Audience Analysis

and Adaptation
Or
Audience Recognition
and Involvement
 Who is Audience?
• When your write a memo,
letter or report, someone
reads it. That individual or
group of readers is your
audience.
 Who is Audience?
• The audience of a
technical writing is the
intended or potential
reader or readers.
 Who is Audience?
• Audience refers to the real and the
imagined readers (users) who use
texts (products) to do something in
their own environment.
• Audience is the real, flesh-and-blood
people that we can interview in their
workplace and observe doing their
jobs.
• Audience is also the
imagined interpreters of our
products whose questions
we attempt to anticipate
when designing/writing;

• they are the voices in our

heads guiding our decisions
during the writing/reporting
process.
oA primary difference between
technical writing and other types of
writing is the importance of
audience.
o The audience for other types of
Writing is not required to act after
reading the text. This is not the case
with technical writing.
o When a technical document is
submitted, the reader responds.
o Audience either follows a
procedure, answers a request,
makes a decision, or files the
documents.
o Whatever the case, the writer
writes the technical document and
expects the reader (the audience)
to react.
oThe writer and reader are not
removed, as they often are from
other types of writing.

oIn technical writing, the writer

and reader are fused. They are
involved in a business
transaction.
• For most technical writers,
this is the most important
consideration in planning,
writing, and reviewing a
document. You "adapt" your
writing to meet the needs,
interests, and background of
the readers who will be
reading your writing.
• The principle seems absurdly simple
and obvious.
• It's much the same as telling someone,
"Talk so the person in front of you can
understand what you're saying."
• It's like saying,
"Don't talk rocket science to your
six-year-old."
• Do we need a course in that?
• Doesn't seem like it.

• But, in fact, lack of audience

analysis and adaptation is
one of the root causes of most of
the problems found in
professional, technical documents
 Audience
• Just as you have a purpose in writing, your
audience has a purpose in reading.
• Your goal is to ensure that the ideas you
have when writing are the same ideas that
your audience has when reading.
• Determine who your audience is so you can
focus in on as small a group as possible.
• The broader the audience, the larger the
chance that the same information will be
interpreted in different ways.
 Audience Use of Document
–Readers of technical and
scientific writing, whatever their
level of expertise, read a
document for three general
purposes:
• to acquire information
• to help make decisions
• to learn how to do something
• Determine your audience's needs by
assessing their expertise and their
purpose in reading the document.
Effective technical writing recognizes
several types of readers, reflecting
different levels of expertise:
– Experts/ High-Tech Audience
– Technicians/Operators/ Low-Tech Audience
– Managers
– Laypersons / Lay audience
– Mixed audiences, composed of one or more of the
listed groups.
 Experts/High-Tech Audience
o High-tech readers work in your field of
expertise.
o They might work directly with you in your
department, or they might work in a
similar capacity for another company.
o Wherever they work, they are your
colleagues because they share your
educational background, work
experience, or level of understanding.
o These are the people who know the
theory and the product inside and out.

o Often, they have advanced degrees

and operate in academic settings or
in research and development areas of
the government and business worlds.
• High-Tech readers share your level
of understanding. Therefore,
– They will understand high-tech
jargon, acronyms, and
abbreviations.
– You do not have to explain, for
example, what MHz means as this
would be:
• Unnecessary and
• Offensive.
 Technicians/Low-Tech Audience
• These are the people who build,
operate, maintain, and repair the stuff
that the experts design and theorize
about.
• They need information to troubleshoot,
modify or upgrade, and maintain or
repair equipment.
• They need practical information in a
format that is easy to use.
• To facilitate understanding of
subject matter, technicians rely on
visuals such as tables, graphs,
drawings, and photographs to
supplement the written words.
• Theirs is a highly technical
knowledge as well, but of a more
practical nature.
Purposes in Using Document
Technicians read technical and scientific
documents for a variety of purposes:
• To learn how to perform particular tasks.
• To learn how to solve specific problems.
• To learn about new devices and
procedures relevant to their particular
tasks.
• To acquire and expand background
knowledge helpful to the performance of
their tasks.
Strategies for Writing to Technicians

