Know Thy Readers

I had this talk with a friend yesterday. I was working on some articles, (based on a jolt I had from past), and I wanted his review to see that I had got all the facts right.

So, he went through it, and told me to read 'some digital circuits' book. I was a bit perplexed and asked him if there was anything I had written that was grossly wrong. He summed up saying that, 'it shows you are a software engineer'. That followed by, 'the terminology is different'.

I was offended. Grossly offended. How dare he say I am just a software engineer. Hell, I was the best solderer of circuits in our project group - may be topped only by Sushil. I had done my share of hard-core engineering when it came to me. How dare he say I was just a 'soft'ware engineer!

I guess, I will stop the rant and get to the point. The reason I did not use the specific words used in digital circuit text books while writing those articles were because I was not writing it for electronic engineers. There was no point in writing it for eletronic engineers - because they would be already knowing what I was writing about. They would know much more than what I am capable of writing on the subject for now.

On the other hand, there would be some computer savvy people, who out of interest or my threats may end up reading the article. Getting educated as an Electronics engineer and then working in the IT industry has given me a perspective, that lets me tell something that would generally not be told to software people.

So, since I got the chance, I thought I will explain them the intricacies of the electronics world, in their language - the way they would understand.

In short, before you write something, know who your readers are, and choose the lingo that is best suited for them.

PS: Venkatesh Acharya is a nice guy. No, really. He is. He did not bribe me for this. (He is the guy who I verbally abused in this post). He just happened to be the guinea pig for my rant. :) Venkatesh is very well versend in the field that I was writing about, and naturally, I asked his help. :)