By: Chelsea Tamborski
In any form of writing, there’s always a specific audience the writer is addressing. Whether the article is persuasive, informative, comparative, or any other style, there is a necessity to understand the audience and find the best strategy to relate to that group. This method of associating oneself with the audience may seem like a simple or difficult task, depending on the writer’s social outreach and understanding. If, for example, the writer is male and attempting to speak about women’s rights, it may require more research and in-depth discussions with the opposite sex. The amount of research put into the article will most likely make or break the article. Because, if the audience can’t understand what the writer’s intentions were, or if the writer completely misreads the addressees, it will shine poorly on both the writer and the article. If you want to create an accurate and relatable article that your audience will enjoy reading, there are some important steps to take during the research process.
Using the right tone and voice
When searching for a tone that will enable you to connect to your audience, consider this example: you are creating a children’s book, and you have the choice of either writing in a lighthearted, giddy manner, or in an instructive, strict manner. Which do you choose? The lighthearted, giddy manner, of course. Obviously, there will be other cases where the decision won’t be so apparent, but if you investigate what a specific group wants to hear, you will find what is best for the article and the audience.
Consider the audience’s existing knowledge
Knowing the levels of expertise that your audience already has on a subject helps avoid wasting time. You don’t want to spend time explaining the very basics of the topic when the audience has passed the beginners stage and moved well into the advanced phase. For instance, if your audience is a group of environmental experts, you don’t want to waste time explaining the process of photosynthesis.
Address the group but speak to the individual
This tip might seem confusing at first, and you may question how exactly you would single out one person while maintaining a connection with everyone. In reality, it’s not very complicated, though it takes certain steps to make sure it’s done correctly. When addressing your audience, remember that, despite the group’s connection, it’s still a combination of unique individuals. Each person will have their own ideas about the topic and will create their own conclusion. Understanding that everyone is different will enable you to develop the proper tone of speech that will connect you with the audience. Because, even though you’re speaking to a group, the individual audience will respond better to the article if they feel the discussion is being directed towards them personally.
Information
Comments are closed.
3 Likes
1127 Views
Share:
Hello Chelsea.
Your post about tone and audience addresses an important topic with which all writers need to concern themselves in order to be effective communicators. You provide a concise, organized intro that can serve as a terrific jumping-off point for anyone who wants to dive deeper into this subject. Please allow me to provide feedback as your reader.
– When reading someone’s post, one of my favorite questions to ask is, “As the uninformed reader, do I understand the key terms here so that I can properly absorb the rest of the piece?” In your first paragraph, you tell me why tone is important. In your second paragraph, you do a great job providing an example of picking tones in order to connect with your audience, but it would be helpful for me to know first what tone actually is. Is “tone” the same as “voice”? (Your first sub-heading mentions “voice”, and I wondered if you considered them to be one in the same.)
– You provide three strategies / areas of focus to support your first paragraph. It might be helpful to mention those three strategies in your Introduction in order to give the reader a birds-eye view of what information they can expect to explore. Perhaps end your first paragraph with a sentence like, “This post will address three such strategies, namely determining what tone best fits your audience, understanding their level of expertise, and applying your topic so that it is appealing to the broad range of individual needs included in that audience.”
– In your final section, you address the need to speak to the individuals of the audience rather than to the whole audience. I must admit that I was confused because there was not a clear action that I could take here as a writer. I felt a bit overwhelmed because I wasn’t sure I understood where you were driving me; I didn’t know why this was important or how to go about it. Perhaps it would drive your point home to give your reader a few examples of how to succeed at doing this. It might be more useful to read a few examples of how to fail at doing this, because that would illustrate the reason this is important.
Thanks so much for sharing your post!
Thanks for this needful and informative article.