CAP LECTURE

Audience (Context=Who)

Audience Analysis Questions
Analysis of the document's audience involves answering questions like these:
Category Questions
Identity
  • Which types of audience must be considered? (See more about types, below)
  • Who will be reading the document? Do you have names and titles? List demographic information like gender and age.
Needs
  • What is their purpose for reading the document?
  • Do they want to confirm what they already believe or know, learn something new, perform a task, or be entertained?
  • What decisions must they make based on the content and how important are these decisions to them?
  • What kind evidence convinces them?
Attitude
  • What do they already think about the subject?
  • Do they care about the message or were they ordered to read it?
  • What do they know about the author?
  • How much trust do they have in the author?
Knowledge
  • Rank them as novice, manager, technican, or expert in the subject area.
  • What do they already know about the subject that you would insult them if you presented it as new knowledge?
  • What terminology (subject jargon) will they expect and know?
Reading Conditions
  • Will they be inside or outside?
  • Will they be reading during the day or at night?
  • Will they be sitting at a desk, walking past a posted sign, or driving past a sign?
Audience Types
The most common categories of audience are primary and secondary; however, we find it easy to think of many more audience types. Here is a list that works well enough for class work purposes. Depending on the stakes involved in the document situation, writers may write an analysis for each audience type they need to consider when designing a document.
Type Description
Authorizing Audience The person or group who gives the order for the document to be written. This audience will serve as one possible gatekeeper and often will evaluate the document for quality and meeting the organization's guidelines. Generally the authorizing audience is a boss who requests the document.
Gatekeeper Audience The person or group who reviews and authorizes editing changes, who provides subject-matter expert advice, who authorizes (or not) the release of the document for publication
Primary or Target Audience The person or group to whom the document is addressed and who will make a decision to accept or reject the document's thesis. Their decisions might be positive (accepting) or negative (rejecting).
Secondary Audience Secondary audiences are those who will make decisions about the document's content after the primary audience has made the the initial decision.

For example, a secondary audience is a person or group to whom the document is not addressed but who will be implementing the document's content after the primary audience agrees with the recommendations presented in the document.

Other secondary audiences may include those involved in legal matters, possibly years later, such as lawyers, judges, and juries.

Watchdog Audience or Power Readers Power readers are those people or organizations who may act either favorably or unfavorably as a reaction to the document. Examples include environmentalist organizations reacting to a new law or regulation published by a government agency, journalists who may report on the document with a favorable or unfavorable slant, or customers, suppliers, stockholders, and other stakeholders
Affected Audience Affected readers are those impacted by the primary audience's decision but who have no direct power over the situation.

A vivid example are residents whose water supply is poisoned because they live down-river from a polluting manufacturing plant.

Other examples could include customers, suppliers, stockholders, and other stakeholders.

Note. Some people may be affected by the decision but never see the document.
Format Decisions
Sample format decisions based on an audience analysis:
Category Decisions
Publication
  • Internal (to people or groups within the organization)
  • External (to the public, suppliers, or customers)
Medium Paper, electronic, word document, Power Point, HTM, plastic protected, cardboard, spiral bound to lay flat, single sheets, folded sheet
Organization Advantage/Disadvantage, Cause/Effect, Chronological, Compare/Contrast, Problem/Solution, Sequential, Spatial, Topical
Type/Genre email; twitter,memo; letter; flyer; newsletter with columns; report with cover page, table of contents, appendices, and references
Layout length (word count); space (number of pages); solid text or text with graphics; headings & white space; line and paragraph spacing/leading; indentation; font family/size/color/type; margins/gutters/orientation/header & footer; plain or letterhead; vertical or horizontal alignments; top-to-bottom-left-to-right reading or other
Content Decisions
Sample content decisions based on an audience analysis:
Category Decisions
Style Formal (professional: academic, business, or technical) or informal (personal)
Tone Reader centered/writer centered, confident, courteous, stern, sincere, respectful, non-discriminatory
Language Use of jargon, technical terms, and "big words"
Visuals Selection of information, order of information, data presentation (text, table, or figure), illustrations
Evidence Testimony from experts, facts from valid research studies (what is accepted as valid and what not?), poll results, opinions of famous people, appeals to emotion

For Discussion

Picture

What can you learn about your audience by spending some time imagining yourself in their place as they are reading your document?


Copyright 2012
Ida L. Rodgers, See terms on Course Style Guide Home page.
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