Audience Analysis 1) 3-7, 9-36
Audience Analysis 1) 3-7, 9-36
TECHNICAL WRITING
Why?
• As an engineer, you will need to communicate with several different
audiences and possibly all in one document. For example, should you
draft a technical report on your latest project, the company president
will be more interested in the executive summary and the financial
reporting whereas fellow experts will be more interested in the
technical details of the project and you can easily communicate with
them using charts, mathematical expressions, and technical terms.
Both audiences will read the entire document, but focusing those
areas to each group will allow you to communicate your purpose
more efficiently and effectively.
Analyzing Your Audience’s Needs
• Here are some key questions to ask when determining the readers’ needs
during your preparation:
• Who specifically is your reader? Are there multiple readers?
• What do your readers already know about the subject?
• Do you need to modify your message for international readers? Are there
cultural issues that you need to address or avoid?
• As a writer, your most important responsibility is determining who makes
up your audience. You should continue to analyze your audience
throughout the composing process. You can build a legitimately accurate
representation of your audience by asking yourself key questions before
and while you write.
Specific VS General Audience
SPECIFIC GENERAL
• Expert • Layman Audience
• Peer • Low Technicality
• Highly Technical • Avoid JARGONS/
• Explain unavoidable Jargons
• USE SPECIALIZED LANGUAGE
Types of Audience
• Primary audience
• Those who receive the communication directly and are also known as
the target audience. The person is also usually the decision maker.
• Secondary audience
• The readers who are not the primary addressee, but are still included
as viewer.
• This typical business memo is being directly sent to Stan Jobs, who is
the main, or primary, audience. Linda Smith, the sender, has also
decided to send George Jones a copy of this message, as shown on
the CC line of the memo.
Memo
• To: Basit, Ali PRIMARY AUDIENCE
• Date: 3/2/17
• Re: New Parking Policy to start 2/4/17
Types of Audience
• Types of Audiences
• One of the first things to do when you analyze and audience is to identify its
type (or types—it's rarely just one type). The common division of audiences
into categories is as follows:
• Experts: These are the people who know the theory and the product inside
and out. They designed it, they tested it, they know everything about it.
Often, they have advanced degrees and operate in academic settings or in
research and development areas of the government and technology worlds.
The nonspecialist reader is least likely to understand what these people are
saying—but also has the least reason to try. More often, the communication
challenge faced by the expert is communicating to the technician and the
executive.
• Technicians: These are the people who build, operate, maintain, and
repair the stuff that the experts design and theorize about. Theirs is a
highly technical knowledge as well, but of a more practical nature.
• Executives: These are the people who make business, economic,
administrative, legal, governmental, political decisions on the stuff
that the experts and technicians work with. If it's a new product, they
decide whether to produce and market it. If it's a new power
technology, they decide whether the city should implement it.
Executives are likely to have as little technical knowledge about the
subject as nonspecialists.
• Nonspecialists: These readers have the least technical knowledge of
all. Their interest may be as practical as technicians', but in a different
way. They want to use the new product to accomplish their tasks;
they want to understand the new power technology enough to know
whether to vote for or against it in the upcoming bond election. Or,
they may just be curious about a specific technical matter and want to
learn about it—but for no specific, practical reason.
Audience Analysis
• It's important to determine which of the four categories just discussed the potential
readers of your document belong to, but that's not the end of it. Audiences, regardless of
category, must also be analyzed in terms of characteristics such as the following:
• Background—knowledge, experience, training: One of your most important concerns is
just how much knowledge, experience, or training you can expect in your readers. If you
expect some of your readers to lack certain background, do you automatically supply it in
your document? Consider an example: imagine you're writing a guide to using a software
product that runs under Microsoft Windows. How much can you expect your readers to
know about Windows? If some are likely to know little about Windows, should you
provide that information? If you say no, then you run the risk of customers' getting
frustrated with your product. If you say yes to adding background information on
Windows, you increase your work effort and add to the page count of the document (and
thus to the cost). Obviously, there's no easy answer to this question—part of the answer
may involve just how small a segment of the audience needs that background information.
• Needs and interests: To plan your document, you need to know what
your audience is going to expect from that document. Imagine how
readers will want to use your document; what will they demand from
it. For example, imagine you are writing a manual on how to use a
new smart phone—what are your readers going to expect to find in
it? Imagine you're under contract to write a background report on
global warming for a national real estate association—what do they
want to read about; and, equally important, what do they not want to
read about?
• Other demographic characteristics: And of course there are many
other characteristics about your readers that might have an influence
on how you should design and write your document—for example,
age groups, type of residence, area of residence, gender, political
preferences, and so on.
• Audience analysis can get complicated by at least two other factors:
mixed audience types for one document, wide variability within
audience, and unknown audiences.
• More than one audience. You're likely to find that your report is for
more than one audience. For example, it may be seen by technical
people (experts and technicians) and administrative people
(executives). What to do? You can either write all the sections so that
all the audiences of your document can understand them (good
luck!). Or you can write each section strictly for the audience that
would be interested in it, then use headings and section introductions
to alert your audience about where to go and what to avoid in your
report.
• Wide variability in an audience. You may realize that, although you
have an audience that fits into only one category, there is a wide
variability in its background. This is a tough one—if you write to the
lowest common denominator of reader, you're likely to end up with a
cumbersome, tedious book-like thing that will turn off the majority of
readers. But if you don't write to that lowest level, you lose that
segment of your readers. What to do? Most writers go for the
majority of readers and sacrifice that minority that needs more help.
Others put the supplemental information in appendixes or insert
cross-references to beginners' books.
Analysis Examples