4.2 Know who you are writing for
4.2.2 Your audience


If your editor is your gatekeeper, your audience is your coliseum. They are the people watching your every letter – so long as you grab their attention first!

As noted in Lesson One of this online course, audiences vary depending on the publication and its targets. They may be younger, older, well-educated or general audiences. They may be local to the publication, regional or international. And your writing should vary accordingly.

There are a few ways to figure out who a publication's audience is: Use spellings and terminologies appropriate to the target audience – that helps to create a good impression on your editor and saves him or her the bother of having to make changes. With younger or more general audiences, you'll have to provide more background information and use simple terms – or at least explain some of the more difficult ones. With more specialized audiences, perhaps with a science background, do not over-simplify your topic or you will bore them.

A. Writing for children and young people
More difficult, perhaps, than mastering any other style of writing, is learning to write for children and young people. This is an audience with a short attention span and with more distractions than ever before. Journalists writing for children and youth must now compete with video games, the internet, satellite television and iPods. And although you must take care to be understood, don't underestimate their intelligence. Simplify the science, but don't patronize. And make sure to grab their attention from the very first sentence. Make your article short and interesting and use lots of examples, graphics, and supporting material. Stimulate, challenge, and make it fun!

EXAMPLE:
Read this story from National Geographic's Kids:
International coastal cleanup: helping ocean animals survive
[ http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/PeoplePlaces/Coastal-cleanup ]

B. Writing for a general audience
If writing for a general audience, never assume that your audience knows a certain fact or understands a certain concept. Don't exclude readers - provide enough background and explanation for anyone to keep up with your topic regardless of their background. Yet at the same time make sure your article is interesting enough for a scientist who comes across your article in a daily newspaper.

EXAMPLE:
Take a look at this example from the United Kingdom's daily newspaper, The Guardian:
Brain scans pinpoint how chocoholics are hooked
[ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2157226,00.html ]

C. Writing for the scientific community
Members of the scientific community are aware of basic scientific concepts, but this doesn't mean they know all. Depending on their discipline, scientists will vary in their knowledge. So although you might not need to simplify the science, your writing should not resemble an academic report – you still have to work at grabbing your audience's attention!

EXAMPLE:
Read this story from Nature News, which targets the science community:
Superbug dissected
[ http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071111/full/news.2007.235.html ]

In summary, write in the language of your audience.


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