Writers & Reading Conditions

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Sunday, July 19th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

You’ve worked hard to capture your thoughts and write them down. But don’t stop now, because you should also exercise your communication skills in determining where your writing will be read.

Let’s say you’re writing for people who work in a manufacturing plant, so you’ll have a plan for that. On the other hand, if those people are administrative staff working in offices you’ll likely take a different approach.

More specifically, if you’re writing for difficult reading conditions, such as a factory floor, you’ll focus on simplicity and ease of reading. Given the noise and distractions in such areas, you’ll focus on just a few key points, use larger font sizes, and so on.

People in offices enjoy a more reader friendly environment, so you have the liberty of stylizing your document. Fonts can be smaller than those used for communication with the factory floor, for example. Color is a useful tool in office environments, but on the factory floor plain black and white will be more effective.

Don’ overlook the issue of lighting. High gloss paper may look good, but it may reflect and make reading harder in brightly lit offices, and harder reading means the document won’t get as much attention as one that is easy to read.

For example, if you publish a printed newsletter, you should ask yourself where it will be read. If a majority of your readers are in harsh or very bright reading environments, then go with non-glossy paper.

One other note: Will your document be an email message, or a printed document? Recipients generally treat email as disposable, but written letters as permanent records. That may not be your view, but write for posterity when you write for print.

In summary, don’t assume your printed message will necessarily be read. Instead, think of the reading conditions involved, so you can structure your message and medium to make it easy for your readers. Make it easy for them, and they’re far more likely to respond.

Get more great communication ideas at Business Writing Skills .

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