Genre : ACADEMIC DISCOURSE

• To discuss an issue the writer is interested in
• To act as a research study
• To be a source / archive of research materials for others
• As part of a module / as an assignment

• Lecturers / Tutors / Academics
• Students
• Others 

• Content: The audience expects the same form of academic content as the printed text. They also expect the sites to be wordy (since ekphrasis is still very much alive in the academic world, online or offline.) The audience would also expect to see bibliographies and annotations.
• Structure: A professional and simple introduction to the writer or a link to his/her homepage is acceptable.
• Aesthetics: Most academic websites are not very aesthetically pleasing (except where the academic subject is relevant to design or hypertext). The style is often minimalist and simplistic.
• Navigation: The audience expects to be given the basic navigation structures to help them navigate the web, such as search engines and indexes. 
• Loading Time: This is usually not a huge problem with academic sites since they usually comprise of text files, except where a animated demonstration or a video is necessary.
• Interactivity: The audience might expect to see a discussion forum / FAQ section where they can make some form of reply to the issues to discussed.
• Graphics / Audio Effects: This depends largely on the subject of the website. The audience can expect to see many graphics if the subject is art. They would not expect extraneous animation, graphics, or other fancy decorations on the web.
• Frequent Updates: It is not likely that the audience actively expect frequent updates to existing articles, but an expansion of the website would be a bonus.

Other Factors:

• An academic website would have greater credibility if the webmaster / webmistress is part of a tertiary institution. e.g. Brown University.
• The academic writer's main preoccupation is the subject matter. However, there is also an increasing desire to explore how the space can be better utilized to discuss the subject.

• Content: The writer would of course want the website to be useful and beneficial to students and researchers. This is perhaps the strongest instance where the expectations of the audience would influence the writer. For instance, EL3209 students are expected to write essays and write essays they will.
• Structure: The structure of an academic site is frequently hierarchical and logical as in print text.
• Aesthetics: Again, this is because the writer frequently model the site on a print book. However this trend is changing as web authoring tools become more and more user-friendly.
• Navigation: The writer would try to aid the users where s/he can, however this expectation is hinged on a technical necessity. (Unlike a book, one cannot flip the pages of a website to find a relevant section.)
• Loading Time: The writer is merely reacting to the conventions of academic writing, not to the expectations of the audience.
• Interactivity: I suspect the writer would incorporate interactivity in order to facilitate communications about the research subject rather than paying any attention to the audience's expectations and tastes.
• Graphics / Audio Effects: These will be incorporated only when necessary or relevant to the subject matter or when the writer feels like it.
• Frequent Updates: This is done when the assignments are still coming or the writer is still interested in the topic and when the audience who is also the tutor (or the student) expects it.

The academic writer is governed by the audience's expectations and tastes only in terms of content. S/he is more governed by the practicalities surrounding the subject matter and his/her goals.

Where the writing is self-reflexive, there may be an increasing trend to abandon linear thought for multi-linear thinking. This is still in the experimental stage however.

Analysis of Four Texts: