Determining Audience for a Health Sciences Writing Course

Abstract

The authors, co-instructors in a health sciences technical writing course, investigated the expectations and needs of audience in the health care professions. They desired to know if health care professionals had expectations significantly different from other audiences. Through interviews, they determined the audience's reading habits, the document qualities desired by the audience, and the audience's intended use of the documents. Some of the health care professionals' expectations are similar to those of all technical writing audiences, but some are specific to health care. The authors have applied this knowledge to the teaching of their course.