All media is created for an audience. The whole reason we write is to be heard. Newspapers cultivate reader subscriptions, social media uses algorithms to provide exactly what a user wants to see, and in school we’ve been taught to write for our professors, adhering to a specific set of guidelines. It’s easy to get so caught up on who you’re writing for that you forget to include yourself. Audiences are important but they don’t matter if you’re not in them.
In his book “On Writing Well”, William Zinsser brings up the paradox of writing with a purpose while also writing for yourself. You want to hold your reader’s attention, but you don’t want to let catering to the reader’s particular viewpoints keep you from being authentic. At first glance this advice seemed a little contradictory, but it ultimately makes sense. Writing, like any other form of self-expression, is a craft. The main goal is to hone your craft. Similar to painting, you have to have a firm handle on the basics before you can start breaking the rules. The solid foundation of writing is mechanical; it’s a double play or a free throw. Basic writing is something that you can do without thinking too hard about it – it’s almost automatic, in a sense. Once you have a strong foundation laid out, that’s when you can start adding your own personal flair. It’s about finding a balance between skill and personality.
Many sources, like the Perdue Writing Lab, suggest tailoring your writing to be accessible to an audience based on your subject matter. In the midst of asking who the audience is and how to pique their interest, Perdue encourages writers to assume their audience’s education level but to not condescend them – to articulate a middle ground. When writing in areas like marketing and advertising, you’re obviously going to be focused on the customer and what demographics you’re pitching to. But entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk points out that even in marketing, authenticity is still important. He refers to storytelling as a balance of constant experimentation and hours of observation – there’s room for straightforward approaches while still wanting and trying to push the envelope. Because even at the height of writing with the audience in mind, a personal touch is what wins people over.
What this advice boils down to is to always read the room. It’s important to consider the audience when writing a piece; this is where personas come into play. But just as you wouldn’t change your whole personality based on who you’re talking to, you don’t have to become what you think people want based on the subject matter. Zinsser’s rule of thumb is never say anything in writing that you wouldn’t comfortably say in conversation. It’s as bad as trying to impress a group of people about whom you have preconceived notions: you’re going to sound like a poser waxing poetic about distortion pedals or whatever else you think a group of local punks would think is cool, instead of talking about what you know and asking them what they like. You’re not going into a research paper with the same tone as you would an email to an old friend, but you also shouldn’t be using phrases like “suffice to say” if that’s not how you usually talk.
Writing for yourself and writing for an audience is about balance. Learn the rules before you break them and do your best to be genuine. When you picture your audience, make sure you see your face in the crowd.
Photo by Dibakar Roy on Unsplash
Vaynerchuk, G. (2013). Round 1: The Setup. In Jab, jab, jab, right hook: How to tell your story in a noisy social world (pp. 15-30). New York, NY: HarperBusiness.
Zinsser, W. (2013). Chapter 5: The Audience. In On Writing Well (pp. 24-32). Harper Paperbacks.
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