Audience Recognition

Objective

Is to make you understand about the

importance of audience recognition
and audience involvement in a
business communication
What you understand when the
word “audience ” comes in
your mind?
Audience
When you write any memo, letter
or report ,some one reads it . That
individual or group of reader or
listener is your audience.
In technical writing the writer and
reader both are fused.
When a technical writing is
submitted, the reader responds
Audience Recognition
While writing a technical document ask
yourself some questions

Who is your reader?

What is her/his level of understanding?
What is her position in relation to your
job title?
If you not ask these questions then what will happen?

Your technical writing will miss the mark

Your writing may contain jargon and acronyms
the reader wont understand
The tone of writing will be not appropriate for
management or subordinates.
Develop a profile of audience
If you want to write well then develop a
profile of your audience. The following
profile will help you achieve audience
recognition

High tech audience

Low tech audience
Lay audience
Multiple audience
High –tech audience
High tech readers work in your field of expertise.
They work directly with you in your department.
They share their educational background and
knowledge with you.
They share jargons and acronyms
For example
If you are a computer programmer got example
another computer programmer who is working
with you on same system is your high tech peer.
You do not have to explain the word “Boot”, CD ,
RAM etc
A High Tech Writing
in a memo the boss specified that the
engineers should use “metric SI unit in
their report ” because the boss knows that
his audience is high tech, he do not have to
explain the SI as “system international”
Writing to high tech reader is easy because
the writer does not need to define the
jargons acronyms ,complex graphs so on.
Low Tech Audience
Low tech audience include your co-workers in
other department. Low tech readers also
might include your bosses your subordinates
or your colleagues who works in other
companies.
For Example
You are a software engineer, the technician ,
accountant or graphic designer are low tech
audience.
They work around you and they have little
knowledge about your jargons and acronyms.
Low Tech Audience

Low tech readers are familiar about the

technology you writing about but not how
they function.
Since the low tech reader is not in your
normal writing loop so you need to provide
the background knowledge.
 Lay Audience
Any one who neither work for your company nor have
any knowledge bout the field of your expertise are lay
audience.
A lay reader would have no idea what is going on here.
What is the purpose ? What will be achieved ?

Lay reader are unfamiliar with your subject matter. They

do not understand your technology therefore you should
write simply.
You achieve clarity through precise word usage , depth of
detail, and simple graph.
Avoid jargons , abbreviations, or acronyms.
Lay reader will need a background knowledge.
Multiple Audiences
Correspondence is not always sent to just one type of
audience. Sometime correspondence has multiple
audience. For example
When writing a report most people assume that the
supervisor will be the only reader. This might be not
the case this can be forwarded to manager and so
on.
Some multiple readers are not familiar about the
subject matter
The audience will be a mix audience , with high tech ,
low tech, or lay audience and they will have diverse
understanding
How to deal with multiple audience
Must give background knowledge because
some of readers may not be familiar with
some concepts
Provide reference
You should explain jargons and acronyms
before using them.