Analyzing Your Audience by Zarah Boyer

When writing a work it is extremely important to consider your reader and analyze your audience. It is extremely important to consider their likes and dislikes, what motivates them, what kind of activities they enjoy and what they need or want in a work. These are just some of the thing to ask yourself when analyzing an audience. Audiences can be fickle and pleasing them can be very difficult because sometimes they don’t even know what they want. You must consider how to approach a topic, especially a sensitive one, or one that has great weight on society. It is hard to determine what they want but you can figure it out exactly what your audience wants and what points you want to get across by asking yourself a few simple questions.
· What is my purpose in writing this work?
· What action do I want my readers to take after reading it?
· Who are my readers?
· Is there a secondary audience?
· What do my readers know and how do they feel about the subject I’m addressing or the idea I’m proposing?
· Does my audience include international clients or colleagues? ( this one is EXTREMELY important because certain things in our culture may be very offensive to other cultures. For instance the color red in America may mean passion or power but in South Africa red is symbol of mourning.)

Asking yourself these questions will facilitate the analysis of your audience and further ensure the effectiveness of your writing.

Citations:

Oliu, Walter E., Charles T. Brusaw, and Gerald J. Alred. Writing that Works Communicating Effectively on the Job. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006.