Readers and Contexts of Use
Knowing your readers is essential to effective technical communication. More than ever, people don't have time to slog through information they don't need. So, you should find out exactly what your readers need to know and how they want that information presented.
Another challenge is the ever-increasing importance of international communication through electronic networks. In technical fields, you will find yourself regularly communicating with people who speak other languages, have different customs, and hold different expectations. Computers have broken down many of the geographical barriers that once separated people and cultures. It is now common to communicate with people around the world on a daily basis.
Computer is an effective reader analysis tool to "profile" the people who will use your documents or hear your presentations. Your profiles will help you tailor your document or presentation exactly to your readers' needs and the places where they will use the information you offer.
Profiling Your Readers (определение характеристик Ваших читателей)
In technical communication, documents are designed to suit the needs of specific types of readers. For this reason, early in the writing process, you should profile the types of people who might be interested in your document
Reader profiles are sketches of your readers' tendencies, abilities, experiences, needs, values, and attitudes. To build a profile, begin asking yourself the Five-W and How Questions about your readers.
Who might read this document?
What information do they need?
Where will they read the document?
When will they read the document?
Why will they be reading it?
How will they be reading it?
As you answer these questions, keep in mind the following guidelines about your readers and how they prefer to read.
Guideline One: Readers are "raiders" for information—People don't read technical documents for pleasure. Instead, most readers are raiding your document for the information they need to make a decision or take action.
Guideline Two: Readers are wholly responsible for interpreting your text—
You won't be available to explain what your document means, so your readers need to be able to easily figure out what you are telling them.
Guideline Three: Readers want only "need-to-know" information—Readers want you to give them only the information they need. Any additional material only makes the information they want harder to find.
Guideline Four: Readers prefer concise texts—The shorter, the better. Usually, the longer the document is, the less likely that people are going to read it. Your readers prefer documents that get to the point and highlight the important information.
Guideline Five: Readers prefer documents with graphics and effective page design—We live in a visual culture. Large blocks of text intimidate most readers. So, include graphics and use page design to make your document more readable.
Identifying Your Readers
You should always begin by identifying the readers of your document. Figure 3.2 shows a Writer-Centered Analysis Chart that will help you locate the various people who might look over your text (Mathes & Stevenson, 1976). You, as the writer, are in the center ring. Each ring in the chart identifies your readers from most important (primary readers) to least important (tertiary readers).
To use the Writer-Centered Chart, begin filling in the names and titles of the primary, secondary, tertiary, and gatekeeper readers who will or might look over your work.
PRIMARY READERS (ACTION TAKERS) The primary readers are the people to whom your document is addressed. They are usually considered the action takers because the information you are providing them will allow them to do something or make a decision. Usually your document will have only one or two primary readers, or types of primary readers.
SECONDARY READERS (ADVISORS) The secondary readers are people who advise the primary readers. Usually, they are experts in the field, or they have special knowledge that the primary readers require to make a decision. They might be engineers, technicians, lawyers, scientists, doctors, accountants, and others to whom the primary readers will turn for advice.
TERTIARY READERS (EVALUATORS) The tertiary readers include others who may have an interest in your document's information. They are often evaluators of you, your team, or your company. These readers might be local reporters, lawyers, auditors, historians, politicians, community activists, environmentalists, or perhaps your company's competitors. Even if you don't expect your document to ever fall into these readers' hands, you should keep them in mind to avoid saying anything that could put you or your company at risk. Figure 3.3, for example, shows a memo in which the tertiary readers were not kept in mind.
GATEKEEPERS (контролёры, цензоры) (SUPERVISORS) The gatekeepers are people who will need to look over your document before it is sent to the primary readers. Your most common gatekeeper is your immediate supervisor. In some cases, though, your company's lawyers, accountants, and others may need to sign off on the document before it is sent out.
Each of these four types of readers will look for different kinds of information. The primary readers are the most important, so their needs come first. Nevertheless, a well-anticipates the needs of the secondary, tertiary, and gate-written document also keeper readers.
Profiling Your Readers' Needs, Values, and Attitudes
Now that you have identified the readers of your document, you should develop profiles that describe their needs, values, and attitudes. Don't assume that your readers have the same needs, values, and altitudes as you do.Readers often have very different characteristics and expectations than the writers of a document.
NEEDS What do your primary readers need to make a decision or take action? What do the secondary readers need if they are going to make positive recommendations to the primary readers? What are the tertiary and gatekeeper readers looking for in your document?
VALUES What do your readers value most? Do they value efficiency and consistency? Do they value accuracy? Is profit a key concern? How much do they value environmental or social concerns?
ATTITUDES What are your readers' attitudes toward you, your company, and the subject of your document? Will your readers be excited, upset, wary, positive, hopeful, careful, concerned, skeptical, or gladdened by what you are telling them?
As you fill in the Reader Analysis Chart, you will be making strategic guesses about your readers. Put a question mark (?) in spaces where you aren't sure about your readers' needs, values, or attitudes. These question marks highlight where you need to do more research on your readers.
The Internet is a great place to find information on your readers. Most companies have a website on which they place biographical information about their employees. People also create personal websites that you can look over. You can learn a great amount about readers' needs, values, and attitudes by paying attention to what they say about themselves.
To find out more, you might also interview people who are Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) at your company or who hire themselves out as consultants. These experts may be able to give you insights into your readers' likely characteristics.
Above all, your goal is to view the situation from your readers' perspective. Your profile will help you anticipate how your readers act, react, and make decisions.
