Writing for Specific Audiences

Here are some tips if you need to summarize complex information for an audience which isn’t necessarily familiar with the topic.

• Provide more than one way in to the information:

  • Provide a brief summary at the beginning,

  • Use pull quotes to highlight a remark that will spark readers’ curiosity.

  • Illustrate quantities and numerical relationships with charts and graphs.

  • Put lengthy context or background information in a sidebar.

  • If you’re reaching out to a very general public, you may want to provide an infographic as an introduction to the topic.

If you’re writing for a digital format:

• Unlike a print piece, readers won’t necessarily progress through the article in a linear fashion. Instead they will scroll and skim and skip, so you need to arrest their attention.

• Attention spans are short online. Break up the text with sub-headings and bullet points.

• Use the linking and hover capabilities to provide additional information.

Below is a skills exercise in which I wrote a media release to announce an academic paper.

The original paper is on the left and the release is on the right. Click to read in full.