9.4: A Sense of Audience

A writing center can help students to refine their sense of audience so that they better understand how readers will respond to their writing. Acquiring this sense of audience is a bit mysterious because it depends a lot on experience. When a comedian causes an audience to convulse in laughter about ordinary things that happen to everyone, it’s the
comedian’s keen sense of audience and timing that makes the jokes so hilarious.

Great comedians make telling jokes only seem effortless; we don’t see the hours of preparation, false starts, and flops that preceded it—all things they probably relied on teachers and coaches to overcome. Tutors seem to understand that writing a good paper is a team effort. The part that tutors contribute as readers is crucial because they draw writers outside of themselves to see the paper as others are likely to see it. This is a hard thing to do on one’s own. We tend to steep in our own thoughts. But a tutor stands apart, reading the draft with fresh eyes and pointing out the gaps the writer needs to fill so that ideas flow smoothly. Over time, writers learn to read their writing from the perspective of their readers by internalizing the responses of tutors and replaying them in their heads when they write the next time. We all develop a sense of audience, but we never outgrow the need for someone else’s fresh eyes. Mike Czajkowski, an undergraduate at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Indiana, told me,

I do think it is important to seek another pair of experienced
eyes when writing a paper, especially an
academic one. I generally go see a professor I’m comfortable
discussing my writing with, who knows my
style really well, or I see a friend whose writing and
opinion I trust (generally in the same class as me). I
think it’s important because we need to realize we

aren’t writing those papers for ourselves, so we should
inherently seek anything that allows us to see a paper
outside of our own bias toward it.

I also heard from Marisa Martin, whose writing center shares its mission with her college’s Jesuit tradition. The mission states: “In the Jesuit tradition of working with others to reach a common goal, the Loyola Writing Center understands that writing requires input from others. The Loyola Writing Center offers consulting for the entire Loyola community of writers, including undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty and staff.” Working with others to reach a common goal is also what Marisa wanted me to know: “We are sounding boards for the fears and anxiety of writing. We are there to give writers tools to work through these situations and to give them tips to work it out on their own next time.” Working together improves the chances of working independently. Marisa and her colleagues believe they can help students enough that they will be able to succeed on their own.