Nope.

That’s the chapter. One question, one answer.

OK. Just kidding. There’s a little more to it than that. Most students are used to the idea that their  teacher/instructor/professor is their reader. And that is true: the person who will be reading your writing is the person teaching the course.

But reader ≠ audience.

In this course, everything you write will have an audience but that audience is not the instructor; it’s whoever you choose it to be – or who you need it to be – based on the situation and purpose as outlined in the assignment.

Since that may change from one assignment to the next, it’s impossible for you to know everything about your audience right now or to make any decisions about how to reach them. Instead, you should start focusing on the one thing you do know about your audience.

It’s not me.