Michelle Bischoff
English 106
Brittany Biesiada
December 10, 2014
Blog 3: Writing Today
After reading the Writing Today, I feel like I know twice as much about writing as I did
before. This reading helped me to understand all aspects of what I should and should not be
writing about. The big message that I gathered from this reading was that the main thing to focus
on when you are writing, no matter what you are writing, is the audience. The reader is always
the most important subject of your writing. The reader seems to play a part in every section of
this chapter, whether it be making a reader profile, or determining trends that would affect the
reader. Although I don’t think that literally making a reader profile will do any good, I do get
that it is important to understand exactly who will be reading what you are going to write. For
example, if I was writing a report on turtles for adults to be more aware of them, it would not
make sense to describe the turtles as cute and cuddly. Vice versa, it would be senseless to use
sophisticated and intellectual language when writing something that is going to be read by young
children. A part in this reading that stood out to me was when it talked about the attitude of the
reader. I always assumed that generally writing persuasively would catch any reader’s attention;
however that is not the case. Using your own personal knowledge and beliefs is not going to
convince a reader that is skeptical or has a negative attitude toward you. That’s where using facts
and reasoning would be most helpful in winning them over. I did not like the table that was
created as a “Reader Analysis Worksheet.” Ranking readers by importance is something that I
find neither effective nor useful in writing. While there may be readers that are more likely to
read your piece and more abundant than others, I think that all readers are equal and just as
important to appeal to as any other.