From reading chapter 3, Readers and Contexts of Use from the book Technical Communication Today, they drill into us the importance of writing for your audience. Even though a simple memo would be fine they know the average reader will scan for information. (Thank you bold words, bullet points, pictures, and margin notes)
The who, what, where, when, why, and how are the six questions you should ask yourself when writing any paper. Imagine yourself as your reader. Would they understand what you are saying? The point you are trying to get across? We have an old saying in Computer and Information Technology, the average user is an idiot. They will find something you never meant to say and interpret it into something completely different. That is why you should imagine yourself as one of the four readers, primary, secondary, tertiary, and gatekeepers.
The primary readers are the students reading this blog post. All of us will scan other student's blogs looking for information to comment on this weekend. This is why the writer, me, has to try and keep things interesting.
As for the secondary readers, they are supposed to be experts. In this situation I would say the student’s brain is the expert. After all they did read the document and found it important enough to post on their blog.
The tertiary reader is the teacher in this case. He is, after all, grading me this entire semester.
The gatekeeper is also myself in this situation. All I have to do it click the save button.
The reading also mentioned how other cultures communicate differently in their writing. It always fascinated me when our version of "normal" contradicts another cultures view of "normal." In fact In fact Cracked.com did an article about 7 Hand Gestures that can get you Killed Overseas. It was a fun read that shows we should also watch our hand gestures when communicating in other countries.
Reply
I think I'm in the same boat as you in terms of efficiency-based on your first paragraph. This is the internet and it is hard to tell sometimes, but somehow I get the impression that you were being sarcastic when you were thanking the author for the use of bold words and pictures. But, as you pointed out, the average user is and ‘idiot’, and a memo simply won’t do. Of course this brings us back to the original purpose of the chapter which suggests that we maintain a certain level of empathy for the eventual readers of our work.
Reading Response - Week 1
I must say that I agree with the first commentor. The thoughts you put down all went through my head while reading about the who, what, where, when, why but I was not bold enough to put it in my reading response.
I loved the link that you put in your response about the 7 hand gestures that can get you killed overseas. Having worked in situations where I had to be sensitive to other cultures as the customer, the article definitely hit home.
Response
I liked how you incorporated the bold words and page breaks into your response about the first chapter. Your response was also the first one that I have read that actually used another source in it, which after looking at it I found was a very effective way to get a point across and should be used more often.
The part about how the average user is an idiot is a very good way to think about things. When one is writing a paper, document, or anything that is giving information they need to think about writing it to a person who knows absolutely nothing about the topic or situation. You should try to review your own writing as an outsider or someone who has no knowledge of the topic.
Response
Thanks! I figured that semester learning web page development would come in handy for something.
I always find it helpful to relate study material to something else when trying to learn something new or just to spice up something you already know. I also found random pictures will help others remember the point you are trying to get across even if they have nothing to do with the topic. Of course this would be recommended for personal use and not for that multimillion dollar business deal that all depends on your presentation to the head of the company.
As for the average user I would agree that you would have to write to your audience as if they know nothing about the topic. As shown in the reading with the medical example. The average reader needs the memo with bold words and a simplified explanation. The medical expert gets a lengthy document filled with technical jargon.
Response
The layout of a document greatly impacts how long it takes to find information. I like how you mentioned the use of bold words, bullet points, pictures, and margin notes. These help immensely when it comes to scanning through a document to find what you are looking for. Another few things that are helpful are indexes and section titles. These all can greatly cut down the amount of time it takes for a reader to find what they were searching for. I can’t imagine how tough it would be to search through a large document that doesn’t contain any of these types of helpful layouts.
-Chris
Reply
I never thought of putting myself into the role of one of the four reading roles that were presented in this chapter. I have had a few run-ins with the “the average user is an idiot syndrome” and I always find it to be extremely frustrating. Sometimes I just do not understand how someone can interpret something so differently that intended. Hopefully, this new strategy you pointed out can help to ease some of this frustration. It was also good to mention the use of bolding words and adding bullet points. I know whenever I need to look up information for a lab those are usually the first things I look for.