How To Identifying Your Audience Effective Writing

Knowing who makes up your audience is one of your most important responsibilities as a writer. Expect to analyze your audience throughout the composing process.

Some Questions to Ask About Your Audience
You can form a fairly accurate picture of your audience by asking yourself some
questions before you write. For each audience you need to reach, consider the following
questions.
1. Who is my audience? What individual(s) will most likely be reading my work?
      If you are writing for individuals at work:
      ■ What is my reader’s job title? Co-worker? Immediate supervisor? Vice
      president?
      ■ What kind of job experience, education, and interests does my reader have?
      If you are writing for clients or consumers (a very large, sometimes fragmented
     audience):
      ■ How can I find out about their interest in my product or service?
      ■ How much will this audience know about my company? About me?
2. How many people will make up my audience?
       ■ Will just one individual read what I write (the nurse on the next shift, the production manager)
            or will many people read it (all the consumers of a product or service)?
       ■ Will my boss want to see my work (say, a letter to a consumer in response to a complaint) to
          approve it?
       ■ Will I be sending my message to a large group of people sharing a similar interest
       in my topic, such as a listserv?
3. How well does my audience understand English?
       ■ Are all my readers native speakers of English?
       ■ Will I be communicating with people all around the globe?
       ■ Will some of my readers speak English as a second or even third language, and so require
           extra sensitivity on my part to their needs as non-native speakers of English?
       ■ Are my English-speaking readers all located within the United States, or are some from other
           English-speaking countries, such as England, Australia, Singapore, Jamaica, Ireland, or New
           Zealand?
       ■ Will some of my readers speak no English, but instead use an English grammar book and
           foreign language dictionary to understand what I’ve written?
4. How much does my audience already know about my writing topic?
          ■ Will my audience know as much as I do about the particular problem or issue, or will they
              need to be briefed or updated?
          ■ Are my readers familiar with, and do they expect me to use, technical terms and
             descriptions, or will I have to provide easy-to-understand and nontechnical wording?
          ■ Will I need to include detailed tables and visuals, or will a map, photograph, or simple
             drawing be enough?
5. What is my audience’s reason for reading my work?
          ■ Is my communication part of their routine duties, or are they looking for information to
             solve a problem or make a decision?
          ■ Am I writing to describe benefits that another writer or company cannot offer?
          ■ Will my readers expect complete details, or will a short summary be enough?
          ■ Are they reading my work to make an important decision affecting a coworker, a client, or a
             community?
          ■ Are they reading something I write because they must (a legal notification, for instance)?
6. What are my audience’s expectations about my written work?
          ■ Do they want an e-mail or will they expect a formal letter?
          ■ Will they expect me to follow a company format and style?
          ■ Are they looking for a one-page memo or for a comprehensive report?
          ■ Should I use a formal tone or a more relaxed and conversational style?


7. What is my audience’s attitude toward me and my work?
          ■ Will I be writing to a group of disgruntled and angry customers or vendors about a sensitive
              issue (a product recall, a refusal of credit, or a shipment delay)?
          ■ Will I have to be sympathetic while at the same time give firm reasons for my company’s (or
             my) decision?
          ■ Will my readers be skeptical, indifferent, or friendly about what I write?
          ■ Will my readers feel guilty that they have not answered an earlier message of mine, not paid
              a bill now overdue, or not kept a promise or commitment?
8. What do I want my audience to do after reading my work?
          ■ Do I want my readers to purchase something from me, approve my plan, or send me
             additional documentation?
          ■ Do I simply want my readers to get my message and not respond at all?
          ■ Do I expect my readers to get my message, acknowledge it, save it for future reference, or
             review it and e-mail it to another individual or office?
          ■ Do my readers have to take immediate action, or do they have several days or weeks to
             respond?
As your answers to these questions will show, you may have to communicate with many different audiences on your job. Each group of readers will have different expectations and requirements; you need to understand those audience differences if you want to supply relevant information.
Let’s say you work for a manufacturer of heavy-duty equipment and that you have to write for many individuals in that organization. Here are the priorities of five different audiences with appropriate information to give each one.

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