ENG 204-001

After reading the article Readers and contest of use, I’m getting an idea on how complex communicating through instructions can be. In this reading it goes over the types of audiences, identifying the readers which have four sub categories, including Gatekeepers, tertiary, secondary, and primary readers. The primary read is known to take action, the secondary reader are people that instruct the primary readers as they are going through the instructions, tertiary readers evaluate who would take an interest in the instructions, and the gatekeepers are the ones who will look over the document before the primary readers get their hands on it.

It also gives you so questions to consider about how your readers will comprehend the instructions you will be giving them; one question asks what is the reader’s familiarity with the subject? The other questions really help you out in the fact that it gets you thinking about all of the people we may be dealing with.

This document also goes over how to profile your reader’s needs, values and attitudes, saying to not assume everyone is the same. People have different ways of understating things and that others need more specific instructions then others. It is also a way that people make their decisions.

The document provides us with many examples of how to set up and illustrates what might be considered wrong the way and what is considered right. Now it also takes you to another side of “instructions” where many people use… the internet. It talks about how to profile your reader with search engines, which I didn’t really know you could do that.

Then it goes into contest of use with four sub categories, including physical, economic, political, and ethical context. Physical talks about the place people with read, economic is what money related issue will they get out of reading this, political is the political forces influencing what you read, and the ethical is the personal social and environmental issues that affect the reader.

This article with the instructor’s blog and the other article are very helpful in constructing useful and helpful instructions for our project in our class; I know I will be using all three in critiquing my instructions.

1. “Instructions” in TCT:
In order to make sure that the instructions being written attain to a certain audience it is very important to ask the “5 W questions”. As it is stated in TCT, some questions to ask are: Who might use these instructions? Why are these instructions needed? What should the instructions include? Where will the instructions be used? When will the instructions be used? How will the instructions be used? It is also important to test out the product that you are going to be making instructions for. Becoming very familiar with it will help to write efficient instructions. Find difficult areas with the object that the reader may have a dilemma with. Also it is important to plan for something to go wrong with the object so that you can write instructions on what to do in those instances.

2. “Readers and Context of Use” in TCT:
There are four types of readers who will be looking at your instructions. Primary readers are referred to as “action takers”. Primary readers will make use of the instructions and test them. This could be giving someone instructions on how to install certain software and then the reader using the instructions to install it on their computer. Secondary readers are referred to as “advisers”. They are knowledgeable about the instructions and primary readers use them for help. An example would be, having a computer software technician read the instructions and help the primary reader decide if he or she should use the instructions to install their software. Tertiary readers are referred to as “evaluators,” they are readers who want to evaluate your instructions. An example would be, another software company looking at your instructions on how to install software to see what they are competing against. Gatekeepers are referred to as, “supervisors”. They inspect the instructions before allowing it to go out to the public/primary reader. An example would be your boss looking over the instructions on software installation before releasing it to a computer company.

It is also important to make sure you know what kind of audience you will be dealing with. Other countries have different cultures that may take offense to the way something is written. Different language, style, and presentation vary across culture. It would be good to research the culture you are trying to communicate before making the instructions.

After reading “Instructions” in Technical Communication Today, I have a better understanding of how important it is to direct the instructions to a specific audience. One of the many important things to consider when writing instruction sets is to make sure you are clear and consistent with your terms. For example, in the article “Instructions” in TCT, they make sure to comment on the fact that the writer should be precise. This way it would be very hard for the reader to confuse one term with another. Something that was mentioned in TCT that I would not have thought of was to make sure to keep each direction short. That way readers can remember the steps while they are doing the action. Another important question to ask while writing instructions is what media should the instructions include, if any? If you know you target audience is going to be someone who is very inexperienced with the topic, or perhaps even a child, it would be a good idea to supply pictures with each step. If the reader has a picture, diagram, or even a detailed description of what they are looking for, it would erase a lot of confusion, when trying to find something. Perhaps one of the most important things to do when writing instructions is to make sure to test your directions on your targeted audience. If you don’t test you instructions at all or test them on an audience that is experienced in the subject, they might not be helpful at all to your targeted audience, who is not an expert in this field.

One of the key points that was mentioned in “Readers and Contexts of Use” in Technical Communication Today was the type of audience. Primary readers are the audience who will actually be using the instructions. Secondary readers are the audience who is a little more knowledgeable in the specific field. They will be the people who could possibly give advice to the primary readers about how to do something. Tertiary readers are the people who would evaluate your instructions. And finally, gatekeepers are the people who would have the final look over your directions before they are sent to be used by the primary readers.

