{"id":11408,"date":"2024-08-06T16:54:33","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T16:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2024\/08\/06\/writing-readers-audience-language\/"},"modified":"2025-03-24T17:49:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T17:49:41","slug":"writing-readers-audience-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2024\/08\/06\/writing-readers-audience-language\/","title":{"rendered":"How audience can guide your writing"},"content":{"rendered":"    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">A recent post I wrote prompted a response that merits its own response.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>The first is a thank-you to the writer. Whether feedback is a smooch or a&nbsp;spanking, I\u2019ve been in the&nbsp;biz long enough to welcome it. It means someone out there is reading. (You can tell when some especially rude comment&nbsp;comes from someone who didn\u2019t actually read what you wrote. They just&nbsp;assumed, or joined the lemmings.)<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>The second is a bit of an elaboration, which I hope isn\u2019t&nbsp;defensive.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>The post that prompted the email was based on an NPR interview with author Margaret Atwood. She was asked if some of what she writes for her books is part of her own process of grief or catharsis. Her answer:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fniemanstoryboard.us9.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3D5776bbdcabe9b960b10ae1302%26id%3D54bfe1df77%26e%3Df8c051ce24&amp;data=05%7C02%7Cbanaszynskij%40missouri.edu%7C0dbf5b01cce9431571b308dcb31d92cb%7Ce3fefdbef7e9401ba51a355e01b05a89%7C0%7C0%7C638582186813188671%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=EZ3baU8MEmI1Fs932e9AzIDrKPVFgxOT9BhhWfwDAcI%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cWriting isn\u2019t really for the writer. It\u2019s for the readers.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>That got me to think about why and how I write, which is with a purpose in mind beyond my own feelings or opinions. That\u2019s always been true for me, whether my writing has been for a class or a newspaper assignment or a struggling student or a thank-you note or a eulogy or a punch list for the contractor. I\u2019ve always found writing a challenge, so never have taken pleasure from writing just for writing\u2019s sake. That doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t write as part of my thinking process, but it\u2019s just that \u2014 part of a process that leads somewhere, not an end in itself.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>The note that came in response to that musing was a thoughtful counter-perspective. The sender is a friend. He excelled in his career as a writer and editor, and now, in retirement, excels as a writer and photographer. In all the years I\u2019ve known him, I\u2019ve been struck by how much he loves the act of writing. Just the doing of it, which he calls scribbling, gives him joy. By contrast, I have often felt that writing was the price I paid for the thrill of reporting.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>This friend and I have shared many dinners, bottles of wine and words over the different ways we approach our craft (or, perhaps to him, our art). We often disagree, but never to the point where we stop listening, respecting and wanting to learn more. Sometimes it feels like we\u2019re coming to the same destination, but from different directions.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-heading   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The writer-reader connection<\/h2>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>In this case, the divergence was about the idea of audience, and how it shapes our work. Part of the comment from my friend, unnecessary identifying details removed:<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p><em>Regarding imagining one\u2019s intended reader, one\u2019s target audience: I have never done this. Not in the sense that I\u2019ve heard many others state it: \u201cI write for my Aunt Gladys\u201d or something like that, the housewife in Peoria or whatever. Certain publications impose requirements: when I wrote for XX, I needed to include certain details, YY pieces needed business and finance granularity, ZZ stories were always chock-full of knowledge. But I\u2019ve never pictured some sort of reader and wrote with that person in mind.<\/em><\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>My target reader has always been myself. I\u2019ve always written the story I\u2019d want to read and hoped it satisfied an editor and found some readers. Don\u2019t know that this is the best path, but it\u2019s what I\u2019ve always done.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>I love that last line:&nbsp;<em>Don\u2019t know that this is the best path, but it\u2019s what I\u2019ve always done.&nbsp;<\/em>It acknowledges that we can share a commitment to this profession but each find our own ways to it.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>For me, that way has always been clearer when I have some sense of who I\u2019m writing for. I don\u2019t mean an audience as specific as&nbsp; Aunt Gladys (unless, of course, I\u2019m writing her a thank-you note), but at least a notion of the kind of people I most want to reach. When I covered the Olympics, it helped to know I wanted to reach beyond the rabid box-score sports reader to include the weekend runners, the everyday athletes who weren\u2019t part of the traditional quartet (football, baseball, basketball and hockey), the women and little girls who for too long were left off the fields and courts, and the husbands and fathers of those women and little girls. When I covered AIDS and the gay rights movement in the 1980s, it helped to know I wanted to reach the people who were uncomfortable with the subject, some to the point of revulsion. When I wrote from Antarctica, one of my goals was to explain true cold to Minnesotans. When I write the Storyboard newsletter, it helps to think of fellow travelers out there who are forging their own way forward in some version of journalism.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>Thinking that way&nbsp;helps me focus. I think more clearly about several things, among them:<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    <div class=\"\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-list mb-4 list max-w-screen-full mx-auto pl-5 \">\n            \n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Relevance: whether my interest in a subject or question is meaningful to people beyond myself<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Language: when it is understood shorthand vs off-putting jargon, when a metaphor works or when it confuses<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Subject knowledge: when information or background can be taken for granted vs when it needs to be explained<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tone: whether it respects the culture of a place or people<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pragmatic things like platform and publication, which can determine everything from length to structure<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-classic mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    \n    <div class=\"  core-block\">\n        <div class=\"block block--core block--core-paragraph mb-5   max-w-screen-full mx-auto\">\n            \n<p>I don\u2019t think my correspondent friend are in great disagreement about this. But I do look forward to more talks over dinner and wine to probe the idea of a self as a target audience. I doubt I\u2019ll start a journal, but maybe I can learn to&nbsp;love the struggle a little more.<\/p>\n\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The editor and a friend engage in a respectful debate about who they think of when they write<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"topics":[],"authors":[3],"issue":[],"class_list":["post-11408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-editor","authors-jacqui-banaszynski"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How audience can guide your writing - Nieman Storyboard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2024\/08\/06\/writing-readers-audience-language\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How audience can guide your writing - 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