Engl 271

Chapter 16

2007-05-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

Chapter 16
Process explanations: provide an overview or background, regardless of audience’s task. Often embedded in a longer discussion that has already presented a definition and general description.
What is a process explanation? They enable the audience to understand the statement of purpose, explanation of actions, and equipment application. People also find that these process help with curiosity on things you may question.
Defining Process
Process explanations define sequential actions to members of an audience who need enough details to understand an action or process, but not enough to actually completely the given process. Identifying the general nature of a task and overview rather than specific details and small facts. When these steps are inaccurate or incorrect problems can and may come up. These often are the same kind of documents you find technical descriptions.
Common Applications of process applications: manuals, reports, orientation, training materials, marketing and promotional materials, and public information and education.
Reports
These frequently provide an audience with background information and understanding the technical processes.
The following is commonly found in a reports introductory section:
Technical description
Process explanation
Benefits or advantages
Task Manuals
This is one of the most frequent uses of process explanations. Users tend to have to complete complex tasks more accurately and more cooperatively to understand the overall process. This using step by step instructions making it worth the time to prepare and the space to present.
One effect method to present overviews would be the flowchart.
Orientation and Training Materials
Students may often need to use more detailed information because its often they are required to understand reasons behind the sequence of actions even as the information as a summary, these often include, terminology, definitions, and explanations, that could make the material inappropriate for readers interested in just the general information.
Marketing and Promotional Materials
Figure 16.4 shows you an operation for a thermal inkjet cartridge for computer printers. This illustration provides a good idea in which process explanations can often be embedded in writing, such as advertising and promotional materials. The process explanation tends to make more sense in complete information rather than just partial writings. Looking at the figure you can see the paragraphs define, describe, illustrate, and identify the main parts, so the reader is able to understand how the ink in a printer works. This is followed up by a couple paragraphs to describe the sequence and the last three paragraphs show how the process can be controlled to produce better quality.
Public Information and Education
Readers of daily or general papers such as magazines or newspapers are usually interested I technical information, but usually tend to not have the expertise or experience to understand the complexity of what they’re reading.
Take for instance the term “acid rain” it is a familiar term for most people yet the process on how it’s formed is actually quite difficult. Pictures can simplify this confusing by showing the reader what major elements contribute to this rain and an explanation that’s suitable for its reader.
Preparing Processes
The preparing process explanation is that you need to consider the audience and purpose, identify the steps, select of design the visuals, and organize the information.
Audience and Purpose
Identifying members of your audience and their purpose will help you prepare for a process explanation.
Identification of Steps
One of the main parts of preparing is getting the steps in order. This creates the basis for the process of explanation and aids in visual designs.
Visuals
You can choose from several types of illustrations to show the overall sequence of the process. Flowcharts are often a good choice that gives a visual overview in the same way as the introduction shows the actions and steps. Other visuals can include schedules or timelines. Drawings can often show the element of a process, the best choice is often a step by step process that shows the gradual changes like, time lapse photos, drawings that show changes, and final product drawings. Another way is to use sequential drawings showing all basic steps in one fluid motion, the steps are in an action view and using brief captions, the drawing is then able to stand alone.
Diction
The audience and purpose of your process explanation affect your diction, or the language you use. One of the most important decisions you’ll have to make is to use an active or passive voice.
Organization and Format
Due to the fact process explanations are chronological, writers will use headings to show the steps they are taking. These headings help readers signal what and where they are reading. They can be altered according the present audience and fewer complexes for more ease of understanding. Less informed people tend to need more explanation and take up more space than people who know about the topic at hand.

Chapter 8 Sting & Winkles

2007-05-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

Chapter 8
Revising and Editing
David Sting

Revising and editing are critical to the success of your documents. Although these processes often overlap and definitions vary slightly from expert to expert and company to company, their fundamental purposes remain the same: to increase the accessibility, comprehensibility, and usability of documents, presentations, and visuals.

Revising generally refers to the process of changing overall (or global) elements of documents.

