Is the Audience Important in Writing?

(Aristotle says it is)

School of Athens by Raphael (Wikimedia Commons)

A good subject (content) is crucial to writing, but its relationship to the audience cannot be underestimated. In fact, I believe that understanding your audience is the single most important writing consideration to make your writing stand out. Over the years, most courses I have taken emphasized subject matter knowledge, development of paragraphs, and…