The writing process' first stage is to answer these two questions:

1) What is my purpose? (Or, why am I writing about this?)
2) Who is my intended audience? (Your professor, a wide and general audience, or a small and specific audience?)

By determining an answer to each of these questions, you will be better prepared to plan your research and writing. The video introduces the importance of these two questions, and also introduces potential forms your writing can take.

Purpose
Understanding your research purpose will aid your research, planning, outlining, and writing. Having a clear, firm purpose will give direction to your work through every step of the writing process.

When determining your purpose, Writing Advisors often find it useful to think about your research and writing as a problem, puzzle, or gap. This is a helpful way to identify your research purpose:
1) Identify a problem. Your purpose is then to find and present a possible solution to that problem.
2) Put together a puzzle. There may be a lot of different information on a topic and your purpose is to bring that information together to create a clearer picture.
3) Research a gap in knowledge or understanding. If you see a gap, or something missing, your purpose will be to fill the gap.

Here is a quick overview of some potential formats when writing a research paper, and how a purpose fits into them:

- You want to provide unbiased facts to your readers, and allow them to make their own decision about those facts. This is an expository format. You expose the reader to facts and present those facts in a neutral manner.

- You want to examine two or more objects or cases to understand similarities and differences between them. This is a compare and contrast format. You examine facts between two or more things, and draw logical conclusions based on their differences or similarities.

- You want to persuade or convince the readers of your viewpoint. This is an argumentative format. You will use facts and evidence that support your view, and demonstrate why your understanding is more correct than another viewpoint.

- You want to learn more about one specific topic. This will be a case study. Your intention is to research and develop a better understanding of a particular object, group, or event.

There are many other formats that can be taken, depending on your study field. Try examining some documents, reports, or scientific articles in your field to determine what the purpose of those papers are.

Audience
Your writing will change depending on who you are writing for. Things like your word choice, the amount of background information you must provide, and the amount of explanation you must give will be very different depending on who your intended audience is.

Are you writing for:

- A wide, general audience?
If so, your audience may know little about your topic and field of study. You will need to simply, and clearly inform them of your purpose (why your topic is important) in a way that they will understand and relate to. You will also need to provide more background information to provide context to your purpose. Additionally, you will need to provide more explanation for concepts, procedures, or technical terms that you use, to ensure they understand you.

- A narrow, specific and specialized audience?
This group will include people within your field of study. You can assume they already know much about your topic, so you do not need to provide as much background information or explanation in your writing. You must still provide a clear and justified purpose so that your audience will want to read and critically think about your writing.

- Your professor?
In many cases at NMBU, you will be writing assignments for a course you are taking. It is safe to assume that your professor knows a lot about your topic, but they typically want to test what you know about the topic. Your professor should inform you about what they expect in your assignment. Some professors may want you to provide background information and explanations, in order to test your complete knowledge on a topic. Other professors may want you to provide a summary of something you read and to provide your own critical insight. You may have professors who only want you to provide results and discuss them. Speak with your professor to know what they expect.

By understanding both the purpose and audience for your writing, you will be on a strong starting path for the rest of your research and writing.