Editing generally refers to (1) changing specific (or local) elements of documents and (2) managing administrative details necessary for document publication.

Types of Revising and Editing

Revising focuses on global aspects of the document such as content, organization, argument, and design.
Substantive editing also focuses on global aspects of the document.
Design review focuses on the overall design of the document.
Copy editing focuses on global aspects such as logic and format and local aspects such as language conventions and consistency.
Proofreading in electronic publishing usually involves eliminating typographical errors in the electronic version without comparison to the original.
Administrative editing focuses on the aspects of compliance with the organization's policies and management of a range of tasks related to electronic or print publication.

Levels of Editing

Substantive edit-reviews the document globally for accuracy, logic, completeness, coherence, consistency, organization, and tone.
Format edit- establishes consistency in "macro" physical elements such as headings, fonts, page design, use of visuals.
Integrity edit- matches text references to corresponding figures, tables, references, footnotes, and appendixes.
Mechanical style- establishes consistency in "micro" physical elements.
Screening edit-corrects language and numerical errors.
Language edit- changes grammar, punctuation, usage, and sentence structure to meet conventions, such as symbols, citations, and numerical copy.
Policy edit- ensures that institutional policies are enforced.
Clarification edit- provides clear instruction to the compositor and graphic artist.
Coordination edit- deals with the administrative aspects in publishing technical documents.

Benefits and Limitations of using software to proofread texts.

Software CAN identify: misspelled words, passive voice, complex sentences, wrong part of speech, redundancy, potentially difficult wording(based on word and sentence lengths only), slang/colloquialisms, potentially sexist language, and negative wording.

Software CANNOT identify: correctly spelled words used incorrectly, inconsistent writing styles, confusing sentence structures, what the audience needs to know, every grammar/mechanical problem, poorly organized documents, missing or faulty information, potentially offensive ideas, and how a document will be used.

To fully proofread a documents you need to check for accuracy and consistency in five broad areas:

Mechanical conventions(punctuation, capitalization, spelling)
Grammatical conventions (grammar, usage)
Design conventions (typography, visual displays, headings)
Disciplinary conventions (abbreviations, citations)
Typographical conventions (symbols, numbers)

Official proofreading marks are on page 285 if anyone needs to brush up on those.

2007-05-01T10:03:00.001-07:00

Chapter 19
Preparing Proposals
Erin Kane and Matthew Smith

Preparing and organizing proposals differ in important ways from preparing and organizing reports. Reports are about information the writer already knows and things that have already happened; they present an answer. Proposals are things that the writer wants to happen and offer ways to do those things; they suggest approaches to discover an answer.

Information that is expected in a proposal:

Situation: Provide a definition of the problem or opportunity, including information that situates it in the organization.

Plan: Presents a plan for resolving the problem or addressing the opportunity.

Benefits: Explain the benefits that will result from adopting the plan.

Approach: Outline methods for implementing the plan, include management plans, schedule, and costs.

Evaluation: Identify an evaluation strategy for determining whether the proposed plan works.

Qualifications: Establish your qualifications for submitting the proposal and implementing the plan.

Using Persuasion in Proposals
To write effective proposals, you need to understand persuasive techniques. Essentially you are establishing agreement about the situation, proposing a plan to address them, and identifying benefits that will accrue if your plan is adopted. The process of preparing a proposal is like a debate, with you imagining, anticipating, and responding to potential arguments that the reader may raise. Persuasion doesn’t mean manipulation. It is applying credible, logical arguments to convince readers that the writers view is appropriate. If people are presented positive attitudes towards the subject they are more likely to accept the proposal.

Preparing proposals
Some of the main reasons proposals are rejected are:
-Lack of new or original ideas
-Diffuse, superficial, or unfocused research plan
-Lack of knowledge of published relevant work
-Lack of experience in the essential methodology
-Uncertainty concerning the future direction
-Questionable reasoning in the experimental approach
-Absence of an acceptable scientific rationale
-Unrealistically large amount of work
-Insufficient experimental detail
-Uncritical approach

Referring to these reasons and making sure none apply to your proposals may increase the chances that your document will be approved.

