To: Nancy Myers

From: Christopher Tyler

Date: January 18, 2022
Re: APLED 121-Chapter 5 Summary

CHAPTER 5
AUDIENCE RECOGNITION

Audience Recognitions

• Knowledge of Subject Matter

o How involved is the audience in the subject matter?
▪ High-Tech Audience-work in the field of your expertise.
▪ Low-Tech Audience-includes coworkers in other departments and
possibly bosses and colleagues of other companies.
▪ Lay Audience-an audience that is neither work for your company
or have knowledge of your field of expertise.
▪ Multiple Audiences- Sometimes you have multiple levels of
expertise in your audience.
• Writing for Future Audience
o Write for and Audience that will read your material in the future.
o Future readers need clarity, background information and terms defined.
o Future audiences are included but not limited to:
▪ Judges and juries that rely on past reports for cases.
▪ Technicians who need to implement current lab procedures based
on previous results.
▪ Accountants and auditors

Defining Terms for Audiences

• Defining Terms Parenthetically

o Use Parentheticals to help define certain terms your audience might not
know which results in clarity.
• Defining your terms in a Sentence
o Use sentences to give the definition of a term.
• Using Extending definitions of one or More Paragraphs
o Includes distinguishing characteristics, examples, procedures and
descriptions.
• Using a Glossary
o Alphabetized list of terms that have not been defined another way.
• Providing Pop-Ups and Links with Definitions
o Links and Pop-ups are useful to help define terms or provide additional
information.
Audience Personality Traits

➢ Taking into consideration of our audience’s personality is just as important as the

consideration of the audience’s knowledge of the subject matter being discussed.
➢ This can be accomplished by using proper writing styler, tone and visual aids to
meet the audience’s needs accordingly.

Biased Language-Issues of Diversity

➢ Your audience will be diverse in many ways such as: race, gender, age, religion,
affiliations and more.
➢ We need to understand the issues of diversity for the following reasons
1. Diversity is protected by the law.
2. Respecting diversity is the right thing to do.
3. Diversity is good for business.
4. A Diverse workforce keeps companies competitive.
Multiculturalism

• The Global Economy

o Edward Jones reports that “S&P 500 companies generate about half of
their sales outside of the us.
o Employees are geographically dispersed and clear and concise
communication must be translated.
• Cross-cultural
o Multiculturalism will create the challenge of cross-cultural communication
even in your own city and state.
• Workplace communication
o Language barriers can be detrimental to specific work environments such
as police, paramedics and nurses where communication errors can have a
negative impact or dangerous repercussions.

Guidelines for Effective Multicultural Communication

• Define Acronyms and Abbreviations

o Abbreviations can be difficult for those not native to the United States
o For example, “System Manager” is abbreviated “sysmgr”. Which can be
confusing for people of other cultures.
• Avoid Jargon and Idioms
o Words and phrases used in America may not translate well/correctly in
other countries.
o These expressions are somewhat meaningless in a global market.
• Distinguish Between Nouns and Verbs
o Some English words act as both nouns and verbs.
o When translated, your reader must be able to tell which of the two the
word is.
• Watch for Cultural Biases/Expectations
 o Colors and images that connote one thing in America can have a
completely different meaning in another country.
o For example, in America we eat bacon and have piggy banks; in the
Mideast pork is a negative symbol.
• Be Careful When Using Slash Marks
o Slash marks can be confusing and must be clear on what you meant for
translation purposes.
o Avoid this problem by knowing what you want to say.
• Avoid Humor and Puns
o Humor is not universal and different audiences could be negatively
affected.
• Realize That Translations May Take More or Less Space
o Consider software line-length when writing will be displayed online or
paper size in other countries when printing. There will be differences that
could cause binding and hole punching problems.
• Avoid Figurative Language
o Figurative language communication doesn’t work worldwide.
o Say what you mean and be precise instead to avoid conflict.
• Be Careful with Numbers, Measurements, Dates and Times
o Different countries have different standards of measurements, dates and
times and have different formats.
o Time zones can be a challenge as well.
• Use Stylized Graphics to Represent People
o Avoid describing people using shades of skin color, race, hairstyles and
genders.
o Use stick figures when drawing people making them neither male or
female.

Avoid Biased Language

• Ageist Language
o Avoid ageist words like “elderly” or “old folks” which could create a
negative image or imply feebleness.
• Biased Language About People with Disabilities
o Words like handicap and disability can be offensive. It is better to describe
physical problems without negative characterizations.
• Sexist Language
o Avoid sexist language when writing because it can cause problems of
unequal treatment and omission.
Audience Involvement

• Personalized Tone
o Companies do not write to companies, people write to people and using
pronouns and names help humanize your text.
• Reader Benefit
o Give your reader what they want and need by explaining the benefit of
your technical communication whilst using positive words to involve the
audience.
o Positive word examples:
▪ Succeed
▪ Produce
▪ Value
▪ Appreciate
▪ Benefit
▪ Confident
▪ Favorable

The Writing Process at Work

• Prewriting
o Create an outline of your writing in draft form.
• Writing
o Create a rough draft of your writing and have a colleague for feedback.
• Rewriting
o Revise your writing to meet the client’s needs in specific ways.