Don’t Waste Your Time Writing to an Unknown Reader

Writing is a science and the first step is to identify the audience

Try this activity

It reinforces the need of identifying audience. Visit a bookstore and browse the magazine shelf. Find a category and explore the many types of publications available. Each journal attracts different personalities and fulfill a variety of interests. Examine the list below of magazines for car enthusiasts. Each address a similar topic but a different audience.

• Popular Mechanics
• Classic Car
• Muscle Machines
• Hotrod
• Motorsports
• Cars Report Price Guide
• Collectible Automobile

As the wife of a car buff who worked for years in a dealership, taught automotive technology to high school students for 30 years, raced at the local drag strip, restores classic cars and is a regular at car shows, each of these journals can be found in our home. But each serves a different purpose and fits a different interest of my husband.

Next, determine the appropriate audience

Think about that teacher who held immense knowledge on a subject but remained incapable of explaining the curricular in a manner manageable for students. Reflect back to the relative who spoke to you like a child — at your wedding. Have you ever heard someone tell a joke at a solemn event?

These are all examples of a lack of audience awareness.

There are several criteria to determine the appropriate audience. Once identified, it becomes the writer’s responsibility to present material in a manner that is approachable and understandable for the reader.

By answering these simple questions, a writer can focus the material and then publish it to an audience for maximum engagement.

• Age
• Sex
• Interests
• Ability level
• Expectations
• Background

Target the specific audience and narrow the focus

Reading level

The number of words, the vocabulary, and the content all influence the readability of written material. Several readability checkers are available online that analyze text and provide feedback. Simply by pasting a sample of the writing into a program, feedback will be provided on the number of sentences, words, syllables, and accessibility.

Visuals

• Pictures captivate young children and inform adults. Sometimes they enhance enjoyment while other times they influence understanding.
• Graphs and charts help organize ideas and present them in a manner that is easier to comprehend. Typically, they help visualize the relationship of data and allow information to be more consumable.
• Examples provide samples of material to increase understanding. For instance to demonstrate the value of revision, examples of the first draft and final can be included to demonstrate changes.

Voice and style

Depending upon the purpose, the voice and style can be modified. If the goal is to promote humor, satire, sarcasm, or personal experiences might serve the purpose. When the author is teaching, an instructional style will fill the need.

The power of persuasion is enhanced through the use figurative language with techniques such as similes, metaphors, or alliteration.

Format

The genre dictates the format while influencing the audience. Novels are consumed as means of escape, to live vicariously. So, they are formatted in longer chapters.

How-to-articles provide readers with shorter paragraphs that are easier to consume.

Headings divide information into manageable segments and work with material that is technical.

Anticipate readers’ questions

Asking the 5 W’s

Use the 5 W’s: who, what, where, when , and why to probe for new details. I hear your frustration because asking questions is not a knew strategy. However, start thinking of the answers as more than simple statements of response. At first, asking questions may seem extremely elemental and time consuming, but if your writing seems to be mundane, lacking a unique voice, or reads like someone is retelling an old story without enthusiasm, this strategy can breathe life into the narrative.

Maybe, you have asked questions and answered them but still see little change in your writing. Once questions are asked, provide answers that offer new details, enhance the writing, grow a sentence to a paragraph. Weave the answers into the description, the dialogue, the action of the narrative, anywhere possible to develop the narrative.

Get inside the readers’ heads and anticipate what they want to know. Let’s explore how this is accomplished by revising this sentence; I watched the squirrel run up the tree. Now what might a reader want to know?

• Why did the squirrel run up the tree?
• What kind of tree?
• What did she look like?
• What sound did she make?
• How did he move?
• Where was the tree?

The next step is to weave the answers into the writing to transform a telling statement into a description that shows. Below is a revision of the original sentence.

The fat squirrel used her sharp claws to scurry up the huge, grandfather oak tree. Upon reaching the first limb, approximately seven feet off the ground, she climbed to the end and balanced on the thin branch. It quickly became apparent, her chubbiness could be attributed to the nuts she carried, probably with the intent to fill a cache since the fall weather warned of winter’s approach. As she stared down at the dog barking at the base, her reddish-brown fur stood on end, and she chirped a series of what must have been expletives in squirrel language.

After a short time, writers who practice anticipating readers’ questions and responding begin to fill in the gaps without the process of writing the questions down; the process becomes intuitive. However, until this happens asking question offers a technique to strengthen writing. Some writers find value in asking a peer to question their rough draft. Then they respond knowing they have the power to provide answers that enrich the material and ignore irrelevant questions.

If a writer can’t picture the face of their reader, they can’t speak to them in a personal tone or address their concerns and interests.