Audience

Like, Who Are You Really Talking To?

Here’s one of the biggest mistakes students make with the AP Lang test: They fail to ask, Who is the writer talking to? In other words, who is her audience? In rhetoric, the audience is the reason a person is talking or writing. And the success of a rhetorical act—a speech, an essay, an argument, whatever—depends on the audience’s reaction. Keep that audience in mind, if only to yourself. It will help you answer the prompt.

The problem is, the test often won’t tell you who the audience is. You have to detect it yourself. Here’s how:

1.     Look for the occasion.

In the 2020 test, one of the prompts included George H. W. Bush’s acceptance speech at the 1988 Republican Convention, where the party nominated him as their presidential candidate. Picture the venue: gigantic convention center filled with people waving signs and wearing ridiculous hats. Now: who was the audience? Opera lovers? Birdwatchers? Republicans! Pretty easy guess, right? Yet, when Tania was scoring that test, she saw that a surprising number of students seemed unaware of that audience. And they got a lower score.

2.     Look at the medium.

Was the text printed in a science journal, uploaded to an environmentalist website, or spoken on national television? You often can determine the audience by looking at the audience of the medium itself.

3.     Look at the tone and language.

Is the writer or speaker critical of an opposing group? Does he fire up the audience? Flatter it? Many students who analyzed Bush’s speech pointed out that he was making a call to all Americans, Democrats and Republicans alike. Well, possibly. But in the speech he refers to “liberal Democrats,” at a time when the word “liberal” meant “big-spending, big government.” Not exactly flattering. But one student argued that Bush softened his attack on his opponent (Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis), possibly to gain some of the voters in the middle. Remember point No. 2: look at the medium. Sure, Bush was speaking at his party’s convention. But his speech was broadcast on national television networks. Not all that audience were Republicans.

4.     Read the prompt carefully.

Sometimes, those clever test writers will drop a hint. For example, the Q1 question in the 2019 AP Lang exam asked specifically for students to consider the “important factors that an individual or agency should consider.” Hmm, what’s the audience there? Clearly, it has to do with government (OR BIG BUSINESS??). When you read the text, you can see what sort of agency they’re talking about. That’s the audience.

5.     Remember your audience.

Q1 prompts tend to be specific and provide clues to the audience. Q3 prompts are broader, and you may have no idea who the audience is supposed to be. Still, there’s an audience: the person reading your answer. Who is she? An adult, and a scholarly one at that. Keep her in mind. 

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