ENTC 3030

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ENTC 3030

• AUDIENCE AIMS

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• What is the best strategy for meeting the
  readers needs?
• For example, an industrial engineer might see
  automating a manufacturing operation as a
  technical problem.
• But it is also a financial problem that needs to
  be justified administratively by managerial
  decision makers.
• The writer whose proposal simply concentrates on
  a technical explanation fails to shape the
  arguments for the readers who will ultimately
  make the decision.

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Your Readers Interests

• Readers are usually motivated by their job
  responsibilities as
• decision makers (managers),
• knowledge producers (experts),
• operators and maintainers (technicians), and
• generalists (laypeople).

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• Note that every expert in particle physics is not
  going to
• think the same way,
• use the same methods, or
• have the same problems.

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• The veteran technician knows more about many
  technical subjects than the university-trained
  colleague.

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• Addressing your audience is even more complicated
  when the audience includes
• managers,
• specialists,
• technicians, and
• laypeople.

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• Each part of your audience will need to find the
  information it needs.
• An audience of managerial readers, for example,
  will evaluate what you have to say in the terms
  of their decision making
• costs,
• benefits,
• alternatives.

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• The expert, technician, and lay reader will also
  analyze your message according to his or her
  interests and responsibilities.

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• Some documents have a primary audience, which you
  can often identify by clearly defining the
  purpose of the document.
• Your aim should identify your audience.

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Coverage, Organization, and Technical Level

• The expectations of your audience should
  determine
• the coverage you give your subject,
• the organization you give your material,
• its technical level (including graphics), and
• your tone.

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• Choice of material is your first decision.
• Coverage refers to the scope of the subject, and
  it can vary greatly.

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• You can cover your subject in many ways,
  depending on your readers main concerns.
• Someone needs to finance and administratively
  support the work others have to be convinced of
  the feasibility of the process and agree with
  your breakdown of the technical elements of the
  project.

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• For an audience of managers or entrepreneursthose
  who must decide whether your project merits
  fundingyou might focus on the technical
  feasibility and commercial advantages of a new
  process for speech recognition.
• For technical experts, you might more fully
  describe the technical aspects of the.

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• Even the lay reader gets inco the picture
  sometimes as a general client, entrepreneur, or
  local citizen.
• Your focus may accordingly shift toward speech
  recognition applications in business, medicine,
  and so on.

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• Its up to the writer to work out who the
  audience is and what they need to know.

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• Organize your material around your readers
  priorities.
• Tailor documents to audiences to adjust the
  language, especially the special terminology,
  mathematics, symbols, and graphics.
• Even graphical presentation of information can
  range from highly specialized line graphs to
  general pictures.

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Document Pathways

• Most organizations have a hierarchy through which
  written communication passes.
• The organizational chart often shows some of this
  path.

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• The document may well move up the hierarchy
  through
• supervisor,
• the group leader,
• to the division manager, and
• finally to the research director.

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• Figuring out where the document will go is in a
  writers interest.
• The document pathway will tell a lot about your
  audience and therefore about the general coverage
  and organization needed in your document.

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• Your understanding of this audience comes from
  knowing what the people reading your document
  will want to do.
• Some will work with you on the draft to improve
  the content and presentation.
• Others will read the finished version and take
  action. Still others may skim and file it, and
  many will just dump it in the wastebasket.
• Some may even use it to assess the quality of
  your work.

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• The best preparation you can make for
  understanding your readers is to study how your
  company or institution is organized and
  familiarize yourself with its staff and their
  responsibilities.

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The Peer Specialist.

• Several structural engineers and materials
  specialists might comment on your first draft.
• These group members share an interest in the
  success of the report.

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• They read the document, add their comments in the
  margins, and contribute ideas.
• One or more of them might be listed as coauthors.
  
• As an audience, then, this group is closest to
  the subject matter and may be the most
  technically informed.

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The Supervisor.

• The group supervisor, who typically is held
  accountable for meeting larger corporate research
  objectives, has a major stake in the documents
  the group produces.
• The supervisor wants to make the document focus
  on established objectives in an effective way.

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• Draft documents often fail to make a clear
  statement.
• They also fail, sometimes, to address the
  established aim of the group enterprise, or they
  dont communicate in effective and organized
  prose.
• This person may comment on the document at its
  first draft stage and cycle the document back for
  revisions.

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• Reading and revising can be very demanding,
  especially for novice writers.
• As documents return for second or third revision,
  the tension can build.

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The Manager

• RD groups often report to a manager, who
  coordinates and directs the broad effort.
• This higher-level administrator does not
  participate, normally, in preparing individual
  documents but is undoubtedly one of the
  documents most important readers.

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• Like group supervisors, managers release
  documents to meet their responsibilities for
  knowledge production, but they also monitor
  research goals and progress, a process in which
  the written report plays an important part.

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Writing for Publication

• Specialist, manager, and lay audience take on new
  meanings when you write for the published record.
  
