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Your goal as a writer should be to create "common ground" with the reader. You want the reader to share your knowledge and your attitude towards that knowledge. Even if the reader eventually disagrees, you want them to be able, for the moment, to see things as you see them. A good piece of writing closes the gap between you and the reader. The first step in closing that gap is to judge the distance between the two of you. Sometimes, obvious differences, such as age or background, create distance, but the key differences for writers usually fall into three areas: the reader's knowledge about the topic, their attitude toward it, and their personal or professional needs. KNOWLEDGE This is usually the easiest difference to handle. What does your reader need to know? What do you hope to communicate? Does your reader have enough background knowledge to understand you? If not, what information must you provied? ATTITUDES When we say a person has knowledge, we usually mean the kind of knowledge that can be easily written down or told to someone else. However, much of what we "know" is held as an attitude or image -- as a loose collection of associations. For instance, my image of lakes includes associations many people would have, such sa swimming, water skiing, sailing and having fun. By contrast, one of my best friends has a very different collection of associations. To him a lake means sun, warm feelings, relaxation and happily sitting on the end of a dock. Our different images creat different expectations for each of us as a reader. The more your readers' images and attitudes to the topic differ from your own, the more you will have to make them see what you mean. NEEDS When writers discover a large gap between their knowledge and attitudes and those of the reader, the writer usually try to change the reader in some way. Needs, however, are different. When you analyze a reader's needs, it is often critical to your success as a writer. Effective writers atr not simply expressing what they know. Instead they are using their knowledge: they are reorganizing, maybe even rethinking their ideas to meet the demands or the needs of their reader.
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