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Why Does Audience Matter?
You’ve probably gone through this a hundred times: You’re sitting in class, minding your own business, and suddenly, you have a new assignment. An essay. Or a research paper. Or some other written assignment.
Chances are you’ve been asked to write for a general audience of your peers: other classmates. Maybe you’ve had an assignment that directed you to write for a specific audience. Maybe there was no audience specified at all; you just assumed you were writing to and for your teacher.
So if you’re given these assignments in school, and if it’s clear that the one person who is reading and evaluating them is your teacher, why should you care about audience?
That question–the “why should we bother”–is what marks understanding audience as a threshold concept. Remember how we talked about threshold concepts being ideas that challenge us or make us rethink what we’ve already believed? Audience as an important part of any communication might be that concept for you.
Analyzing Audience
Whether you’re writing for an academic assignment where the audience has been specified or sending a random text to your friend, you’re already engaging in a series of decisions about your audience based on your implicit understanding of the person or people you’re writing to.
But successful writers will go a step further and think deeply about audience so they can meet their audience’s needs.
Look at this description of the Common Core standards that high school students are expected to meet:
Both of these standards highlight the importance of writing to a specific audience, because communication cannot happen in a vacuum. Without an audience, we have no one to address. Without a clear understanding of the audience, we may not be able to communicate effectively and fulfill our purpose as speakers.
Analyzing Your Audience
Thinking deeply about your audience–even if it is simply your professor–can help you use the best possible means of persuasion in your message.
You can use the following subjects to think through your audience.
No one likes listening to someone who is talking down to them, and no one likes listening to someone who is talking over their heads. Thinking about your audience’s previous knowledge can help you avoid the mistake of telling them what they already know and the mistake of assuming they know more than they do.
- What is the audience’s background with this topic? What familiarity or experience might they have about the subject? What information can you skip over? What information do you need to fill in?
- What is the audience’s education level? Their education level may help you figure out how much in-depth knowledge they already have. For example, your professors are likely experts in the field. They likely already know the basics, and expect you to go beyond those basics.
- What misinformation might your audience have or believe about the topic? What are common misconceptions that you may have to counter before you can present your message?
What is the level of interest or concern my audience already has about this topic?
Once you’ve determined how familiar your audience is, you need to determine how much they might care about the topic. For example, people might be familiar with the idea of global climate change, but they might not care much about it, because they don’t think they’ll live long enough to experience the effects.
- What is my audience’s personal relationship to the topic I’m discussing?
- How might the topic impact my audience? If it doesn’t specifically impact them, how could I show why they need to care?
What are my audience’s values in relation to the topic?
Audience members are individuals, but they are also part of collective groups that influence how they understand and react to various messages and topics. Understanding their values–ideas and beliefs that they share with others–can help you select the best appeals and evidence. For example, professors clearly value education and expertise–they went through a lot of it! So it stands to reason that they would be more receptive to messages that show authentic interest in learning and understanding.
- What does my audience value? How might their values impact their understanding of my message?
- How does my audience’s identification with certain groups impact how they see the world?
- What values does my audience hold that might make it difficult for them to be a receptive listener or reader? How can you address those values in a way to show common ground with your audience?
What are my audience’s biases?
Once you’ve established your audience’s values, you can push further to see if you can discover any biases your audience might hold. Biases are not necessarily incorrect information, but they do affect the way an audience receives new information. For example, people who identify as Republicans often value smaller government. They may be biased against policies supported or started by Democrats. Professors value education, so they might be biased toward sources that come from academic resources, rather than the general internet.
- What biases does my audience have? How do I know?
- Are those biases reasonable and logical? What information can I provide to address those concerns?
- What assumptions might my audience make about the topic? About me, as a speaker/writer?
- How can I show that I understand where my audience is coming from? How can I use an understanding of their possible biases to build common ground?
Taking a moment to analyze your audience before you begin researching or writing can help you select the most appropriate topics to address. More importantly, perhaps, by understanding your audience, you can provide them with the most effective evidence and compose the most effective logical reasons to support your claims.
