In Chapter 5 of On Writing Well, the author William Zinsser brings up an interesting point of not losing the audience of your writing to distraction, and who you should tailor your writing to. I agree with the importance of keeping your audience entertained and enticed throughout the reading of your content. Zinsser states, If the reader ‘dozes off in the middle of your article because you have been careless about a technical detail, the fault is yours”(Zinsser, pg.25)- which is true; it’s hard to keep and develop an audience if your writing is filled with grammar mistakes and poor syntax. 

However, Zinsser also tells us that it’s important to remember not to write to cater to a mass audience. I found this point interesting as I feel it goes against what the majority of us were probably taught in grade school and maybe even college. We were often taught to write to a mass audience and to remove each reader’s individuality. Zinsser, however, believes we should write for ourselves and use the diction we’d use conversationally and not try to sound more sophisticated than we would normally speak. I found this concept interesting as I think if more writers (including myself) wrote for ourselves, I think would allow for less burnout amongst writers and maybe even lead to more creativity as we aren’t boxing ourselves in for a potential mass audience. I know personally, I have felt stuck having to write and tailor my voice and thoughts for this concept of a mass audience and try to sound like the author I’d want a reader to read and learn from, rather than myself, which definitely led to me feeling my original message or concept being lost among the words I chose. 

Sources:

Zinsser, William K. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. HarperCollins, 2006.