Audience, purpose and form

The word audience comes from the Latin ‘to hear’.

Audience doesn’t just mean the people listening to a concert or play, it can also mean the readers of a piece of writing. Targeting your audience means to make sure that what you write appeals to the reader or listener.

Non-fiction texts have a purpose, the reason why they were written. This reason could be to inform, entertain, explain or persuade.

When a writer creates a non-fiction text, they also have to think about who is going to read it, the audience, and how best to create a text that will appeal to that audience.

Key learning points

• Writing for different purposes
• What an audience is and how to target one
• How the intended audience can be identified by looking at the language used
• What form is and the conventions of various different forms

The audience of a text refers to the intended readers. An audience can be defined in many ways. It could be:

• an age group, for example teenagers or adults
• people from a specific area, for example a national audience or a local audience made up of one village
• people with specific interests or jobs such as cyclists or teachers

When writing it is always important to think about who you are expecting, or wanting, to read it.

This can be straightforward, for example a children's story book is written for an audience of children, so the topic and the language has to be suitable and appealing for them.

Other times it will require more thought. For example, a charity seeking to raise funds and awareness after a flood will target audiences that can afford to donate and who care about environmental causes.

A text’s purpose is why it was written and what the author wants it to achieve. Texts can be produced to:

• promote and showcase – for example, a tourist guide
• inform and explain – for example, an instruction manual
• argue and persuade – for example, an essay
• advocate and support – for example, a charity leaflet
• entertain – for example, a celebrity gossip web page

A piece of writing can also have more than one purpose. For example, a school newsletter showcasing the year’s achievements might be written to appeal to teachers, parents and students.

The type of writing, as well as the intended audience will shape and direct the purpose of a text.

To identify the audience of a text look at its language and ask the following questions:

• What type of vocabulary is used?
  Is it simple short words, long sophisticated words, technical words, jargon, text-speak or slang? Each of these choices provides clues as to who the intended readers are, their age group and their level of understanding or expertise on a particular topic.

• What is the tone of the language used?
  The tone of the writing, whether it is serious, humorous, friendly, sarcastic, instructional, formal or informal gives clues as to who the intended reader is.

For example, the language, vocabulary and tone of this anti-bullying poster shows its intended audience:

See, hear or experience bullying? Don’t worry, we got you.
Get some help from a trusted teacher or friend.
#notobullies

The writing is clearly aimed at pupils in the school witnessing or experiencing bullying. The writer has chosen to use an informal tone and language ‘we got you’, a hashtag ‘#notobullies’ and straightforward language that would appeal to teenagers.

Writers often bring their own beliefs and opinions to their writing as it is very difficult to be completely balanced or neutral in writing.

It is important as a reader to be able to notice when a writer is showing bias, preferring one argument or opinion to another in an unfair way.

At its worst, bias is when writers actively pick facts, quotations and views that suit their own beliefs. This can mislead the audience.

So, when working out what the purpose and target audience of a text is, one key element to factor in is the writer’s bias.

How to assess bias in a text

One way to assess if a text is mostly unbiased and is trying to be balanced is to ask yourself some simple questions:

1. Do you have a complete picture or understanding of events, people, quotes?
2. Does the evidence being presented come from various sources, or is it just one or two people/organisations?
3. Does the evidence come from trustworthy sources?
4. Has the text looked at other points of view or ideas?
5. Is there only positive information or only negative information?
6. Are you being encouraged to think for yourself or to continue finding out more information?

Biased texts almost always tell you what to think and give the impression of having all the answers. They discourage curiosity and questions.

Many texts are aimed at specific audiences, based on their interests, experiences, backgrounds, age, location etc.

Representation is the way someone or something is portrayed in written text, for example, gender, age, ethnicity or identity.

Diversity means having writers that come from different backgrounds and experiences to communicate better with a wider range of audiences.

For instance, travel writing about a specific place is very different from the perspective of a tourist to that of a resident, who will both see the location in very different ways. Both perspectives would be interesting and beneficial to a reader.

Historically, some audiences were ignored or represented in prejudiced or poorly informed ways, partly because the writers were not diverse themselves and so did not understand these audiences.

Form refers to how and where a piece of writing will appear. Like audience and purpose, the form influences decisions writers make about language, tone and structure.

Each form of writing has its own conventions. For example:

Text message:

• Often more informal than a letter
• Might include pictures or emojis
• Usually short in length

Novel:

• Follows a narrative arc
• Includes imaginary characters
• Is divided into chapters

Newspaper article:

• Has a bold headline
• Divided into short paragraphs
• Reports a factual event

Find out more about formal and informal writing.