• Keep introductions and background

information brief.
• Make information accessible
(explained in next slide)
• Provide short definitions or
explanations of any unfamiliar
terms, tools, devices, or
procedures.
Making Information accessible:
• When appropriate, reduce information
to instructions on how to perform a
procedure or diagnose and fix a
problem
• Use graphs and tables
• Keep sections and overall instructions
as short as possible
• Index and cross-reference material.
 Managers/Executives
• These are the people who make business,
economic, administrative, legal,
governmental, political decisions on the stuff
that the experts and technicians work with.
• Managers usually supervise a number of
projects, so they may not be familiar with
every recent technological advance
• And often managers are specialists in fields
such as marketing or management and
have little detailed technical knowledge.
• In general, managers read for the
bottom line, a concise summary of
the present situation and specific
recommendations for action.
• Managers/Executives need to make
decisions based on applicability,
marketability, and profitability.
• They want conclusions and
alternatives rather than details.
• Executives are likely to have as
little technical knowledge about
the subject as non-specialists.
• 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.
 Writing for Managers

• Assume that managers are busy

people who need to use
documents primarily as tools in
making decisions. Because
managers read and review
many documents, be brief and to
the point.
 Lay persons/Lay audience
• Customers and clients who neither
work for your company nor have any
knowledge about your field of expertise
are your lay audience.
• These readers have the least technical
knowledge of all.
• Their interest may be as practical as
technicians', but in a different way.
Lay audience read for interest and information.
• Laypersons read technical and scientific
documents for a variety of purposes:
– To expand their general knowledge.
– To use the new product to accomplish
their tasks.
– To help make decisions as citizens,
consumers, and investors.
– Or, they may just be curious about a specific
technical matter and want to learn about it--but
for no specific, practical reason.
• Writing to a high-tech reader is easy as
he completely understands the
technology you are discussing.
• However, writing to a low-tech co-
worker or a lay audience totally outside
your field of expertise is demanding.
• To write successfully to a lay audience,
remember that these readers share the
following characteristics:
• Lay readers are unfamiliar with
your subject matter. They do not
understand your technology.
Therefore you must write simply
and clearly.
– You achieve clarity through precise
word usage, depth of detail, and
simple graphics.
• Avoid high-tech terms or define them
thoroughly.
– Since your lay readers do not
understand your technology or work
environment, they will not understand
any of your in-house jargon or
abbreviations.
How to Communicate to Different Audience Levels
Audience How to communicate Sample
High-Tech Use jargon, acronym, The wastewater
or abbreviation alone is being treated
for DBPs.
Low-Tech Use jargon, acronym, The wastewater is
being treated for
or abbreviation with
DBPs (disinfection
parenthetical definition
by-products).
Lay Use jargon, acronym, The wastewater is
being treated for
or abbreviation with a DBPs (disinfection
parenthetical definition by-products), such
and a brief explanation as acid, methane,
or extended definition. chlorine, and
ammonia.
 Writing for a Mixed Audience
• Often a document will be read by readers
with different levels of expertise.
• Computer documentation, for instance,
may be written for experts who are familiar
with all the hardware and software
processes involved, technicians who will
install and support the application, a
manager who may be deciding whether or
not to purchase the software, and
laypersons who may occasionally use it.
Strategies for Writing to Mixed
Audiences

• Ifappropriate, create separate

documents for each audience
type.
• Use an executive summary to
present the gist of your
document in understandable
language.
• If
many of your readers will not be
experts or technicians, place all
lengthy technical discussion in
appendixes (a collection of separate
material at the end of a book or
document) and refer to them in the
main body.
• Segment the document into
sections so that different audiences
can read different parts.
• Include in the front matter or
introduction a short discussion of what
sections are appropriate to each type
of reader and for what purposes.
• Explain all technical terms thoroughly
in any section that may be read by a
lay reader.
• Include a comprehensive glossary
section explaining all technical terms in
either the front matter or the end
matter.
Audience Attitude Toward Subject
• If your audience initially may be hostile to
your major conclusions, you may want to
present the problem first, then your
analysis, then your conclusions or
recommendations.
• On the other hand, if you believe your
audience to be receptive to your
conclusions (especially if your audience is
a manager), begin with conclusions and
recommendations.
 Audience Interest in Subject

• Your audience's interest in your

document's content will affect its
organization.
• If your audience is already
interested in your subject, you
may be able to shorten your
introduction.
• If your audience is not interested in your
subject or if you do not know the level of
their interest, explain why the material in
the document is important to the reader.
• On the other hand, if the audience does
not know you or does not consider you an
expert, or if the reader has had past
negative experience with you or your
organization, the document should include
extensive explanations of your conclusions
and recommendations to create trust and
establish credibility.