Writing Processes

Considering your purpose and stance as a communicator

Page contents:

Purposes for academic writing
Your rhetorical stance
Purpose and stance of visuals and media
Sample: A student writer’s purposes

In ancient Rome, the great orator Cicero noted that a good speech generally fulfills one of three major purposes: to delight, to teach, or to move. Today, our purposes when we communicate remain pretty much the same: we seek to entertain (delight), to inform or explain (teach), and to persuade or convince (move). Even if your purpose is very clear to you, analyzing what you want to accomplish and why can make you a more effective communicator.

Purposes for academic writing

Academic work requires particular attention to your reasons for writing. On one level, you are writing to establish your credibility with your instructor, to demonstrate that you are a careful thinker and an effective communicator. On another level, though, you are writing to achieve goals of your own, to say as clearly and forcefully as possible what you think about a topic.

For most college writing, consider purpose in terms of the assignment, the instructor’s expectations, and your own goals.

What is the primary purpose of the assignment—to entertain? to explain? to persuade? some other purpose? What does this purpose suggest about the best ways to achieve it? If you are unclear about the primary purpose, talk with your instructor. Are there any secondary purposes to keep in mind?
What are the instructor’s purposes in giving this assignment—to make sure you have read certain materials? to determine your understanding? to evaluate your thinking and writing? How can you fulfill these expectations?
What are your goals in carrying out this assignment—to meet expectations? to learn? to communicate your ideas? How can you achieve these goals?

Your rhetorical stance

Thinking about your own position as a communicator and your attitude toward your text—your rhetorical stance—has several advantages. It will help you examine where your opinions come from and thus help you address the topic fully; it will help you see how your stance might differ from the stances held by members of your audience; and it will help you establish your credibility with that audience. This part of your rhetorical stance—your ethos or credibility—helps determine how well your message will be received. To be credible, you will need to do your homework on your subject, present your information fairly and honestly, and be respectful of your audience.

What is your overall attitude toward the topic? How strong are your opinions?
What personal, social, political, religious, or other influences have contributed to your attitude?
How much do you know about the topic? What questions do you have about it?
What interests you most about the topic? Why?
What interests you least about it? Why?
What seems important—or unimportant—about the topic?
What preconceptions, if any, do you have about it?
What do you expect to conclude about the topic?
How will you establish your credibility (ethos)? That is, how will you show that you are knowledgeable and trustworthy?

Purpose and stance of visuals and media

Images and media you choose to include in your writing can help establish credibility. But remember that they, too, always have a point of view or perspective.

This postcard illustrates two physical perspectives—a photo of the Carquinez Bridge and a road map showing the bridge’s location. It also shows a time perspective from 1927, when the bridge was new. This postcard, captioned “America’s Greatest Highway Bridge,” presents the construction of the bridge (now demolished) as a triumph of modern technology. So when you choose an image, think hard about its perspective and about how well it fits in with your topic and purpose. Does the image have an attitude—and does that attitude serve the purpose of your writing?

Sample: A student writer’s purposes

As she considered the assignment given to her first-year writing class, Emily Lesk saw that her primary purpose was to explain the significance and implications of her topic to herself and her readers, but she recognized some other purposes as well. Because this essay was assigned early in the term, she wanted to get off to a good start; thus, one of her purposes was to write as well as she could to demonstrate her ability to her classmates and instructor. In addition, she decided that she wanted to find out something new about herself and to use this knowledge to get her readers to think about themselves.

Find out more about how Emily Lesk analyzed the assignment and audiences for her writing project.

Student writing: Early draft (Emily Lesk)

Student writing: Final draft (Emily Lesk)