Norton 1. Purpose, 2. Audience, 3. Genre, 4. Stance, 5. Media • Design.
Purpose:
Every time you do any thing, you do it on purpose, for a reason.
When we put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard we have a purpose: to communicate something for some
reason.
What do you want your audience to do, feel, think after or while reading your piece?
What does the writing task want from you? Is this outer-directed or inner-directed?
What is the best way for you to achieve your purpose?
Audience:
Who’s reading the piece? This determines presentation, language used, message.
Who are you writing to?
What is the reader’s background?
What are the reader’s interests?
Demographic information?
Political or religious beliefs to take into account?
Genre:
Letters, profiles, reports, position papers, poems, plays, comedy sketches, jokes, short stories, novels, etc.
What’s your genre and how does it restrict you?
Does the genre call for specific strategies, particular organization, tone, formality of language, medium, or design
requirements?
Stance:
What is your attitude about your topic?
Tone conveys attitude and may be adjusted depending on your audience.
You need to decide on your attitude towards the topic, your audience, and how to best convey the attitude in a
way the readers will understand and appreciate. (This is really good to remember when writing posts to respond
to other commenters or blog writers, trust me!)
Media/Design:
How is your piece going to be conveyed?
Will it be printed out and handed in as an essay?
Will it be submitted via email?
Will it be posted to another website as a comment?
Will it be a blog post?
The medium alters how the message is conveyed. Be aware of that and adjust content accordingly.
Presentation matters.