As you begin your career as a technical writer, the next question to consider is who your audience is. Understanding your readers is essential.
The goal of a technical writer is to ensure that your writing is both technically accurate and easy to understand. The first step in achieving this is to understand your audience. Knowing who you are writing for is essential in all forms of writing, including technical writing.
In this article, here is what you will learn:
Identify your audience.
Determine what your audience needs to learn.
Write down the list of what your target audience needs to learn.
State your audience.
Identify Your Audience
Every writer must ask themselves a crucial question before starting any article: Who is my audience? Understanding and defining your audience is essential. By identifying who you are writing for, you can make your writing more concise and easier to read and understand.
The following lists and table are Writers (left list ) and the Books (right list) they wrote:
With the list and table above, You can categorize each book and suggest their audiences. For example:
1 Napoleon Hill: Think and Grow Rich, Is considered the best book ever written about success. It is categorically a self-help book.
- Audience: people who are struggling with financial struggles.
2 Brian Tracy: Goals; is a personal development book that teaches how to set and achieve goals.
- Audience: People who struggle to set goals, And those who set goals but do not achieve them.
You can research and answer the remaining questions in the list and table yourself.
Determine what your audience needs to learn.
A good technical writer knows the strengths and weaknesses of his audience. Awareness of what your audience already knows and lacks will yield a better understanding of your documentation.
For example:
When writing documentation about JavaScript, it's important to assume that your audience is already familiar with HTML and CSS. This allows you to focus on specific and concise explanations related to JavaScript. If someone is trying to learn JavaScript before understanding HTML and CSS, it would be more helpful to provide links to relevant documentation on those topics or to refer them to your previous work about HTML and CSS.
Write down the list of what your target audience needs to learn:
Writing down the lists of what your audience needs to learn to execute their goals keeps their focus on the task or information provided.
For example:
In CSS documentation, you should be able to do the following tasks by the end of the documentation:
Create a transparent background
Create an animation using CSS tricks
Design the font text of the web page
Simple words
Depending on the level of the audience whom you are writing for, it is always better to choose simple words than complex words.
State your audience
A good document involves a categorically specific audience.
For example:
This documentation is for the following audience
product design
Flutter developer
Cyber security
Focusing your writing on a specific role defines your audience better.
Conclusion
It takes time and patience to figure out whom you are writing for. Learn technology you enjoy and have a sincere ambition to help people learn.
Top comments (2)
Great write up DevAbolaji.
Thanks 🙏🏾