Types of Audience Executives Experts Technicians Operators Consumersvendorslay

Types of Audience • • • Executives Experts Technicians Operators Consumers/vendors/lay people

Profiling an Audience • • Education Expertise Position in organization Demographic details Social, political, economic, cultural background Need for the document Use of the document Stylistic expectation

Strategies for Profiling • • • Surveys, questionnaires, interviews Job descriptions Observing audience Working alongside the audience Examining relevant documents

Resources for Gathering Information about Audience • • • Personal experience Marketing dept. Technical support Customer support Public relations

Needs Analysis • Observe, interview as many representative users • Interview resource people for the needs • Examine similar, existing documents • Examine the document from users’ perspective • How will the users use this document?

Adaptation Strategies--1 • • Adequate background information Relevant information Right amount/complexity of details Suitable organization Appropriate illustrations Right form Appropriate document design

Adaptation Strategies--2 Suitable style Vocabulary Tone Use of definition/analogy/comparison, contrast/examples • Sentence type/length • Paragraph length • •