Define yur primary audience. Define yur purpse, the gift yu want t give yur audience, what exactly yu want t say. Define hw yu want t cmmunicate that gift, the strategies, style, structure, vice, tne yu will use. Yu culd even imagine hw yu want t grw as a writer, what yu want t learn t d while writing this. Answer these questins t write a missin statement: What is my tpic? What idea r event r persn r thing d I want t write abut? What is my idea? What am I hping t say abut this tpic? What is my attitude tward it, my respnse t it? My thinking abut it? Why d I care abut it? Wh is my audience? If I were t name ne persn wh mst needs t hear what I have t say abut this tpic, wh is that ne persn? Wh mst needs the gift I want t give?
Why is that persn my audience? Why exactly des that persn need this gift? Answer these six questins in 2 1 2 minutes (an exercise suggested by writing cach Chip Scanlan): A slug is a shrt (2-wrd) descriptin f the prject, the shrthand yu use t describe it t yurself and thers. Yu have 10 secnds t write the Slug fr this prject. Why des this matter? Yu have 30 secnds. What is the pint? Yu have 30 secnds. Why is this being written? Yu have 30 secnds. What des it say abut life, abut the wrld, abut the times we live in? Yu have 40 secnds. What is this really abut? In ne wrd. Yu have 10 secnds. Name the questin r prblem at the heart f yur idea. Yur answer t that questin is yur thesis r missin. The questin itself is an engine that will engage the reader. Every reader likes a gd mystery, and any authentic questin is a mystery. Faced with an authentic questin, peple will keep reading t find ut the answer. Imagine yu are building an arch. What is the keystne f that arch what ne idea hlds everything tgether? What questin r detail springs the piece ff the grund? What evidence r infrmatin draws yu up frm the fundatin t the keystne? Find smene yu trust, yur teacher, yur editr, a parent, a trusted peer. Take them ut fr lunch r a cffee. Tell them the stry ut lud. Telling the stry t smene, having a cnversatin abut it, nticing where yur friend is engaged r bred, hearing his questins and cmments, will help yu see its shape a bit mre clearly.
References: Clark, R. P. (2008). Writing tls: 50 essential strategies fr every writer. Little, Brwn and Cmpany. Hart, J. R. (2007). A writer's cach: The cmplete guide t writing strategies. That Wrk. Anchr. Scanlan, C. (2002). Helping writers take charge: Five tls fr editrs. Pynter. Retrieved January 7, 2011, frm http://www.pynter.rg/hw--- ts/newsgathering---strytelling/chip- --n---yur---shulder/3891/helping---writers---take---charge---five--- tls---fr---editrs---4/ Zinsser, W. (1993). Writing t learn. Harper Paperbacks. By Anne Maxham, Ph.D. Directr f Writing, Antich University