Writing for an Audience’s Beliefs, Values and Needs: Study Guide (English Language 2.1)

From “who is the audience?” to “what does this audience need?”

Unit 1 asked you to identify an audience. Unit 2 asks a harder question: how does a writer use what they know about an audience? The course skill has two sides. As a reader, you explain how an argument shows an understanding of its audience’s beliefs, values or needs. As a writer, you demonstrate that understanding in your own text. Both depend on the same idea: writers’ perceptions of an audience’s values, beliefs, needs and background guide the choices they make.

Notice the word perceptions. A writer cannot read minds. They infer what a group believes, cares about and lacks, and then build the text on those inferences. If the inferences are wrong, the argument misfires. If they are good, the audience feels that the writer understands them, and is more ready to listen.

Four lenses for analysing an audience

Lens	Question	Example (audience: school governors)
Beliefs	What does this group hold to be true?	Schools should spend money where it helps pupils directly.
Values	What does it care about and treat as right?	Safety, fairness, a good reputation for the school.
Needs	What does it lack, fear or want?	A decision it can defend to parents; a budget that balances.
Background	What experience and knowledge does it bring?	Volunteers with jobs and families; not teachers.

Beliefs and values are related but different. A belief is about what is true (“bikes are safer than cars for short trips”). A value is about what matters (“children’s safety comes first”). Needs are practical or emotional gaps (“We must show parents we have acted”). A good analysis uses all four lenses and ties each to a specific choice in the text.

Choices that follow from the analysis

Once a writer has an idea of an audience’s beliefs, values, needs and background, many decisions follow.

• Starting point. Writers often begin with something the audience already accepts (common ground) before moving to the contested claim.
• Evidence. A sceptical, data-minded audience gets figures; a community audience may be moved by local stories; a professional audience respects authorities in its own field.
• Vocabulary. Terms the audience uses are repeated; jargon they do not know is explained or avoided.
• Tone. Respectful to experts, warm to neighbours, urgent to those who must act quickly.
• Handling opposition. If the audience holds a rival view, the writer may concede what is reasonable in it before arguing against it. This shows respect and lowers resistance.
• The ask. The request is framed in terms of the audience’s own values: “you care about safety, so…”

Common ground and concession

Two moves appear constantly in effective arguments.

Common ground is a belief, value or experience the writer and audience share. It signals that the writer is not an opponent. Beginning “We all want our children to arrive at school safely” gives the audience a reason to listen before any disagreement appears.

Concession admits that part of the opposing view is reasonable. “It is true that the shelter would cost money, and governors are right to count every pound.” This is not weakness. It shows fairness and makes the writer’s eventual disagreement look more credible. A concession is often followed by a refutation or a qualifying “but”: the writer grants a point, then shows why it does not settle the question.

A public-domain example: Lincoln’s First Inaugural (1861)

On 4 March 1861, as seven Southern states had already left the Union, Abraham Lincoln addressed an audience that included the people of the seceded states. He knew they feared he would attack slavery where it existed. He addresses that fear head-on: “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.”

That sentence is an example of reading an audience’s need: reassurance on the point he knew worried them most. It also shows an understanding of their beliefs. Near the end he turns to common ground and a shared past: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.” Here the writer appeals to a value he thinks the audience still shares, the bonds of affection and history. The speech shows a writer reading the audience’s fear, naming it, and answering it before pressing his own central claim that the Union is perpetual.

Worked example 1: audience analysis for a writing task

Task. A Year 12 student must write to the school governors proposing a covered bike shelter. Show how an analysis of the audience shapes three choices.

Step 1: Analyse the audience.

Lens	Governors
Belief	Money should be spent where it benefits pupils; long-term savings count.
Value	Safety, fairness to all pupils, responsible spending.
Need	A proposal that is costed and defensible to parents and the local authority.
Background	Volunteers, many with business or finance backgrounds, not specialists in education.

Step 2: Make choices from the analysis.

1. Open with common ground: “Every governor wants pupils to arrive at school safely and dry.” (Value: safety.)
2. Use evidence that fits their need and background: a quote of £4,200 from a named supplier, a survey in which 91 of 160 cyclists said they would cycle more often if bikes were covered (invented figures for practice), and a comparison with a shelter costing less than a month of the school’s minibus fuel.
3. Concede and answer the objection: “Some governors may worry that a shelter will be little used. The survey suggests otherwise.”

Check. Each choice links back to one lens. The opening answers a value; the evidence meets a need for a costed, defensible case; the concession responds to a belief about use. If you wrote only “use formal language because they are adults”, you would have named no belief, value or need, and the analysis would earn little.

Worked example 2: reading an audience in a short passage

Read this passage, written by Marlbridge.

Parents, I know that most of you gave up an evening to be here, and that many of you have been told for years that the bus company will fix this road crossing. I have been told that too. I am not asking you to trust the company’s promises. I am asking you to look at the three photographs on the board, each taken in the last month, and then to sign the petition by the door.

Task. Explain how the speaker shows an understanding of the audience’s beliefs, values or needs.

Solution.

1. Belief: “many of you have been told for years that the bus company will fix this road crossing.” The speaker recognises that the audience has heard promises before and may be sceptical. They then align themselves with that scepticism: “I have been told that too.”
2. Value / need: “I know that most of you gave up an evening.” This acknowledges the audience’s time and effort, which builds goodwill and signals that the request will be reasonable.
3. Choice that follows: because the audience distrusts promises, the speaker offers visible, recent evidence (three photographs) in place of trust, and a concrete, easy action (sign the petition by the door).

Check. Each point names a feature of the text and says what it shows about the audience’s belief, value or need. The answer explains why the evidence offered is photographs rather than assurances, which is the strongest sign that the speaker has read the audience.

How the exam asks about this

• Reading questions ask which choice shows the writer’s awareness of the audience’s values, which sentence concedes a point, or which detail answers an audience concern.
• Writing questions ask which revision would best suit a stated audience, such as parents, local officials or readers of a trade magazine.
• The essays reward you for describing audience beliefs and needs specifically and linking each choice to them. In the argument essay you must choose a stance and support it in a way that your imagined audience would find reasonable.

Common misconceptions

• “Understanding the audience means flattering it.” It means addressing its actual beliefs, values and needs, which may include disagreeing with it.
• “Audience analysis is just age and job.” Those matter, but beliefs, values and needs often explain the choices better.
• “Conceding a point weakens the argument.” A well-placed concession makes the writer more credible.
• “A writer addresses everyone equally.” Writers usually favour a primary audience and may risk losing others.
• “All audiences like statistics.” Some trust personal testimony, some trust official authorities, some respond to shared stories.
• “If the writer is wrong about the audience, the audience is irrelevant.” A writer’s perception of the audience still guides choices, and the exam asks you to analyse that perception.

Where this leads

Topic 2.2 explores how writers relate to an audience’s emotions and values. Practise with the practice questions and consult the checklist.