Short on time? This page is the recap. For explanations and worked examples, use the full study guide.
Recap
- Audiences are unique (different groups respond differently) and dynamic (they change over time and within a text).
- Writers must consider the audience’s perspectives, contexts and needs when choosing evidence, organisation and language.
- The same claim may need different evidence, a different order and a different register for different audiences.
- Understanding an audience means anticipating concerns and meeting them honestly, not flattering them.
Key relationships
| Audience stance | Strategy |
|---|---|
| Hostile | Start with common ground; show you understand their concern; use evidence they trust; concede early; avoid insult |
| Neutral or undecided | Give context and clear reasons; show fairness; deal with other views |
| Supportive | Reinforce shared values; move them to action; give practical next steps |
| Choice | Adjust it by asking |
|---|---|
| Evidence | Which kind (data, expert, personal story, shared text) does this audience trust? |
| Organisation | Where should the claim, concession and strongest point go for these readers? |
| Language | What register, vocabulary and comparisons will they understand and respect? |
Audience checklist
- Perspective: beliefs, values, stance toward the claim.
- Context: when, where and in what medium they meet the text; recent events.
- Needs: what they must know, decide or do; what worries they bring.
- Choices: evidence, organisation, language.
Public-domain anchor
Susan B. Anthony (1873): “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.” She uses a text her audience knows (the Constitution’s opening words) and a step-by-step syntax of negatives to widen the meaning of “the people”, which suits an audience that included potential jurors.
Worked mini-example
Marlbridge claim: “Pupils should have a say in the timetable.”
- To teachers (worried about workload): evidence from schools that ran a pilot, a plan limited to one decision, and calm language.
- To pupils (supportive): a simple way to vote, and an energetic, direct tone.
Analysis sentence: “By proposing a limited pilot and citing other schools, the writer answers teachers’ likely worry about workload, which shows an awareness of their needs.”
Reading the audience from the text
In an exam passage you cannot ask the audience who they are, so read the clues.
- Address and setting: a title, salutation or occasion (“Fellow citizens”, “To the board”) shows who is being addressed.
- Assumed knowledge: what the writer explains and what the writer leaves unexplained shows what the audience is expected to know.
- Values appealed to: safety, fairness, thrift or tradition tell you what the writer thinks the audience cares about.
- Anticipated objections: a concession or an answered doubt shows where the audience is expected to resist.
State only what the clues support, and quote the words that support it.
Mistakes to avoid
- Saying “the writer knows the audience” without a specific choice.
- Treating audience as tone only.
- Inventing facts about the audience that the text does not support.
- Assuming all readers are alike.
- Flattering instead of persuading.
- Forgetting that audiences change as an argument unfolds.
Quick self-check
- Name the three audience features to consider. (Perspectives, contexts and needs.)
- Which strategy suits a hostile audience first? (Common ground, then concession, then strong evidence they trust.)
- Why might the same evidence suit one audience and not another? (Each audience trusts different kinds of evidence and has different needs.)
Next: practice questions.