.:: The Writer’s Trinity of Responsibility Anonymous asks: I always see you talking about how writers have a responsibility toward their readers. What do you mean? The Blackbird says: If I were to define what a writer is in my own words, I would say that a writer is an individual with the intention to present a particular idea to his or her target audience. In that short phrase alone, there are several parts. First, a writer is an individual. Naturally, having more than one person no longer makes them an individual and so more than one writer would be the plural, writers, but this is not what I’m pointing to. Individuals have a personal set of beliefs that they are uniquely passionate about. Consider this. What does it mean for a writer to not have a personal set of beliefs? Doesn’t that mean that their reason and purpose for doing something is based on the wills and goals of someone else instead of their own? Some people may disagree and say that having similar goals and desires may be the collective of two or more individuals who happen to be working toward the same thing. I completely agree with that, but the key factor in my interpretation is that individuals come to that decision on their own without the outside intrusion or heavy influence of a third party to skew the decision making process one way or another. Second, a writer has the intention to present a particular idea. Writing sometimes includes the implication that you are knowledgeable about your topic and are prepared to support and defend your ideas. In my opinion, there are no stories without an underlying message and there are no reports without reasons for the resulting data. Third, a writer presents to a target audience. Regardless of where and when a writer writes, there is a target audience. If I am writing in a personal journal, I consider what I find appropriate for myself and my standards. If I am writing for children, the content and the difficulty of what I’m writing gets toned down appropriately. If I’m writing for a specialized group of professionals, certain jargon and abbreviations are acceptable. You get the picture. This is where things like diction and clarity come into play. We’ve all probably run into Shakespeare’s works once or twice in our lifetime, you know, the books with the additional Shakespearean dictionary on the opposite page? I wouldn’t say that Shakespeare created his own language to be a complete cur in the rump to future high school and college students for generations to come, but people do seem to dislike writers that seem to find personal satisfaction in intentionally being vague or unclear to be mysterious or seemingly outwit their reader. So what does it mean when a writer has a responsibility toward their readers? A writer has three major responsibilities that ultimately contribute to the overall reader’s experience in reading their work. A writer must be responsible to themselves, to the topic or subject, and to the audience that topic or subject is being presented to. It is my belief that upholding these three responsibilities will make people better writers.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 10:36:43 +0000
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