Reader-Centered Writing: Overview READER-CENTERED WRITING
Writing can be conceptualized as writer-centred or reader-centred. Things like diaries and journals are primarily writer-centred, in that they are written for the benefit of the writer. Your schoolwork may also have been somewhat writer-centred, in that often your goal was to “show what you know” and thereby “get a good grade.” Technical communications require that you shift this mindset and write for the benefit of your reader—or design the content and structure of your communication for your “user.” This mindset should be informed by an understanding of your audience.
Audience Analysis
Not everything you’ll read in the links below will apply to every writing situation (perhaps not even the writing you’ll do for this class or the writing you’ll do as a professional), but all of it is information worth considering in every situation. Part of your work as a professional communicator is to make conscious decisions about what’s more or less important in any particular situation. To make those decisions, you need to know all the potential options and elements to consider.
A Reader-Centered Approach to Writing
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.
In later material, you’ll read about and look at examples of four broad areas of sentence level approaches to reader centered writing—employing you-attitude (or you-view), increasing positive emphasis, developing reader benefits, and using readers’ language.
Those four broad areas cover a bunch of little techniques—fiddly little things that are sorta specific.
If you think of those little techniques as things you have to memorize, they can be really overwhelming…. so I don’t recommend you do that.
Instead, I recommend you think of reader-centered writing as an overall approach with a number of strategies (particularly sentence-level strategies) that can help you achieve your goals.
Goals of Reader-Centered Writing
| you-view |
employs you-view (or you-attitude)
You-view (or you attitude) considers the reader’s point of view—it recognizes and respects the reader’s feelings; it responds to what the reader wants and/or needs.
|
| positive emphasis |
emphasizes the positive
When possible, positive emphasis highlights “good” things; it considers language and connotation by phrasing things in positive or neutral ways instead of negative ways.
|
| reader benefits |
highlights benefits to the reader
Emphasizing reader benefits means highlighting what the reader gets, what benefit there is to the reader, or the rationale for the information, request, or rule.
|
| readers’ language |
uses audience’s language/concepts
Using the audience’s language & concepts means communicating in a “language” the audience understands and using concepts that are meaningful and familiar to them.
|
Common Sense Reader-Centered Writing
Let’s use common sense and apply reader-centered writing to a situation.
Here’s the situation:
Your 10 year old cousin, Jake, entered the 4th Grade Science Fair. He worked really hard on his project, he learned a lot, and he was really proud of the work he did.
The afternoon of the Science Fair exhibition (when all of the students display their trifold project displays), Jake isn’t feeling well and has to stay home. You agree to go to the Science Fair to find out if Jake won did and take some pictures for him.
At the fair, you learn that Jake didn’t win—he didn’t get a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place ribbon. Worse than that, Jake’s teacher tells you (privately) that although it was obvious he did a lot of work, Jake’s project actually came in last place. And, like all the other losing participants, Jake will get a “Certificate of Participation” in homeroom at the end of the week.
After the Science Fair exhibition, Jake is eager to know if he got a ribbon and you have to break the bad news to him.
You could say: “Jake, you lost. You didn’t get a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place ribbon, and in fact, your teacher said you got last place.”
Does that communicate the bad news clearly? Sure. But, is that what you would say to Jake? Probably not.
You’d probably be a little nicer—speaking in a way that spares Jake’s feelings.
Let’s gradually improve our communication to Jake in ways that employ you-view, positive emphasis, and focus on reader-benefits.
| Jake, you lost. You didn’t get a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place ribbon, and in fact, your teacher said you got last place. |
This isn’t written with reader-centered writing. It doesn’t spare Jake’s feelings, it has no positive emphasis, and doesn’t suggest any reader-benefit.
It basically calls Jake a loser.
|
| Jake, your project lost. It didn’t get a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place ribbon, and in fact, your teacher said your project came in last place.” | This is slightly better. Instead of “You lost,” the text deemphasizes the “You” (Jake), and places the blame on the project. Instead of “you lost,” the text suggests “your project lost.” |
| Jake, your project didn’t win. | Slightly better than the last one. Instead of using negative language—”your project lost”—it frames it in more positive language—”your project didn’t win.” |
| Jake, while your project didn’t get a ribbon, your teacher said it was clear that you did a lot of work on the project. You made a great effort and you certainly learned a lot.” | Better still. This still communicates the bad news (his project didn’t get a ribbon), but quickly moves past the bad news to 1) communicate something positive (the teacher recognized his effort); and 2) emphasize the reader-benefit (he learned a lot). |
| Jake, while your project didn’t get a ribbon, your teacher said it was clear that you did a lot of work on the project. You made a great effort and you certainly learned a lot. Also, you’re going to get a certificate. | Adding in the info about Jake getting a certificate is good—it’s another positive thing/reader-benefit. However, after hearing that he’s going to get a certificate, what might Jake want to know? |
| Jake, while your project didn’t get a ribbon, your teacher praised your effort and you certainly learned a lot. Your worked hard and learned a lot, and because of that, you will get a certificate in homeroom on Friday. | This is best so far… in addition to making the improvements above, it also tells Jake what he wants to know—he probably wants to know when he’ll get his certificate. |
| Max, Emma, and Hector got ribbons this year, but your teacher said you did a great job. Because you worked hard and learned a lot, you’ll get a certificate in homeroom on Friday. | This might be even a little bit better. In this context, Instead of saying “Your project didn’t get a ribbon,” we can be even more positive by saying who did get a ribbon (even though it wasn’t Jake). |
Let’s take another look at the original and the final improvement to see where each does (or does not) employ reader-centered writing.
| Jake, you lost. You didn’t get a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place ribbon, and in fact, your teacher said you got last place. |
|
| Jake, while your project didn’t get a ribbon, your teacher praised your effort and you certainly learned a lot. You worked hard and learned a lot, and because of that, you’re going to get a certificate in homeroom on Friday. |
|
| In some contexts, we can take it a step further by focusing on who did get a ribbon instead of who didn’t get a ribbon. You can’t always do that—sometimes you can’t say who got the thing or perhaps it’s not as clear to say “others got the thing.” When you can make it even more positive (without changing the purpose/meaning), then you get what’s below. | |
| Max, Emma, and Hector got ribbons this year, but your teacher said you did a great job. Because you worked hard and learned a lot, you’ll get a certificate in homeroom on Friday. |
|