Feature
Know Your Audience: Don't Write For The Wrong Person
By Rob Evans
Do You Know Your Audience?
The following audiences typically read technical documents:
- Primary readers: the people to whom the report is addressed
- Secondary readers: the people to whom the primary readers may turn to for advice, such as subject matter experts
- Tertiary readers: those readers who you don't expect to be readers, including reporters, lawyers, politicians, members of the public, and interveners
- Gatekeepers: the readers who have influence over you and your report, including your supervisor and those responsible for approving your technical report
Do You Write for the Correct Audience?
As mentioned above, the two most common errors are using the wrong style for the audience and writing to the wrong audience
Using the Wrong Writing Style
Because of the writing style, technical reports can be difficult to read or comprehend. For example, some technical reports use complex terminology and acronyms that few people outside of the industry will understand. In addition, engineers and scientists frequently create narrative arguments, or stories explaining what happened when and under what circumstances. This narrative may result in ‘wordy' reports that include unnecessary technical details. Instead, writers should consider using less narrative material and simpler terminology to make their points.
Engineers and scientists also tend to use a third-person, passive-voice writing style. This style is perceived as impersonal and objective. The use of the third-person, passive-voice writing style tends to be harder to read and comprehend by most people. As an alternative, authors should use the first or second person, active-voice writing style for ease of reading, although many technical writers may have trouble converting over to a new style of writing without proper training and support.
Writing for the Wrong Audience
A second common error is to write for the wrong audience by writing for either yourself or gatekeepers. I conduct and document regulatory inspections at industrial facilities. I recognized that I wrote narrative stories to satisfy my personal whims of story-telling. The stories included lengthy discussions of non-safety significant subjects. If there is no safety significance, then why include this extraneous, filler material in the report?
Writers are commonly influenced by the gatekeeper, a supervisor or another person who actually approves the report. I was deeply influenced by what my gatekeepers would or would not authorize for publication in my reports. I constantly would ask myself, would my boss (the gatekeeper) approve this statement? As a result, my perception of what the gatekeeper wanted (or didn't want) in reports influenced the technical content of my reports.
What if You Wrote for the Right Audience?
When I recognized that I was using the wrong writing style and was writing for the wrong audience, I began to significantly reduce the amount of extraneous material that was included in my inspection reports. In other words, I learned the importance of clarity and brevity in technical reports.
As an example, I conduct annual inspections of a particular industrial facility in Wyoming. The 2006 inspection report was 15 pages long. The 2007 report content was reduced by five pages, although the focus of the inspection was the same. The material eliminated from the report was narrative information that was not essential to the conclusions of the inspection. In addition, I used an easy-to-read writing style as much as possible. My supervisor was elated with the brevity of the report findings. The reduction in the amount of narrative information was possible for two reasons, by knowing the purpose of the inspection and by knowing the true audience of the report.
What Actions Can You Take to Write for the Right Audience?
There are several actions you can take to write for the intended audience:
- Recognize that the true audience of your technical report may not be just the addressee.
- Be honest with yourself regarding who you are actually writing for--you, your gatekeeper, or your intended audience.
- Encourage your organization to provide training and practical support, such as workshops.
- Locate well-written documents for use as examples or as templates.
If you implement any or all of these corrective actions, then you may also be able to create effective technical reports.
Further Reading
Driskill, Linda. (2004) "Understanding the Writing Context in Organizations." Central Works in Technical Communication. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 55-69.
Johnson-Sheehan, Richard. (2002) Writing Proposals: Rhetoric for Managing Change.
New York: Pearson Education, Inc. pp. 36-37.
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Rob Evans (rje@nrc.gov) is a senior inspector for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Arlington, Texas. He has written hundreds of technical documents but continues to learn how to write effectively in a rapidly changing environment.