Most formal on-the-job writing addresses specific purposes, audiences, and topics: when a team of psychologists prepares video scripts to help companies deal with employee stress, they know why, for whom, and about what they are writing. College writing assignments, in contrast, may seem to appear out of the blue, with no specific purpose, audience, or topic. In extreme cases, they may be only one word long, as in a theater examination that consisted of the word Tragedy! At the opposite extreme come the fully developed, very specific cases often assigned in business and engineering courses. You may get assignments that specify purpose but not audience—to write an essay arguing for or against Internet censorship, for example. Or you may be given an organizational pattern to use—say, to compare and contrast novels read in a course—but no specific topic. Make every effort to comprehend an assignment accurately and fully so you can respond to it successfully.

See also Quick Help: Analyzing an assignment for a research project

Sample: Emily Lesk’s assignment

Student Emily Lesk was given the following assignment for her first-year English course:

Explore the ways in which one or more media (television, print advertising, and so on) have affected an aspect of American identity, and discuss the implications of your findings for you and your readers.

Emily saw that the assignment was broad enough to allow her to focus on something that interested her, and she knew that the key word explore invited her to examine—and analyze—an aspect of American identity that was of special interest to her. Her instructor said to assume that she and members of the class would be the primary audience for this essay. Emily felt comfortable having her instructor and classmates as the primary audience: she knew what their expectations were and how to meet those expectations. But Emily also hoped to post her essay on the class website, thus reaching a wider audience; in fact, her essay might be read by anyone with access to the Internet. With this broad and largely unknown audience in mind, Emily determined to be as clear as possible and to take nothing for granted in terms of explaining her point of view and supporting her thesis.

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

Talking the Talk: Assignments

Student writing: Early draft (Emily Lesk)

Student writing: Final draft (Emily Lesk)

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