Who Do You Think You’re Talking To? (Understanding the Academic Audience)

Let’s face it — writing an academic paper is a little weird. Your teacher — whether that’s your own parent/guardian or someone else — is often asking you to write about something they already know. In fact, since they assigned it to you, there’s a good chance they know it better than you do. 

This puts the writer in an awkward position when it comes to audience. The audience is the intended reader of the thing you’re writing. It’s who you are imagining in your mind as you write. The tricky thing is that your teacher may be the one who assigned the paper, but they’re probably not your intended reader.

Writing an academic paper requires you to have an understanding of an invisible (and often not even real) audience. It’s a trick of imagination, and it takes some practice.

Watch the Video

Practice It

One way to really see how your understanding of audience changes things is to give instructions. First, give instructions to yourself. Think of something you know how to do pretty well (make a particular meal, create something in Minecraft, really anything!) Write down the steps you need to take, the ingredients you need to buy, etc. This is a note to yourself to help remind you what you need to do. 

Pick something you know quite a bit about (baseball, painting, your favorite TV show). Write a paragraph describing that thing. 

Now write a paragraph describing that thing to someone much younger than you. 

Now write a paragraph describing that thing to an alien who has never visited our planet before (but has the technology to translate your words). 

Notice how your understanding of what your audience likely knows (and doesn’t know) changes how you write. 

Reflect on It

The important thing to take away from this resource is that audience is a key part of any writing activity. Writing doesn’t happen in isolation. Even when you’re just writing in your journal — with no intention of showing it to anyone else — you still have an audience in mind: your future self. Writing assumes a reader, and having a reader in your mind when you write improves what you have to say and how you say it. 

Some writers even make up an imaginary reader. They’ll picture them in detail and give them a name and personality. It can make it easier to write when you have a specific person (even if they’re not real) in mind. 

  • Which audiences are the hardest for you to imagine? Why? What could you do to better reach them? 
  • What assignments have been the easiest for you to write? Who did you imagine as you wrote them? 
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