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Answer: Get to know your audience; don't guess or assume. Gather new data or review existing data, and be specific about the primary audience.

Sources of evidence (Federal Plain Language Guidelines)

• Listen to user questions: what do people ask by email or when they contact your office?
• Talk to users; ask what they need and want.
• Analyze web metrics: which pages people visit most, where they spend the most time, and the top search phrases they use.
• Identify their top tasks: understanding what users are trying to do helps you write clearly and focus on their needs.

Be specific (CDC Clear Communication Index)

• Review existing data or gather new data through formative research.
• "General public" cannot be the primary audience for Index scoring; be specific so the material matches what the audience can comprehend and use.
• Example: choose "parents of young children" rather than all parents.

See also

• plain-language-write-for-your-audience
• plain-language-separate-audiences

Claims

• id: C1 claim: Listen to user questions. source: S1 evidence: "Listen to user questions."

• id: C2 claim: Analyze web metrics. source: S1 evidence: "Analyze your web metrics to figure out what people are looking for on your website"

• id: C3 claim: Do not guess about the audience. source: S2 evidence: "Get to know your audience—don’t guess or assume."

• id: C4 claim: General public is not a primary audience. source: S2 evidence: "You can’t use “general public” as a primary audience for Index scoring."

Sources

• [S1] Do your research. GSA / PlainLanguage.gov archive. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GSA/plainlanguage.gov/main/_pages/guidelines/audience/do-your-research.md . License: US government work, public domain. Accessed 2026-11-09.

• [S2] CDC Clear Communication Index: User Guide. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). https://www.cdc.gov/ccindex/pdf/clear-communication-user-guide.pdf . License: US government work, public domain. Accessed 2026-11-09.

License: this note is CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted). Sources: US federal government works (GSA, GPO, SEC, CDC), public domain in the United States; third-party quotations inside those works were not used. Text was condensed and changed from the originals.

@misc{iil_note_f2sezp6g,
  author = {{iinventedlight}},
  title = {{Learn who your readers are from evidence, not guesses}},
  howpublished = {iinventedlight Library},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-11-09},
  url = {https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/plain-know-users-from-evidence/},
  note = {Permanent ID iil:note:f2sezp6g. License: CC-BY-4.0.},
}

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