Audience, Purpose, and Tone

Three possible entry points into assessing an essayand important considerations

for writers as wellare the identification of audience, purpose and tone.
Audience refers to the readership the writer is writing foras best we can tell
from reading it ourselves. An essays 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 writers audienceespecially for the writer!informs decisions
about the best way to put forth ideas.
Purpose refers to the writers reason for writing the essay, or the writers 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 writers 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 writers apparent purpose
that often makes the essay easier to understand, or more memorable, or more
meaningful. Putting into words what we perceive as the writers purpose can be
especially helpful in crafting a thesis in response to an essay, because it involves
identifying the authors thesis.
Tone is often explained as the writers 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 authors attitude is very important to understanding the essays 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
were 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 writers intended audience, apparent
purpose, and expressive tone can be a good way to engage an essay initially, or dig
further into it after weve considered the essays impact.
Here is an example of a brief A-P-T assessment:
TITLE
Horatio Alger
by Harlon Dalton

AUDIENCE
--People in the U.S.
--maybe especially
African-Americans

PURPOSE
--to persuade
readers to consider
some negative
impacts of the Alger
myth in the U.S.
--possibly to

TONE
--serious
--academic
--corrective

motivate people to
use the Alger myth
in moderation, or
not at all.