Inside Out book review chapter 7

Inside Out, Strategies for Teaching Writing

D. Kirby, D.L. Kirby, T. Liner

Chapter 7 – Growing Toward a Sense of Audience

One of the most desirable sensitivities to cultivate in growing writers is a heightened ability to feel an audience as they write.” Teachers need to provide opportunities for student writers to develop a growing sense of audience.  One important tool to accomplish this is providing opportunities for students to share their writing with different audiences, and to write for different audiences. A cooperative relationship elemental to connecting to an audience is called the rhetorical triangle link, which is the link between the writer, the writing, and the reader.  Connecting to the intended audience is key to effective writing. 

Beginning writers should write for themselves, to develop their voice.  Adjusting subject, language, and voice to other audiences is sophisticated writing, and the best way for students to develop such sophistication is to experiment and explore a variety of audiences.  Some possible audiences include:

·      Peers

·      Teachers

·      Larger known audiences

·      General unknown audiences

·      Imaginary audiences

The following are some activities that students can use to develop their skills in talking directly to the reader as they write:

·      The Author’s voice – authors use unique voices to draw readers into their writing.  They use their voice to inform cajole, or involve the reader.

·      Anticipating audience Response – Writers choice of voice, language, and content are influenced by their informed guesses about audience response, especially when the author’s intent is to persuade or influence a hostile audience.

·      Personalizing an Audience – This may help less sophisticated writers.  Writers jot down descriptions of their audience before they begin writing. This helps them keep the audiences’ attitudes in mind while writing.

·      Rewriting for Different Audiences – Use familiar product commercials and change the target audience.  Rewrite the commercials to appeal to the new target audience.

·      Writing for Younger children – Have students interview, journal with, or share stories with younger students.  The more personal the connection the  better sense of audience students have.

·      Audience Adaption – Students write letters about a defective product suggesting a reasonable solution.  Have students write letters of recognition to people in their community. Have students write a letter asking someone to explain their position or decision.

·      Real Audiences – Opportunities for students to read their writing to real audience.

What I most liked about this chapter was the way they stressed the link between the writer, the writing, and the reader.  I think too often we think of them, and teach them, as separate entities and we need to strengthen that link for our students.  We also need to make sure our students have opportunities to write and read their writing to different audiences.