After reading the material for this week, it sounds like identifying specific audiences for instructions isn’t very easy. Chapter 20 suggests that we consider the 4 types of readers, the skill levels of those readers, and the locations in which they’ll be performing the task at hand. How is it possible to create something for use by so many people? Take computer hardware for example. The reader could be working at a bench in a repair shop, or they could be installing something in their home PC on the living room floor. Underestimating the knowledge of a technician or overestimating the skill level of a home user could easily cripple the effectiveness of a set of instructions.
The information in Chapter 19 is nearly the same, except that it’s applied to technical descriptions. I almost felt as thought I was reading the same material twice. Replace the word “description” with “instructions” and the chapters seem almost identical. Ultimately, I think everything boils down to a key point made in Instructor Blog #3: Don’t treat the reader as if they know nothing. The dilemma is that you can’t keep things too basic, nor too complex. Nobody wants to read instructions for an expert because they’re too hard to understand. Meanwhile, basic instructions also turn people off, because reading detailed instructions about everyday tasks is extremely boring. A person won’t spend the time to read how to twist a screwdriver. It’s inferred that most people already know how to remove or install a screw.
Even finding a good medium between ‘expert’ and ‘idiot’ can be difficult, depending on the topic at hand. For instance, almost everybody owns a PC, but there are a vast number of experience levels out there. The people in our age group understand most of the basic functions of a computer, but our grandparents (or at least mine) often struggle with tasks that we consider to be easy. I bet that everybody in this class understood the video about Google Docs, but an older computer user may not understand the concept of a remote server.
As with all of our writing, I feel that it’s important to choose an audience and tailor your documents to that specific audience. It was stated in one of our readings that writing to all audiences is impossible, and this is especially true with technical descriptions and instructions. Too much detail will bore the crowd either way you look at it.
The difficulty of multiple audiences
You make a good point, which is that it seems impossible to write instructions that will be able to accommodate all audiences, especially when potential audience members have varying varying levels of experience and comfort with the topic. I think you're exactly correct. Documents are situational; they have a particular audience, context, and purpose. And importantly, we have to get out of the mindset that there's only one real way to approach a topic (the expert's way) and everything else is just dumbing things down for a bonehead mass audience (3:50). Too often we assume that if people can follow instructions it's because of their deficient understanding of the topic. One of the reasons we are asking you to write instructions for two different audience types is so that we can interact with the different needs of different audiences.
That all being said, there are some constants that instructions should share. Let's take a hyperbolic example. Virtually nobody is going to enjoy instructions written in black ink on black paper in an illegible font at a two point size. Usability features aren't hard and fast rules, but we can see that there is a spectrum here. There isn't necessarily a right and wrong, but some choices are more right or more wrong than others. Also, with regard to audience, there may be information that must be consistent and formalized across instructions documents for legal or ethical reasons, such as safety warnings.
Tailoring instructions
I feel that even the best writers, who know everything about writing instructions, still will have a very hard time making a set of instructions fit all people. People are so different, that I agree, it would be nearly impossible to write a set of instructions that all people can relate to and fully understand. I think it is important not to assume that the readers of the instructions already know things about the product, place, or process, because then you will leave out important step, but I do however agree with you that it is so important not to treat people as if they are idiots. You never want to have instructions that basically talk down toward a person.
Levels of expertise
Agreeably, trying to determine the target reader's precise level of expertise is difficult if not impossible at times. How do we even define terms like "expert" and "beginner"? They are relative terms set by the writer, in my opinion. This provides a problem, the answer to which is presently elusive, but may be resolved in this upcoming project. My understanding is that we will be generating two sets of instructions for, presumably, advanced and novice users. Having this sort of round-about way of solving the dilemma (although I don't think it was intended to solve any such dilemma...) is rather inefficient it may work...or it may not. Suppose there are two sets of instructions, one labeled 'advanced user' and one labeled 'novice user'; this could be an issue itself: the actual novice user may be inclined to choose to use the 'advanced user' version out of pride and ultimately become frustrated, and the advanced user may notice that there are 'novice user' instructions and deem the product inferior because of its accessibility to the novice user. Double-edged blade? Maybe, maybe it isn't a big deal-dunno.
re: Levels of expertise
One of the main reasons we ask you to make two separate sets of instructions is so that you engage the issue you identify: namely, what defines and separates audience groups? Too often we are put in the position of writing for a "general audience." This is commonly the presumed audience for works like research papers. Unfortunately, the general audience is a myth. When you are writing for a general audience you are making tacit assumptions about audience features. We ask you to engage that choice process critically by identifying and targeting two distinct audience groups.