All technical communication is intended for people who will use and react to the information.
Because people’s basic requirements vary, every audience expects a message tailored to its own
specific interests, social conventions, ways of understanding problems, and information needs.
• Analyze Your Document’s Audience and Purpose
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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?
Do these readers have varying levels of expertise?
What culture or cultures does the audience represent?
How might cultural differences shape readers’ expectations and interpretations?
What is the purpose of this document?
What other purpose or purposes does the document serve?
What will readers do with this information?
• Identify Levels of Technicality
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Adapt your communications to the knowledge, interests, and needs of your audience. There
are three basic levels of technical complexity.
• The Highly Technical Document
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Expert users
o Provide facts, figures, data
o Only interpret what’s ambiguous
o Don’t define technical terms
o Use accepted abbreviations
o Don’t explain the obvious background or scientific bases
• The Semi-technical Document
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Users with some technical knowledge but less than experts’
o Explain the data
o Help readers interpret
o Define technical terms
o Spell out technical terms the first time you use them and then use abbreviations
o Provide necessary background
• The Nontechnical Document
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For people with no special education or training
o Focus on the big picture, on the results, not the methods
o Don’t use technical terms when common terms exist
o Draw conclusions; don’t present data unless you must
o Provide enough background to place data in context
o Avoid subtle distinctions and ambiguities
• Primary and Secondary Audiences
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Whenever you prepare a single document for multiple users, classify your audience as primary
or secondary. Generally, primary users are those who required the document. Secondary
users are those will carry out the project, advise the decision makers, or who will be affected
by this decision.
• How to Tailor a Document for Multiple Users
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If the document is short, rewrite it at various levels.
If the document exceeds two pages, address the primary users. Then provide appendices for
secondary users.
• Web-Based Documents for Multiple Audiences
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Ideal for packaging and linking various levels of information.
• Audience’s Cultural Background
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Anglo-American business culture generally values plain talk.
Asian cultures consider direct talk rude.
Somes audiences value thoroughness and complexity, with detail included and explained in a
businesslike tone.
Avoid idioms and cultural references.
• Identify Your Audience’s Preferences
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Length and details
Format and medium
Due date and timing
Budget
• Develop an Audience and Use Profile
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Picture exactly what these readers need and how they expect to use your document.
Learn all you can about who will use your document.
In planning your document, work from a clear statement of audience and purpose.
Consider your audience’s technical background.
When you don’t know exactly who will be reading your document, think about the general
reader.
Consider readers’ cultural backgrounds.
Anticipate your audience’s reactions.
Anticipate your audience’s questions.
Anticipate your audience’s preferences.
• Brainstorm as a Way of Getting Started
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Brainstorming is a technique for producing as many ideas as possible.
o Choose a quiet setting and agree on a time limit.
o Decide on a clear and specific goal for the session.
o Focus on the issue or problem.
o As ideas begin to flow, record every one.
o If ideas are still flowing at session’s end, keep going.
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Take a break.
Now confront your list.