1. Types of Audience Executives Experts Technicians Operators
Consumers/vendors/lay people

2. Profiling an Audience Education Expertise Position in organization
Demographic details
Social, political, economic, cultural background
Need for the document
Use of the document
Stylistic expectation

3. Strategies for Profiling
Surveys, questionnaires, interviews
Job descriptions
Observing audience
Working alongside the audience
Examining relevant documents

4. Resources for Gathering Information about Audience
Personal experience
Marketing dept.
Technical support
Customer support
Public relations

5. Needs Analysis Observe, interview as many representative users
Interview resource people for the needs
Examine similar, existing documents
Examine the document from users’ perspective
How will the users use this document?

6. Adaptation Strategies--1
Adequate background information
Relevant information
Right amount/complexity of details
Suitable organization
Appropriate illustrations
Right form
Appropriate document design

7. Adaptation Strategies--2
Suitable style
Vocabulary
Tone
Use of definition/analogy/comparison, contrast/examples
Sentence type/length
Paragraph length