audience and genre

Genre is the the type of piece you are writting, audience is whom it is directed towards.  For instance in something simple like an email to a friend, you know that formaility in the note is not as important as getting your point across.  The specific genre of your writing may have certain constraints on who the specific audience is.  You would not write a pro-democratic speech and read it at a republican convention.  The author always needs to be cognizant of both the type of writing they are producing as well as the audience it is directed towards.  Also a specific audience may influence the genre of your writing.  If you are creating a story for elementary school children you need to keep in mind their abilities.