Audience vs. Genre
When
writing, it is very important to understand who you are writing to. This group
of people is referred to as the “audience.” The number one goal when writing is
to appease to your audience. If the audience doesn’t really like what they are
reading, then the piece of writing may not be as good as initially thought.
This is where genre comes in. Different audiences like different genres and it
is very important to know which genre to pick. For example, you wouldn’t write
a 300-word novel for a group of first graders, you would create maybe a
fictional story with minimal words and lots of pictures. Another example: you
wouldn’t try to sell a romantic novel to a group of people looking to read
science-fiction. It is important to know what your audience wants to read,
especially in situations like this.
While you are correct in stating that it is "important to understand who you are writing to," the importance in recognizing audience comes not from pleasing who ends up reading your work, but instead in understanding how they might respond. This sounds like a minor distinction, but it is an important one: in some cases, yes, you do want to write in a way which will be well-received. At other times, you want your writing to be divisive (for example, if you are writing a political op/ed, you may want people to argue against what you have written, in order to engender discussion).
ReplyDeleteIn addition, the examples you provide pertain more to literary genres (science fiction, romance novels) than writing genres (i.e. reviews, blog posts, research papers). Instead, think about the form: you might write a novel to target a more general audience, vs. a research paper for an academic audience.
Grade: Check minus