Writing for Everyone

Jane Gardner

“What are you working on now?” a friend recently asked me.

 “A little bit of this, a little bit of that.” I replied. Her raised eyebrows made me continue “Well, I just finished a magazine article for high school chemistry students but I’m also writing a book about setting up a budget for high school kids reading at a 1st grade level.  I recently finished a first draft of a historical fiction novel about the Mona Lisa for middle school kids who aren’t big fans of reading, and I am working on a proposal for a nonfiction book about zombies for 4th graders struggling to read at grade level.”

This conversation made me sit back and think about what I actually do for a living and the opportunities that are out there. There are so many different groups of readers. And meeting their specific needs and interests make writing a wonderful challenge.

Recently, I have been introduced to three different classifications of readers: reluctant, struggling, and emergent.

  • Reluctant readers are the readers, of any age, who think of reading as a chore. There are any number of reasons for this. They may be able read at an appropriate grade level but don’t enjoy it. Or perhaps they have difficulty reading at grade level and thus avoid reading at all costs. It can be a vicious cycle for any reluctant reader. Books for reluctant readers need to be topical, of interest to a specific group, and most importantly—fun.
  • “Struggling readers” is a population of readers for which reading is just not “energy efficient.” That suggests that the reader is trying hard but still not grasping the whole meaning of the words. Writing for older struggling readers is particularly challenging. They may read at an elementary level, but do not want to read about kittens, puppies, and snowballs. Writing meaningful, and yet age-appropriate, text for these struggling readers is one of the biggest challenges I have faced in my writing lately. It is also one of the more rewarding experiences as well.
  • Emergent readers are on their way. They are essentially beginning readers who are headed toward fluent literacy. Writing for these readers is usually on grade level. It is appropriate for 2nd grade emergent readers to read about wild canine pups or going to a sleepover.  Emergent readers should have the opportunity to read about any number of topics—both fiction and nonfiction. They are often challenged with new vocabulary within the context of a familiar topic.

Know your reader. That seems to be straightforward enough for an experienced freelance writer. But, as I am finding, the number of specific types of readers can make this more challenging that it initially appears. Which readers make up your audience?