Very few writing rules are always true, but one that should always be followed is that a writer should look closely at and write for one person in the audience. In a composition class, students automatically assume the professor to be the only reader. The reality, though, is that there are at least two:

• the primary audience, a person who needs the information
• the secondary reader, the writing consultant/composition teacher who guides the student in reaching that target reader.

The Primary Audience

Think of someone you know as the primary audience. Select someone who is a real person whom you know and respect for whom to write.

• This person should be someone whose respect you want.
• Think of trying with every essay to earn this person’s respect for you as a real live human being who is actively engaged in interacting with life. If you really don’t feel that way, the better you fake it, the more you’ll get out of the writing. Write as though this person and his/her needs, whoever s/he may be, were your major target.
• Assume also that s/he is a person who needs to make a decision based primarily on the information provided in your writing. Write to give him or her everything s/he needs to know to make an informed decision.
• Regardless of how you feel, imagine a real person alive in his or her life as the audience, not the generic, plastic English teacher who has to read boring stuff because s/he’s paid to.

The Secondary Audience

Think of the professor only as a secondary audience, a consultant brought in to help you design the text to meet the needs of that primary audience. These distinctions will make for more informative, useful, and interesting compositions.

In the Real World

The real world recognized the need to design content to target a specific reader. See the file here for an example. Item number four under the subheading, "Write a classified ad that gets buyers calling," notes the need to consider one's audience when trying to sell a home.