Your audience

Dear walkers,

At 13:00 today we will set out to Breukelen to walk and talk in this beautiful weather!!

The central question that we will address in this edition of the walking seminar is: Who do you write for? This question is relevant right from the start of your research project as it informs the questions you may need/want to ask. And it stays relevant all the way to the end as you adapt your style, your tone, your speed, the kind of footnotes you make, and what not, to The Reader.

Various further questions follow. What is the audience you hope for; what is the audience you may expect? One way or another, you will have to include your committee in your audience. Do you also want to include your funders? Your informants? The authors you quote? Professionals or policy makers or people from various disciplines?

And how does that all that relate to writing in English; to the venues where you publish; to the style you adopt? And how does it affect what you tell or leave untold? How does it emerge in questions and your argument, plot, story line (or how would you call the line in your writing)?

What are you doing, technically, practically, to include The Reader in your work? How do you seduce, appeal to, convince, or otherwise reach out to the audience that you imagine?

We look forward to walking with you today!