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[Ep 187]\n\nIn composition classes, college students learn to identify their audience\u2014who are they writing for?\n\nOn the topic of audience, The Writing Center at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests students think about writing a letter to their grandmothers about their first month at college. Then they say to imagine writing another letter on the same topic, but this time to their best friend.\n\n\u201cUnless you have an extremely cool grandma to whom you\u2019re very close, it\u2019s likely that your two letters would look quite different in terms of content, structure, and even tone.\u201d1\n\nThe writing form was the same\u2014a letter.\n\nAnd the topic was the same\u2014the first month in college.\n\nThe only variable was the audience\u2014the reader. And knowing the reader will affect the writer\u2019s choices.\nDiscover Your Ideal Reader for a Writing Project\nIn this Write to Discover series, we\u2019ve explored our top themes and topics and seen that they can be conveyed in a variety of packages\u2014that is, various genres, styles, or forms. As we add in this new element\u2014the reader\u2014we must ask:\n\n \tWho will be reading this piece?\n \tWhat does he already know about this topic?\n \tWill this reader have certain expectations based on the type of writing, such as a genre with its conventions?\n\nAs we dig into the reader\u2019s demographics and experiences, our examples and language as writers will shift; our choices will narrow.\n\nFor example, an essay on recycling written for The Atlantic will be read by a different audience than a children\u2019s book about recycling or an article in a women\u2019s magazine about recycling. We\u2019ll make different choices to suit our reader in order to produce the best possible project.\n\nFor any given writing project, you have to know your audience.\n\u201cI never think of an audience\u201d\nBut you may be resisting this basic writing advice. Perhaps you side with writers like Diane Ackerman, who said in an interview:\nActually, I never think of an audience when I\u2019m writing. I just try to write about what fascinates me and to contemplate what disturbs me or provokes me in some way, or amazes me. I suppose if I have a philosophy on this it\u2019s that if you set out to nourish your own curiosity and your own intellectual yearnings and use yourself as an object of investigation, then, without meaning to, you will probably be touching the lives of a lot of people.2\nWith this philosophy, Diane Ackerman\u2019s audience would be comprised of, well, people sort of like Diane Ackerman. So while she says she never thinks of an audience but instead simply writes what disturbs, provokes, or amazes her, she\u2019s actually writing for an audience demographic that\u2019s close to her own.\n\nAnd it\u2019s worked well for her. She\u2019s a prolific, successful author of many books, poems, and essays. Even if you resist this idea of an ideal reader, even if you\u2019re simply writing what pleases you, you are indeed writing for a certain kind of reader\u2014a reader with characteristics similar to yours.\nWriting Is a Business with a Customer: the Reader\nLee Gutkind, in his book Creative Nonfiction, seeks a balance between writing what you enjoy and keeping the reader in mind:\n[W]riting...is a business. The reader...is a customer. When you write, you are attempting to create a product that your reader wants to buy\u2014or read.\n\nDon't get me wrong. You must like what you write\u2014and be proud of it. Your article or essay has your name under the title and contains your thoughts and ideas. You are the creator, the person responsible for its existence. But never forget the ultimate reason you are writing nonfiction\u2014to inform, entertain, and influence the readership, however extensive (as in The New Yorker) or limited (as in your school newspaper) it may be.\n\nYes, writing is a selfish art. We write because we want to write. But we also write because we need to make contact with as many other people\u2014readers\u2014as possible and make an impact in order to influence their thoughts and actions.3