Thinking about the three points of our triangle, the girl begins to make decisions about the content of her message, what she wants to say and how she wants to say it. This is a tricky situation, but no more so than many others, once you analyze them closely. Purpose: To persuade her father to temporarily increase his level of financial support by a hundred dollars a month so that she can quit her job and concentrate more on her studies. Her mother almost always remains subordinate to the father, but exerts a great deal of influence on the father and has at least hinted that she supports the girl's desire to become a doctor. Her father is a successful banker, generally loving and supportive but a bit old-fashioned in that he wants the daughter to get the kind of education that would fit her for a more conventional 'woman's role' in society, maybe dental hygiene or nursing since she is interested in medicine. Reader: Her parents, but especially her father who, she knows, will make the final decision after talking the issue out with her mother.

Writer: A college freshman away from home and working part-time at a fast-food restaurant to pay her expenses, a serious student majoring in pre-medicine but getting mentally and emotionally exhausted from the various pressures in her life. New questions appear: What sort of person will my reader perceive me to be? Will my reader understand and sympathize with my purpose in writing? What kinds and amounts of information does my reader require? How should I present this information in order to achieve my purpose? Consider the following example: Responding well to the writing context requires seeing from multiple viewpoints, and seeing how these viewpoints interrelate. A reader might ask: What sort of person wrote this? What does the writer hope to accomplish? How has the content been shaped by the writer's experience and motives? You may note that your reader will be looking at the context from a different viewpoint. The better you understand the circumstances that prompt you to write, the better you can respond, adjusting your style to suit the specific context. As you size up the situation, you begin to ask: Who is my reader? What purpose do I hope to achieve? What should I say in order to achieve my purpose?

When you write, you may first look at the context from your own viewpoint.

Writing contexts