THE EFFECT OF AUDIENCE SPECIFICATION ON UNDERGRADUATES: ATTITUDE, STRATEGIES, AND WRITING

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of assigning an audience on undergraduates' attitudes, composing strategies, and persuasive writing. Eighty-seven students in an intermediate composition course took a writing pretest without an assigned audience. Then, they were randomly assigned to three posttest conditions: (a) imaginary assigned reader, (b) real assigned reader, and (c) no assigned reader. For all participants the posttest was a second draft about the pretest topic. When the assigned reader and English teachers rated the essays for persuasiveness, assigning an audience had a limited effect on the assigned reader's scores and no significant effect on the teachers' scores. However, analyses of questionnaire and interview data indicated that assigning an audience increased students' interest, effort, and use of audience-based strategies. In addition, the questionnaires revealed an audience effect across groups. That is, students who said they had thought of someone like the assigned reader were twice as likely to persuade the assigned reader as students who had not. Studies suggest that most secondary and college students are not adapting their writing to audiences beyond the classroom (Applebee, 1981; Britton, Burgess, Martin, McLeod, & Rosen, 1975; Cooper, 1984; NAEP, 1985, 1986). Some researchers have attributed this problem to a deficiency in students' (a) cognitive development (Lunsford, 1979; Moffett, 1968; Shaughnessy, 1977), (b) knowledge of text conventions (Dillon, 1981; Park, 1982, 1986), or (c) coordination of composing demands (Bereiter, 1980; Kroll, 1984; Scardamalia, 1981). While acknowledging these deficiencies, other researchers have argued that the school context also contributes to the problem (Applebee, 1981; Collins & Williamson, 1984). The studies cited above indicate that most school writing addresses overhearers teachers who are not personally involved with the topic. In contrast, most on-the-job writing addresses rhetorical audiences (see Anderson, 1985). According to Bitzer (1971), a rheThis article is based on the first author's doctoral dissertation (University of Maryland, 1987). The research was supported by a fellowship from the United Negro College Fund and by a grant from the University of Maryland, College Park. Research in the Teaching of English, Vol. 23, No. 1, February 1989