Ede and Lunsford

Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford’s essay “The Role of Audience in Composition Theory and Pedagogy” addresses many weaknesses in other theories concerning the role of the audience in writing. Ede and Lunsford argue that arguments on both sides oversimplify the issue. They assert that “making meaning through written discourse” is very complex (78). The “audience addressed” approach means that the writer takes into account the audience’s attitudes, beliefs, and expectations. For this approach, the audience is very real. Using this approach, however, Ede and Lunsford argue that theorists Mitchell and Taylor overemphasize and oversimplify the elements they include in their model for writing: writer, written product, audience, and response. In doing so, they do not give enough weight to the relationship between style and substance. Writing is more than just acting upon a receiver, but rather that it is a “means of making meaning for the writer and the reader” (82).

That said, Ede and Lunsford also addressed the idea of “audience invoked” which views the audience to be a fiction that the writer creates. Ong, who we have previously studied, argued that the writer has to construct the audience in their imagination and likewise, the audience must fictionalize itself. Ede and Lunsford, however, contest that the constraints on the writer and the role of the reader are much more complex than Ong would lead you to believe and that Ong does not always recognize the constraints that the audience places on the writer. There are instances in which the writer must think about their actual readers, and both analyze and invent an audience, which would be a mix between the two approaches.

Ede and Lunsford created a model that addresses the many roles of the audience and also looks at the fact that they may be either addressed or invoked. The addressed audience exists outside of the text, but the roles of the addressed audience may be invoked through the text. Ede and Lunsford stress the integrated and interdependent role of both reading and writing. Therefore, the audience must balance the creativity of the writer with that of the reader.

Looking back at Ong’s study, I believe that Ede and Lunsford did point out some important flaws, or areas that Ong overlooked. In reality, it does seem more like a give and take relationship. I know that when I was learning to write, I was always taught the importance of keeping in mind the audience, but also to stay focused on the argument that I was trying to make. I think that if you focus too much on the audience, your argument becomes weaker, but on the same note, if you focus too much on your own argument without taking into account both the fictionalized and addressed audience, your argument could suffer. Therefore, a balance of both is necessary in order to have a truly successful argument.