What affects the way one writes? -Caley Savoie

When writing in rhetorical situations, they say you should know; the purpose of your writing, the audience you will be writing to, the genre in which you will be writing, the stance you are taking, and the design of your text.  I agree with them in all of those aspects.  You can't just sit down and start writing without knowing to whom or what you are writing about. Unless, you are writing in a journal or in a calender, which you would be writing to yourself, you need to know the purpose, etc.  

They say that what you write, how much you write, and how you phrase it are all influences by the audience you envision.  Your audience, however, will interpret your writing according to their expectations and experiences.  The example that they give in the book with Jon and his mom; if she would have left the same note without Jon's name and the father read it, it may have been a whole different situation.  The father may not know everything that Jon knows, and in turn have no understanding of the message.  In my high school English class my teacher gave us many writing assignments.  One assignment I had to do was a debate with another classmate.  As soon as the assignment was given my teacher said to start researching.  Before I started to do anything I had to decide first; what position I was taking, who my audiences was that I would be writing or speaking to, etc.  The design is an important issue, you must decide what is appropriate and inappropriate text for this particular writing.

-Caley