• Away from the in-house RD environment, the
  audience often becomes easier to identify.

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• The large, specialized readership of a journal,
  for example, can be assumed to have similar
  education, professional interests, and technical
  expertise.
• Most articles are written to expand the knowledge
  base in a given field, and an expert audience can
  therefore follow terminology, mathematics, and
  methods.

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• You can develop communication strategies partly
  by inspecting published documents (e.g.,
  proposals, refereed articles, formal research
  reports).
• The coverage, language, and graphics follow
  certain conventions throughout a journal
  publication.

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• The document pathway typically moves through an
  editor to several referees.
• The editor is not your supervisor but the
  employee of another organization.

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• The editor acts as coordinator and stylistic
  overseer for one cycle, and referees judge the
  documents technical merits in the other cycle.

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• If the document in question is a proposal, this
  outside referee audience will file reports
  supporting or rejecting the funding.
• If the document is a refereed article, the
  referees file reports supporting or opposing
  publication.
• Often, the referees recommend revision followed
  by resubmission.

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Framing Writing Projects

• Science and engineering are part problem solving.
  
• Defining your problem will improve your writing.
• The more specific your problem, the better you
  can design your research and determine your
  goals.

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• To frame a problem you have to identify your
  audience and refine your topic.

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From Technical Problem to Writing Topic

• A problem is a conflict that someone wants to
  remedy.
• A topic renders the problem and its solution into
  a focused research and writing objective.

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• Each topic reflects the original problem but
  refines and limits it for an audience.
• Narrowing your topic in this way defines your
  research and writing goals.

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• Your topic reflects your audience and its
  interests.
• In research environments, problems typically
  reflect state-of-the-art theory and practice and
  hence are more abstract and specialized.

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• Engineers and scientists working in industrial
  RD generally dont generate the topics they
  write about.
• They work on problems identified by clients,
  colleagues, research directors, or supervisors.

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Limiting Your Topic

• Limiting your topic increases your control over
  the subject matter.
• By narrowing your goals to what you can do within
  your resources, you improve your chances of
  success.
• Narrowing the topic helps you avoid committing
  yourself to a project with no boundaries.

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• To limit your topic, make it more specific.
• Read background material and related project work
  and discuss these with colleagues, experts,
  clients, or supervisors.
• Write down what you know about the problem youre
  addressing.
• Refining your topic saves you time at the writing
  stage.

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• Avoid becoming rigidly attached to your first
  problem definition.
• Initial assumptions are often quite wrong.
• Problems are likely to evolve with information
  gathering.
• Experiments, reflection, and discussion with
  colleagues will help you consider alternatives.

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From Topic to Aim The Goal of Your Document

• A document is a slice of your work, one that
  needs its own structure.
• Before you begin drafting, therefore, you need to
  develop an aim for your document.
• An aim is the reason for writing the document, a
  specific goal.

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• When you develop a research topic into a document
  aim, you convert a category to an operation.
• You propose to do something for someone, namely
  your audience.

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• Defining your aim means asking yourself, Why am I
  writing this document?
• Usually, your answer to this question tells you
  that you want to describe physical objects and
  processes, narrate developments or analyze your
  topic, in order to get your readers to do
  something or persuade them of something.

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• As you define your problem, identify your aim,
  and home in on your audience, you create the
  framework for your writing.
• One way of pulling all these considerations
  together is to write a paragraph or two that
  reflect your thinking, a statement of aim.
• This statement defines your audience, refines
  your topic, and focuses on a specific argument.

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• Like any statement of aim, theirs should answer
  three questions
• What is the primary aim of your document?
• In the first few sentences, try to state your
  goal in simple operational language that implies
  action.
• What problem is being addressed?
• After you have established your aim, examine the
  problem in more detail by establishing the
  situation and conflict you are addressing.

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• You might cite previous work by others on the
  problem.

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• A problem usually consists of several parts or
  key variables.
• By identifying what these variables are, you
  establish your perspective on the problem.
• You also tell your readers just how you are going
  to treat your material.

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• What is the scope of your document?
• By stating your objectives in the document, you
  provide the kernel of your argument.

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• Keep the objectives simple but specific enough
  for your reader to grasp your method of solving
  the problem.

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Aims Imply Audience

• The key to drafting a statement of aim is to keep
  it simple and operational.
• You strip away most of the qualifying detail to
  arrive at your central goal, the problem
  addressed, and your specific objectives.
• The process, although always difficult, forces
  you to come to terms with the priorities for your
  work. It is a process of clarification.

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• Readers read to solve their own problems.
• If you state your aim clearly, your potential
  readers may make informed choices about whether
  or not to read your work.
• If you stick to your aim throughout your
  document, a reader who shares your aim will keep
  reading.

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• Always ask yourself, What are my intended readers
  going to do or know after reading my work?
• Keep this question in front of you as you draft
  your document.