In “Writing Addresses, Invokes, and/or Creates Audiences”, Andrea A. Lunsford talks about the rhetorical triangle. It’s an idea that there are three main points to writing; writers, audience, and text. The writer brings up a man named Walter Ong. He believes that when you write, your audience isn’t really there. You have to imagine them. While the writer is imagining their own audience, the audience should put themselves in that imagination while reading to get the full idea. Lunsford also brought in the idea that now with so much digitalizing, especially in writing, there’s no telling how many people who are listening are actually present when the speaker is talking. So many people can sit there but not be focused or engaged like a writer would want in the first place.
In past writing experiences, I have been informed about the different audiences and what I want them to gain from my writings. I didn’t always assume that my teacher was my only audience, I knew that there were times my writing was there for others but teachers were always one person I knew I was writing for. Useful information I learned was what I was trying to get across to them. I am always looking for a reason in my writings, and when I have an audience, I want them to have the same reasoning come from it. There isn’t much that hasn’t been useful when learning about writing for an audience, it all has resinated with me and helped me out for the future. In reading this article, I learned that I have to imagine who is reading it, and imagine the types of people as well. I also learned that when I am reading a piece of writing, that I should try and be the audience the writer intended their piece for, to get the most out of it. The image of my writers will change depending on what I am writing for. There will be times that I am thinking of other young adults, who are studying the same topic. Other times I will be thinking about my professors or adults who want to hear my informed opinion about something. In the future, this will help me because I will know the tone I have to take with my writing and know how to interact the correct way with my audience. Imagining your own audience is helpful because you can change how you talk or change what is the focus due to what they could find interesting or useful from it.
