Reader-Centered Writing

A Reader-Centered Approach to Writing

Perhaps the biggest variable, and the most important element, in your PAGOS plan is Audience. Ultimately, the audience has the power to help you accomplish your purpose, and the power to keep you from reaching your goal. For that reason, professional writers must adapt their messages to their audiences.

To adapt messages to audiences, professional writers use a reader-centered approach—it’s a major component of an overall rhetorical approach to writing—writing that gets things done. It accomplishes its purpose (or, it gets something done) by meeting the demands of the rhetorical situation, by appealing to its audience, and by working within its context.

For further explanations, please see “Rhetorical Awareness and User-Centered Design” from the Purdue OWL and “You-Centered Business Style” at Writing Commons. For an excellent professional example of reader-centered writing in action, check out this document, Using a Reader-Centered Approach, part two of the “Toolkit for Making Written Material Clear and Effective, from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at CMS.gov.

What follows are explanations and examples of three components that make up a reader-centered approach to writing—employing you-attitude (or you-view), increasing positive emphasis, and developing reader benefits.

You-Attitude or You-View

Employing ‘you-attitude’ or the ‘you-view’ means approaching things from the reader’s point of view. In general, it

• Employs second-person (“you”) strategically in positive or neutral situations, adopting the reader’s point of view
• Emphasizes what the reader wants to know and potential benefits to the reader
• Focuses on the positive and uses positive language
• Protects the reader’s ego by being indirect and/or shifting blame away from the reader in “negative” situations (often by using passive voice or impersonal construction).

1. Shift pronouns: I → you

In positive/neutral situations, instead of writing in first person, write in second person. Shift “I” or “we” to “you.” Referring to yourself instead of the reader suggests you’re more concerned with yourself than with your audience and their wants/needs. Use “we” or “us” only if it includes the reader or makes the reader feel included.

2. Focus on reader benefits

Emphasize what the reader receives; not on what you’ve done.

3. Use caution with feelings (yours and theirs)

Unless you’re writing a note of congratulations or condolence, or some other rare situation where feelings are appropriate, avoid telling the reader how you feel and avoid telling the reader how she or he should feel.

4. Anticipate reader needs/wants

Consider what the audience wants to know and provide those details.

5. Avoid “you” in negative situations when it singles out the reader

Instead, focus on group to which reader belongs.

6. Avoid “you” in negative situations when it criticizes the reader

Instead, use a passive verb construction or an impersonal construction to avoid assigning blame.

Create Positive Emphasis

1. can’t → can

Focus on what the reader can do rather than on limitations. Instead of telling the reader what they CANNOT do, tell them what they CAN do.

2. Eliminate negative words and words with negative connotations

Denotation is the explicit dictionary definition of a word. Connotation is the implicit emotional overtones, implications, or associations surrounding the word.

For instance, the dictionary definitions of “thin” and “skinny” are nearly identical. Essentially, they denote the same meaning. However, “thin” has more positive or neutral connotation (feeling or association) and “skinny” as a more negative connotation. In other words, if someone says “you look thin,” it sounds/feels more like a compliment, but if someone says “you look skinny,” it sounds/feels more like criticism.

Words with negative connotations include: afraid, anxious, delay, dissatisfied, error, fail, failure, loss, misfortune, missing, not, problem, regret, reject, weakness… (and many more, of course). Revise them to words that have a more neutral connotation, or revise the sentence entirely.

3. Justify negative (or unwanted) information by giving a reason or a reader benefit

4. If the negative is truly unimportant, omit it

Developing Reader Benefits

What are these worth to you? Nothing, probably.

 

Reader Benefits are benefits or advantages your audience gains from complying with a request or policy, using your services, buying your product, adopting your ideas, or generally, doing a thing they might not be excited about doing. Reader benefits can be extrinsic or intrinsic–read more about “Extrinsic and Intrinsic Reader Benefits.”

In general, good reader benefits are

• adapted to the audience
• phrased in reader-centered language (You-View/You-Attitude)
• often “frontloaded” in the beginning of a document rather than included at the end
• demonstrate value to reader (includes what reader values most, e.g., saving money vs. saving time)

Think about reader benefits as if they were currency. Currency has value, but only if two parties share the same system of monetary value. Sure, you figure out exchange rates, or go to a bank for currency exchange, but that’s a lot of effort–espectially when you’re not sure if the effort is worth the value. (According to The Guardian, Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation reached 500 billion percent in 2008. That means $1 USD = 35 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars. A million dollar Zimbabwean bank note wouldn’t be worth a trip to the bank.)

So, not only shold you speak in your audience’s currency, but also in the language of their values. A few hypotheticals:

Chris is a third year graduate student living on a small stipend and student loans. He doesn’t care about having a trendy hairstyle, so he gives himself a buzz cut once a month in order to save money. Saving that money is worth more than the extra time it takes him, the mess he has to clean up, or his going without a flattering haircut.

Nicole is mother to two five year old twins. Since both she and her partner work full time, they aren’t living paycheck to paycheck, but they aren’t making much disposible income to waste on entertainment. They don’t go out to see the latest releases at the movie theatre, and they don’t dine out. However, Nicole doesn’t ever clip grocery coupons, look for buy-one-get-one specials, or store sales. She just goes to the grocery store and gets the items on her list, no matter how much they cost. She decided it’s not worth the time it takes to read grocery store mailers, search for online coupons, and compare prices. The extra time she gets to spend with her family is worth more than the money she could potentially save.

Evan decided to fulfill a lifelong dream of joining a community theater troupe in his 40s. Because he has theater practice, he no longer spends extra hours at work and no longer works from home on the weekends. For that reason, Evan loses commission money each month. He’s willing to make less money because it allows him to participate in a hobby he enjoys.

Currency is one thing (who doesn’t like to save money?), but value (and values) are another.

What is $1.50 worth to you? Is it a snack or a cup of coffee between classes? Is it extra time on the parking meter? Is it an app or an ebook? Is it a single cheeseburger at the drive through, is it a tip for your barista, or is it a lottery ticket just for fun?