Audience and Explanation

Abstract

“Audience and Explanation,” which is the first of three chapters on communicating technical work, starts by focusing on the audience and how understanding their backgrounds and interests is critical to being able to report in a way that is meaningful to them. It consider their motivation for reading, what kinds of explanations will make sense to them, what kind of visualizations will be helpful, and the language that they will (or won’t) be able to follow. A section on jargon explains when to use a word without explanation, when to define, and when to avoid using a technical word altogether. There is also a discussion on the use of various kinds of figures (e.g. charts, photographs, and diagrams), how they are best used, captions, and how to avoid problems with copyright and plagiarism.