ClearTips: Riveting reports

Who's going to read what you write?

One person or a thousand? Your supervisor or your subordinates? A small circle of experts or the public? Identifying your audience often helps you determine what you'll write and how you'll write it. It determines, in part, what sort of language to use—formal or informal, direct or diplomatic, neutral or persuasive. It also determines the length and organization of your report.

You'd be amazed at the number of times writers tell me they don't know who the audience is. Their first crack at answering is usually vague:

Policymakers

And after a bit of discussion they might identify:

Senior treasury officials responsible for international affairs

Each year the team of economists putting together the World Bank's World Development Report starts with something like:

Government officials

to which they add:

People in the development community more broadly

And with a bit of reflection, they add:

The press, graduate students, those in nongovernmental organizations, the public

pushing them up to 6 billion people. So we then separate their core audience:

A roundtable of key ministers in developing countries

and their secondary audiences:

Economics editors in the media, specialists in development agencies, professors and graduate students in universities

Begin by listing the people you most want to read your report from start to finish, add the people who you know will read it, then continue by adding the names of those people whose interest you would like to attract. (Don't forget to add the names of your supervisors and other reviewers.) Avoid nondescript labels, and try to identify representatives from each of your audiences. Name names, if you can. Then broaden to titles of organizations, institutions, and populations. If you are writing for more than one audience, try to distinguish your primary audience from your secondary audience.

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