Audience and StyleIdentifying nature and purposes of writing

AUDIENCE

The audience for a text will make a difference to its content, style and layout.

Audience

A known

audience

An unknown

audience

A known audience

Myself A teacherA family

memberA friend

The rest of

my class/set

My year-

group

The whole

school

A well-known

personality

An unknown audience

Any reader/viewer/listener

Any adult

Any child

A child of a particular age-group

Someone interested in a particular topic

Adapting Writing to the Audience

Knowing who your audience

adapt the content of your writing to address the main concerns of your audience.

If you know your readers are specialists in a particular area, the writing style should acknowledge this and differ from an article written on the same topic for the general public.

Knowing your audience will also help you to decide on the “voice” to use.

The writer's “voice” is a literary term used to describe the individual writingstyle of an author but also includes how formal or informal (relaxed) thetone of voice should be.

However this same style is not appropriate in professional situations wherea more formal tone is expected.

If you are writing to very busy people who perhaps receive hundreds of similar communications…

adopt a brief and succinct written style that conveys the key messages quickly and clearly.

consider including charts, diagrams or illustrations if this helps to convey the key messages more succinctly than elaborate and convoluted text.

Provide the detailed content if you know that you are writing to people who want or need it and do ask if you do not know how much detail is required.

Types of

reading styles

Tell Me

Everything

Just Give Me

the FactsBe Nice to Me Be Interesting

Different readers have different reading styles.

Tell Me Everything

needs plenty of details, along with sources for more information

anticipate and answer all your reader’s questions

Generally, begin with an executive summary, lay out the key points, provide details,describe alternatives, and list possible next steps.

Just Give Me The Facts

They need just the facts.

When writing to this type, be very concise.

Use an action-oriented subject line, a one-sentence summary, crisp bullet points, a quick conclusion, and your name and phone number.

Be Nice to Me

Be Nice to Me readers need to be recognized as people.

They prefer friendly, courteous language and sincere individual comments.

They also want people issues to be addressed.

Be Interesting

They need evocative stories, rich metaphors, and thought-provoking scenarios.

They need big-picture visions and inventive thinking.

They need to be engaged because most business writing concisely communicates routine information, these readers go through most days uninspired by what appears on their screens.

When you give them something special, you get their attention.

Adapting to Style Differences in Writing

For your Tell Me Everything readers, attach additional data and provide sources for more information.

For your Just Give Me the Facts readers, use precise headings so that they can skim and skip to their bottom line.

For your Be Nice to Me readers, include Please, Many thanks, and Have a good trip, along with relevant human factors.

For your Be Interesting readers, refer to the big picture or the future. If possible, include an engaging question such as “What if for just one day all of us challenged conventional thinking?”

THANK YOU.