Minutes a day n e w y o r k

1. Who will read your essay and why are they reading it?
2. What do they know about your subject?
3. What is your relationship with the reader?
Pinpointing Your Audience
If you’re writing for a teacher, you know his or her name and face, as well as the expectations he or she has for your
writing. But determining your audience doesn’t always mean knowing exactly who will be reading, grading, or
scoring your essay. In fact, often you’ll need to write for someone, or a number of people, you’ll never meet. For
example, if you are taking the ACT or SAT, you know that two people will read your essay and score it. You also
know the criteria for each score. You don’t know the readers’ names, or where they’re from, but you know
enough about what they’re looking for to understand how to write to them. Knowing your audience in this case
means knowing what they’re looking for.
In other words, your readers will pick up your writing in order to give it a grade or score. You need to know
their expectations in order to fulfill them. What does your English teacher consider an A essay? How does a col-
lege admissions officer judge an essay? For the SAT and ACT, what does the scoring rubric look like? What are the
differences between an essay that gets a 6, and one that gets a 2? Here are some general guidelines: