Guidelines for analyzing your audience

While spending some time with Mr Joseph F. Trimmer’s great book Writing With a Purpose, I came across certain concepts on behavioral pattern of readers: I found it interesting and thus shamelessly sharing with you all…

Look! How he feels for readers while writing even a single sentence: do you have guts to follow his ideas?
The following is from his pen...

• Who are the readers who will be most interested in my writing?
What is the probable age, sex, education, economic status or social position?
What values, assumptions and prejudices characterize their general attitudes toward life?
What visual graphics will appeal to them?

• What do my readers know or think they know about my subject?
What is the probable source of their knowledge: direct experience, observation, reading or rumor?
Will my readers react positively or negatively toward my subject?
What sort of graphics are they used to seeing on this subject?

• Why will my readers read my writing?
If they know a great deal about my subject, what will they expect to learn from reading my essay?
If they know only a few things about my subject, what will they expect to be told about it?
Will they expect to be entertained, informed or persuaded?
Why will the overall design of my text appeal to my readers?

• How can I interest my readers in my subject?
If they are hostile toward it, how can I convince them to give my writing a fair reading?
If they are sympathetic, how can I fulfill and enhance their expectations?
If they are neutral, how can I catch and hold their attention?
What specific visual cues will interest my readers and enhance the subject?

• How can I help my readers read my writing?
What kind of organizational pattern will help them see its purpose?
What kind of guide-posts, transitional markets and graphics will they need to follow this pattern?
What (and how many) examples and visual illustrations will they need to understand my general statement?