Audience Analysis: Building Information About Your

2y ago
99 Views
2 Downloads
200.00 KB
6 Pages
Last View : 20d ago
Last Download : 2m ago
Upload by : Jamie Paz
Transcription

Audience Analysis: Building Information About Your ReadersBrought to you by the Purdue Online Writing Lab (owl.english.purdue.edu)By H. Allen Brizee and Kety A. Schmaling“Audience Analysis: Building Information About Your Readers” discusses yourcommunication’s complex audience and provides key questions you can ask to determinereaders’ needs, values, and attitudes. This section also provides useful charts to help you withyour audience analysis.Audience Analysis OverviewIn order to compose persuasive, user-centered communication, you should gather as muchinformation as possible about the people reading your document. Your audience may consist ofdifferent people who may have different needs and expectations. In other words, you may have acomplex audience in all the stages of your document’s lifecycle—the development stage, thereading stage, and the action stage:Development Stage Primary author (you) Secondary author (a technical expert within your organization) Secondary author (a budget expert within your organization) Gatekeeper (your supervisor)Reading Stage Primary audience (decision maker, primary point of contact, project lead, etc.) Secondary audience (technical expert within audience’s organization) Shadow audience (others who may read your communication)Action Stage Stakeholders (people who may read your communication, but more importantly, thosewho will be affected by the decisions based on the information you provide)Keep in mind that documents may not go through a clear, three-step process. Instead, thelifecycle of your communication may consist of overlapping stages of evolution. User-centeredwriting calls for close cooperation between those who are composing the documents, those whowill read and act upon the documents, and those who will be affected by the actions.

Section 2: Development StageAudience AnalysisA helpful way of gathering information about your readers is to conduct an audience analysis.Depending on the purpose and needs of your documents, you may perform a brief audienceprofile or an in-depth audience analysis (or something in between). You may expand or contractthe following process to match your situation, but remember that the more you know about yourpotential readers, the more persuasive and user-centered your documents may be.Some key questions (adapted from Johnson-Sheehan’s Technical Communication Today) to askabout your readers are: Who are they? What do they need? Where will they be reading? When will they be reading? Why will they be reading? How will they be reading?Meeting frequently (in person and/or virtually) with members of your audience to discuss theirneeds and expectations will also help you compose your documents. The following readeranalysis chart (adapted from Johnson-Sheehan) is effective for investigating your arySecondaryShadowHow readers will use your documents is also important. This context analysis chart (adaptedfrom Johnson-Sheehan) is effective for determining how your audience will use your documents:

Physical ContextEconomic ContextPolitical ContextEthical ContextPrimary ReadersReaders’ CompanyReaders’ IndustryIn addition, determining where your audience sits in their organization may help you understandreaders’ specific needs. Drawing a chart of your communication’s lifecycle will help you gatherthis information about your audience. The following graphic illustrates the development stagewhere you might be authoring a document with a team of people in your organization:Development Stage

Section 3: Reading and Action StagesThe following graphics illustrate the reading stage where your communication might be read bya number of people including your primary audience, secondary audience, and shadow readers:Reading Stage (General)

Reading Stage (Detailed)The following graphic illustrates the action stage where your communication’s informationmight lead to decisions, which in turn, can lead to action that influences the lives of yourstakeholders. In a user-centered writing process, decision makers and stakeholders will providefeedback to help you further revise your communication:

Action StageReferencesAnderson, Paul V. Technical Communication: A Reader-Centered Approach. 6th ed. Boston:Thomson-Wadsworth, 2007.Johnson-Sheehan, Richard. Technical Communication Today. New York: Pearson-Longman,2005.

Section 2: Development Stage Audience Analysis A helpful way of gathering information about your readers is to conduct an audience analysis. Depending on the purpose and

Related Documents:

Nielsen Audience Watch User Guide Getting Started 1-7 About Audience Data Nielsen Audience Watchincludes data from a variety of sources. Audience Watch includes audience, programming, and advertising data from a variety of sources. These data sources include the following: Ratings and share data

Audience analysis allows for an in-depth understanding of the characteristics, needs, values, aspirations and behaviors of the intended audience. As such, audience analysis supports the development of activities, materials, messages and the selection of communication channels that resonate with the audience and that are more likely to lead to the

The standard audience profile is made up of audience demographics. Consumer research delivers you a clear picture of what the audience profile is from a general population point of view. This allows you to get a true top-level picture of the audience. Audience. Demographics. Age. 16-24. 25-34: 35-44: 45-54: 55-64: 31%. 34%. 20%. 11%. 5% .

3 Model of Target Audience Formation To promote a product or service on the Internet, the user needs to know the target audience for which this product is offered. To solve the problem of selecting the tar-get audience, a recommendation system is proposed. The recommendation system that forms the target audience for promoting a prod-

Ceco Building Carlisle Gulf States Mesco Building Metal Sales Inc. Morin Corporation M.B.C.I. Nucor Building Star Building U.S.A. Building Varco Pruden Wedgcore Inc. Building A&S Building System Inland Building Steelox Building Summit Building Stran Buildings Pascoe Building Steelite Buil

BUILDING CODE Structure B1 BUILDING CODE B1 BUILDING CODE Durability B2 BUILDING CODE Access routes D1 BUILDING CODE External moisture E2 BUILDING CODE Hazardous building F2 materials BUILDING CODE Safety from F4 falling Contents 1.0 Scope and Definitions 3 2.0 Guidance and the Building Code 6 3.0 Design Criteria 8 4.0 Materials 32 – Glass 32 .

thorough Target Audience Analysis (TAA). The process of understanding a target audience is critical to determining if your Target Audience is susceptible and capable of being influenced. If a MISO operator does not understand the depth of an individual's condition, concerns, fears, ambitions, and vulnerabilities, then MISO will not be effective.

Adventure tourism: According to travel-industry-dictionary adventure tourism is “recreational travel undertaken to remote or exotic destinations for the purpose of explora-tion or engaging in a variety of rugged activities”. Programs and activities with an implica-tion of challenge, expeditions full of surprises, involving daring journeys and the unexpect- ed. Climbing, caving, jeep .