Audience: Houp & Pearsall Revisited . . .
Houp and Pearsall in the 1960's discussed the importance of targeting
audiences when developing documents. They classified audiences for technical
writing as experts, managers, lay audiences, technicians, and operators.
Then they provided general guidelines to follow when writing to each of
those audience.
Based on Houp and Pearsall's work, I've developed a model or guide for adapting your writing for different audiences. This model is similar to the "general planning approach" for planning documents.
Education level . . .
- Does the audience have a formal education such as high school, baccalaureate, masters, or beyond? Education also involves how much self-education an audience has.
Content . . .
- Is the person in or out of the field? Some fourth graders may not have an advanced level of education, but they sure could talk circles around many concerning some computer concepts.
- Does the audience want theory or application?
- Why is the audience reading?
- What background information does the audience need?
- What terms need to be defined or, maybe in some cases, not even be used?
- Can technical data be used?
- Can I use mathematics?
Organization . . .
- Should an organizational pattern typical of types of documents be used? Will the audience expect certain types of information arranged in a certain order? Consider documents such as progress reports, proposals, and scientific or research articles)?
Style of words . . .
- How long should my sentences and paragraphs be?
- Should analogy be used to explain concepts?
- What is the appropriate diction? In other words, can technical terminology be used?
Graphics/ visuals/ illustrations . . .
- What type are best for this audience?
- How complex can they be?
Format & layout . . .
- Should headings be used, and, if so, how many levels of headings?
- Should lists be used, and, if so, should they be horizontal or vertical lists?
- If vertical lists are used, what kind of markers should be uses—markers such as bullets, boxes, numbers, or dingbats such as cats in different poses?
- Should color be used, if possible?