What is the audience of a passage?

Definition of Audience

An Audience is the person for whom a writer writes, or composer composes. A writer uses a particular style of language, tone, and content according to what he knows about his audience. In simple words, audience refers to the spectators, listeners, and intended readers of a writing, performance, or speech. For instance, Stephenie Meyer’s novel series, Twilight, has targeted primarily younger female audiences. Similarly, J. K Rowling’s Harry Potter series became a blockbuster hit, with a target audience of youth, and adult fantasy fiction lovers.

Examples of Audience in Literature

Example #1: Fahrenheit 451 (by Ray Bradbury)

Ray Bradbury, in his novel, Fahrenheit 451, has targeted both adults and young adult readers as his audience. This story is equally appealing to the people of all ages, because its themes concern nuclear destruction, and readers see a battle between nature and technology. It depicts how technology is replacing curiosity, intellectualism, and literature. Above all, it has become a replacement for friendship, family, and real conversation. In this story, the audience sees a future in which the world has evolved into technology, and how government in such a time treats its people differently.

Example #2: To Kill a Mockingbird (by Harper Lee)

harper lee tells the story, To Kill a Mockingbird, through the eyes of a character named Scout; reflecting upon the life of an adult. Throughout the narrative, readers observe her perspective from the lens of one person’s recollection, which appears on the very first page of the story. It begins as, “When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to [Jem’s] accident.” After this, the author takes the readers back to the times of Scout’s first grade, and then onward to her eighth birthday. She is not only a first-person narrator, but also a participant in the story. The story evolves uniquely, through both a child’s eyes, and from a mature perspective. This benefit of hindsight is what makes this story so appealing for both children its adult audience.

Example #3: Animal Farm (by George Orwell)

The intended audience for George Orwell’s, “Animal Farm,” is the general public, particularly the people of the former Soviet Union. The author intends to inform his readers about dangers of Communism, and its logical outcomes during the Second World War. Furthermore, Orwell wants to inform the next generation about Communism, and its negative impacts on people’s lives. By using different styles and writing techniques, Orwell has conveyed his message in such a way that it is easy for the common reader to understand hidden meanings. He has also used satire and allegory, which have made some seemingly worthless and useless characters, which were notable in Russian history, appear as important figures in history. This technique targets the Russian audience.

Example #4: The Declaration of Independence (by Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin)

“The Declaration of Independence” had three types of audiences: American colonists, the British government, and the general public. For American audiences, the purpose was to explain to them why they needed to create a new nation, and why their leaders needed their support. Immediately, they distributed the Declaration throughout the states and colonies to, pushing it out to reach as many people as possible.

The second target audience was the British Parliament. By putting blame on the king, and delivering eloquent arguments on freedom and democracy, they were hopeful that the British would support the Americans. This won support of some of the British Parliamentarians, such as Edmund Burke. The third intended audience included the peoples of the world, particularly European nations that were at odds with the British, in an attempt to convince them to support the revolution. The Declaration of Independence did, in fact, affect the American allies: Spain, France, and the Dutch Republic.

Function

Since the term audience refers to the readers, many writers prefer to adopt different styles of voice – mixed, formal, or casual – depending upon their intended audience. Knowing his audience helps the writer to determine what level of details he should provide, and what type of word choices he may make, because the word choice and tone should match the expectations of the audience.

The role of the audience in dramas and stage plays is unique, as the audience members transmit their energy and emotion to the players and actors through their responses during the performance. In this example, the function of the audience is to respond to the performance of the work.

When we write, we write about something (the topic) in a certain format (the document type) for a reader or group of readers (the audience). Deciding what we are writing about and what type of document to prepare is usually straightforward for most writers. However, deciding who we are writing for is not always thoroughly considered. To a large degree, the audience of a document is determined by the type of document and the subject matter but unless researchers and other science writers have a background in marketing, the concept of identifying and catering to a target audience might not be a high priority.

DOWNLOAD THE INFOGRAPHIC '6 ways to identify and cater to your target audience'

A document is not simply a receptacle for words, it is a tool of communication that should perform a service for readers. Thinking about who will read our document or what they might want from our document, is something that writers might avoid if they are author-focused or project-focused. Author-focused writers have discoveries, data, knowledge and information that they need to share and primarily concentrate on getting their document published. Project-focused writers key motivation is to satisfy project, organisation, company or client objectives. Audience-focused writers design their document according to the needs of the target audience, while still satisfying their own needs as an author and addressing project and client objectives.

