RE: know your ... who?

["Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: 
> techwr-l-bounces+bgranat=granatedit -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com 
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+bgranat=granatedit -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l
> .com] On Behalf Of McLauchlan, Kevin
> Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 10:18 AM
> To: technical writing plus; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: RE: know your ... who?
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: technical writing plus [mailto:doc-x -at- earthlink -dot- net]
>  
> > Methink that this mantra means know what your readers are 
> like in the
> > sense
> > of knowing what the audience is like -- and not that the 
> writer should
> > know
> > them personally. Altho there is a benefit to the latter. But it can
> hardly
> > ever be arranged, of course.
> 
> Well, there are some people (I'm told) who actually DO meet their
> users/readers, because their industry or company/product/service are
> conducive to that, and they consider that the standard.
> A point that I was making was that ALL my "knowledge" of my 
> customers is
> third-hand or is (informed, one hopes) speculation... i.e., guesswork.
> About all I can say for sure is that the majority have English as a
> second (or third) language. The range of experience with our 
> industry is
> varied, to say the least, ranging from "none" to "people we 
> learn from".

Kevin,

Your sales and marketing departments should have plenty of information on
buyers and users that would be helpful to you. Writers shouldn't necessarily
be spending their time duplicating the work that others in the organization
are doing. To successfully market one's products, one has to do this work.
So just mine the existing knowledge in your organization -- don't reinvent
the wheel.


Bonnie Granat
http://www.GranatEdit.com


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