Suggests assigning students a spontaneous "how-to" paper the first day of class to clarify the need for audience and purpose considerations. (HTH)

Outlines a revision checklist for student use in analyzing purpose, audience, form, and expression; summarizes classroom procedures for individuals, small groups, or whole classes to use in revision and proofreading exercises. (AEA)

To shift the focus away from the writing instructor as the primary audience for written compositions, these writing assignments address the issue of audience directly. The assignments include the following: (1) select a magazine and analyze its audience; (2) compose a letter to the editor; (3) write an article for the selected magazine about an…

Uses ideas from speech act theory to show students how to become "co-communicants" with their readers. (DF)

Investigates the implications of conceiving writing-as-performance. Claims that public speaking compares closely with a writing-as-performance course. Focuses on students' perception of themselves as writers and of their audience and presents several analogies comparing writing with other performance activities. (JD)

In the "real" world of writing, people make writing decisions based in part on their analyses of audience expectations and their own purposes. Yet, composition teachers at all levels assign general or abstract topics for essays rather than create writing tasks that require students to reflect on target audiences. Even students are aware…

Many essayists on writing believe that a student's level of cognitive development determines the organization of thought expressed by the student's writing and that an individual cannot use language at a level that goes beyond his or her stage of cognitive development. Without the maturation of formal operational structures, students cannot easily…