In chapter 3, Readers and Contexts of Use, the idea of knowing your audience and how to effectively communicate with them is introduced. In order to be an effective writer one must be able to present information or ideas in a way that allows everyone to understand. To achieve this goal the writer must evaluate the type of person that will be reading the particular document, its purpose, and formatting.
When producing a document it is important to think about the different types of people that will be reading it. Some may have a lot of technical experience, some may have none. A properly written document will be understood by both. It is important to note that readers other than the primary will most likely be reading the document and they need to be considered.
The purpose and formatting of a document were also discussed in chapter 3. There are a few things the writer should consider. Are the readers able to find the information they need quickly and effectively? Is it laid out in a manner that allows it to be easily read and understood? Is it written in a clear and concise fashion or is it cluttered with redundant over simplified information? If the writer asks themselves some of these simple questions they can begin to condense and organize their information, enabling all types of readers of all skill levels to understand what is being presented to them.
Most of the ideas and information presented in this chapter seem obvious, but are not always considered when actually writing. I know for a fact that I’ve written documents/papers that were directed at only the primary reader, not thinking about other possible readers. I hope by the end of this course I will be more aware of my entire audience and be a more conscience writer.
Response
I feel like the biggest problem for me, and maybe you after reading the end of your response, is that I always only write for the primary reader and never even think about the other different types of people that could possibly end up reading my document.
I also feel like sometimes I include too much detail or information about certain aspects of papers or essays I make, which could contribute to a less efficient document. Some of the questions you present for the writer to consider are some of the more important things that one should consider, especially the one about being too cluttered or redundant.
Response
I would have to agree with you on writing just for the primary reader. All the papers I would have to write for school were just for the teacher. One would never have to think about writing for your other students because they were not the ones giving out a grade. It will be good to think inside a different box for a change.
I would not worry about adding too much detail. I sometimes have the opposite problem where I get straight to the point, thus creating a shorter paper than what was required. It is a pain having to go through a paper two or three times more just to add more detail to it.
What kind of audience would the instructors be?
The question of audience in this class is interesting, because most of the project documents that you create are not for your instructors. In many classes it does seem that the primary audience (and perhaps the only audience) is the instructor. However, going by the reading, I would say the instructors in this class are tertiary readers. They are evaluators of you and your document, but they are not really the action takers or advisors. In fact, notice that the primary and secondary audiences are field specialists. Almost certainly your instructors are not specialists in the fields in which you will be writing.
In our current Employment project, you might think of the person you are writing your resume or cover letter to as your primary audience. Other members of the hiring team or people who you would have to work with might be your secondary audience, and your tertiary audience might be your instructors. Your instructors might also be gatekeepers, as would be HR personnel who process your employment documents before passing them on. There might be some overlap there.
Other ideas about this?
Resume Audience
What I think is interesting about this comment is the discussion of gatekeepers for a resume. I have helped out with a little bit of recruiting in the fall and what the guys I was working with were doing was skimming resumes for a couple key items. They look for a couple hot buttons that could send your resume to the top of the stack or to the bottom of the trash can, and that's usually before you get passed along to whoever is doing the interviews. That's a major gatekeeper function and dealing with that could get you a long way in trying to even get companies to talk to you. Maybe Jeremy and Nathaniel will be able to point out what some of these hot buttons are better than I would be able to.
Clutter
I agree that redundancy or clutter is one of the more important and hardest things to avoid when writing. I know sometimes when I’m writing a descriptive paper or essay I put too many details down and over simplify everything. This is usually because I think the primary reader (the teacher) won’t understand what I’m trying to say. However, I think that if a few bold points are made with a few supporting details the paper/essay will flow much better, be easier to read, and allow the reader(s) to think about what they are reading instead of being told everything.
I also found most of this
I also found most of this chapter to seem quite obvious, but in thinking back to my previous documents, I also only really thought of that single primary reader. I wonder now, about all of the posts and other documents I have posted out on the internet that were probably only intended for a certain reader or reader type. Will my documents be understood correctly by everyone who might read them? This is certainly a question I will ask myself in the future and I am sure it will certainly assist the readers who might come across my works. The formatting that really interested me was the path of travel for someone when reading a document. The difference between American and other readers with the actual motion one’s eyes make when looking over a page is very new to me.
www.JFlitt.com
Response
I like how you described the mess that fills some papers as clutter. I know that I have written some papers where my main focus was just trying to get the right length. Thinking about this chapter it makes me think of how hard it must have been for the reader to just get to what they were trying to find. I'm sure that they probably had a very hard time getting the information that they wanted from that paper. On the other hand I hope that I go into enough detail to make the read worth the time. It wouldn’t be very useful if all that I had was skimpy detail.
-Chris
Response
I think you can split hairs between technical writing and the writing typically found with clutter. Technical writing, in my mind, suggests a heavy amount of concrete information such as directions or project descriptions. If done correctly, there should not be "clutter" found on a technical document. If the reader has been properly categorized and the context is accurate, the individual should not have trouble finding what he or she is looking for. This, of course, is easier said than done given the large deviation of these variables. Because there are so many inconsistencies, the author of a document should not be focusing on filling their work with clutter.