1. a.)Why is audience analysis the most important part of the writing process for many technical writers? b.) Do you agree with this idea?
a.) Audience Analysis is the most important part of the writing process for technical writers because their audience can range from a small specific group of readers to a large international audience.
b.) I agree that audience analysis is the most important and the most challenging part of the writing process for technical writers. An example of having to write for an international audience could be something as common as a user-manual for a toaster oven. The challenge is to find out how many countries the product is going to and how many languages will your user-manual …show more content…
Audiences of technical writers can generally be classified into four categories. a.)What are these categories? b.)How would your writing differ for each category? a.) The four types of audiences discussed in our article are:
Experts: Experts created the product and know everything about it. They may work with academics, research & development, government, or business departments. The experts will be highly educated and tend to communicate with intellectual and academic language.
b.) I would write to experts with more intellectual language and less technical words or jargon. I would keep my sentences short and straightforward. I would ask the experts for feedback and if there is any information they want added for clarity. My writing tone would be between formal and informal; this tone would match how they speak with government and business people. My tone and diction may vary if the experts are also my colleagues, however, I would want to keep my written language intellectual and not casual or conversational.
Technicians: Technicians build and maintain the product that the experts design. Their language can be technical, scientific, practical, or a combination of all three …show more content…
What are some characteristics you should know about your audience before you begin writing? Why is this important?
There are many characteristics and complications with the characteristics of your intended audience that will need more analysis, anticipation, and adaptation. Demographics is one of the challenges you face when you analyze your audience and will be a significant factor in the adaptation process. There are many variables to consider with our ever-changing and global population. You need data on the age groups, religion, culture, sex, social class, and education of who you are writing to.
If you are writing for your organization, the amount of demographic details you need to analyze depends on certain considerations; for example, the age range of the workers in your company. The age of the workforce is changing; there are more workers staying up to or beyond retirement age, and younger people are entering the workforce for the first time. Your workplace may have employees whose ages range from 20 years old to 70 years old! Do you know the age range of your colleagues? If your organization has multiple locations, do you know the age range of the workers in the other branches? Could you get easy access to those