Profiling Contexts of Use
The places where people will read your document can strongly influence how they interpret what you say. So, you should also build a profile of the contexts of use in which they will read or use your document
Identifying the Context of Use
Perhaps the most obvious concern is the physical context in which the document will be used. Will your readers be in their office or at a meeting? Will they be on the factory floor, trying to repair a robotic arm? Or, are they in the emergency room, trying to save someone's life? Each of these physical contexts will alter the way your readers interpret your document.
But context of use goes beyond your readers' physical context. Your readers may also be influenced by the economic, ethical, and political issues that shape how they see the world.
Here is how to use the Context Analysis Chart: Fill in what you know about the physical, economic, political, and ethical issues that might influence the primary readers, their company, and their industry.
PHYSICAL CONTEXT Where will your readers use your document? How do these various places affect how they will read your document? How should you write and design the document to fit these places?
ECONOMIC CONTEXT What are the economic issues that will influence your readers' decisions? What are the costs and benefits of your ideas? How would accepting your ideas change the financial situation of your readers, their company, or their industry?
POLITICAL CONTEXT What are the political forces influencing you and your readers? On a micropolitical level, how will your ideas affect your readers' relationships with you, their supervisors, or their colleagues? On a macropolitical level, how will political trends at the local, state, federal, and international levels shape how your readers interpret your ideas?
ETHICAL CONTEXT How will your ideas affect the rights, values, and well-being of others? Does your document involve any social or environmental issues that might be of concern to your readers? Will any laws or rules be bent or broken if your readers do what you want?
Put a question mark (?) in spaces where you don't have specific information about your readers' physical, economic, political, and ethical contexts. You can then turn to the Internet for answers, or you can interview Subject Matter Experts who may have the answers you need.
Using Profiles to Your Own Advantage
Now you are ready to use your Reader Analysis and Context Analysis charts to strengthen your writing and make it more informed and persuasive. In your charts, circle or highlight the most important terms, concepts, and phrases. The items you circle are the tensions that you will need to address as you collect information and draft the document.
As you draft your document, your analysis of readers and contexts of use will help you:
• make strategic decisions about what information to include in your document. Readers don't need all the information you have available. They need only enough to make a decision or take action.
• organize your document to highlight the information that is most important to your readers. Information that your readers consider crucial should be moved up front where they can find it.
• develop a persuasive style that will appeal to your readers. Your notes about their values and attitudes can be used to shape the document to their biases and beliefs.
• design the document for the places it will be used. Your understanding of the context in which the document will be used will help you create the maximum visual impact.
For important documents, this deeper understanding will give your writing extra potency and legitimacy. Readers will appreciate your efforts to see the situation from their point of view.
Figures 3.6 and 3.7 show documents from the same website about the same topic, the West Nile virus, that are written to two different types of readers. The first document, Figure 3.6, is written to the general public. Notice how it uses content, organization, style, and design to appeal to this audience.
The second document, Figure 3.7, is written to medical personnel. Notice how the content is far more complex and the style is less personal in the document for medical personnel. Effective reader analysis and context analysis allowed the author of these documents (probably the same person) to effectively present the same information to two very different kinds of readers.
