Professional English in

Communication

Technical Writing &

Audience Recognition and Involvement
 Technical Writing
 What is technical writing?
 Writing (communication) is an essential skill
for all professionals

 In science and engineering Technical writing

is:
 Write technical reports
 Write technical proposals
 Various forms of technical communication i.e.
email, memo, minutes of meeting etc
 Audience
 Always must consider your audience
 Quality of writing measure – two metrics
 How well the reader understands, precisely,
the intended meaning
 How well the understanding fulfills the
intended purpose
 “THERE IS ALWAYS A SPECIFIC
REQUIREMENT FOR WHAT IS BEING
WRITTEN.”
Audience recognition
 Determining whether your audience is high, tech,
low tech, no tech, lay, or multiple helps you write
effective correspondence.

 The audience for any piece of writing is the intended

or potential reader or readers.

 This is the most important consideration in planning,

writing, and reviewing a document.

 You "adapt" your writing to meet the needs,

interests, and background of the readers who will be
reading your writing.
What about the audience?
 Lack of audience analysis and adaptation is
one of the root causes of most of the
problems in professional, technical
documents—particularly in instructions.
 It's much the same as telling someone, "Talk… so
the person in front of you can understand what
you're saying."

 It's like saying, "Don't talk rocket science to your

six-year-old."
Determine your levels of audience.
 Who is your audience?

 What does this reader or listener know?

 Audience may not know your jargon or acronyms.

 Abbreviations should be explained or avoided.

 What does this reader or listener not know?

 What must you write or say to ensure that your

audience understands your point?
Determine your levels of audience.
 How do you communicate to more than one person
(multiple audiences)?

 What is his or her position in relation to your job

title?

 What diversity issues (gender, cultural, multi-

cultural) must you consider?

 Factor in your audience’s unique culture, language,

and level of understanding.
Audience Variables
Knowledge of Subject Issues of Diversity
Matter
Age

High tech Gender

Low tech Race and/or religion

No Language and/or
tech/lay
culture of origin—
Multiple multicultural
or cross-cultural
Audience variables
 Experts: These are the people who know the
theory and the product inside and out. They
designed it, they tested it, they know everything
about it.
 Technicians: These are the people who
build, operate, maintain, and repair the stuff that
the experts design and theorize about. Theirs is a
highly technical knowledge as well, but of a more
practical nature.
Audience variables
 Executives: These are the people who make
business, economic, administrative, legal,
governmental, political decisions on the stuff that
the experts and technicians work with. knowledge
about the subject as non-specialists.
 Non-specialists: These readers have the least
technical knowledge of all. They want to use the
new product to accomplish their tasks; they may
just be curious about a specific technical matter and
want to learn about it—but for no specific, practical
reason.
Multiple audiences

 Provide background information, if necessary.

 Define jargon, abbreviations, and acronyms.

 Define terms by using phrases, sentences or glossaries

 Must have a matter-or-fact, business-like tone.

Biased Language—Issues of Diversity

 Diversity includes
 Race
 Gender
 Religion
 Ethnicity
 Age
 Gender orientation
 Class
Multiculturalism
 Writing for a global market poses many concerns for
the technical writer.

 Which words to use

 Which terms to define

 What a word might mean in different languages

 Cultural biases

 Effects of graphics and humor

Multiculturalism

 Define acronyms and abbreviations

 Avoid jargon and idioms
 Distinguish between nouns and verbs
 Watch for cultural biases/expectations
 Avoid humor and puns
 Leave space for translation
 Avoid figurative language
Audience involvement

 When you focus the tone of a document and appeal

to the readers’ needs, you can involve them in the
technical documentation.
 Use a personalized tone
 Reveal benefits to readers

 Use positive words and power verbs

Audience involvement

 A user-centered approach to document design

requires detailed knowledge of the target audience,
as this provides information about user constraints
and preferences on which the design must be based.
 Information on the motivation, habits, preferences,
cultural context, technological capacities, and
physical capabilities of the target audiences is
required before a single piece of text can be written.
Audience involvement

 An easy-to-use document is one that people will

return to, enhances the organization's reputation,
and permits further development of business
functions.

 User-centered design is crucial to the success, and

the measurement of success, of all documents:
paper and electronic.