Who is a better writer, William Shakespear or dr. Sues? Now how stupid of a question is that. How can one possibly try to compare the two. Ask a scholar or a theater major and they will swear by Shakespear. Ask a child or a low achieving high schooler, and they will argue for Sues. So Who is better? Well we cant tell because the write for completely different audiences.
Both of these authors mastered their crafts. But their crafts are completely different. One is writing for emotion, for the sake of rhetoric, and for his love of theater. The other is trying to take young minds and whisk them off to another world while teaching morals the whole time. So when you are writing a piece, now matter what you are writing, you got to know your audience. An Audience is the group of people who will be engaging in your work. If i was writing a text, my wording would be different if I was sending an email to a professor. My Professor would not take me seriously if i drop and lol or a rofl in the middle of an email. Do you think you write a speech the same way you write a resume. I would not want to hire a guy who gives me a piece of paper that sounds like he is screaming at me.
So how does one know what audience they will receive. That seems to be by trail by error. Write a story, see who likes it. Or go to a library. Check out a children’s book and an autobiography. Take some notes and learn. If you can predict what a mass audience wants to read, you will only write best sellers. Sounds a little bit like selling out, but when it comes to impressing a professor, you got to write for the professor.
How i think my speech went.
I was actually pretty happy with my speech. I got a lot of dirty looks from some of the kids but thats what happens when you show a tea party billboard. I feel like the controversial message made people pay attention more. Everyone was looking at me with a zombie like look on their face before I showed it. Then they started to look like an angry mob. But i got my point across, talked for the right amount of time, and do not think i stuttered much. I made eye contact and talked with confidence.
Knowing your audience is essential to delivering a good message. It also makes it a whole lot easier to persuade them if you know who or what exactly your target audience is, you can use certain techniques that apply just to that certain type of audience.
Knowing one’s audience is incredibly important to being considered successful in that segment. Shakespeare, a writer of great tragedy, has a completely different audience than Dr. Seuss. I agree that it is not fair to compare the two, as they both are doing very different things, however they both do them incredibly well. What is interesting to note is that both writers, despite their large differences, are important to people for a variety of different reasons, indicating the importance of each.
Knowing your audience is definitely important. Especially if you are writing about a topic that people have very specific views about. The great thing about Shakespeare and Dr. Suess is that people all over the world still read their writing, and almost everyone can relate to them in some way. I never would have thought to compare these two, but it was a good example.
I do agree that authors do tailor to a specific audience, yet some writers are so great that they can write just to write–and appeal to anybody reading it. It is all in the interpretation of the text at work, and the context to which you apply the meaning of the text to the society in which you live.
I agree with you that the knowing one’s audience is a huge part of rhetorical success. Authors must appeal to their desired demographics through tailored persuasion. The audience is the most important part of any attempt at persuasion because they are most often the people the speaker/writer is trying to persuade.
You make a good point, knowing one’s audience can be a tough situation. Obviously we don’t really know each other in this class so trying to be relatable can be hard. I thought the Seuss Shakespeare comparison your article a lot of justice as well being humors and having a point.
I agree that if a writer fails to identify his audience before he begins the creative process the resulting work will ultimately be ineffective and intended in a different way than originally wanted. Knowing your audience is in an important factor when coming to any literary piece. My only suggestion is that maybe you proofread your posts before publishing.
You’re very right to acknowledge the importance of knowing your audience when speaking or writing. Having a firm grasp on how audiences will perceive a piece or the audiences general mindset influences the way in which you approach a topic, and the specific techniques that you will utilize. This is especially important as we prepare to select an artifact with which we will address all aspects of the piece’s rhetoric in an in-depth analysis.