"Know thy audience"; was: RE: What is "well Written"?

["David Neeley" <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com>]

John Posada explained:

"It solved two issues for me; the question of whether what is being
produced is good, and to discount the oft-repeated chant "Know they
audience" because most times, the audience doesn't know what it needs
and you can only figure this out through continued testing and
improvement modifications."

John,

I respectfully disagree. Would you not agree that "knowing your audience"
includes a number of factors including:

*Know what they need to know to do their particular jobs*
*Know their typical level of education*
*Know the common level of specific knowledge required to perform their work*

That does *not* mean we should have a problem if an audience member simply
doesn't know what he is looking for. In fact, that would often be the case
if they are consulting doc to begin with.

It is our function, among other things, to create documentation that makes
the discovery of what to seek a straightforward task with a minimum of
frustrations. (Also why a good index is a godsend, to respond to yet another
current thread!)

David
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