A Helping Hand
When reading through something you might come across online, you’re probably gonna catch onto what it is that the author of the article is trying to do for you (the reader). Whether it be trying to explain a situation to you or sell you some cheap product online that you find in stores, it’s a pretty big deal in trying to understand why the writer is telling you these things to begin with.
The example I would like for you all to tear apart under your microscopes, is an article on Nerdarchy where the writer, James Leslie, is trying to inform the reader to some tools that he thinks people would find helpful with the hobby of Tabletop Roleplaying (TTRPG).
I’ll explain...
In that special introduction paragraph, the writer assumes the connection between himself and the reader, the participation in TTRPGs. The article seems to be geared more towards newer players and this is apparent by how he references a popular media source, Critical Role. Critical Role is an online stream of players who play Dungeons and Dragons and it’s growth in popularity have attracted many people to the game with likeable characters and tense adventure stories. The author knows that Critical Role has played a major part in attracting new players and, in bringing it up, new players could gain a connection as to how this article would help them.
The writer gives a few examples of tools that would help someone in creating their world of games, but the most important bit I’d like to show is his final example, Realm Works.
Of course giving useful tools would be the goal, but it’s important to inform your readers what they might be in for when using some these resources. For Realm Works, the writer let’s the reader know of their personal experience with the software and how useful it is for the hobby. Most important of all, is that they let the reader know of major issues that go into using this program. The reader is going to want to know ahead of time if something can go wrong, especially when there is money involved like this software. And when taking this tool into account, the reader can make a better decision of whether or not to invest into the product.
