Is anybody listening? a survey of strategies and attitudes

The author examines how writers feel about the relationships between themselves and their readers. He addresses seven questions from a survey administered to the IBM Information Development community in Kingston, New York. The focus of this work is the obligations that writers feel toward their audiences, and writers´ confidence that those obligations are met. Writers are unanimous about the importance of knowing their readers´ needs backgrounds, and, to a lesser degree, attitudes. They feel strongly, however, that they do not know what their readers want and that the information they do provide is often misunderstood. Closing the communication loop by increasing feedback can be effective in increasing information developers´ confidence that someone is listening and that they are reaching their audiences