Discourses of Desire in Sex and the City

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Audience and thesis and dissertation
writing Brian Paltridge The University of
Sydney

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Audience and academic writing

• the expert, 'all-powerful reader' of students'
  texts who can either accept or reject students'
  writing as coherent and consistent with the
  conventions of the target discourse community, or
  not.
• knowledge of this audience's attitudes, beliefs,
  and expectations is not only possible but
  essential for student writers
• (Johns, 1990)

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Primary and secondary readerships

• a dominant, or 'primary' reader, within the
  academy, "quite simply counts more than other
  readers"
• (Kamler and Threadgold,1997, p. 53)
• It is important for students to consider the
  expert, 'all-powerful reader' of their texts who
  can either accept, or reject, their writing as
  being coherent and consistent with the
  conventions of the target discourse community, or
  not (Johns, 1990) and how they will (potentially)
  read their text.

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Academic essays

• the essay, in normal practice "has to be written
  in a way to appeal both to an imaginary reader as
  a communication and to the tutor as an exhibit"
• (Kusel, 1992, p. 459)

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Thesis writing

• The students' relation to their audience is
  strange, in that they presume that the real
  readers (supervisor, examiners) already know much
  of what they have to say. This unacknowledged
  knowledge-display function of theses must affect
  the writing process (Shaw, 1991, p. 193).

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The context of thesis writing

• the setting of the text
• the focus and perspective of the text
• the purpose/s of the text
• the intended audience for the text, their role
  and purpose in reading the text
• the relationship between writers and readers of
  the text
• expectations, conventions and requirements for
  the text
• the background knowledges, values, and
  understandings it is assumed the student shares
  with their readers, including what is important
  to their reader and what is not
• the relationship the text has with other texts

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The setting of the text
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Focus and perspective of the text
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The purpose/s of the text
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The intended audience for the text, their role
and purpose in reading the text
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The relationship between writers and readers of
the text
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Expectations, conventions and requirements for
the text
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• Background knowledges, values, and
  understandings it is assumed the student shares
  with their readers, including what is important
  to their reader and what is not

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• The relationship the text has with other texts

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Beyond the text (Freedman, 1989)