After I read the Readers and context of use article, I tried to relate its message to the Intstructions project that we have been given. While we do not have to produce one document for a whole variety of audiences, the article has given me a better sense of how to communicate with a certain audience and what that audience expects from whatever they’re reading. But it also makes me realize how difficult communicating with a variety of audiences can be, because it is almost impossible to please everyone. I think this article gives good advice on how to categorize the different audiences and assess their goals, positions, motives, etc. This will prove to be very useful in the instructions project because we have to identify which audience requires what information in their instructions.

For the Instructions reading in TCT, the major thing I took out of it was the 5 w’s questions (Who, What, When, Where, Why). Being a journalism minor, I am very familiar with how to ask these questions while writing and I am glad to know that some of what I already know applies to this project. One thing that the reading mentioned was that shorter instructions are better. I always thought that when giving instructions, you should be as descriptive as possible and make sure the reader, or whomever you are giving the instructions to, has as much of a handle on it as you do. The article gave me a better understanding of the project and how to direct the instructions set for different audiences as well as how to make them clear enough.

These two articles along with the instructor blog post all work very well together to describe what it means to communicate efficiently while giving instructions and how to give different instruction sets to different audiences. After reading all three, I feel like I have better knowledge of the project and how to communicate while writing in general.

The reading section "Readers and Contexts of Use" tells us how to effectively give our readers what they are interested in and what information they need by learning more about them. The first section begins with how to develop a reader profile by asking six questions: Who are the readers, what do they need, Where will they be reading, When will they be reading, Why will they be reading, and for how long will they be reading. The text includes five guidelines to follow when developing a reader profile; those state that readers are "raiders of information", they are the ones that must understand your instructions on their own, they only want "need to know" information, they prefer short and to the point instructions and readers prefer visual stimulation.

The text then divides the readers into four sub categories for us. Each category is using your text for a separate purpose. The primary readers are the everyday people to whom your work will be addressed, the secondary readers are the professionals that use your text to assist primary readers, the tertiary readers are the ones who are reading your text to evaluate you and/or your team, and the gatekeepers are the ones who review your text before it is introduced to the public. Each of these groups is looking for different information when they are reading your information, but the primary readers are the ones who are the most important because they will be using your text the most.

The text continues by giving us a chart to deepen our understanding of what these different groups of readers are looking for. This includes what the information the readers need to take action or make a decision, what values are important to the reader, and the reader’s attitude to you and the information that you have provided for them.

After reading the Instructions in Technical Communication Today I felt like a had a much better grip on how to write my own instructions. I made 3 pages of written notes to refer to the highlights when I begin my own process and I think they will really help me. Some things, such as put danger notices close to the beginning and make sure the list of tools needed is close to the beginning should be common knowledge for anyone writing an instructions manual, especially if you have ever used one before, but they were absolutely things that I needed to read and write down. Even though these should be things that come to mind, a lot of the time when you're writing the manual the common things will slip your mind, so making lists and having a plan will really help.

Some of the things I have not thought of before reading this part of the book was to use an action verb in every step. I would hope it would come to me automatically, but you never know what will happen when you sit down to write, so having that to look back on was a very helpful idea. Graphics and pictures is another. When we looked on the sites in class the other day, it seemed all of the sites with pictures were a little more descriptive and easier to understand. I think that graphics are a great idea because although some people work better off of simply reading, other tend to do better if they can actually see the process.

In the reading of Readers and Contexts of Use the most helpful information I found was the difference in context paragraphs. I'd never thought about how different cultures could view instruction manuals differently, but it seems they can, so it is helpful to know that if my target audience could possibly be someone in a different culture, I need to have this information in the back of my mind while writing instructions for them.

As for the Instructor Blog, listing the main problems was extremely helpful, the first primarily. The example of Ryan was the most helpful part because it gave me a true life example to work with. I now know when I write my instructions I need to make sure that even though I know a certain part of what I am explaining, my audience may not. I will now be able to put myself in the audience's shoes in order to write for them and not to them.