Preparing a proposal is easier if you are familiar with the preparation process. Like any writing task, preparing a proposal involves managing, planning, drafting, evaluating, and revising.

Planning:
Preparing proposals with go more smoothly if you plan the project. The following should help:

-Be aware of deadlines. If possible, submit proposal early

-Establish an achievable schedule for completing the proposal

-Know the review and evaluation procedure that will be used to assess the document

-Analyze the background knowledge and experience of the intended readers/decision makers.

Drafting:

-Establish a clear link between the problem or opportunity you have identified and substantiated and the plan that you are proposing to solve.

-Provide information about implementation of your plan: Who? When? How? Where? How much?

-Anticipate and address potential objections

-support your generalizations with specific details and examples. Cite your sources. Use visuals and tables to support or make points when possible.

-Use a you-attitude when possible and appropriate

Evaluating:
Once the draft is done, you need to evaluate it, trying to view it the same way as the intended audience.

-Determine if the draft meets of exceeds the criteria for evaluation

-Examine the accuracy of technical content.

-Study the feasibility of the plan
Review acceptability of cost.

-Solicit reviews of the draft from colleagues

Revising:
Your own careful evaluation of the draft as well as feedback from other reviewers will give you ideas for revising the proposal. Check the following:

-Add, modify, or delete information to meet proposal criteria

-Make sure that the argument is coherent

-Is the proposal visually appealing and consistent?

Nelson and Kithinji

2007-04-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

Chapter 4: Addressing Audiences

In this chapter Burnett discusses the importance of identifying your purpose, categorizing types of audiences, and analyzing factors that influence them.

Identifying Purposes
The two broad purposes of those professionals who prepare technical documents, presentations and visuals are;

1. To accurately convey verifiable information

What information do I want my audience to learn?

Why do I want them to learn this information?

What decisions does the audience need to make?

What information does the audience need in order to make a decision?

What background information do I need to provide?

What questions do I want to answer?

2. To persuade audiences to attend to this information.

What ideas or actions of the audience do I want to influence?

What information and approaches will persuade the audience?

What constraints will affect the persuasiveness of my argument?

What objections might the audience have? What logical argument would enable me to overcome those objections?

People may have both primary and secondary purposes for reading. Chapter 3 discussed three typical reasons including reading to assess, to learn, to learn to do.

Identifying Audiences
Every technical document has an intended audience, a specific individual or category of users, with identifiable needs. Audiences of technical documents often want information about specific rather than general issues. This information might be read by different audiences in several different ways. So you are often expected to create material that meets the needs of several categories of audiences. This can be done by directing different audiences to particular sections of the document.

Audience roles can be divided into four categories based on several factors;

Initial Audience – Person to whom you submit the document. This person directs the document to the appropriate primary audience.
Primary audience – Person whom the document is intended. This person uses the information and makes decisions.
Secondary audience – Person who receive and read the document, have an interested and are affected by the information or decisions based on the document.
External Audience – Person outside the immediate organization but affected by the information or decisions based on the document.

ANALYZING AUDIENCES
One of the most frequently used strategies for analyzing audience involves considering these characteristics;

1. Context in which a document is interpreted and used.
Purpose and motivation of the audiences
Prior knowledge of the audience (education and profession).
Reading level of the audiences.
Organizational role of the audiences.

Context
To ease the audience’s task, technical communicators use organizational or graphic devices. The following strategies are of importance:

Initial abstracts or summaries
Headings and subheadings
Use of descending order
Definition of terms
Transitions showing how different section of document relate to each other
Visuals to make information easily accessible
Page layout that is not crowded or cluttered

Purpose and Motivation
It is easy to analyze an audience’s purpose and motivation if you know the intended audience. To increase audience receptivity and decrease resistance, it is important to know the audience’s purpose and motivation.

