At Hurley Write, we teach scientists and technical experts how to create workable content. Often, the first step is learning exactly what makes a document effective: It produces the desired or intended result and a favorable impression.
Know your audience
A necessary part, then, of creating easily understood documents is having a specific, desired purpose in mind. By extension, you must know the audience. Here are four audience research questions to consider before you write your document to help you understand your audience:
- Who are your readers? (Are they technical experts or laypersons? Associates or clients? Familiar or unfamiliar with the subject matter?)
- Why are they reading? (To gain knowledge? To make a decision?)
- What do they hope to gain — and what do you hope that they gain? (Are you trying to convince them to take a certain action?)
- How will they use the document? (Will the abstract be posted online? Will the paper be read once, or used as a reference?)
After you determine your audience and what you want your readers to accomplish, it’s time to plan how to write content that will accomplish your goal.
As a scientific or technical expert, you know how to think critically to problem-solve. Fortunately, critical thinking is the most important skill for producing high-quality written documents.
It’s simple: Writing is problem solving.
Apply your existing skills
Several common problems are associated with ineffective writing in scientific and technical fields.
- Content that is boring or confusing
- Documents that take too broad a focus
- Text that uses too many technical terms, acronyms, or jargon
Can those problems be overcome? Yes! Use your critical-thinking skills to logically apply word choice, paragraph and sentence structure, and other rhetorical techniques that create amazingly effective content.