In chapter three there is one main idea that gets supported throughout; know your audience. In this reading the audience is first broken down by whether they are a primary, secondary, or tertiary reader. Next it is suggested that you keep in mind the proper context that the reader will be in when they are reading it, which is broken down by physical, economic, political, and ethical contexts. Lastly the writer is to keep in mind cultural differences of their audience.
For the first breakdown, the audience is divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary groups. The facts are given on what places a reader into one of those groups and several cases are given. An example paper is presented, which was written by the secretary of defense. In this paper the writer did not consider the possibility of a tertiary reader which came back to bite him. The example reclaims the fact that the writer should always account for all possible readers to keep from accidentally giving someone the wrong impression.
A brief and somewhat misplaced section given next that explains how to use search engines when profiling your readers. Afterward, advice is given on what to keep in mind about the reader's specific situation. It is broken down into physical, economical, political, and ethical contexts. All of these ask the same primary question: "What can you, as a writer, infer about the audience you're writing to?" If you know something pertinent about the reader then mold your writing style to fit their needs.
The last and largest section focuses on the cultural differences of an audience for whom you are writing. If the situation arises where there is a difference in what is culturally acceptable to do, the writer is obliged to conform to the reader's standards. Again, there are a myriad of examples given about specific cultures that an author should parallel to whatever their situation dictates.
This reading is full of good advice on specific examples which back up its main points. It really drives home the point that there are many angles to an audience which often go unaccounted for, even by the most veteran writers. Although redundant, it gets its message across, which is that knowledge of your audience is just as (if not more so) important as the knowledge of the subject being written.
Response
I agree with you on the how to use a search engine section. It seemed to go against what the book was saying about targeting your audience and including unnecessary information that gets in the way of readers "raiding" the information. Not really sure when this book was written but I'd guess that the vast majority of people today can figure out how to use Google. Maybe when this book was written the Internet and search engines were new fangled things. Still it and the paragraph about using search engines to find things was very misplaced in a college textbook.
Andy
Response
Yeah, even disregarding the a possible difference the time is was created what stuck out to me as why it was misplaced is that it didn't really have anything to support the readings main points. The chapter kept drilling on the fact that you need to know whom your audience is and what they need, however smashed in the middle it gave a quick lesson on basic computer usage. I think it could equate to a cookbook suddenly telling you how to operate an oven. It has something to do with the topic but is just not needed in the reading.
Shane
Reply
I agree with some of the information being redundant but very good information at that. It seems that the reading could be used as more a guide when writing documents in the business world. There is so much information especially the information about the search engines and how to use them, that it cannot be memorized. In writing technical documents conforming to reader's standards in different countries would be impossible to memorize. This information is very useful and interesting but boring in sections. The concentration of how the audience feels when reading the information was very interesting and must be always kept in mind when making a successful document.