Understanding Audiences For Writing

Good writing is often judged by its ability to reach its intended audience. To be effective, informative and persuasive writing need to be geared to the fact that someone is “out there” to receive the communication. If you write without considering your reader, you risk communicating only with yourself.

As a writer for one or more readers, you need to consider who your audience is, especially concerning background.  For example, in writing meant to persuade people to vote for a particular candidate, if you imply disrespect for people who stay home and raise children, you risk losing votes of many homemakers and their spouses.

Or, if you want to persuade lawmakers that homemakers should be allowed to draw from the Social Security system, you would need to address some of the lawmakers’ practical concerns, such as the impact of your proposal on the federal budget.

Also, as you write, you need to think about what you can assume an audience already knows. For example, a sales report filled with technical language assumes that its readers know the specialized vocabulary.

The general reading public would have trouble understanding such a report. But if the material were rewritten without technical terms, general readers could understand it.

Checklist of Basic Audience Characteristics

WHO ARE THEY?

• age, gender
• ethnic backgrounds, political philosophies, religious beliefs
• roles (student, parent, voter, wage earner, property owner, veteran, other)
• interests, hobbies

WHAT DO THEY KNOW?

• level of education
• amount of general or specialized knowledge about the topic
• preconceptions brought to the material

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