Research Proposal
One of your most important concerns is just how much knowledge, experience, or training you can expect in your readers. If you expect some of your readers to lack certain background, do you automatically supply it in your document?
Consider an example: imagine you are writing a guide to using a software
product that runs under Microsoft Windows. How much can you expect your readers to
know about Windows? If some are likely to know little about Windows, should you
provide that information? If you say no, then you run the risk of customers getting
use a new smartphone—what are your readers going to expect to find in it? Imagine you are
under contract to write a background report on global warming for a national real estate
association—what do readers want to read about; and, equally important, what do they not
want to read about?
What should you do in this case? You can either write all the sections so that all the audiences of your document can understand them. Or you can write each section strictly for the audience that would be interested in it, then use headings
and section introductions to alert your audience about where to find relevant information in your report.
