PERSONA/VOICE

What assumptions are you making about your role as writer for this piece? That is, what is the basis for your authority on your subject? What is your attitude? What is your relationship to your reader(s)? How do you want to come across?

PURPOSE

What is your main purpose or goal in writing? Why will people read your text? What will your readers be looking for? What other purposes or goals do you have? How will you convey your purpose(s) to your readers? For example, how will the purpose(s) affect or determine the way you begin? The type of language (vocabulary, style, tone) that you use? the amount of detail that you include?

AUDIENCE

How much background knowledge about your subject do your readers possess? How much background do they need? (Why?) Given the purpose of your writing, what specific information do your readers need to get from your text? Explain how you've decided to organize that information most effectively for your readers. As far as you can tell, what are your readers' attitudes toward your subject? toward the content of your text?

EFFECT

How do you expect your readers to respond to your text? What do you expect a reader to do, or think, or feel as a result of reading your text? How do you intend to achieve the effect(s) you want? What are your writing strategies? Specifically, how will your intended effect (along with considerations of persona, audience, and purpose) determine:

• amount of background/context you give the reader

• amount of detail

• arrangement/organization

• format issues

• specific content in each section of your text

• tone

• etc.