How to Be a Persuasive Writer: Know Your Audience

Whether you are writing emails, letters, reports, or journal articles, communicating clearly is vital.  Before you can know what to say and how best to say it, you need to know your audience. Just as you would think about who is in your audience when giving a presentation, you should consider your audience when writing.  Here are some key questions about your audience:

• Who are your primary readers? Do you have other readers besides the main audience?
• What do your readers already know about the topic?
• What do you want them to learn or understand?
• What is their attitude toward the topic?  Are they interested? Are they skeptical of either the importance of your topic or your conclusions? 

You may have more than one type of reader in your audience.  Some of your readers may be experts, while others are not.  If your primary readers are experts in the area, you can jump right into the facts and freely use jargon and abbreviations.  If your primary audience has a broad experience level, write for the least experienced readers by providing necessary background knowledge and explaining key terms.  For all audiences, write out the first mention of an acronym or abbreviation, followed by the acronym or abbreviation in parentheses, for all but the most common terms.  Organizing your text into logical paragraphs or sections and using headings, if appropriate, helps your more expert readers skim over the background information to find what they need to know.  Sometimes you can write separate sections targeted for different audiences.  For example, you might summarize results of an extrusion trial for management, but add details about the trial conditions in a footnote or an appendix for technical personnel.  Make it easy for your primary audience to find the information they need, and then add information for other, secondary readers if possible. 

Sometimes you may need to convince your readers that your topic is important.  Perhaps you can relate the topic to something familiar or of great importance to your readers.  Examples, carefully chosen to appeal to your audience, can help explain your main points and engage your readers.

Try to predict how your readers will react to your conclusions. If you can anticipate their objections or questions, try to answer them in your discussion or examples.  For instance, if you claim that you cut cycle times in half, be sure to explain how.       

Remember to consider your audience’s cultural background. When writing for a worldwide audience, avoid slang and examples that might not make sense in other cultures.  The workplace culture of your readers, such as what their organization considers important, may also affect how they interpret your words.

Review your writing from your reader’s perspective, or even have a representative reader review it for you.  Keeping your audience in mind will help you to choose the right words and be a persuasive writer.

by Jennifer Markarian ©2007 Technical Writing Solutions LLC

References

Rosenberg, B. (2005). Spring into Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Alred, G., Brusaw, C. and Oliu, W. (2006). Handbook of Technical Writing, 8th ed. New York: St. Martin’s Press.