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Contents
Writing
 
0006 Understand the Influence of Purpose and Audience
 
0007 Unity, Focus, and Development
 
0008 Apply Principles of Organization
 
0009 Sentence and Paragraph Construction
 
0010 Apply Correct Usage in Standard English
 
0011 Apply Knowledge of Mechanical Conventions
 
Practice Writing Tests
 
0012 Analyzing and Revising Sentences
 
0013 Produce a Written Summary
 
0014 Prepare an Organized, Developed Composition
 

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0006 Understand the Influence of Purpose and Audience in Written Communication

It is important to be able to recognize the appropriateness of a written selection for a specific occasion or audience. We unconsciously practice this skill constantly. Your language changes when you are with your friends from the language that you use in response to a teacher’s question in psychology class, even if the topic is generally the same. You write differently to your best friend at home about your first days in college than you would if your English teacher asked you to write a theme entitled, "The First Days of College."

Always ask yourself questions about the audience and the purpose:

"Will this audience want a personal 'I’?"

or

"Will this audience be familiar with this vocabulary?"

Appropriate writing is writing that acknowledges that everyone uses various languages; therefore, appropriate writing chooses the proper language for the occasion.

One of the main problems that beginning writers face is inconsistency of tone. Tone is the writer’s attitude towards the subject as reflected by the language choices that writer makes. The audience has a right to expect that tone will remain the same from the beginning to the end of the piece of writing.

For example:

Most college writing is formal and serious in tone; therefore, a sentence with several slang terms in the middle of the essay would be inconsistent in tone and should be avoided.

A similar problem is a shift in purpose. If you begin with a purpose to explain an issue, you must continue with your explanation rather than getting sidetracked into arguing the merits of one side or the other.


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