| Instructions: |
- Read the material below.
|
| As
you read consider: |
- What kind of external
(written for outside your organization) documents
do professionals in your field write?
- What kind of external documents have you
written?
- What kind of internal
(written for inside your organization) documents
do professionals in your field write?
- What kind of internal documents have you
written?
- What are some of the main differences
between external and internal documents?
- When you write, do you know who your
audience is?
|
| |
| Course
Introduction |
To start, we need to answer and discuss some basic questions about
technical writing:
 | What is technical writing? |
| Who produces it? |
| What do they write? |
| Why do they write it? |
| Who reads it? |
| How is it different from other kinds of writing? |
| How do readers evaluate it? |
|
|
Who produces technical writing? |
Probably everyone in the work place does some kind of technical writing at some time.
| Office workers when they write a memo |
| Factory workers when they fill out an accident report |
| Managers when they write instructions |
Anyone who needs to communicate technical information in writing does technical writing.
Note: we’re not talking about quality here!
|
|
What kinds of documents to technical writers produce? |
People produce all kinds of technical documents, from short to long, from formal to informal, from complex to simple and so on. Here are some basic examples:
| Correspondence:
|
| External documents (docs produced for outside the
organization)
 | Manuals |
| Financial reports, Business plans, Sales literature |
| Proposals |
| Project reports, final reports, feasibility studies |
| Can you think of other types of external docs? |
|
| Internal documents (docs produced for inside the
organization)
| Progress reports, daily reports, data reports |
| Proposals, plans |
| Protocols, instructions |
| Personnel documents: job descriptions, evaluations, policies
Management/decision making documents: plans, justifications
Project final reports, feasibility analyses, recommendations |
| Can you think of other types of internal docs? |
|
Note the basic dichotomy here: internal documents vs.
external documents
What kind of external documents have you written?
What kind of internal documents have you written?
What are some of the main differences between external and internal documents??
|
|
Purpose of technical documents |
When people write technical documents, why are they writing???
| Are they writing to entertain? |
| Are they writing to persuade? |
| Are they writing to express feelings? |
| Are they writing because they have a deep, burning desire to express
themselves? |
Mainly people produce technical documents to COMMUNICATE:
| Communicate new information |
| Communicate specific information |
|
|
How communication works: a basic plan |
For communication to work, what do you need?
| You need a common language (a common means of transmitting information—
a common language) |
| You need a speaker/writer |
| You need a listener/reader |
| You need a subject |
So, communication works through a triangle, like this:
Figure 1. The communication triangle
With different types of communication, the focus changes.
|
|
How different forms of communication work |
What about creative writing? For example, I could write a poem. Here it is:
A beautiful spring day
High clouds wisp across the sky
The cool breeze slips in my open window
Making me wonder how
Much longer
I need to
Sit here
Typing.
So in this poem, where’s the focus in our communication triangle for this “poem”?
The focus is on the writer and his relationship to the subject.
The reader is a factor here, but not that important: mainly the focus is on the writer and how he feels. Does this kind of focus work in technical communication? Generally, no.
What about in typical college writing? Where is the focus when you write your typical essay? Where is the focus when your write your basic lab report? Where is the focus when you answer the typical final exam question?
Very often the communication is going focus on the reader (the grader) and the
writer. Do you care about the subject? Yes, a little. But what’s most important? Proving that you—the writer—know the information so that your reader will give you a good grade.
| Note: In college writing -- because you are writing to an
instructor/professor -- providing new information becomes pretty difficult.
The reader probably knows more (possibly far more) than you do about the subject before he/she reads your document. Is that the case in a professional setting??
Certainly not, almost always. If
your readers know what you know, why would they bother to read your
technical document? |
What about in technical
writing? Where is the focus when you write a technical document? Where is the focus when you write in a professional setting?
In technical writing, the focus has to be the subject and the
reader. Why? In technical writing, readers read to get new information. Readers don’t care who you are as long as you provide them with the information they need. Readers don’t care how you feel about the topic as long as you don’t bore
them. In tech. Writing, the subject and the reader are the main focus. For
this class, you need to write for people who do not know what you know.
In other words, plan to write for someone other
than a professor--a person who knows what you know (or more). In other
words, for this class,
plan to write technical documents for people who need the specialized
information you have. They do not know that specialized information;
therefore, you need to explain what you know..
|
|
What is technical writing? |
Technical writing defined:
| Technical writing focuses on the subject |
| Technical writing helps the reader learn/understand NEW information
| At least it is new to the reader. |
|
| Technical writing deals with a specialized topic for readers with a specific interest in that topic. |
|
|
What makes technical writing work? |
Technical writing works only if the writer
works to meet the readers’ needs.
So, before the writers write, they need to have good answers for these
fours important questions:
- Who are my readers?
| Often we write one document for
various readers, with differing levels of expertise and with differ
differing needs |
What do they know about the topic?
(What is their level of technical expertise on the topic?)
What do they need to know about the
topic? (Why are they reading this doc.? What is their purpose?)
What do I need to say?
Of course, the writers need to know the subject/topic thoroughly.
But technical writing only works if it is aimed so it works for that a specific audience
(a specific group of readers).
Does technical writing have to be highly technical?
No. It needs
to meet the readers’ needs.
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