9.2: Reading Skills- Understanding Audience and Purpose

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When you read Reading 1: The Canadian Canoe Museum, you might have asked yourself two questions:

a) Why is the author writing this?

b) Who is she writing for?

As you ask these questions, you are considering two important aspects of any text: the purpose of the author, and the author’s intended audience. Writers don’t just write. They know why they are writing, and they know who they are writing for.

Purpose

Every piece of writing has a purpose, from lengthy books in the library to status updates or tweets on social media. Authors write for a variety of reasons. These include the following:

To educate the reader.
To give advice to the reader.
To entertain the reader.
To sell something to the reader.
To give the reader new information.
To persuade the reader to act in a certain way.
To warn the reader about something.

Audience

Every piece of writing also has an intended audience. Writers know who they expect to read their material, and this influences how they write. If the audience knows something about the topic, the author will not explain basic information. If the audience is unfamiliar with the topic, the text will be written to reflect that.

Sometimes, a piece of writing may have no intended audience. The writer is writing for his or her personal pleasure. This is particularly true of journals, but it may also apply to creative writing (stories and poems) that the writer does not plan to share with anyone.

You Try It!

Answer the following questions.

1. Look again at Reading 1. Answer the two questions asked above:

a) Why do you think Jean Chong wrote this article?

b) Who do you think she was writing for?

___________________________________________________________________

2. Decide on the most likely purpose for each of the following pieces of writing. Then decide who the writing is most likely intended for. There may be more than one purpose or intended audience.

Item	Purpose(s)	Audience
A newspaper story about a proposed new airport
A leaflet from a candidate in a local election
A mystery novel about an unsolved murder
A website about driving safely in bear country
A blog about gardening in your community
A Facebook status update about ending a relationship
A biography of a famous sportsperson
A flyer from your local supermarket
A 400-page book about Canada in the 19th century