Chapter 2

Audience and
Purpose
 Technical Writing for Success

• Meeting the Audience’s Needs

• Planning Your Document’s Purpose, Scope,
and Medium
 Audience and Purpose

• Determine how to meet the needs of a

specific audience and a multiple audience
• Plan a document’s purpose, scope, and
medium
 Meeting the Audience’s Needs

• Aristotle identified four ways to communicate

with an audience:
1. Logos: appeal to logic; use of evidence and
a well-reasoned argument
2. Ethos: appeal to ethics; use of the speaker’s
or writer’s credibility and good character
3. Pathos: appeal to emotion; identification
with or sympathy for an audience or cause
4. Kairos: appeal to the opportune moment;
the best time to deliver a message
 Meeting the Audience’s Needs

• Technical writers must know their audience and consider

different types of readers:
– Lay reader—lacks technical knowledge
– Technician—has skilled knowledge; reads manuals,
schematics, blueprints, and technical reports; implements
the expert’s ideas or plans
– Expert—an authority or a leader in a field; highly skilled
and professional; designs equipment, conducts research,
and creates new products; learns from and contributes to
journals
– Manager—responsible for daily operations and long-
range planning; may read feasibility reports, research
reports, financial reports, or professional articles
 Meeting the Needs of a Specific Audience

• A specific audience is a person or a group

with a common interest and the same point of
view. To meet the needs of a specific
audience, consider:
– Knowledge level
– Interest
– Role
– Cultural background
– Personality
 Audience Characteristics

• To analyze knowledge level, ask:

– What does my reader already know?
– Is my reader an expert, a technician, or a lay
reader?
– What does my reader need to know?
– What does my reader want to know?
 Audience Characteristics

• To analyze interests, ask:

– How strong is my reader’s interest in my
topic?
– Are my reader’s priorities different from mine
or the same as mine?
– Is my reader likely to agree with my point of
view?
 Audience Characteristics

• To analyze role, ask:

– Is my reader’s role
• To make decisions or implement a plan?
• To operate equipment, encode data, or train
others?
• To create, design, or invent?
– Is my communication going to management,
to a peer, or to a supervisee?
 Audience Characteristics

• To analyze cultural background, ask:

– What is my reader’s cultural background?
– What are my reader’s beliefs?
– Are my reader’s beliefs different from mine or
the same as mine?
 Audience Characteristics

• To analyze personality, ask:

– What kind of personality does my reader
have?
– Is my reader analytical, quiet, or outgoing?
– Does my reader prefer having details or
seeing the big picture?
 Meeting the Needs of a Multiple Audience

• A multiple audience contains readers with

differing points of view. Your first
responsibility is to your primary audience,
readers who
– Asked for or authorized the document
– Will make decisions based on the information
in the document
– Will request or take action based on the
information in the document
– Will likely read the entire document
 Meeting the Needs of a Multiple Audience

• You are responsible to your secondary

audience after you meet the needs of the
primary audience. A secondary audience
– Will be affected by the document in some way
– Is interested in decisions or information in the
document
– May use some information for a different
purpose
– May read selected portions
 Meeting the Needs of a Multiple Audience

• Focus on the primary audience, but take

steps to meet everyone’s needs—including
audiences you do not anticipate:
– Avoid stereotypes and biased language
– Think of the readers’ needs and roles
– Develop a plan for each possible reader:
• Write different parts for different readers
• Rewrite short documents
 Plan a Document’s Purpose,
Scope, and Medium
• Early in your writing process, determine
– The purpose of your document
– The scope of your document
– The medium for your document
 Plan a Document’s Purpose,
Scope, and Medium
• The purpose of technical writing is to inform
or persuade, or both. To determine your
purpose, ask:
– What do I want to inform my readers about?
– What do I want to persuade or convince
them of?
– What do I—or the person asking me to
write—want to happen as a result of this
document?
 Plan a Document’s Purpose,
Scope, and Medium
• Scope is what the writing will and will not
cover.
– To determine scope, ask:
• How thorough will my coverage be?
• What information do I include and leave out?
 Plan a Document’s Purpose,
Scope, and Medium
• The medium is the means by which
information is conveyed.
– Traditional media such as print, television,
and radio mostly play to passive consumers
– Online media such as websites or cell phone
apps appeal to more active consumers who
seek out information
 Plan a Document’s Purpose,
Scope, and Medium
• To determine which medium (or media) to
use, ask:
– What media are available to me?
– What media do my audience typically use?
– Is the medium appropriate for my audience,
message, and purpose?
– Are the time and money required to produce
the medium worth the possible outcome?