Awareness of audience is of major importance in rhetoric, but most students who come to a writing center need help in recognizing and accommodating an audience for their work. Standard warnings from rhetoric texts and writing instructors not to write for the instructor not withstanding, it is the job of the writing center staff to help the student acknowledge the professor (the professional, not the person) as audience. The center staff must also teach the students the conventions of academic discourse and help them to adjust their writing accordingly. Minimally, such discourse is formal, serious, properly documented, structured, of limited scope, substantiated, correct, guided by reason, and informative or interpretive. Writing center staff should also know the conventions of academic forms: the case study, the laboratory report, the review paper, and research papers in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Finally, a usage preference profile of faculty will enable the center staff to guide the students' writing realistically. (JL)