The topic discussed in Chapter 3, Readers and Contexts of Use, was the need to know your readers. The author began the section by explaining a way of profiling your readers. He suggests using the Five W and How Questions to define the readers along with using a series of guidelines that suggest what to include when writing to them. The author also incorporates some useful information on using search engines showing that with the addition of a few symbols a search can greatly be defined. The part of the article that I found to be most interesting was the cultural differences and content that should be included when communicating with people from certain parts of the world. For instance in parts of Asia a writing will often include informal information like weather that does not pertain to the main content, while American writings are sometimes seen as abrupt and to quick to mention goals and objectives. Simple differences can cause create great boundaries between an author and a reader.
The importance of understanding your reader cannot be stressed enough. In my experience with persuasive writing by researching how the audience will address an issue a more persuasive angle may be obtained. The reading portrays that the same rules apply for technical writing. If an author neglects to take into consideration what the reader is custom to and looking for, their attention may be lost before the point is established. By learning about the reader the author also will know what the reader is looking for in terms of content. The target audience should be the main focus and the use of vocabulary and figures should be to their level. The secondary and tertiary readers should always be considered, but the reading stresses the role of the primary reader as the action taker.
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I also thought the part of the chapter about differences in cultures and the different way they may view things to be really interesting. I have never had to write things for people in different cultures so the differences in how things may be perceived is something I did not place much thought into until I read this chapter. I also agree with you that the importance of understanding your reader is key to making sure your work is well received and understood correctly.
Patrick Griffin
pgriffin@purdue.edu
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I think that, for most people, it is pretty obvious that there are some big differences between the different cultures throughout the world. However, even though I realized this before hand, I never really took into account the impact that these differences would have on writing technical documents. I completely agree with you when you say that the importance of the reader cannot be stressed enough. I think that this new aspect of writing that was presented in this chapter will be difficult to incorporate into writing. It made me realize that if you do not know your target audience and how they receive new information your work may never even be considered.