1. Meeting the Needs of Specific Audiences
Chapter 2
Meeting the Needs of Specific Audiences
Analyzing the audience is one of the most important (and elusive) skills students can
develop. In the workplace and in school, inexperienced writers often are unaware of the
need to adapt a message to their audience. In their simplistic view, writing is a linear task
of transferring material from the brain to the page. Without a sense of their audience, writers
write prematurely—and thus ineffectively.
Spend some time on the “Assess the Audience's Technical Background” section (textbook
pages 20–24), analyzing each sample to see how the level of technicality is adjusted to the
audience’s expectations and needs. Students with traditional composition backgrounds
need practice in thinking about their readers’ specific needs for clear and useful information.
Tell students you will read and evaluate their writing as an employer or supervisor
would—a decision maker who requires clear information, often translated from high to
low technicality. (Here is where contract grading fits in: in the workplace, a product is
unacceptable, acceptable, or superior.) Have students identify an audience and use for
each assignment. You might want them to include a written audience and use analysis
with each submission—especially for the earlier assignments.
If you are unfamiliar with a particular specialty (such as computer science or electrical
engineering), ask students planning long reports or proposals about these specialties to
use you as the secondary reader, and to prepare the report text and supplements accordingly.
For class discussion, ask students to describe situations in which they’ve had to explain
something specialized to an uninformed audience (such as camp counselors, hobbyists,
or part-time employees). Or ask them to describe situations in which school lectures
have sailed over their heads, and to analyze the reasons.

2. Learning Objectives
Understand the key concepts of “audience” and “purpose”
Picture exactly who will use your document and why
Consider your audience’s technical background
Consider the audience’s cultural background
Pinpoint the needs and goals of your audience

3. Learning Objectives (continued)
Identify the length, format, tone, and other qualities your audience prefers
Understand the concept of usability in relation to audience and purpose

4. Audience
All technical communication is intended for a specific audience. Before writing, identify precisely who will be reading the document and how they will use the material.

5. Analyze Your Document’s
Audience and Purpose
Explore all you can about who will use your document, why they will use it, and how they will use it:
Who is the main audience for this document?
Who else is likely to read it?
What is your relationship with the audience?
Are multiple types of relationships involved?
What information does this audience need?
How familiar might the audience be with technical details?

6. Analyze Your Document’s Audience and Purpose (continued)
Do these readers have varying levels of expertise?
What culture or cultures does your audience represent?
How might cultural differences shape readers’ expectations and interpretations?

7. Primary and Secondary Audience
When writing a technical document, keep two audiences in mind.
Primary Audience: The immediate audience of readers.
Secondary Audience: Individuals outside the immediate circle of people who will be needing the information directly.

8. Your Relationship to Your Readers
Consider the following when you assess audience:
Are they superiors, colleagues or subordinates?
Are they inside or outside of your organization?
Do you know them personally?
Are they likely to welcome or resist your information?

9. Purpose of Your Document
Spell out precisely what you want your document to accomplish and how you expect readers to use it—your purpose.
What is the main purpose of the document?
What other purpose or purposes does the document serve?
What will readers do with this information?

10. Primary and Secondary Purpose
All documents have a primary purpose and a secondary purpose:
Primary purpose: The document’s main purpose—to inform, to instruct, or to persuade.
Secondary purpose: What else should the document do?

11. Intended Use of the Document
Also consider how and why a document will be used by others:
Do my readers simply want to learn facts or understand concepts?
Will they use my information in making some type of decision?
Will people act immediately on the information?
Do they need step-by-step instructions?
In my audience’s view, what is most important about this document?

12. Assess Your Audience’s
Technical Background
Decide whether your document should be highly technical, semitechnical, or nontechnical:

13. Identify Your Audience’s
Cultural Background
Consider how cultural differences might create misunderstanding in any situation, and seek an approach that bridges these differences. Information needs and preferences often are culturally determined:
being direct vs. being indirect
using a formal tone vs. using a friendly tone
prioritizing individual contributions vs. prioritizing group contributions

14. Audience’s Preferences
Anticipate Your
Audience’s Preferences
Readers approach any document with certain preferences:
Length and details: Do they want something comprehensive or short?
Format and medium: Do they want a letter, memo, or short report. Do they want it delivered in hard copy or electronically?
Tone: Do they expect your tone to be formal, semiformal, or informal?

15. Anticipate Your Audience’s Preferences (continued)
Due date and timing: Is there a deadline? How can you break down the deadline into milestones?
Budget: Does your document have a production budget? Where can you save money?

16. Develop an Audience and
Use Profile
In order to focus sharply on your audience, purpose, and the many factors discussed in this chapter, develop your own version of the Audience and Use Profile Sheet and fill it out completely. This sheet will keep you focused as you write.

17. Check Your Document For Usability
A usable document is safe, dependable, and easy to read and navigate. A usable document allows people to do three things:
Easily locate the information they need
Understand the information immediately
Use the information safely and successfully

18. Review Questions What is the definition of audience?
What is the difference between a primary audience and a secondary audience?
What is the definition of purpose?
What is a document’s primary purpose vs. it’s secondary purpose or purposes?
What are the three types of audience in terms of their technical background?
Answers
1. The people who will be reading and using a document.
2. The primary audience is the immediate audience of readers, while the secondary audience is individuals outside the immediate audience.
3. Purpose is what you want your document to accomplish.
4. The document’s primary purpose is its main purpose—to inform, to instruct, or to persuade. The secondary purpose is what else the document should do.
5. Highly technical, semitechnical, and nontechnical.

19. Review Questions (continued)
What do the three types of technical audience’s want?
What are three areas you need to consider regarding cultural differences?
What are the audience’s preferences you should consider when writing a document?
Why should you develop an audience and use profile sheet?
What is a usable document?
Answers (continued)
6. Highly technical—just facts and figures; semitechnical—facts and figures explained; nontechnical—facts and figures explained in the simplest terms.
7. Being direct vs. being indirect; using a formal tone vs. using a friendly tone; prioritizing individual contributions vs. prioritizing group contributions
8. Length and details, format and medium, tone, due date and timing, and budget.
9. It helps you to focus sharply on your audience, purpose, and many factors about a document.
10. A document that is safe, dependable, and easy to read and navigate.