What does it mean to understand "audience"?

In the technical communication field, it is essential to know what it means to understand audience in any given situation. Understanding an audience means to be able to continuously adapt to the audience’s needs in order to create effective documentation that will better connect writers and readers in a variety of situations. Understanding audience means being adaptable and flexible to the changing qualities of audience members within a changing field of communication.

Understanding audience makes communication more effective for technical writers because it creates a special relationship between writers and their readers. In her article, “How to Know Your Audience,” Heather Lazzaro suggests that before doing anything, as a technical writer, you “should do enough research to know your user as if he or she were your best friend” (Lazzaro 1). Lazzaro makes an important point because if technical writers do not understand their audiences, users of technical documents will not get the appropriate information. When these users do not get the right information, communication is lost, and the document becomes useless. To understand “audience,” it is critical to note that if technical writers do not take the time to do a thorough audience analysis beforehand, the users of the information will think the writers are lazy in their attempts to communicate. Heather Lazzaro emphasizes the importance of understanding audience by stating that you should always “‘ask’ users for their opinions, and be willing to change your product based on the results” (Lazzaro 3). Lazzaro makes an interesting statement because by taking in the consideration of what an audience is thinking, technical writers can easily adapt to create the most user-friendly content that is possible.

Understanding audience is important in any industry because technical writers will have to effectively write grants in order to fund research. The process of writing a grant is about persuading an audience or agency to give funding. It is important for grant writers to know who their funding agency is. According to Christine M. Tardy in her article, “A Genre System View of the Funding of Academic Research,” “one essential aspect of genre knowledge is understanding the needs and mission of the funding agency” (Tardy 17). The audience that a grant writer must understand is the agency. If this writer cannot understand the characteristics of this audience, there is very little chance that he or she will be successful in drafting a proposal. Grant writing is all about persuasion. By adapting and being flexible to the funding agency, the agency, in a way, can give grant writers credibility. This credibility is important because according to Tardy in her article, grant writing involves “various social interactions that take place within multiple discourse communities” (Tardy 25). This is a significant idea by Tardy because grant writers must know what it means to understand audience because they must interact with many groups like funding agencies, government, and program officers to propose grants and write documents.

 If grant writers can understand audience and adapt to their needs, they will quickly gain credibility in their work and be successful writing grants and other important documents given any rhetorical situation.