Defining your audience

As with any successful lead-generation campaign, with PPG, you need to define your audience. Defining your audience also helps you conduct more thorough keyword research, determine who and how you can target leads, and have more proactive brainstorming sessions. 

Jargon consists of technical or specialized terms used in specific fields. If your audience isn t in the field, you ll probably lose them. It s best to avoid jargon as much as possible. When you do use jargon, make sure to define the terms so your reader can follow your message. Otherwise, you re just wasting your time. 

Remember your audience. Sometimes the object of our description is so clear in our minds we forget that our readers haven t seen it, too. Consequently, the description we write turns out to be vague, bland, or skimpy. Ask yourself about your audience what do they need to know to see this sight as clearly as I do Then fill in your description with ample, precise details that reveal the best picture possible. Don t forget to define or explain any terms you use that may be puzzling to your audience. 

Short Words. Listeners do not customarily bring dictionaries, so you should use the shortest and simplest words that say exactly what you mean. (I could say avoid polysyllabic words , but of course 1 will not.) Obviously, when people within a specialty talk to one another, they can use words that they would not use when speaking to a lay audience. You may not have the time to define all terms, nor would it be appropriate for a technical audience. But you need to be sure that everyone in the audience is well-versed in your specialty. If your audience might include nonspecialists, you have to accommodate them. As chemists specialties become more and more narrowly defined, it becomes harder and harder for nonspecialists to attend a talk on an unfamiliar topic and have enough definitions given to learn something. 

Accordingly, the first step in writing to make things happen is to profile or define the audience. Think about what you know about the individual, or individuals, likely to read your document. For example, what do you know or can you find out about their functions, responsibilities, goals, disciplines, specialties, education, experience, age, gender, ethnicity, and religion. One thing you can be sure of is that your audience is not exactly like you. Write for them, not you. 

Using the organizational structure developed in Writing on Your Own task 8B, write the first full draft of your conference abstract, title, and author list. Remember to define abbreviations and acronyms that are critical to understanding your work, incorporate keywords into your abstract and title, and use tense and voice in conventional ways. Avoid the use of citations. Make sure that you write for the appropriate audience. 

Science content Are you prepared to discuss your poster with an expert audience Have you correctly conveyed the science in your work Have you used words and units correctly If asked, could you define all of the words that you have used in your poster ... 

If the audience is not clearly defined in the RFP, we recommend a two-tiered approach. When you introduce your ideas and describe the importance of your work, target a general to scientific audience ... 

If you reread Sample 1, you will see that the writer understands the importance of including effective supportive material. Besides quoting breakfast of champions, she uses an anecdote about the importance of drinking milk How often have you been reminded by your parents to drink your milk It s good for your bones. She uses several examples that address her defined audience, her peers, for example, By the time you reach junior high school, you know that carbohydrates provide the body with the energy. .. ... 

Once you know the function of your paper and have identified its audience, review your material for completeness or excess. Then, organize your material into the standard format introduction, experimental details or theoretical basis, results, discussion, and conclusions. This format has become standard because it is suitable for most reports of original research, it is basically logical, and it is easy to use. The reason it accommodates most reports of original research is that it parallels the scientific method of deductive reasoning define the problem, create a hypothesis, devise an experiment to test the hypothesis, conduct the experiment, and draw conclusions. Furthermore, this format enables the reader to understand quickly what is being presented and to find specific information easily. This ability is crucial now more than ever because scientists, if not all professionals, must read much more material than their time seems to allow. 

This profiling task is simple if you are composing an email to a person you know well. However, we often write documents to people we don t know well. Some disciplines, such as civil engineering, tend to have large, diverse audiences as illustrated in Table 3.1. Such audiences are not necessarily big audiences in terms of the number of likely readers, but they are diverse audiences. You should recognize that your documents will not be best sellers, but they can be effective sellers. They can help to make things happen if you define the breadth and diversity of your likely audience and try to write to all of them. 

Review the earlier writing sections of this chapter titled Define the Purpose and Profile the Audience. The same principles apply, supplemented with some additional thoughts about the audience. You might ask for names of likely participants. You may know some of them and that can help you shape your message. For example, you are a consultant and will speak to the local Kiwanis club. You learn that Mayor Susan Jones will be in the audience. As a result, you include in your presentation a comment about your firm s award-winning municipal projects. 

Recall the first Define the Purpose and Profile the Audience section in this discussion of preparing the presentation. You may have connected with one or a few audience members who can advance that purpose. Pursue that opportunity by following up. What you do or don t do, now that the presentation is over, may determine the success or failure of your speaking effort. 

Accuracy Can you compare the information found on this site to other sources Are there any obvious errors or statements that seem exaggerated or out of place Can you verify any of the information the site provides Relevancy Is the site relevant to your research project or problem Does the site have a clearly defined scope and purpose Who is the intended audience ... 

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