Laney College / English 1A / weidenbach
Audience Purpose and Tone
Three possible entry points into assessing an essay—and important considerations for writers
as well—are the identification of the essay’s audience, purpose and tone.
“Audience” refers to the readership the writer is writing for—as best we can tell from reading
it ourselves. An essay’s intended audience could be the entire world, or the entire English-reading
population, or everyone in the United States, or readers of the Washington Post newspaper. It could
be a more specific group, such as the ten people on a university admissions committee, or baseball
card collectors, or students in a biology class. Understanding the writer’s audience—especially for
the writer!—informs decisions about the best way to put forth ideas.
“Purpose” refers to the writer’s reason for writing the essay, or the writer’s goal. Three
traditional labels for writers’ purposes are: to inform (report); to persuade (argument); and to
entertain. Like many such approaches, these options alone do not cover every writer’s reasons for
writing; sometimes two or three of the traditional purposes work together. As readers, we may be
unable to know the exact intention of a writer, but we can always make an informed guess about the
writer’s apparent purpose that often makes the essay easier to understand, or more memorable, or
more meaningful. Putting into words what we perceive as the writer’s purpose can be especially
helpful in crafting a thesis in response to an essay, because it involves identifying the author’s thesis.
“Tone” is often explained as the writer’s “attitude” toward the subject of the essay. As
writers, deciding on our emotional pitch can keep us focused and build up our own interest in
writing. Should we be silly, sarcastic, or deadly serious? As readers, understanding the author’s
attitude is very important to understanding the essay’s ideas. Is a writer trying to be funny in order
to ‘break the ice’ in an essay about sex education? Is a writer expressing ideas in a serious or solemn
tone in writing about legal execution? Maybe one writer expresses anger and hostility, and another
writer expresses a calm, rational tone in putting forth their arguments about immigration policy.
Since these emotional options are available to writers, then as readers we need to try to understand
what the writers are doing in terms of emotion in order to more fully understand what we’re reading.
These concepts are not the only concerns for writers and readers, but they build a commonly
shared framework for writers’ choices and readers’ development of critique. Putting into words what
we perceive to be the writer’s intended audience, apparent purpose, and expressive tone can be a
good way to engage an essay initially, or dig further into it after we’ve considered the essay’s impact.
Here is an example of a brief A-P-T assessment of one of our reading selections:
TITLE
“Horatio Alger”
by Harlon Dalton
AUDIENCE
--People in the U.S.
--maybe especially
African-Americans
PURPOSE
TONE
--to persuade readers to --serious
consider some negative --academic
impacts of the Alger
--corrective
myth in the U.S.
--possibly to motivate
people to use the Alger
myth in moderation, or
not at all.
Laney College / English 1A / weidenbach
Alone, or with a small group, consider the following reading selections and describe them in terms
of audience, purpose and tone:
TITLE
“Looking for Work”
by Gary Soto
“About Marriage”
by Danielle Crittendon
“Learning to Read”
by Malcom X
“The Roots of Debate”
by Deborah Tannen
“Horatio Alger”
by Harlon Dalton
“Serving in Florida”
by Barbara Ehrenreich
“Stephen Cruz”
by Studs Terkel
“Girl”
by Jamaica Kincaid
“Appearances”
by Carmen Vasquez
“Two Ways…Hurt”
by Jean Kilbourne
“From Fly Girls…”
by Joan Morgan
AUDIENCE
--anyone who can read
it, but especially people
in the U.S. who are
influenced by TV.
PURPOSE
--to tell his story, which
partly entertains, partly
informs, and mainly
shares his experience.
TONE
--natural
--humorous
--the voice of an adult
reminiscing