Audience and Writing

Question: When should college students pay attention to audience for their writing?

Answer/Quote: “Results indicated that attending to audience can be effective for improving the overall quality of students’ writing. Results suggested, however, that attending to audience is less effective as a drafting strategy than it is as a revising strategy.” P. 75.

Quoting James Moffett: “If anybody is going to do anything about the teaching of writing, the first priority is going to have to be the rekindling of the sense of audience. Until that’s done, nothing else is going to happen.” P. 75.

Quote: “The results of the present study suggest that much of our audience awareness pedagogy may not give students the best advice as to when to attend to audience.” P. 83.

Comment: This study suggests that the best time to consider audience is in the revision stage of writing. Since a number of studies seem to suggest the same time for considering audience, during revision, I would suggest it to my students. RayS.

Title: “The Effects of Audience Awareness on Drafting and Revising.” DH Roen and RJ Willey. Research in the Teaching of English (February 1988), 75-88.