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The purpose of a piece of writing identifies the reason you write a particular document. Basically, the purpose answers the question “Why?”
EXAMPLE
Why write a play? To entertain a packed theater. Why write instructions to the babysitter? To inform him of your schedule and rules. Why write a letter to your congressperson? To persuade her to address your community’s needs.In academic settings, the reason for writing typically fulfills one of four main purposes:
As you will see, the purpose for writing will guide you through each part of the paper, helping you make decisions about content and style.
Although your readers—the audience for your writing assignments—may not appear in person, they play an equally vital role.
Even in everyday writing activities, you identify your readers’ characteristics, interests, and expectations before making decisions about what you write. In fact, thinking about audience has become so common that you may not even detect the audience-driven decisions you make.
EXAMPLE
You probably update your status on a social networking site with the awareness of who will digitally follow the post. If you want to brag about a good grade, you may write the post to please family members. If you want to describe a funny moment, you may write with your friends’ senses of humor in mind.Because focusing on audience will enhance your writing, your process, and your finished product, you must consider the following specific traits of your audience members.
Tone identifies a speaker’s attitude toward a subject or another person. You may pick up a person’s tone of voice fairly easily in conversation.
EXAMPLE
A friend who tells you about her weekend may speak excitedly about a fun skiing trip. An instructor who means business may speak in a low, slow voice to emphasize her serious mood. Or, a coworker who needs to let off some steam after a long meeting may crack a sarcastic joke.Just as speakers transmit emotion through voice, writers can transmit through writing a range of attitudes, from excited and humorous to somber and critical. These emotions create connections among the audience, the author, and the subject, ultimately building a relationship between the audience and the text.
To stimulate these connections, writers intimate their attitudes and feelings with useful devices, such as sentence structure, word choice, punctuation, and formal or informal language. Keep in mind that the writer’s attitude should always appropriately match the audience and the purpose.
Many species of plants and animals are disappearing right before our eyes. If we don’t act fast, it might be too late to save them. Human activities, including pollution, deforestation, hunting, and overpopulation, are devastating the natural environment. Without our help, many species will not survive long enough for our children to see them in the wild. Take the tiger, for example. Today, tigers occupy just 7 percent of their historical range, and many local populations are already extinct. Hunted for their beautiful pelt and other body parts, the tiger population has plummeted from one hundred thousand in 1920 to just a few thousand. Contact your local wildlife conservation society today to find out how you can stop this terrible destruction.If you think that the tone here is urgent and concerned, you are correct. The writer is clearly passionate about the topic and ends her paragraph by asking her readers to take action.
Content refers to all the written substance in a document. After selecting an audience and a purpose, you must choose what information will make it to the page.
This may consist of examples, statistics, facts, anecdotes, testimonies, and observations, but no matter the type, the information must be appropriate and interesting for the audience and purpose.
Content is also shaped by tone. When the tone matches the content, the audience will be more engaged, and you will build a stronger relationship with your readers.
EXAMPLE
An essay written for third graders that summarizes the legislative process would have to contain succinct and simple content. You would choose simple content that the audience could easily understand, and you would express that content in an enthusiastic tone.These same considerations apply to all audiences and purposes.
Source: This content has been adapted from Lumen Learning's "Purpose, Audience, Tone, and Content" tutorial.