Categories of Readers by Function
• A primary audience of people who have a direct role
in responding to your document.
• A secondary audience of people who need to stay
aware of developments in the organization.
Chapter 5. Analyzing Your Audience and Purpose
© 2004 by Bedford/St. Martin's
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Categories of Readers by Expertise
• Expert
• Technician
• Manager
• General reader
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Examples of Experts
• A physician trying to understand the AIDS virus who
delivers papers at professional conferences and
writes research articles for scholarly journals.
• An engineer trying to devise a simpler, less expensive
test for structural flaws in composite materials.
• A forester trying to plan a strategy for dealing with the
threat of forest fires during droughts.
Chapter 5. Analyzing Your Audience and Purpose
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Writing Guidelines for an
Expert Target Audience
• Include theory.
• Include technical vocabulary.
• Include formulas.
• Include sophisticated graphics.
Chapter 5. Analyzing Your Audience and Purpose
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Upper-Level Managers Consider
Questions Such as the Following:
• Is current technology at the company becoming
obsolete?
• How expensive are the newest technologies?
• How much would they disrupt operations if they were
adopted?
• What other plans would have to be postponed or
dropped altogether?
• When would the new technologies start to pay for
themselves?
• What has been the experience of other companies
that have adopted these new technologies?
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Writing Guidelines for a
Manager Target Audience
• Focus on managerial implications, not technical
details.
• Use short sentences and simple vocabulary.
• Put details in appendices.
Chapter 5. Analyzing Your Audience and Purpose
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Writing Guidelines for a
Technician Target Audience
• Include graphics.
• Use common words, short sentences, and short
paragraphs.
• Avoid excessive theory.
Chapter 5. Analyzing Your Audience and Purpose
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Writing Guidelines for a
General Reader Target Audience
• Use short sentences and paragraphs.
• Use human appeal.
• Use an informal tone.
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In Thinking About Who Your Reader Is,
Consider Six Specific Factors:
• The reader’s education.
• The reader's professional experience.
• The reader's job responsibility.
• The reader's personal characteristics.
• The reader's personal preferences.
• The reader's cultural characteristics.
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In Thinking About Your Reader's
Attitudes and Expectations,
Consider Three Factors:
• Your reader's attitude toward you.
• Your reader's attitude toward the subject.
• Your reader's expectations about the document.
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In Thinking About How Your Reader
Will Use Your Document, Consider
Four Factors:
• Your reader's reasons for reading your document.
• The way your reader will read your document.
• Your reader's reading skill.
• The physical environment in which your reader will
read your document.
Chapter 5. Analyzing Your Audience and Purpose
© 2004 by Bedford/St. Martin's
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Seven Major Cultural Variables
That Lie on the Surface
• Political
• Economic
• Social
• Religious
• Educational
• Technological
• Linguistic
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Six Cultural Variables That
Lie Beneath the Surface
• Focus on individuals or groups.
• Distance between business life and private life.
• Distance between ranks.
• Nature of truth.
• Need to spell out details.
• Attitudes toward uncertainty.
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As You Consider This Set of Cultural
Variables, Keep Four Points in Mind:
• Each variable represents a spectrum of attitudes.
• The six variables do not line up in a clear pattern.
• Different organizations within the same culture can
vary greatly.
• An organization's cultural attitudes are fluid, not static.
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Eight Guidelines for Communicating
More Effectively with Multicultural
Audiences
• Limit your vocabulary.
• Keep sentences short.
• Define abbreviations and acronyms in a glossary.
• Avoid jargon unless you know your readers are
familiar with it.
• Avoid idioms and slang.
• Use the active voice whenever possible.
• Be careful with graphics.
• Be sure someone from the target culture reviews your
document.
Chapter 5. Analyzing Your Audience and Purpose
© 2004 by Bedford/St. Martin's
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Why Documents from Different
Cultures Are Becoming Like Each
Other in Their Design and Use of
Graphics
• International business is increasing each year.
• The use of the Web is increasing dramatically.
• Most communicators around the world are using the
same word-processing software.
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