Keeping your audience in mind

I've been "surfing the web" looking for interesting writing prompts and assignment ideas. Not surprisingly, typing something like "college essay prompt" into Google brings up websites that range from the exceptionally helpful to the ridiculously bad. One site in particular, which advertises itself as a tutoring and editing resource for writers, is packed with typos to the point where content is often confusing. I'm far from a grammar hound, but given the author's purpose, to advertise his/her services as a writing consultant, the errors are hard to ignore. This got me thinking about issues of audience and how hard it can sometimes be to get students to think about an audience beyond the instructor who will dole out a grade. I managed to find what I think is a pretty excellent source about how to think about writing for an audience (see Thinking and Writing for an Audience link), but I've also decided to post a link to the particular page that got me thinking about audience to begin with (essay to review) My thinking here is not to point out the mistakes of others - I'm sure a reader can find plenty of fault with my writing if prompted - but to supply a blatant example of writing that does not consider audience. Showing students a poorly written page about how to write might get them to think a little about what it means to consider how topic and audience are connected.