The main point of this weeks reading seems to be that you should always be aware of the audience and context when you are writing your instructions. This is an important aspect of the writing process because your main audience affects the depth and vocabulary of your writing. I know that if I was writing some instructions for my Grandma for instance, I would not use terminology and concepts that were beyond here general understanding. This ties into the idea of writing your instructions as if your main audience were “idiots”.
I believe that this is an important concept to remember. I do not think that this suggests that your treat your readers as actual “idiots”. I think it just implies that you have to write your documents in a way that is easy to understand and makes sense in a general way. This concept really only makes sense if you know you are writing your documents for an audience that are not experts. You are not going to write your instructions with basic terminology and concepts if you are writing for a team of experts.
You also have to make sure that you always accommodate your writing for the multi-cultural audience. If you know that your instructions are going to be read by people from different cultures, then you have to make sure that you take into account any cultural differences. This goes with both your writing and tone as well as any graphics. You have to be careful that you are not going to offend anyone with your documents. So I think that it is pretty clear that before you write any form of instructions you have to make sure that you research who your primary audience is going to be. Once you know who your primary audience is you can tailor your writing to suit you readers.
Know who you are talking to.
After all of the readings we’ve had in this class it seems like the main thing they try to pound into your head is to be aware of your audience like you said. I also agree with making sure to use wording that everyone can understand. If they don’t know half the words how are they going to accomplish the task at hand? It slipped my mind to make sure to write these instructions with different cultures in mind, but that is something you need to think about now more than ever. As our country is expanding more and more with foreign people they need to be able to understand these informative documents as well.
Going Back to Basics
It seems we are touching back on the first two weeks of reading, knowing your audience. As you said you have to know who you are writing when creating an instructional document. I also agree with not treating the users as actual “idiots.” Writing it in a way for anyone with no experience should be able to pick it up and recreate it in their own scenario. I did not think about writing an instructional document so it would not offend anyone. It is a really good point as we should always be aware of what is being written even if it is a laundry list of steps one must follow.
Audience
After reading your comments on the reading response, you made some excellent points about identifying your audience. Even though we are in week 7 we are still talking about the same principles, just in different contents. I wonder if knowing who your audience is important. The problems we are learning to avoid always related to knowing who your audience is. As you mention in your comment, once you know who your primary readers are, you can write your material to suit your readers.
Another point I agree with is the point of instructions is to show/teach your audience how to do something. They are not expert. So don’t make it complicated by not providing enough details or using technical terminology.
Examples
Could you have suggested a few examples of instructions that would (or wouldn't) work for your Grandma?