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I agree with Damien and Eric. You must do some sort of audience analysis,
even if you are making sweeping assumptions about those people. You don't
always have to send out questionnaires or get into a formal focus group
situation.
Whether we're conscious of it or not, every time we write something we have
an assumed reader in mind. That is why we choose certain words over others.
We use voice, tone and emphasis in such a way as to convey a message to
that representative reader. Of course it's going to be easier if we know
specifics about that reader (user, listener, whatever), but we can still do
a credible job of communicating with a group of people about whom we know
very little.
Assumptions can be made about even a "general" audience, based on the
medium, subject matter and intent of the message. How are they going to
access this message? If it's by computer, there are traits that those
people must have just to access the message. If the subject is technical,
then we can infer that our audience has some degree of technical interest,
even though their technical ability may range from expert to beginner. How
explicitly you phrase the technical information depends on the intent of
the message for that audience.
Good, clear, straightforward writing is going to serve you well no matter
how broad or narrow your audience. You may not want to spell out very basic
functions, such as "Roll the mouse so that the cursor on the screen is over
the OK button". Still, there are ways of phrasing things so that the
experts are not insulted, yet the intelligent beginners can figure things
out from the textual clues you give them: "Point to OK and click."
Writing is an art, with infinite degrees of shading. Understanding one's
audience is only one aspect of the whole picture. Getting it right takes
experience and practice. Hey, if it was too easy, _everyone_ would be doing
it!
--Beth
Beth Agnew
Senior Technical Writer, InSystems Technologies Inc.
65 Allstate Parkway, Suite 100 Tel: (905) 513-1400 ext. 280
Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 9X1 Fax: (905) 513-1419 mailto:bagnew -at- insystems -dot- com Visit us at: http://www.insystems.com
