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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