Receptive audiences: Present the recommendations initially and then support them in subsequent sections.
Resistance audiences: Present problem, discuss alternatives then lead to the most appropriate and feasible solution.

Prior Knowledge
By You can determine the appropriate vocabulary and content by knowing your audiences prior knowledge. Allow with this knowledge comes the level, type and duration of that education.

Vocational-Technical Training: focuses on providing a practical or applied knowledge.
Professional or Acedemic Training: focuses on providing a theoretical understanding as well as a practical experience.

If you do not truly know how much prior knowledge your audience has, you can generalize about it based on what a person would need to know for a specific position.

Reading Level
This refers to the difficulty of material that audiences are able to comprehend. If an audience does not understand what you are saying, the speech is pointless. This area is not based on intelligence, as there are highly intelligent people that have a low reading level or may better at reading material in one specialized area but not in another.

Readability Formulas can be used to text a documents readability, but they are limited to only a few formulas and are therefore never 100% accurate. They work on the premise that shorter words and sentences are easier to read. This is not always true. It can also be effected by content, context, purpose, audience, organization, visuals, design, usability, and language conventions.

Limited Literacy is another problem of reading level. This means one of two things:

That someone is skillful at reading in some circumstances, but not in other; or
Someone just doesn't get much information from any written documents

When limited literacy problems arise, many times the worker just ignores the document all together. Sometimes, it is only a part of the document that gives the reader troubles, such as tables, headings, or specific paragraphs.

Organizational Role
Organizations are generally split into two groups:

Hierarchical - Bosses at top, managers in the middle, workers at the bottom. Assumes people work best when directed.
Non-Hierarchical - Everyone contributes evenly. Assumes people work best when they participate in decision making

ADJUSTING TO THE AUDIENCE
There are three way to adjust to the audience: differences in expertise, differences in roles and stances, and by construct unique sequences of information. Two of these will be described in greater detail.

Differences in Expertise
When adjusting material for different audiences with various levels of technical knowledge, you may need to change the complexity of topic. A document written for a medical professional may not be suited for a high school or college student.

Differences in Roles and Stances
When preparing something for an audience, the role or stance of the receiver should be taken into account. A document written to a co-worker will be written differently then a document written to a manager. To make this as effective as possible, be sure to consider the following:

Identify and write for the primary audiences.
Identify and consider the secondary audiences.
Use design elements to make information accessible in both paper and electronic messages.

Chapter 11

2007-04-23T20:40:00.000-07:00

Designing Information - Loosbrock & Kolquist

Design of information can be print and/or electronic documents for both presentations and Web sites. No matter which form of design you use, there are many guidelines to follow. In this chapter Burnett discusses those different principles used in PowerPoint presentations, technical and scientific posters, and Web sites.

Information Design is the way in which you organize and present information to increase and audience's comprehension.
Document Design is a part of information design.
- There are five categories of elements which are important in designing print documents as well as Web pages.

Textual elements - letters, numbers, and symbols
Spatial elements - spaces between elements
Graphic elements - punctuation marks, geometric forms, and visual images
Color and textural elements - the hue, brightness/value/luminescence
Dynamic elements - motion that is implied in a print document

In this chapter, Burnett discusses how reading electronic documents is about 25% slower than reading from paper. Due to this, many people do not like to read long chunks of text on the computer. A way to make text easier and more appealing to read on the computer is by using design principles in your document with chunking and labeling.

Chunking information involves logical topical relationships and the audience need for the information.
One of the most efficient ways to inform your audience about the way you've chunked information is in a table of contents. One way to do that on a Web page is to make bulleted lists and make each bullet into a separate link.

Using White Space to Chunk Information
White space is the part of any page or screen that is blank, without print or visuals.
White space is used for margins, between lines within a paragraph, between paragraphs and sections of a document, and around visuals.

Headings to Label Chunked Information
Headings and subheadings label the information and identify the importance of the information. They establish the subject of a section and give readers a chance to take a break while trying to read the documents.

