Back when I wrote Writing Secret 5: Decide on One Ideal Reader, I suggested there was one primary reader and other secondary readers. That's not wrong, but it's incomplete.
Nonfiction writing causes people to decide, rethink, or change their actions, all a change of some sort. That means the ideal reader for a given piece is the person you want to change.
This post has one specific ideal reader: other writers. Since I also write for project, program, and portfolio managers, you might not choose to read this post. You're not my ideal reader. Instead, you're a secondary reader. Or, you might skim this post and say, “Ah, Johanna's talking about writing again. Fine. I'll wait for her next blog post.”
You're a secondary reader. I've assured you I know something about this topic. And you continue with your day.
But when you write for your organization's consumption, you might have many other secondary readers. Writers often need a different approach to manage everyone's expectations.
How to Write for Secondary Readers
Polly, a program manager, works with her program team to solve a cross-program problem: status reporting. Up until now, Polly and the program team created a monthly status report. But the program is close to the end. They need to offer status much more frequently.
Polly wants to write something to the teams about what she wants for status. Her ideal readers are the teams doing the work, so they can change their demos and reporting frequency. But lots of other people, her secondary readers, want to know what to expect. She writes for those people to assure them that the program will report status more frequently and how and when to expect that reporting.
Here's her first draft:
Given our progress, we expect we are in the last quarter of the Nova program and will meet our projected final release date. Thank you so much for your efforts to date. Now that we are close, Sales, Training, Marketing all need much more detail and information about how to use Nova and when they can expect it. As a company, we need more demos and more data. Therefore, please use the attached guidelines for reporting status weekly.
The other leaders and I will contact each team to see how we can make data collection easier. However, we all need to see weekly demos according to the attached format. Please ensure your demo is ready every Wednesday by noon Eastern.
I will also work with all the people in Sales, Marketing, Training, and anyone else who wants to see the demos and data to make sure they understand what they see.
If Polly sends that, the ideal readers, the teams, know precisely what she wants. In addition, she's assured the secondary readers she recognizes their concerns. And, there's a little problem with that last sentence.
Potential Problems Writing for Secondary Readers
I prefer to send two memos—one for the teams and a separate one for the secondary readers. However, that's not Polly's corporate culture. Her culture says everyone gets to see everything. That “everybody sees everything” culture creates a problem in the last sentence.
Program managers take the perspective of the entire program, the people doing the work. (If you are a different leader, you probably take the perspective of the people you serve and lead, also.)
Who takes the perspective of the secondary readers? That's where the double focus challenges the writer.
Now, reread that last sentence:
I will also work with all the people in Sales, Marketing, Training, and anyone else who wants to see the demos and data to make sure they understand what they see.
Was Polly a little snarky? Maybe a little patronizing? While I don't think so—I think she was reassuring—secondary readers might feel as if they're chopped liver.
Writers don't have to make people feel secondary, even if they are. Polly has at least these alternatives:
- I will send out a different email to let you know what you can expect to see in the weekly demos and status.
- Let's consider these first weekly demos and status as experiments. The entire program team and I will work with you after the second week of this new reporting to see what you need and what you don't. As long as we don't make more work for the teams, I'm open to other options.
- Below is my first draft expectation for demos and status.
I happen to prefer #2, where we set the secondary reader's expectations for experiments. In addition, we reassure the teams that they won't have to do more work. See how the ideal reader and secondary reader reverse? That's the double-focus problem
But regardless of the version you prefer, note how Polly can write for both the ideal and secondary readers.
Review Your Writing for Ideal and Secondary Readers
If you write more in public, as I do, choose your ideal reader and go. Write different pieces for each potential ideal reader.
However, if you write more for internal consumption, consider how to write for two readers: the change for your ideal readers, and assurance for your secondary readers. You might have to change your ideal reader in the middle, as Polly did, but that's practice.
I start with the ideal reader. Then, I add what I need for the secondary reader. And I make sure I don't take a snarky tone. That's the most difficult part for me. (You are not surprised.)
Good luck. Want to see/read more about how to do this? See Writing Workshop 1: Free Your Inner Writer & Sell Your Nonfiction Ideas. I just opened the Q2 2023 cohort. I also offer customized versions of that workshop as an internal workshop.