After reading “Instructions” in Technical Communication Today, I learned how important it is to understand what audience you are trying to connect with. For example, very early in the reading we learn that there are three types of instructions that are developed for different audiences in the technical workplace. First, you can simply describe how to perform a specific task or do something step-by-step, which is called Instructions, and could be used by an employee putting together new office equipment. Second, you are writing to ensure the quality and consistency in the workplace, which is called Procedure/Protocol, and is usually more intricate and important. Third, you are describing in very meticulous and exact detail of how a product is assembled. This is Specifications and it is used in a very technical manner and would be suited for professionals in their precise line of work. Moreover, it is obvious how crucial your audience is when creating Instructions because if you were to give engineers simple instructions it would not be precise enough and if you were given “Specs” or Procedure/Protocols as a less knowledgeable beginner you would more likely be overwhelmed by the preciseness and be unable to complete the task.

Upon reading "Readers and Contexts of Use,” we come to understand the importance of identifying your readers, and also, it explains four types of readers you potentially have, which are Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Gatekeepers. Readers and Context of Use specifically states that “each of these four types of readers will look for different kinds of information,” meaning that it is the writer’s job to communicate with every angle of an audience and when you identify these readers with specificity much clarity should be gained.

Aside from this we must learn and understand to keep our words to a minimum because readers are trying to perform a task, in a descent amount of time, and with the least difficulties possible. So as writer’s we must fall into the cliché and keep it short but sweet.

When I was first given the assignment to write instructions, I only considered the actual task I was writing instructions for, and really didn’t consider any of the surrounding factors. The three different studies we have read about writing instructions have all emphasized the importance of the audience- who the particular instructions are designed for. “Instructions” in Technical Communication Today highlights the importance of taking time to consider all of the different situations in which the instructions will be used. This is done by asking simple questions: Who are the instructions for? Why are the instructions needed? How will they be used? What should be included? Where and when will the instructions be used? All of these answers will shape the criteria needed for the instructions to successfully communicate with an audience.

“Readers and Contents of Use” in Technical Communication Today, mentions a very interesting point about the readers behind the instructions. I never really thought about the fact that there were different groups reading the instructions for different purposes. The text states that there readers are fall into four different categories: primary, secondary, tertiary, or gatekeeper. A primary reader is a person reading instructions to actually complete the task. I feel that instructions, for the most part, are usually geared towards these first-timers, and a primary reader sets the standard for basic instruction-literary. I was a little confused by the breakdown of “secondary” users, who are people that are just assisting the primary user to complete the task. I was confused because who is to say that this person is more familiar with the subject than the primary is- from what I’ve gathered, this secondary person is reading the instructions right along with the primary reader… so where is this line between the two? The last two categories of leaders, tertiary and gatekeepers, are used to overlook, evaluate, and supervise the instructions. Tertiary readers are supposed to ensure the quality of the instructions while the gatekeepers are to check the quality, safety, and accuracy of the instructions. I feel like the two intertwine with overlooking and checking to see if the instructions are compatible with several different audiences. These groups were a little confusing for me to separate, but I do feel more comfortable with recognizing the different audiences and users that need to be identified when writing my own instructions.

After reading the TCT manual, I have learned the importance of profiling the reader, in order to make a successful document that they can easily understand and will fill comfortable using. Things like age, gender, and ethnicity should be taken into account when writing a document. The best way to do this is to use the chart in the TCT manual that asks the 5-W and How Questions. If each question can be answered and the document written based on those questions, then, the document will more than likely be successful.
Profiling the readers is also easier by using search engines on the web to find out the general opinion of the potential readers. According to figure 3.5, "Readers are influenced by physical, economic, political and ethical concerns." If you can identify with these concerns and write in order to appease them, your readers will be more likely to respond positively to what you write.
Another chart that was helpful was the arching chart with the primary, secondary, and tertiary readers and the gatekeepers to the side. This chart is helpful in identifying who specifically will be reading what you write. It is easy to use and makes it easy to see who is important in regards to writing the document.
An important thing to consider when writing today is the fact that the world has gotten smaller due to technology. If you are to write on an international level, you must understand the culture to which you are writing to. Each culture has different ideas about what is considered polite, rude, acceptable, and indecent. For instance, the book points out that in Indian culture you should not use thank you when someone does you a favor because thank you is viewed as a payment for a service and it would be rude to try and pay someone for a favor.

