But during the process their concepts evolved until they were writing to audiences that were more informed and open- minded. I mean, I'm gonna write what I want to write. I don't care any more. Some scholars have cautioned that too much attention to audience can be as harmful to a writer as not enough attention. With some kinds of assignments, audience can be enabling, but other times audience can hamper innovative thinking.
Audience can even block a writer.
A colleague of ours reports that when in college, he had trouble thinking of his professors as anything but graders. The friend was an enabling audience, and by thinking about how to reach that audience he managed at the same time to write for a more universal audience, including his professors. Each of us, in our own disciplines, should help students find ways to address that question. RL Thanks to Bruce Ballenger and Allene Cooper for valuable feedback on drafts of this article. Word Works is published monthly during the school year by the BSU Writing Center and English Department, Boise, Idaho 83725.