There are two practices that will help you to produce a more effective document

Selection of appropriate grids
- The easiest way to design a page or document is to see the page/screen as a grid. A grid is columns and rows that help you organize the text and visual chunks. There are one-column, two-column, and three-column grids.
Placement of visuals near related text
- Placing visuals near the related text is going to allow the reader to not have to constantly turn back and forth between pages that they are reading and the visuals.

Potential problems that distract readers

Chartjunk - unnecessary graphics that do not help people understand the information.
Tombstoning - aligning heading so that readers mistakenly chunk the text when they look at the page.
Heading placement - leaving too few lines after a heading or subheading at the top or bottom of a column or page.
Widows and orphans - Widows are leftover words hanging awkwardly as the last line of a paragraph. Orphans are when a column or page break occurs in a paragraph after the first line of the paragraph.

Typefaces (font)

Typeface affects the readers' attitudes and reactions to a document, as well as their ability to access, comprehend, and use information quickly and easily. You can choose different fonts depending on what kind of document or doing or what information you are giving to your readers.
There are four basic characteristics about typefaces:

Serif or sans serif - Serifs are tiny fine lines usually at the top or bottom of letters. Sans serif typefaces are simpler, the letters don't have as many distinguishing features so they have a neat and appealing appearance.
Typeface variations - Readers will not want to read your document if the font is difficult to read.
Type size - You do not want to use a type that is too small so that the readers cannot read it and you also do not want to use a font that is too large because it will make it seem elementary.
Style choices - Different styles include capitalization, small caps, boldface, and italics. Using all caps should be limited to headings only. Boldface gives a visual emphasis on certain words or phrases.

Visual devices

These devices include numbered and bulleted lists, underlining, boxes, shading, and colors. If you overuse these, their impact will not be as strong. Too many will make a page or document look cluttered.
Numbered lists are used mainly used to show sequence, priority, or total number of items.
Bulleted lists are used when all of the items in the list are equivalent.

Color is one of the strongest and most appealing devices. Color-coded documents or pages are more interesting to look at and provide more clarity.

2007-04-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

Designing Electronic Communication
Chapter 13
Erin Kane and Matt Smith

Electronic tools and processes that allow people to share information will affect many aspects of your professional success. The goal of electronic communication is for users to accomplish tasks, sometimes something as simple as accessing information on static web pages

Interactive and nonlinear-electronic communication environments are interactive and nonlinear, established by multiple possibilities for interactions among users, computers, software, interface components, and developers.

Virtual and open- Electronic communication environments are virtual and open spaces. Virtual spaces do not have material, face-to-face reality. “open” means two things, 1) the virtual spaces allow users to move beyond boundaries at will. 2) standards and conventions are fluid, leading to varied designs and functionality, and often uneven experiences for users.

Complex and dynamic- Electronic communication environments are complex and dynamic development efforts that integrate divers components. Complex development efforts include managing both static and dynamic content, hundreds of individual text and graphic files, changes rapidly, designers must plan for differences in users’ available technology.

Types of Electronic Communication

The capabilities of the Web have changed dramatically. People are now using hand held devices such as PDA’s and cell phones where they can store and send information. These examples of electronic communication results from the convergence of hardware and software, engineering and programming, connectivity and content. The World Wide Web is the largest part of the internet. It is a huge network comprised of other networks and millions of individual computers. Internet participants use a protocol called TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/internet protocol) that allows computers to locate and communicate with each other. To use the internet people must have access to one of the networks on the internet. This is generally accomplished by establishing a connection from the client computer and a modem to an internet service provider that is connected to the internet.

Principles and Practices of Effective Design

Information architecture: The framework that structures content. The structure should meet the goals and expectations of the users. They can be sequential (web pages that link to the next in a linear style). They can be hierarchical (outline format). Or they can be interlinked (less structured, liberal linked).

Page/screen design: The look and feel of the information in the space on the screen. Another mechanism to help users understand information organization and content

Content: Organized and written differently for electronic communication than for traditional print documents. The style of content should match users’ ways of finding and reading information using electronic devices.

