My Change in Viewing Tech Writing

When I review technical or professional writing now one of my first thoughts is to figure out the target audience. This puts me into a frame of mind to understand the material better. Knowing the intended audience sets my expectations of what I should learn from reading it. I evaluate the quality of the material compared to who is intended to be reading it.

One recent paper I read was a history report that was written for postgraduate history majors. Knowing the audience helped to reduce my irritation with the frequent use of technical terms I had to stop and look up to understand. When I found other less technical words that could have been used to convey the same meaning it would frustrate me in the past. Now I understand he is just using words his peers understand. Something I learned from this is writing with specific technical terms where they are not needed could unnecessarily narrow your audience.

Another recent example of audience specific writing was the admissions orientation web site. I was directed to visit the site as part of my major certification. This site is intended for incoming freshman to the WSU business program. Many of the items covered were not applicable to someone seeking a second career. Viewing the information from the viewpoint of someone just graduating high school the material makes sense. I will suggest the possibility of creating a second site targeted at more mature learners during my advising session.

Targeting the audience is key to getting the information across. If the material is too technical they will not read it unless the need for the information outweighs the frustration of the difficult reading. If you write in terms that are too simple the reader will lose interest and could miss the point of the material.