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Chapter 4 Summary

This chapter discusses audience recognition and effective communication. It emphasizes considering the audience's knowledge level and background, defining technical terms, avoiding biased language, and involving the reader. The key points are: 1) Tailor the level of detail, jargon, and background provided based on whether the audience is an expert, peer, lay person, or has varying backgrounds. 2) Define technical terms through parenthetical definitions, sentences, paragraphs, or glossaries to make the writing accessible. 3) Be aware of cultural differences and avoid humor, idioms, and figurative language that may get lost in translation between audiences.

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120 views

Chapter 4 Summary

This chapter discusses audience recognition and effective communication. It emphasizes considering the audience's knowledge level and background, defining technical terms, avoiding biased language, and involving the reader. The key points are: 1) Tailor the level of detail, jargon, and background provided based on whether the audience is an expert, peer, lay person, or has varying backgrounds. 2) Define technical terms through parenthetical definitions, sentences, paragraphs, or glossaries to make the writing accessible. 3) Be aware of cultural differences and avoid humor, idioms, and figurative language that may get lost in translation between audiences.

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api-515409227
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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To: Nancy Myers

From: Sarah Hauge


Date: April 22, 2020
Subject: APLED 121-Chapter 4 Summary

CHAPTER 4

AUDIENCE RECOGNITION

Audience Recognition - Consider your audience.

● Knowledge of Subject Matter - What do they already know, or not? Cater what you say
to encompass what they need to know for understanding.
○ High-tech Peer: High understanding of the subject/project. Share your
background/knowledge.
✓ Experts in the field being written about. (Jargon/acronyms ok)
✓ Minimal details or backstory for standard procedures.
○ Low-tech Peer: General knowledge of subject, but different area of expertise.
(bosses, coworkers, subordinates, colleagues from similar companies, etc)
✓ Familiar with subject, but not expert. Expect to have a peripheral
understanding. (minimal jargon, and define abbreviations)
✓ Define technical concepts.
✓ Provide background details about you or project.
○ Lay Audience: Completely uninvolved.
✓ Customer or clients who presumably have no understanding of the
subject matter.
✓ Instruct without patronizing, providing background details as appropriate.
○ Multiple audiences: Assume your correspondence could be passed along and
write accordingly.
✓ Could reference pages they can look at on their own time.

● Writing for Future Audiences: Some technical communications are archived, so make
sure a future reader knows what you are talking about as well.
Defining Terms for Audiences - Allows you to make your writing accessible to any audience.

● Parenthetically - CIA (Cash in Advance)


● In a Sentence - Including Term + Type + Distinguishing characteristics.
● Extended Definitions in One or More Paragraphs - Examples, Procedures, and
Descriptions.
● Glossary - Alphabetized list of terms after conclusion.
● Pop-Ups and Link with Definitions - (online uses)

Audience Personality Traits - Direction for tone, visual aids and writing style to get your
desired response from the audience.

Biased Language - Issues of Diversity - Commitment comes from feeling welcome or


respected.

● Diversity is protected by the law.


● Respecting Diversity is the right thing to do.
● Diversity is good for business.
● Diverse workforces keep business competitive.

Multiculturalism

● Global Economy - Many companies generate sales outside their home turf, increasing
sales opportunities and customer base.
○ Challenges - language consistency when translated, tone variance due to
translation, accuracy and usability issues after translation.
○ Multicultural Team Projects - Nuance of verbal and nonverbal cultural norms
must be observed.
● Cross-cultural Workplace Communication - writing and speaking between
businesspeople of two or more different cultures within the same country means you
must be aware of lost-in-translation instances.

Guidelines for Effective Multicultural Communication

● Define Acronyms and Abbreviations


○ This is especially important when the words in the acronym are specific to the
original language.
● Avoid Jargon and Idioms
○ When translated, these become very specific and no longer make sense in
context.
● Distinguish Between Nouns and Verbs
○ In English many words are both nouns and verbs, and your translation needs to
be clear.
● Watch for Cultural Biases/Expectations
○ Colors, animals, etc have different cultural relativity.
● Be Careful When Using Slash Marks
○ Could be “and”, “or”, or “and/or”…translations could mix up your intention.
● Avoid Humor and Puns
○ Another opportunity for Lost-in-translation nuance.
● Realize That Translations May Take More or Less Space
○ Paper, website, etc have specific character limits, and translation may increase
or decrease characters.
● Avoid Figurative Language
○ More lost-in-translation nuance.
● Be Careful with Numbers, Measurements, Dates and Times
○ Metric vs American
○ Month/Day vs Day/Month
○ 12 vs 24 hour, time zones, 6:15pm vs 18.15 vs 18h 15 denotations.
○ Also, work hours vary by country
○ For clarity avoid words like Yesterday, or Today
● Use Stylized Graphics to Represent People
○ People look different, don’t leave someone out unintentionally.

Avoiding Biased Language

● Ageist Language - “elderly” or “old folks”


● Biased Language About People with Disabilities - “handicap” creates negativity
● Sexist Language
○ Ignoring Women or Treating as Secondary
○ Stereotyping
○ Pronouns
○ Gender-Tagged nouns

Audience Involvement

● Personalized Tone - Companies don’t write to companies… people write to people


○ Pronouns - Omitting pronouns makes writing sound computer generated.
✓ you/you is preferred for the Reader.
✓ We/us/our for Group involvement
✓ I/Me/My is Writer’s involvement. Don’t overuse!
○ Names - Creates a friendly reading environment. If you know the reader well you
can use First Name, otherwise use Last Name to be sure not to offend.
● Reader Benefit
○ Explain the Benefit - Best done early to engage the reader, but done at the end
may leave a positive impression.
○ Use Positive Words - You lose when you attack the reader with negatives.

The Writing Process at Work

● Prewriting - Create the outline


● Writing - Write the piece.
● Rewriting - Allow someone to provide feedback on your rough draft and then amend
your writing as needed.

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