Know your reader and audience

Whenever you write something, always remember to whom you are writing. Know your reader and tailor essays according to the reader. This is logical: a private letter to your friend would be in one form, but an admission essay to the University would be completely different.

Not only the tone of your writing should match the relationships with the reader, but the contents should also match the knowledge of the reader pertaining to the subject of your writings. Including specific technical terms in a technology term paper would be fine for your professor, but including them for your literature professor in a free topic assignment, might result in a worse grade.

If you write an informative paper, just ask yourself, “what does the reader already know on the subject?” Some concepts may be difficult to understand for the reader, who does not know the basics on the topic. Yet for the one knowledgeable in the field, your writing may seem incompetent.

Please feel free to learn more about audience analyis.