There is a lot covered in “Instructions” and “Readers and Contexts of Use.” One of the things that seemed to stand out was the amount of attention that both excerpts spend on the readers themselves. This subject was one of the two focuses of the second excerpt and therefore covered at least a quarter of the material covered.
“Readers and Contexts of Use” starts by stating that instructions are meant and created for a specific audience and the first step to gearing the instructions specifically in this context is to create a reader profile of the person or persons that will use the instructions. The big part of the reader profile is the using the five Ws and the How question.
The excerpt then gives five guidelines for how to keep your instructions effective through basically not adding any extra content and using graphics to help convey your message as much as possible.
The excerpt also takes into account that there might be different types of readers that will use the instructions and lists four types of readers which included primary readers who will use the instructions to take action, secondary readers who supervise and help the primary readers, tertiary readers which will evaluate the work of the primary readers, and gatekeeper readers who examine the instructions themselves before the final product is shipped.
The excerpt concludes the readers section by pointing out that on top of knowing who and where the readers will be, instructions need to take into account what the audience needs to take their action, what they values in their work, and what their attitude toward you and your instructions will be.
Obviously there is a lot to decide on with your readers, who are your biggest consideration when making a specific set of instructions.

As a general rule, no matter what task one undergoes, it is impossible to please everyone. I therefore found “Readers and Contexts of Use” in Technical Communication Today to be helpful because it addresses the different categories of audiences one might encounter and how to approach each type. According to “Readers and Contexts of Use”, there are three main categories of audiences for one’s writing, and they are primary, secondary, tertiary, and gatekeepers. The primary group consists of the people who the document is really addressed to, and who are expected to take some sort of action based on the document, making the primary group the most important. The secondary group consists of those who can influence the primary group with superior knowledge of the subject, but will not necessarily be directly involved. The tertiary group consists of people that may or may not read the document and don’t really influence the other groups’ actions, but should all the same be considered by the writer because if offended, they can influence the other groups in a negative way. The final group, the gatekeepers, consists of those who approve the document before it is sent to any other group. It is important for a writer to understand who among the audience belongs to which group, and to profile each audience group in order to best suit their needs. In order to profile their readers, the writer should consider the readers’ familiarity and experience with the subject, skill level, and educational level. Forming a profile of the audience helps the writer to better see things from the readers’ point of view, which may help encourage agreement and cooperation. Specifically, the writer needs to focus on what information, portrayed values, and ethos will cause the reader to want to take the action desired by the writer. In a sense, the writer needs to manipulate their readers to achieve the desired ends.

The primary audience will be the group that are going to be directly involved in what might stem from an instructions set. Since you cannot truly generate instructions that cater perfectly to every audience needs, I would say that having the primary audience as the target group would be best. The primary audience is going to take the instructions given and put them directly into use, therefore this audience needs things to be laid out in a coherent manner. The secondary audience is going to be paying closer attention to detail, since they are the experts in a particular field and would be advising the primary audience. The presenter would want to pay close attention to detail throughout the planning stages to make sure he will satisfy the secondary audiences needs, maybe add extra steps if one particular step seems to confusing. Tertiary audience members are usually outside the scope of a project or presentation, they are going to be the ones to use mistakes in a presentation to hurt a company's public relations. This audience is going to, in a sense, looking over an instruction set with a fine tooth comb. The tertiary audience will process the instructions based on how it would look to consumers and if any part of it would have a negative impact on them. Gatekeepers are basically going to process instructions like an editor would, picking out little mistakes here and there as a way to sharpen the effectiveness of an instruction set.

What I found interesting about the reading was the tertiary audience. In many cases, this particular audience is made up of people who you think will never read it. Sometimes, as in the Donald Rumsfeld case on page (Figure 3.3 in “Readers and Contexts of Use), the audience is comprised of people who are not supposed to read it at all.
This leads me to ask, how can we, as professional writers, be expected to prepare for every audience eventuality. The answer is we can’t. With the boom of internet posting and sharing of information, the probability that what we write will end up online is increasing daily. This means that people from all over the world can be considered as part of one’s tertiary audience.
This can prove a significant drawback to companies who regularly work internationally. The reading states gives pages of examples of how what is considered the norm, polite and reasonable in one’s own culture, may be considered horribly rude, disrespectful and hard to comprehend in another. So a clip art image of someone giving a thumbs up at the end of a document could find its way into the hands of an Australian client. This is potentially a disaster as the thumbs up is the equivalent of an American giving the middle finger. Unless both sides are informed of the other’s culture, serious miscommunications can happen, even when the documents are not originally intended to reach that other person.
So should writers constantly be editing and revising to allow for all audiences with differing opinions or cultures. I think not. Though it is wise to make certain changes for professionalism, there is no way a writer can possibly reach all audiences and achieve the same results. Readers and Contexts of use states that being polite is always the best because even though “there are subtle differences … your readers will understand that you are trying to be polite ( p60 ).”
In the case of Donald Rumsfeld’s letter, perhaps he should not have been so specific in writing and instead discussed matters of this importance in person. I found out the hard way in the seventh grade that putting something in writing means it can be used against you. I signed a letter with several other students requesting that a certain student who had been harassing us not be placed our hotel room on a field trip. My surprise tertiary audience was the guidance counselor who deemed the letter “excluding” and therefore “bullying” which nearly resulted in me being suspended for ten days. Luckily this did not happen, but I think it serves as a warning to all writers that what they put in writing can be misinterpreted. Therefore, all writers should take care when crafting their writing.

