Teach How to Write to Different Audiences
Students Learn to Adjust Vocabulary or Language for Specific Reader
Jun 28, 2009
Many middle school students only think about their teacher as their audience. Or, they don't think about the audience for their piece of writing at all. However, for a piece to be successful, they need to be cognizant of their audience and focus on it.
Writing to an Audience
The reason it is important to know the audience is because the writer needs to know how much explanation to give in a piece of writing. Depending on the expertise of the audience, a writer can use jargon of the topic with or without explanation.
Identify Expertise of Reader
For example, if the students are writing about the importance of computers in school, they need to know if the reader is computer savvy or computer illiterate. If the reader is well acquainted with computers, they can use jargon like Google, window, drop box, cursor, etc. However, if the reader is not familiar with computers, the student will need to give additional explanation, such as telling the reader that Google is a word that means the name of a search engine on the Internet. Or, one can "google" a topic to find out information about it.
Activity to Identify Audience
Before assigning a large essay, ask students to write paragraphs on the same topic to different audiences.
Step 1 For students to understand their audience, brainstorm with them to choose three audiences. For example, they could write to a friend, to the principal and to their neighbor.
Change Vocabulary to fit Audience
Discuss how writing about their favorite music to an elderly neighbor and to their best friend will be different. The language or vocabulary that they use will be very different. For example, they may start out with, Dude, the new band is so ridiculous. However, when they write to Mrs. Snider, their 80-year-old neighbor, they may begin with, Music has changed over the decades.
Step 2 Next, choose a topic. They could write about their favorite sport, the environment, clubs and activities in the school, music, etc.
Step 3 After students have made some decisions, assign them to write three separate paragraphs on the same topic to the three different audiences. The paragraphs should have a topic sentence, detail sentences and a conclusion.
Cooperative Group Sharing
Step 4 Place students into small cooperative groups of three students. Each student needs to trade with someone. Each person should read aloud one of the best and worst paragraphs on the paper. The group should discuss why the paragraphs were good or bad.
Step 5 Assign students to write a larger essay on a topic. The class should brainstorm and choose the topic. Then, each student must select an audience. At the top of the page, the audience should be identified. The essay should be three-to-five paragraphs.
Share Best Writing with Class
Step 6 One way to drive home the skill of writing to an audience is to make copies of the top three essays and share them with the class. Make sure to ask the students before making the copies. Students can discuss why the essays were excellent examples of writing.
If students still struggle with writing to an audience, make sure to have them identify their audience in future essays. Soon, students will do it automatically and begin asking what the audience is when a writing assignment is given.
