After reading Chapter 3 – Readers and Contexts of Use from Technical Communications Today, it is clear that this excerpt covers various writing strategies for accommodating the various types of readers that may encounter one’s literary work. One of the most important points is that technical communication is best presented by considering the readers first. Although this suggestion is rather common, it’s also seems common for people neglect to consider their audience when communicating information. There are also several guidelines presented in the text, including the idea that a reader is practically left on their own to interpret a document without the help of the author. This is especially important in business, where technical information may be stored and accessed in the future, possibly after the author has either left the company or changed jobs within the company.
This chapter also discusses several different categories of readers and steps for identifying them. I found this section especially helpful and I would agree with the author about the roles of the various audiences, but the primary and secondary readers have usually been the top priorities in my writing experiences. It is important that the document you are writing includes sufficient information at an appropriate technical level for the primary reader to draw conclusions and the secondary readers to make accurate recommendations. This is particularly true in engineering, where decisions are commonly based on test results and reports. Furthermore, engineers are also wary of the tertiary reader, who may draw conclusions about the writer individually or a company as a whole, sometimes for legal action. For example, engineers must make sure that any conclusions or recommendations made in technical documents are clear and cannot be interpreted as to incriminate their company in case a product does not perform as anticipated.
The chapter goes on to present several facts about cultures around the world and how the people of a certain culture may interpret different styles of writing. Although it was interesting, I felt as though the text did not present many ways to cope with these culture barriers (other than to be polite). There are so many different attitudes around the world, though, that this information would probably be very difficult to fit into a single chapter.
Personally, I have heard many of the recommendations presented in this chapter before, and working as an engineering intern has helped me identify several of these considerations for effective and responsible writing. Overall, this particular reading promoted the idea that identifying and catering to the different types of audiences are definitely the most important aspects of technical writing and possibly all writing in general, which I would certainly agree with.
Response
I think you make an excellent point in your second paragraph about being wary of tertiary readers. You make a good point about engineers, but I think the caution could definitely be useful in other professions as well. Writers always need to be cautious, particularly in a workplace setting, that nothing they write can be misinterpreted or misconstrued and used to harm their reputation or the company. I don't think it's something to be overly worried about, but it is important to be aware of the possibilities and the need to be extremely clear in addition to being accurate in what you write.
Kristin
Re: Response
I would certainly agree with you that caution must be taken in many professions, but engineering is where I have most of my experience, and that is why most of my examples relate to that field. However, in terms of being "overly worried," I think that this will definitely vary from profession to profession. For example, the company I intern with designs braking systems for cars. If one of these systems fails, a lawyer may have the right to review all testing previously performed on the parts. If anything in those reports can be interpreted as being linked to the failure mode, then the company will surely be held responsible for any injuries or deaths resulting from the accident. Thus, I would figure that most of the people signing off on these particular reports would be pretty thorough for fear of any future disasters. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the possible consequences vary for each industry.
Re:
This idea of tertiary readers is something I hadn't really considered until after the reading. This, I think, will be much more difficult to account for because when, for example, an engineering proposal is written and the primary reader is an accountant-the easier you make it for this accountant to read and understand why this engineering project is required, the more frustrated the secondary readers (who may be other engineers) will become with the lack of technical information. I'm sure there are techniques to deal with this, but this chapter at least provides a somewhat challenging obstacle. Including layers as tertiary readers is a really good idea and should always be considered in industry.