After reading "Readers and Contexts of Use," I was interested in the topics that the author proposed. There is a lot of information in this article and the other two as well but there was one section that stuck out to me. Namely, from pages 56-60 in the texts of “Readers…” where I was interested in some of the cultural faux pas that span across the written word. One of the main pieces of information that I got out of this section of the article is that no matter how great your instructions may be, if they do not match your target audience, they are utterly useless. On page 57, the author cites examples of differences in styles of writing and context. An interesting point that one might deduce from the bullet about Arabic style is that Arabic documents tend to be more decorated. Someone from an American cultural background might view this as overly ornamental but coming from the Arabic perspective the author writes that without the decoration, the document is often viewed as plain or bland. I was thinking about this point and how say a set of instructions might vary from place to place, so would the creators of Halo III create a another set of directions for their product bound for southwestern Asia? I understand that one set of directions cannot cater to all audiences no matter how specific, but where do you draw the line between acknowledging that you have a good product that will sell itself without the need for detailed directions and hiring teams of cultural investigators, if you will, to take note of variances in cultures and peoples and then apply them to your product. Is it cost effective to write many new sets of adjusted directions for how to play Halo III depending on where the product is shipped or can the Microsoft Company assume that this is not necessary as long as the product has a simple set of directions in a common language? Although no set of directions is perfect for any one target audience, how do writers draw the line between creating hundreds of sets of directions targeting many different audiences versus just creating one set of directions for an incredible broad global audience?

I found it helpful that “Instructions” in TCT stressed the importance of using cautionary symbols and terms. I was unaware that there are different levels of caution that needed to be described in a set of instructions (e.g. Danger, Warning, and Caution). I also found it interesting that “Instructions” suggested “motivating” the reader. I’ve never seen this technique used before in an instruction set. I would like some elaboration on effective ways to “motivate” the reader in more common-place situations.
The TCT texts stressed the importance of researching another culture before writing a piece of work directed towards that less familiar group. I found the slips in translation that were provided in “Instructions” quite funny (although I’m certain the writers of those slogans did not). I found the examples that “Instructions” gave about commonly offensive symbols and gestures (such as the “OK” sign) to be useful.

“Readers and Contexts of Use” continued to stress the theme of cross-cultural communication and added good and bad business methods for each major culture. I found it interesting how strongly Asians stress the importance of relationships and that sometimes relationships trump the importance of facts and figures. Another unexpected note that I encountered was the connection between white and death in some cultures (this was something I previously learned but did not connect with business interactions).

I see no ethical problem in viewing users in terms of their needs, values, and expectations. I think that taking these imperative factors into concern when making a set of instructions or an advertisement is essential to the success of the writer’s work.

After reading Instructor Blog: Instructions, I understand and better grasp the concept of the audience. I thought the example about Ryan and the oil drain plug helped show that the instructions must be written in the correct manner as to allow the audience to fully understand the instructions set. I realized that once you establish the audience of your instructions set you must make sure they will be able to follow along with ease and minimal complications and misunderstandings. I think the part of about taking into account what your audience already knows and what they don’t know, will help you minimizes the amount of unnecessary detail and allow you to spend more time explaining parts that your audience will benefit and learn from.

I also enjoyed the section about making your instructions set appealing and less overwhelming. In this paragraph it said that many instruction sets are confusing because they are filled with lengthy steps with intimidating word choice. These instructions sets are labeled as complicated just by their appearance the amount of information in them. I think that it is important to use short, concise sentences for each step in the instructions set. Keep each step to no more than a couple or few sentence and make certain that your word choice is easily understood. I also think it helps to have pictures that are clear and descriptive of each step, this allows the audience to make sure they are doing the instructions properly.