Decide exactly what you want to do for your audience

Unless catering to a target audience is a central objective, your document may lack some of the fundamentals of good document design. Spending the time deciding exactly what you want to do for your audience, rather than simply delivering information, will help you fine-tune the content and the design of your document.

Problems caused by not understanding your target audience

Common writing problems often reflect that a writer has not thoroughly considered who their audience is or what they need. This can cause the following problems:

- providing too much (or not enough) detail or background information

- providing too much detail on unrelated sub-topics or on a well-known topic

- using the wrong language or unfamiliar terminology

- assuming the audience’s level of interest in, or understanding of, the topic

One common mistake in science and academic writing is assuming your audience will know your topic nearly as well as you do. The problem with this assumption is that crucial background information and explanation of fundamental concepts may be omitted. Authors of research papers will often make this assumption deliberately if they are writing about a specialised topic. Yet even in these cases, it is not a good habit to omit important background information and project details that are necessary for the reader to understand the context of the research.

Get feedback

It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that writing is simply delivering information if you are a solo writer, if you are inexperienced or if you don’t get regular feedback on your writing. If you do get regular feedback, it might not be enough if you only get feedback from people who know your topic well as you do; your colleagues or supervisors may ensure you write a scientifically-accurate document but anyone overly-familiar with your topic may not realise that what you’ve written is not clearly written or easy to read.

There are three different types of audiences to consider

An audience is a collective group of readers and for most purposes we need to think about our readers as a group and generalise about what qualities they have. I define three types of audience for most documents: the target audience, the secondary audience and the tertiary audience. For an example of this definition, refer to the diagram below that outlines the hypothetical audiences for an ecological research paper.

Your target audience is your intended audience. They are the group of readers that you want to read your document or you expect will read your document. These are the people you are designing your document for. Your target audience should understand everything you write. Some examples are research scientists writing peer-reviewed papers for their peers, students writing assignments for their lecturers or consultants writing reports for clients.

Your secondary audience are those people who still want, or need, to read your document but may have different education backgrounds or work within a different discipline to your target audience. For example, the secondary audience of an ecological research paper might be scientists from other disciplines, or other people interested in your topic or your project outcomes; for example, land managers, farmers, conservationists, journalists, science educators or students. Your secondary audience may not be thoroughly familiar with your topic but still has a strong or vested interest in your projects’ outcomes. However, it is not possible to cater to both your target audience and your secondary audience with the same document. You cannot cater to the secondary audience as you would need to provide too much detail or instruction, making it tiring for the target audience to read, or worse make the target audience feel the document is not designed for them.

You cannot explain everything for your secondary audience but you can help them navigate your document by defining your key terms and ensuring your main aim and findings are abundantly clear.

Your tertiary audience are people who will directly or indirectly benefit or be affected by your work in some way but will not read your document themselves; they will learn about your work either through the secondary or target audience of your document. Because your tertiary audience won’t be reading your document, it is crucial for you to ensure your key messages are abundantly clear so they are not mis-interpreted or mis-represented.

Key ways to identify and cater for your target audience

• Think about who your readers are and whether they fit into either of the three audience categories, then focus on how to cater for the target audience. Some factors to consider:
• Who will want or need to read your document? What reasons do they have for reading your document?
• Who will be interested in your topic and key findings? Why will they be interested in reading your document? If they are not already interested, how do you attract them?
• What is their occupation, expertise, background or level of education?
• Will they be able to understand all parts of your document? If not, include sufficient detail and explanation to ensure that they do or assign them to your secondary audience.
• What people need to read your document
• What task(s) will your document perform for them?
• How they will find out about your document?
• How will they access your document?

           DOWNLOAD THE INFOGRAPHIC: 6 ways to identify and cater for your target audience

Once you have clearly mapped out who you are writing to and how you will cater to them. If appropriate, ask someone from your target audience to give you feedback on a late draft of your document. You might find there are some important aspects you still need to consider.

Remember:

• Do not assume your readers know everything you do.
• Understand there are different types of audiences who may read your document.
• Always define your key terms and explain your key concepts.
• If appropriate, ask someone from your target audience for feedback on a late draft of you rdocument.

© Dr Marina Hurley 2020 www.writingclearscience.com.au

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