Who am I writing this too?

The topic of this essay was the relationships between writers and their readers ( audience) and how they differ from that of an orator and his audience. Ong tell us that there is a big difference between the two, for one the writer has no immediate reaction from his audience like an orator would, and secondly, to who is the writer really talking? This second question is Ongs main point, he say that the writer is writing to a "readership" that is far away in space and also in time. So in many cases the writer has to invent a reader to write to. But this does not mean imagine everyone that might read your story, what is meant is what is the relationship of writer and reader. Homer had his audience, but his was not the same as Faulkners or Hemmingways readership. One also writes different when writing to different people, this case was proven when Ong went through some of the other possible genres beside fiction, like history, letters and dairy's. I especially liked his example of the student asked to write about his summer in class, who is the student supposed to write the essay to? Normally the student would not tell the teacher what he did in the summer. This is way Ong argues a writer should fictionalize his audience.

On a personal note, I really enjoyed this article, because it did bring up some questions I had been mussing over. And it also stressed some points which were also mentioned in some prior essay's. I don't remember which essay it was, but I recall one arguing the student should never write his paper for the teacher or for oneself, which i agree to.