: Re: Is it eccentric to address the reader in non-fiction writing? I have observed that I often address the reader in my essays to lay down a point. To give you an example, I'll write: You

@LarsenBagley300

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I used to do movie reviews for my college news paper as well as opinion articles related to pop-culture (usually in a top ten style list, and with a bit of explination for my choices). My writing style for both tended to be a bit more loose with that than my more serious writing because I was attempting humor and the breaking the fourth wall style is fun when I'm giving my opinions and a fun way for me to address likely counter arguements ("Now I know what you're going to say..."). I also knew the bulk of the paper's readership was very nerdy, so if I'm defending say... The theme to "Star Trek: Enterprise" was one of my favorite TV shows, it's a great way to acknowledge that I know this isn't going to be taken seriously by the readers ("Don't throw away the paper yet, I have a good reason!").

Again, this depends on the reader and the nature of the article. Review articles, Advice pieces, and general silly works are much more permitted by this. I would never write like that on a term paper or one that was published by in actual news (We were in Central Florida, so Disney company news was treated as major local news in the area. I had established an early rep as being the "Disney Guy" so there were announcements I did have to put on my serious hat for.).

From feedback, the best gags in my articles were the ones where I broke the fourth wall because, again, knowing my audience, I had a tendancy to time it write so yeah, I did know what you were thinking.

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