Audience Analysis Basics
James Hanley, PE
Global Director | Professional Engineer | Mentor and Coach | Husband and Father
Last week, we reviewed the importance of an audience-centered approach in sharpening your communication. Suzie Baker, author of Professional and Technical Writing, writes, “As an engineer, you will likely need to communicate with several different audiences and possibly all in one document.” Similarly, Michael Heinsdorf of CSE Magazine reminds engineers to, “Remember that all parties must come to the same conclusion when interpreting drawings and specifications.” We must transmit technical information to our audience of both technical and non-technical experience. Performing an audience analysis helps a speaker to communicate in a manner that their audience understands.
Traditionally, presenters leverage audience analysis to ensure their communication reaches their audience. For engineers, however, audience analysis can be a powerful technique to successfully provide all types of communication. In addition to presentations, audience analysis will improve emails, technical documents, and drawings. For these communication methods, the speaker cannot go back and explain their thoughts. Audience-centered messages ensure the recipient understands the topic and knows what to do next.
So who is the audience for engineers and technical professionals? Most of the time, your audience will be the other engineers, architects, owners, contractors, and vendors working on that project. Messages are always sent to multiple audiences: primary, secondary, and hidden. All messages are sent to a primary recipient. The person in the “To” field of an email or the person addressed in the letter is the primary audience. Anyone else who is relevant may be copied on those messages as well. Those people are considered the secondary audience. Finally, anyone who might see the message is called the hidden audience. When performing an audience analysis, consider each of these audiences.
The hidden audience deserves extra mention. Remember: any written communication can be shared. Should your message be sent to the masses, how would they respond? If you knew it would be read, would you use different words? Would you change the tone? Would you say anything at all? Anytime you send an email, think about how your boss would feel if they read it. It could get back to them.
Analyzing the audience requires a little forethought. First, think about the various audiences who might receive your message. Will they understand the message? Does anything stand out about the audience’s background? What do they need? The questions you could ask yourself are endless. AUDIENCE is a helpful acronym for performing an audience analysis from pressbooks.pub:
A - Analyze - Who is your audience?
U - Understand - What is their knowledge regarding the topic?
D - Demographics - What is their age, gender, education level, and position?
I - Interest - What’s their interest in the message? What’s in it for them?
E - Environment - What is the setting for the recipient? What is their attitude to the message? Have you considered cultural differences?
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N - Need - What information does your audience need?
C - Customize - How should you adjust your message to better reach the audience?
E - Expectations - What are your audience’s expectations?
Use this information to tailor your message! Let me know how it goes!
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