Readers, Users, and Everyone Else

From Rude, Carolyn. Technical Editing, 4th ed.

The context includes the reason for which a text is developed.

Differences between text and context

Text• Content• Organization• Visual design• Illustrations• Style• Headings• Index• Appendices• Page numbers• Tables• Grammar• Mechanics• Punctuation• Spelling

• Citations• Paper type• Paper size• Bindng• Color• Typography• Menus• Links• Layout• Resolution• Coding• Etc.

Context• Origins and impact• Readers and use• Culture and expectations• Accessibility• Constraints on development

Readers are busy, and have specific needs.

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It’s all about audience.

Pay attention to cultural variables, such as:

• High Context vs. Low Context

• Monochronic vs. Polychronic

• Future vs. Present vs. Past Orientation

• Power Distance

• Individualism vs. Collectivism

Be aware of how readers read, and their needs

• Accessibility• Created meaning• Selective reading

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Readers bring their own stories to every document.

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Edit work to account for content, symbols, and noise.

• Anticipate questions• Link new information

with familiar information

• Organize information logically

Give your audience visual and structural signals.

IntroductionWithin the sphere of rhetoric and science there are, as Wander and Jaehne (2000) have pointed out, “many specialized areas and specialized languages” (215). We talk and write about such subsets as environmental rhetoric and medical rhetoric, and accept that within the juxtaposition of the concepts “rhetoric” and “science” lie innumerable opportunities for scholarship. An examination of the literature on rhetoric and science, however, shows three distinct categories of scholarship: the rhetoric of science; rhetorical science; and the rhetorical presentation of science.

Avoid unnecessary noise.

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