Prewriting / 9STEP 5: Analyzing the Audience
Directly related to purpose is audience. For example, if writing about the children’s
play area, will you write to local government officials, to the children, to the news-
paper editor, or to parents? Your audience determines dozens of details about your
writing: vocabulary, sentence structure, formality, psychological appeals, organiza-
tion, and approach. If you are writing about a technical subject to an audience of
laypersons, you must use laypersons’ vocabulary. If you are writing about a formal
subject to an academic audience, your sentence structure should mirror the formal-
ity. If you are expressing an opinion to readers who will likely disagree, you should
use different appeals and a different organization than you would with readers who
will likely agree. You should tailor your writing about a political debate for an audi-
ence of politicians differently than you would for an audience of apathetic voters.
Who is your audience? Name it. Analyzing audience is part of the prewriting process.
STEP 6: Writing the Topic or Thesis Sentence
Now you should be prepared to write a topic or thesis sentence. You know your
purpose and you understand your audience, so what will you say to achieve your
purpose with this particular audience? Write a sentence that states your topic. For a
paragraph, that sentence is called a topic sentence. For a multi-paragraph paper, it’s
called a thesis sentence. [For details about writing topic and thesis sentences, see Writing
a Paragraph or Writing a Multi-Paragraph Paper in Chapter 2.]
STEP 7: Organizing the Material
Finally, before you can write an effective paper, you must have some plan for pre-
senting your main ideas. That plan is called organization. You may have a list devel-
oped from Step 1. If so, you are well on your way toward organizing your paper.
Now you need to rearrange that list so that it becomes a plan for your paper. If
necessary, you can transform that list into an outline. [See For a Paper in Chapter 31,
Outlines, for a discussion of list making and formal outlining.]
Generally, the organization should follow one of three plans: chronological order (as
arranged in time), spatial order (as arranged in space), or some order of importance
(as arranged by any measure of significance). The specific method of development
[as suggested in all the entries in Parts II and III] also determines organization.
PREWRITING SUMMARY
Prewriting activities should result in two products: a topic or thesis sentence and a
list or outline. Together, they guide you smoothly through the writing process.