Public Writing

I treat all my academic writing as if it were public writing. It has to be appropriate for all readers. I don't think I have ever written a piece of public writing though. However, all my academic pieces are not written directly to my teacher, but as if anyone could read it. I have written research papers on very specific topics, and its difficult to establish authority among readers who would read such a topic. I wrote a paper about whether or not the novel Heart of Darkness is racist. There is a community who think about that a lot and many papers have been written on the topic, so to make mine stand out is difficult.