Purpose and audience

Writing for yourself is relatively easy, since you already know your audience and can make spontaneous judgments about what is essential and what is not. When your purpose is to communicate to other readers, however, you need to analyze your audience.

Anticipating what your readers know and need to know, what they are interested in, and what their beliefs or attitudes are will make your writing more effective. As you write for different readers, you will select different kinds of information, organize it in different ways, or write in a more formal or less formal style.