When you write for an American audience, you probably think that the only thing you should be concerned about is the Americanized spelling and the tone. Well, it is good to follow the right Americanized spelling to show that you have given your writing some thought or for the article to sound authentically American. It is also good to follow the American tone for your article to be better understood and related to. However, you should also consider a few other things that make up American writing. Here are a couple of the points that define an ideal article written for an American audience:

Simple and direct to the point

An American audience wants an article to be direct to the point. There should be no winding introductions that do not seem to provide much support for the whole article. Your American readers most likely do not have a lot of time to spare. So, you have to give them the bottom line right away. In fact, put the very point of your article right at the beginning. This way, your American readers can decide whether to proceed reading or not. To keep things simple, you should avoid using words that you believe will impress your readers. Go for simpler words and cut down on complicated sentences. You are writing to inform and not to make your audience keep guessing.

Examples and illustrations provided

You have to support your point. It is not enough to state your bottom line and then say that you are right. You have to prove you are right by stating some examples and illustrations and how they logically form the conclusion that you have earlier stated. Avoid any logical flaws when building your support or else your whole article could be deemed unreliable or even completely false, by some readers. For academic writing, you also have to cite some reliable sources.

There are other aspects of writing for an American audience that you should follow. You have to stay politically correct and use non-discriminatory words. You can check a book on politically correct terms. As for not being discriminatory, a good example is using the word chairperson instead of chairman.

Related Questions:

1. What are the points you should remember when writing for an American audience?
2. Why should you write the bottom line in the beginning?
3. How different do you think Western writing is from other types of writing?