On Writing for an Audience

First off, I would like to give a shout out to all the members of this first group for finding such substantial readings; I hope I can finds something on my own topic that is of equal worth. Secondly, I would like to say that I really found the readings to be beneficial. The first one, "Writing Tips for Children" is something that I have never really considered before. I would like to write a novel someday, but I have never really considered writing for children and so have never given much regard to the art of fiction for children. But after reading those tips, it seems like writing for children would be very difficult, like writing for a newspaper. There are so many rules and guidelines to stick to in order to write successfully for children. For instance, the author of this article suggests that you be specific--don't just say "flower," say what kind of flower, also, name your characters and cut out unnecessary words that get lost in the jumble. Isn't this exactly what we all have been trying to do, unsuccessfully, with Twitter these last few weeks? I know that this group's theme was about writing for specific audiences, but I think that as writers, these tips for writing for children could help us out just in general, everday writing.
I also really liked the article "Responding to Content." This article made me realize that writing for an audience pertains to all kinds of writing, not just writing that is academic. This is something I have never considered before, probably because I had never considered my audience until I got into college. But the author makes a good point when he or she says, "Whenever people read a piece of writing, they respond to it . . . and it is the content that they usually respond to." This is something that we need to consider whenever we are writing, even if what we are writing is intended only for ourselves. How will your reader respond? What will your reader take from this piece? The various ways that this article offers to help consider this and to successfully conquer this problem were also helpful. I like that the author encourages her fellow instructors/teachers/scholars to question or talk to studenst about their writing, to write sticky notes on their papers. There is nothing I can stand less than getting a paper back with a resounding grade in colored ink and completely unmarked otherwise, or to be in a peer editing group who offers nothing more than, "Wow, that was good. I liked it." Writers must consider their audience, but readers (or at least those reading the works of writers in the revision process) have a responsibility also to make sure that the writer knows what is working and what is not working.