You have your topic. You are ready to sit down and write.
But before you do, take a step back and ask yourself: who am I writing for?
This is the most important question every writer needs to know.
It is the first question I ask anyone who hires me to rewrite or edit their content.
Whether it is a policy document or a public website, knowing your audience is vital.
Put yourself in their shoes
As you write, you need to put yourself in the shoes of your audience.
Read the text from their point of view.
Ask yourself:
Why is my audience reading this?
What does my audience need to know?
Is this information easy for them to get?
Have they come here to complete a task?
Does this text help them achieve this task?
Write for your audience
The way you write an article will also depend on the audience.
For example, imagine I am writing an article about diabetes.
If the article is intended for doctors, it would assume expert knowledge and contain more jargon.
But if the article aims to educate patients about diabetes, it would need to assume the reader had no prior knowledge of diabetes or medicine and so it should not contain any jargon.
When things go wrong
Sometimes a piece of writing isn’t working. The intro seems wrong and the writing doesn’t flow.
When this happens, it is worth taking a step back and working out who the audience is. Once you have a clearer idea of the audience, you should be able to improve the text.
Also, remember that there could be different audiences for the same piece of writing.
Having a clear idea of your audience will help you deliver better writing.
Comments