Blog Post #4

Context, Context, Context…..

            After reading “Breakfast, Bumper Stickers and Beyond” I think the biggest theme is context. Who are you writing for? The article mentioned over and over the different audiences associated with different cereal brands and how those businesses use different language to appeal to those audiences. You may be saying “Yea I get it children cereal appeals to children….what else?” but there is so much more that can be learned here!

Understanding the basic idea that companies appeal to different audiences using different language leads to a whole new understanding of writing. Students in class should do exercises that cater to very specific audiences because it makes the writers more cognizant of who they’re writing to for “regular” school papers. I don’t know about you, but when I was in high school everything we wrote was very formal and we knew the audience was the teacher. This was no fun! Writing should be treated as an active dialogue between the writer and audience. Obviously when someone reads something they aren’t speaking to the writer directly but it’s the writers job to speak directly to the reader! This means that if the writer knows the audience well enough they’re writing will come off as more connected and capture the reader. Going back to how companies ingeniously use language to capture the audience can be directly used on students at young grade levels. Teaching students how to find a voice that will speak directly to the target audience will help their writing in dividends. So remember, context is very important for young writers to find their “voice” and I think every teacher should incorporate short writing exercises that cater to specific audiences to work on these skills.