The question was
We've been talking about Audience for three weeks now: from those
discussions,
as
a reader, what have you found to be most essential in terms of audience ?
what
is most essential about audience for a writer such as yourself?
what
is the media's responsibility, if any, when it comes to audience awareness.?
In other words, why should we bother about audience, and/or about caring how our
words are presented, and/or about whether what we say reaches our readers? Why
is it the writer's job to bridge the gap between thought and meaning and the
words we have at our disposal?
From: Scott Herrmann agilent297@msn.com
Date: 7/12/2003
Comments
Discipline Is Essential To A Writer
There is beauty in a well written piece. Whether it is love story such as A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens or political commentary by Rush Limbaugh, if the writing is done well then the words come together to paint the picture the author wants us to see. I have always had the desire to tell a story or voice my opinion but I lacked the ambition to learn the proper techniques to write effectively, or so I convinced myself. However, as I became older I found that with patience I could achieve my goals, by taking things one step at a time. I believe the same is true about my ability to write, that to become a writer I must begin with the basics and build my skills from a solid base.
The self discipline to be patient, to learn and practice the writing process is essential to me as a writer. One way that I have learned to improve my writing through self discipline is to invest in books on writing. I’m not embarrassed to admit that the last few books that I have read dealt with grammar and writing. Though I find remembering all the details difficult, I continuously refer back to these sources and can actually see the results. A resource that I keep next to me when I’m writing is a book by Margaret Shertzer, The Elements of Grammar. I referred to just now to check on the placement of the comma in the last sentence and ended up reading about the meaning of apposition. I’m convinced now that the more I practice proper technique the better writer I will become.
Practicing takes discipline, there are many different things I could be doing besides looking up when to use a comma, but if I want to teach children how to write I need to be a good role model. One way that I practice writing is by keeping a journal. It was tough at first, I found that I would spend too much time trying to make up for days that I missed. The way I got around this is to not worry about what I should have wrote yesterday and concentrate on what I’m going to write today. This technique works well for me, I manage to write in my journal a least five times a week and my entries a getting longer.
Some days I have to force myself to stop writing. I have learned that becoming a good writer is not going to happen over night. I have to be patient and disciplined, to be motivated to learn and practice new writing processes. Learning how to use the tools needed to become a better writer will be a life long endeavor that I may never master, but if my discipline influences any of my future students, the effort will be well rewarded. -- Scott
From: derrick dyer
Date: 7/12/2003
Time: 11:19:01 PM
Remote Name: 207.170.204.82
Comments
Why Bother Writing
If It’s Not For The Reader?
As writers, we must all understand that we area not writing for ourselves. Nothing that we think, feel or say which we then transfer to some type of written media is for our own reading satisfaction. The thoughts are ours, the feelings and the manner in which we express them are our own but the writing is for our audience. We know how we feel and what thoughts are racing through our minds, but we want other people to know and to be interested. We must write for our audiences to express our thoughts and feelings in a way that others will be intrigued by and enjoy reading.
It is imperative that writers understand what it is that drives or grasps a particular audience and then utilize that to the fullest extent to transfer our thoughts and feelings to them in a written form. The essential aspect to understand is that writers do not write for the sole purpose of self satisfaction. This is not to say that it is not gratifying to read a piece of well written work of ones own but instead that the original intent is to pass on the emotions and thoughts of a writer in such a way that a total stranger will enjoy.
A writer who is especially skilled in the area of audience driven writing can take an idea or subject that would normally be controversial or generally unaccepted and present it so that a large general audience will find it rousing. This is the source of the writers satisfaction, to look out upon an audience and see the effect that a piece of work has on total strangers. It is in this way that the audience is actually driving the writers, is in fact the motivation for the writing. If writers did not write for an audience or did not comprehend how to reach into an audience and grasp ahold of their interests, then writing would be a lost cause.
Writing is a form of communication, communication of a thought or idea or an emotion. This communication must "speak" to people in such a way that they will want to read it. If a piece of writing is not presented in such a way, then the readers will not read the piece and therefor the authors attempt at communication will have failed. This failed attempt at communication means that the writer did not convey his thought or feelings or emotions to anyone, thus, our purpose of writing is lost. As writers we all wish to share our work with other people, it is a major driving force for writing and to do this we must know what it is that grasps the audience.
Why even bother writing if the audience cannot be reached. If not for the audience then the writer would have no real purpose, no drive. In this way a writer is truly forced to delve into the depths of an audience. A writer must actually take into account the audience he or she is writing for and probe into their interests. Writers must actually investigate what it is that makes the audience read. In this way a writer can grasp at the emotions and interests of an audience and utilize these when writing. By digging in and grasping an audience, a writer can then and only then pour their life into their writing and communicate it through their written work. -- Derrek