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Process Essay, 5 pages (1200 words)

Good example of essay on audience analysis for instructional manual

This instructional manual is intended for both technical and non-technical audience. The language is generally technical, but it is comprehensive for general audience because clear diagrammatic illustrations have been used. Massive research was carried out to gather information about people in terms of their understanding. Level of education and exposure were used to analyze the level comprehensive in technical writing. Household framework was used to develop the level of understanding of the necessary requirements in the technical manual. Research indicated that despite the educational background, basic knowledge was enough to understand the instruction manual. The audience target in this case called for effective integration of diagrammatic illustrations because most audience can identify with the diagrams.
The instruction manual will be important because the person installing the CCTV cameras is not necessary an expert in camera technology. The instruction manual that will be developed in this write-up will target the general audience. In this particular case, the instruction manual is comprehensive so that people with basic knowledge can understand the procedures that are necessary installing CCTV cameras.
When conducting audience analysis for instructional manual, one is required to organize formal and informal discussions in order to come up with the profile of the audience. Formal analysis can be carried out through questionnaires, conducting surveys, and use of interviews. Informal analysis of the audience can be achieved by talking to people who use the product or who knows people who use the product. One can also identify the profile of the audience by reading the reports and notes by the product trainers, who have had contact with the intended audience and specialized periodical previous issues (Gary, and Robert1993). This information helps the writer to be able to identify the appropriate audience, therefore being able to draft a document that has a direct impact on the recipient. Identifying the categories of audiences helps in audience analysis for instructional manual.

Audience analysis:

Types of audiences include; experts, this category comprise of people who understand the product in all its aspects very well. Experts operate in academic research on development in government and business organizations. People who have no advanced levels in the expertise do not know what the experts say about the products but can try the product. The challenge that experts face during audience analysis is communicating to the technicians and executives in an organization. Technicians are another category of audience. Technicians are the people who build, operate, maintain, and rectify what the experts have designed and further elaborate it. They possess high technical knowledge of a given nature. Technicians seem to have details on the product they build because they are fully involved in its making. Executives comprise of the people who are involved in making decisions on the things that the experts and technicians work within the organization. These decisions are based on business, economy, administration, politics, and government. Non-specialists and executives do not have technical knowledge with the products that they deal with because they do not participate in its designing or making. Executives are responsible in deciding whether a product is viable to be introduced in the market. The last category comprises of the non-specialists. This is the group of readers that purchases the new product because they are curious about the product, want to use the product in their daily tasks or just want to understand the workability of the product and know whether to recommend it or not. Non-specialists just like the executives do not have any technical knowledge on the product. In many instances, non-specialists are the main target when conducting audience analysis for instructional manual because they are the ones that perform their tasks using the product.
Despite analyzing the categories of the audience, another important aspect in audience analysis is the characteristics of these categories of the audience. These characteristics include; knowledge and experience levels, education and professional background English language ability and needs and interests. Prior to write an instructional manual one should enquire on the information about the education background of the audience. This information is important because it helps the writer assess and identify the ability and willingness of the audience to read. When writing a document expecting some readers to be illiterate, one should still include them in it. The best way to write a good instructional manual is to use simple language without complicated sentence structure (McQuail 1997). In writing a document, one should also put in consideration the functions of the job of the target audience. For instance, for maintenance documents to be easily understood, they need to have more illustrations than texts. Knowledge and levels of experience of the audience can be identified using their education and professional background. This information can be used to classify the reader into novice, intermediate, and expert. Novices may fear the product or subject because they have little knowledge and experience with it. When writing documentation for novices, one needs to include basic concepts, procedures and give an assurance of the product performance. Intermediate audience and experts have knowledge on the subject or product because they have interacted with the product for some time in their fields of specialization. The writer of an instructional manual should not complicate his document by including both the subject matter and particular tool. Instead, he should prepare a document that focuses on explicit audience. A document prepared for novices should be understood and read by the other single level audiences. Another characteristic to consider is the audience’s needs and interest on the product. The writer needs to put into consideration the expectations and demands of the audience in the document. This factor enables the writer to write a document that suits his audience. English-language readability ability is a crucial consideration when writing an instructional manual. The writer should research to understand the language of the audience to ensure that all the audience understands his documentation about a product or subject. Other additional audience characteristics to consider when designing an instructional manual are political preferences, sex, area of residence, age groups and sex.

Conclusion

When writing an instruction manual, the writer will need to understand the right procedures but use basic language which can be understood by the basic audience. When writing an instructional manual, the writer may find that the documentation is intended for more than one audience such as the executive, technicians and experts. To satisfy the diverse audiences, the writer need to either write all sections of the document that all the audience will understand or for one audience at a time indicating the group he is addressing. The writer should desist from bulk writing because it will discourage the general audience. In order to avoid writing too much, the writer needs to write different instruction manuals for different audience. Writing a brief instructional manual is achieved by exempting the minority audience or putting supplemental information on novice’s books. Non-specialist audience can be made to understand instructional manual better by including the following information; adding examples, changing the information’s organization, creating topic sentences and sub groups, providing clarity on economy, using different graphics and using listings and headings.

References

Gary B., and Robert W., B., (1993). The Elements of Technical Writing, New York: Macmillan Publishers, ISBN 0020130856 pp. 3
McQuail, P. D. (1997). Audience Analysis. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications

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