Why is it Important to Identify the Audience Before Writing?
Know your reader
Once a topic is chosen, the writer must begin to identify the readership. If the audience is generic, the writing will be generic lacking in voice, style and ultimately focus. Writing comes alive when it is directed to a specific group.
For instance, a reader of this article, I would assume, is a writer or desires to be one.
The range of possible readers in this category is immense.
Children may grow up to be great authors, but they must start by learning the alphabet. Elmo’s Easy as ABC might be a book they would read to begin their writing life. Children’s books contain simple language, pictures, and animated characters.
Older writers may use writing as a means to understanding. Lynn Nelson begins Writing and Being by explaining to the reader that his text is not a book about writing; it is more.
“This is a book about people writing. It is about writing as a tool for intellectual, psychological, and spiritual growth. It is about our language and our being and their powerful interconnectedness, which have often been taken away from us without our even knowing what we have lost. This book is about taking back the miraculous gift of our language and using it as an instrument of creation.”
Nelson proceeds to provide lessons on writing that ultimately teach the reader to appreciate life and the power of language. The chapters read like personal letters encouraging writers to speak from their hearts as the author shares stories that inspire and teach.
Journals are an alternative type of book that encourages writers. Many authors have compiled quotes about writing, merged them with blank pages to produce inspiring journals to prompt writers. Authors of journals provide the motivation for others to add the words and write their own stories.
Annie Dillard’s narrative, The Writing Life, reads like poetry as she shares her life experiences while weaving in lessons about the power of words. Her audience consists of writers and non-writers who want to experience art through words.
Teachers of writing value Lucy Calkins’ books. However, different titles speak to vastly unique audiences. Lessons from a Child follows an elementary student’s exploration with language and provides lessons that support the growth of elementary children.
Her second text, The Art of Teaching Writing, focuses on the craft of establishing a functioning writing workshop in the classroom. Both illustrate how teachers present lessons and how students produce writing under the tutelage of an expert, but the approach differs in presentation. The first book reads like a story and the second more like a textbook.
Experienced writers, though they would find pleasure and power in any of the titles listed, would explore the words of professionals in their field who share wisdom about writing: Peter Elbow, Donald Murray, E.B. White, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, or Steven Spielberg — just a few of the many who share the mystery behind their talents.
Writers must answer the question, “What does the audience know about the subject and what does the audience need to know?”