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Writing for Multiple Audiences

Many documents of more than a few pages are addressed to more than one reader. Often, an audience consists of people with widely different backgrounds, needs, and attitudes.

If you think your document will have a number of readers, consider making it modular: break it up into components addressed to different readers. A modular report might contain an executive summary for managers who don’t have the time, knowledge, or desire to read the whole report. It might also contain a full technical discussion for expert readers, an implementation schedule for technicians, and a financial plan in an appendix for budget officers. Figure 5.8 shows the table of contents for a modular report.

This table of contents shows the organization of a modular document.

Few readers will want to read the whole document—it’s almost 1,000 pages long.

Most readers will want to read the 18-page summary for policymakers.

Some readers will want to read selected sections of the technical summary or “annexes” (appendixes).