instructor: Jentery Sayers
~ classroom: smi 309
& ougl 101
~ TTh: 9:30-11:20
Questions for Writers
As you write in English 121, ask yourself:
- What are my motives for writing? That is, what am I trying to achieve and how do I expect the text I am writing to help me achieve it?
- In what ways and how have I met my expectations for what I am trying to achieve?
- What do readers expect from a writer of the text I am writing? How do I want to be “invented” by my readers? Does the writer I project match the one readers expect? Why or why not? What cues identify me or make me “visible” to my readers?
- Who do I expect will read the text I am writing and for what purposes? Have I given my readers what they need and expect? How or why not?
- What roles have I created for my audience? What cues do I give my readers to help them adopt those roles?
- What relationship have I created between me as a writer and my readers?
- What questions do I want readers to ask of my text? How do I get them to ask the questions I consider important?
- What conventions (level of formality, simple or complex sentences, specialized vocabulary, kinds of words, style, citations system, and so on) do writers of the sort of text that I am writing usually use? In what ways does my text match these conventions? If it does not match certain conventions, why doesn’t it? And how do I help readers accept my text?
The text on this page is based upon a handout by Anis Bawarshi, University of Washington Dept. of English.
uw english
| jentery at u.washington.edu ![]()

