In a study exploring how writers use audience awareness and how that awareness is related to the writer's age, four eighteen-year-old and four nine-year-old writers were assigned letters to write for two different audiences: a friend and a great aunt whom they had never met. Thinking-aloud writing protocols were produced at the time of writing. At the end of each writing session, the letter and taped writing protocol became the basis for a stimulated discussion. When both tasks were completed, writers were interviewed about the audience and two writing tasks. Findings show that both groups demonstrated an understanding of their audiences and an awareness that audiences affect writers' decisions. The eighteen-year-olds considered the audience while they were writing and in the stimulated recall and interview sessions. Their writing protocols revealed that the two different audiences led them to consider the appropriateness of ideas, words, and sentences. In contrast, the nine-year-olds seldom reflected on their audiences while they were writing, and almost totally restricted their statements regarding the audience to stimulated recall and interview sessions. (EL)