Assessing your audience’s needs and/or wants is an important part of the Writing Process. In order for a paper to be persuasive and clearly understood, the audience’s needs and/or wants need to be taken into account. According to Mr. Walter E. Oliu, Mr. Charles T. Brusaw and Mr. Gerald J. Alred, authors of the book Writing That Works Communicating Effectively on the Job, the following questions should help a writer focus on the audiences needs and/or wants in relation to the subject matter: (Alfred, Brusaw and Oliu)
1. Who is your audience?
2. Do you have more than one audience?
3. What do you want your audience to know, to believe, or to be able to do after reading your writing?
4. Have you narrowed your topic to best focus on what you want your audience to know?
5. What are your audience’s needs in relation to the subject?
6. What does your audience know about the subject?
7. If you have multiple audiences, do they have different levels of knowledge about your subject?
8. What are your audience’s feelings about your subject- Sympathetic? Hostile? Neutral?
9. Does your writing acknowledge other or contrary points of view about the subject?
10. Have you selected the right medium- e-mail, memo, letter, booklet, and so on- for your subject and audience?
11. Is your tone respectful?
12. Does your format enhance audience understanding?
(Alfred, Brusaw and Oliu, p.7)
Bibliography:
Alfred, Gerald J., Charles T. Brusaw, and Walter E. Oliu. Writing That Works Communicating Effectively on the Job. 3rd ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Tips on How to Determine What the Reader Needs to Know and/or Wants to Know
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I think you did an exceptional job at providing the information that a person would want to know on what interests the reader. I think that your list was very effective in providing a concise and accurate bank of information that a writer could use to determine a readers needs. I believe the way you posed them as questions facilitated the understanding of your own audience.
ReplyDeleteKudos!
Zarah
Dear Keystrokes members;
ReplyDeleteI believe we should try and use the tips provided by our texbook authors and contained in this blog, to consider the needs and/or wants of our blog's audience-which turns out to be ourselves. This way, we will try and post topics that can help us complete this ECB Team Project. Also, by doing this, we will be demontrating to our Professor the knowledge we are adquiring thru this project.
Sincerely;
Eusebio Moreno.
I agree with Mr. Moreno as far as the help from our book. The book demonstrates the precise knowledge we need to be successful in this class and it can be used as a key resource in determining what items we're asked to blog about. By the group demonstrating this knowledge it shows we are working hard and have read and learned the material.
ReplyDeleteZarah
These are all excellent questions or guidelines to be used when creating any kind of formal, or informal document for that matter, within the work place. Whether it be an e-mail, memo, letter of application, or resume. Hopefully these posts will allow our group to communicate more effectively.
ReplyDeleteExcellent write up, many useful tips on helping your writing in all areas. It is always very important to understand what the reader should know or wants to know.
ReplyDelete