Determining the audience and form of your writing

In a nutshell

It is easier to make effective language, tone and structure choices when you first know your audience, purpose, and form.

Audience

You should write for the readers you expect to read a text. A direct message is typically addressed to one or two people, whether by email or handwritten letter. It is essential to consider how well you know the recipient when determining the language and style. The familiarity of the audience will change the tone and language you use to address them, with a close friend getting a more personalised message than a work colleague.

Texts with a wider audience change the way in which you approach your writing style. Since you cannot personalise your writing for your readers, you need to assume a few things about them: age, culture, gender and topic knowledge. When you know your audience, even an imagined one, you can use language and a style that will work cohesively for them.

A text intended for an experienced baker will have a completely different tone to that of a music fan blog for teenagers.

Purpose

Texts are written with a purpose in mind. You might want to write to convince, inform, review or instruct. Finding the purpose of your work allows you to structure your work to best achieve your goal and get the best end result.

Purpose	Language form
To convince	Implement rhetorical devices
To instruct	Implement imperative language
To review	Implement descriptive language

Form

Form refers to the appearance and layout of a piece of writing. Choosing a form affects what you write, how you write and how you structure your work. As such, conventions vary from form to form.

Form	Convention
Recipe	Instructions are clear and concise Includes a list of ingredients Includes imperative language
Email	A less formal approach than a letter A strong subject line that summarises the content Often includes hyperlinks
Novel	The storyline follows a logical progression It includes fictional characters Broken up into chapters
Article	Has a strong and catchy headline Broken into short and snappy sections Reports on real-life events
Essay	Strong and concise introduction Fair and convincing arguments A conclusion that cements the line of arguments presented