When people write informative papers about science and technology, a major factor that influences how they lay out their information and how it is worded is audience. A target audience must be chosen and the writing must be focused around the chosen group (or groups) of people. For example, a scientist writing a paper exposing his or her findings will be directed at other scientists, and will be written accordingly. A scientist will assume his or her audience knows the concepts behind the paper, and therefore will be able to follow the complex material that is covered in the paper. A scientist will not waste time explaining the basic concepts behind his work, when he/she knows that the targeted audience already has all the knowledge required to understand the published work. Someone from a different audience, without a scientific background, would most likely not understand what is being covered in the paper, and, as such, would not read it.
Someone else, such as a historian writing a paper intended to be published for profit, his target audience will be more of the general population. His paper will cover more of the basic concepts behind his work, and perhaps not go as in-depth into the findings as a scientific paper would. Because of this, someone specialized in the field of study the published work covers will not be as interested, as it contains a lot of information that he already knows. Of course, these publications have different end goals. A scientist publishing a scientific paper probably wants to get it reviewed by peers in order to advance knowledge in his particular field, while the historian writing something to be published for profit wants to spread some general knowledge (usually) to the public. Therefore, when writing something to be published, it is important to take into account the targeted audience, as it will determine the content and writing style of the paper.
No comments:
Post a Comment