Understanding one’s audience is extremely important when composing effective communications. Although we might be able to define “audience,” how do we get to know that audience well enough to connect with them? In this chapter, we’ll first unpack the complex definition of the audience and then consider some fundamental strategies for connecting with various communities and individuals.

Audience Defined

Everything from music to board games, smartphone interfaces to architecture, is designed with the audience, user, or player in mind. But what do we mean by “audience”? Who are they and how do their perspectives determine our message? Douglas Park once wrote that audience, “points to the final cause for which form exists, to the purposefulness—or its lack—that makes a certain piece of prose shapely and full of possibility or aimless and empty” (p. 247). Park is telling us, in other words, that the audience determines the design and goal of any work.

As you can guess, Park’s definition provided here is a good start but only scratches the surface. When we post an update to social media, for example, we are not simply addressing one audience but several: family, friends, and colleagues, as well as their acquaintances. Have you ever edited a post to accommodate certain groups?

My own rough, general definition of “audience” is any individual or group who receives some form of communication. When we dig a little deeper into this definition, we can start to see how much more complicated the audience can be.

Primary, Secondary, and Peripheral Audiences

Before we focus on the various aspects and qualities of audiences, let’s first broaden our scope to identify which will be our priority. We should also be sure to consider those audiences that may be interested in our message even though they may not be directly invested.

In a professional setting, these questions and others are vital to sending the intended message. Should the language of an email be formal or can it be casual? How much background information do we need to provide in an annual report?

As important as it is to understand your audience, doing so is a bit more complicated. This section looks at some of the distinctions that may be considered when considering your audience.

Let’s begin by distinguishing what we mean by primary and secondary audiences.

Primary Audience

A primary audience is one for which any form of communication is intended. My writing should be written according to my understanding of that person’s needs and expectations. If I’m texting my friends, for example, my language reflects the informal quality of our relationship. On the other hand, if I’m writing a cover letter to a potential employer, my language is going to be formal, using clear language (and no emojis!).

In a private person-to-person setting, we are almost always writing to a primary audience. In a more public setting, our primary audience is often made up of individuals we want to communicate directly with. When I put together a music playlist online, I will add songs that I believe will interest an audience interested in a particular genre of music. I might also add some tracks that I think fit into the playlist and appeal to an audience.

In many cases, we will be familiar with our primary audience and know the best means of communicating with them. I don’t typically have to think about how I’m going to text my family as we have known each other a long time. In a professional setting, we often need to communicate to primary audiences that we know very little or nothing about.

Meeting Your Primary Audience’s Needs

In any case, the primary audience probably has a specific need or set of needs that must be addressed by your writing. Whether or not you are familiar with your audience, you should first assess what those needs are. Once those needs are recognized, they help determine several qualities of your writing.

Imagine that you receive an email from your supervisor asking about the status of a report that was due…yesterday. While your report is complete, you had forgotten to send it after completing some late- night revisions from home. You promptly begin writing a response. What does your supervisor need?

The report of course! You attach your completed report to the draft email and begin writing the response email. Although you are addressing your supervisor’s need (to obtain the report), the fact that the report is late should also affect how you compose the actual email. Does your supervisor need to know why the report is late? Is your response formal and apologetic?

Many of these questions may seem obvious. What are some of the additional conditions that might also factor into your response? How comfortable are you with your supervisor? Is this your first time being late with a project?

Secondary Audience

While every instance of communication has a primary audience in mind, many situations demand we also consider our secondary audiences. These are the individuals and groups who may be interested in our writing even though they are not those we have in mind when communicating. Secondary audiences can be just as important as they may be impacted, often becoming our primary audience in the process.

Meeting Your Secondary Audience’s Needs

Once we have identified our secondary audience, we can begin assessing what their needs may be. In many situations, we may want to focus on which of those needs align more closely with our purpose. For an instruction manual on how to build a coffee table, for example, our secondary audience may be those who want to see how difficult assembling the product might be. The information you provide may be important in their decision to purchase the product. Clear instructions are important but offering additional methods for receiving help may also be a smart addition. Contact information for a helpline, a positive, reassuring message (“Need help? Call us!”), as well as clear imagery are other means.

Addressing the secondary audience is important but we should also be careful not to overwhelm the primary audience with information that may not be relevant. Providing alternative methods such as links to webpages with additional guidance is a good strategy.

Peripheral Audiences

Much of our professional communications occur online, on social media, or in public venues. Although good practice demands we consider primary and secondary audiences, it is best to also consider those audiences that are more circumstantial. These “hidden” audiences are those that we are not intentionally targeting with our message or product but may be affected in some way.

Meeting Your Peripheral Audience’s Needs

Assessing the needs of the peripheral audience may not be a feasible priority. Peripheral audiences may be impacted by your writing so you should be considerate of their needs and perspectives even if you cannot tailor your message to them. Ideally, individuals from the periphery might be interested enough to pursue further information. There are occasions, however, when unanticipated audiences may take issue with your message. To address these issues, it is worth developing a mitigation plan for quickly responding to individuals or communities who are negatively impacted by your writing.

Audience Interest Level

Once we distinguish our primary and secondary audiences, we can begin thinking about the range of interest levels with which audiences will engage with our work.

Intentional

An intentional audience is attentive to the work being communicated. They have likely sought out the information for a purpose. Examples include research articles and government information.

Engaged

An engaged audience is willing to invest resources (such as time and money) into the purpose conveyed through the work. When a non-profit organization requests volunteers, for example, it is hoping to entice individuals who are aligned with the purpose of that organization or event.

Agreeable

Unlike dismissive audiences, those that are agreeable will receive your work with more interest than a passive audience.

Passive

The passive audience encounters the work but is noncommittal to engaging with it further. A passive audience is likely to be secondary or peripheral but can become a primary audience if the work compels them to invest more interest.

Dismissive

Due to any number of factors, you’ll eventually encounter an audience that simply rejects your work. While this cannot be avoided, it’s worth considering those dismissive audiences to help define the scope of your message.

Hostile

Unfortunately, you may encounter audiences that are hostile to your work. There is no shortage of daily news featuring hostile responses to social media. Other examples include delivering bad news. A memo to employees letting them know that they will be laid off is an example of writing few of us ever want to compose.

Audience Qualities

In addition to interest levels, we also need to consider the various qualities of our audience. These qualities will help determine the language, terminology, design, attitude, and tone of our writing. The list below is only partial, however. What other audience qualities can you think of?

Uninformed

These are audiences that have little to no background information on your work. An example of this might be an instruction manual on how to build a wooden table for non-carpenters. The language therefore should avoid complex concepts and terminology that is more commonly used among experts.

Expert

Addressing an audience of experts means that you can present your work using terms and concepts that are likely to be familiar to the reader. One of the issues with a lot of technical writing, for example, is that it is often written for an audience of those familiar with fundamental concepts.

Social, economic, cultural

Works of professional and technical writing do not typically distinguish communities of different social, economic, or cultural backgrounds. Not explicitly at least. When we are considering our audience, however, it is important to use the opportunity to think about the perspectives of those outside our own communities. Cultural differences in language use, for example, are why we avoid cliches and figures of speech that may not be familiar to those for whom English is a second language.

Access and Accommodation

One of the principal challenges of modern technical and professional writers is writing in such a way that accommodates all readers regardless of physical ability. Universal design, for example, is an approach to communicating that better accommodates differences in sensory input (vision and hearing) as well as physical ability. We will discuss this extremely important concept at a later time.