Information Architecture
Organizing information
Labeling information
Navigating information
Layout

Writing for Electronic Communication
Be concise: Low-resolution computer screens make reading from a monitor more difficult than reading on paper.

Keep chunks of text short: Readers of electronic documents need minimal text. Write chunks between 150-200 words, then edit so you get
each chucks to about 60 words.

Use headings and bulleted lists

Use active voice: Active voice identifies the doer of the action, so the action is clearer and readers are more engaged

Consider international readers: The whole world may read your message; therefore, avoid culture-specific idioms and metaphors

People involved in professional communication must be aware of accessible design concepts as they relate to information development and management. Developers need to follow these useful practices:

Understand the opportunities and limitations of the virtual enviroment and its potential users

Know something about the assistive hardware and software available and be aware of how the design of electronic information could impact the technology your audience may be using.

Use various methods for providing information so that you accommodate the greates number of visitors.

Chapter 12 Using Visual Forms

2007-04-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

Chapter 12 - Using visual Forms

By: Buche and Peters

Reading this chapter will help you understand visuals not only to attract attention and create appeal but also benefit congenitive processing and learning.
Adapt visuals by varying the complexity of content, presentating, color, and size to different audiences and different situations.
Make effective decisions about textual references and labeling and placement of visuals.

Technical visuals are not a recent addition to technical communication. In technical communication, viuslas work by themselves and in combination with text to create stories for the auidnce. While visuals should make sense by themselves, they should also illustrate, explain, demonstrate, verify, or support the eext. In deciding about appropriate visual/verbal combinations, you can choose from several choices. Some concepts or processes are so complex that one visual is insufficeient.

Adapting to Visuals to Audiences

Visuals can be adapted to differeent audiences by the complexity of content, presentating, and sometimes color and size. Audience members who are not experts need more frequent and simpler visuals than experts. Since nonexpers also may not understand visual conventions that expers readily recognize they mey need additional explaiations beyond the standard level of titles, legends, and captions. For example, whereas an expert would know that the bars in a histogram represent ranges of data, nonexperts may need to have that explained.

Conventions in Referencing and placing Visuals

Virtually all visuals have widely accepted conventions that accompany their use. Although you may sometimes choose to ignore a specific convention for good cause in a particular situation, generally you should follow these guidelines, shich will help you reference, label, and place visuals in ways that will be most useful to readers.

*Visuals of different types - tables, graphs, diagrams, charts, drawings, maps and photographs - all fulfill one or more functions in technical documents. Seven major functions of vusuals are the focus of the section.

Providing Immediate Visual Recognition

Some things need rapid visual recognition; they range from the convenient restrooms to the critical radiation. Typically, visual recognition can be provided by symbols that are used by most countires.

A solid blue circle with a white symbol signals a saftey precaution
A yelllow tirangle with a black band and black graphic warns about whatever is displayed in the triangle.
A red circle with a slash and black graphic prohibits whatever is under black slash.

2. Organizeing Numeric or Textual Data

Numeric and texuual information identifying the characteristics of ideas, objects, or process can be displayed in tables. The rows and columns of a table provide a system for classifying data and showing relationships that might be confusing is presented only in sentences and paragraphs.

3. Showing Relationships

Visuals can be used to depict relationships in very different ways. First they can show spatial relationships, such as proportion, proximity, size. Secong they can show quantitive relationships between sets of data. Spatial relationships are often depicted in various kinds of maps, although drawing and photographs are also frequently used. Typically, a large scale map, photo, or drawing is presented, with a small area circumscribed; that enclosed area is then enlarged so that it can be whown in greater detail.

4. Defineing Concepts, Objects, and Processes

Visuals can be excedddingly vaulable as definitions. The drawings of types of pictures are more efficient and useful than textual descriptions. Visuals can illustrate details that are difficult to describe. Explaining pictures in words would not be nearly as effective than as in pictures.

5. Presenting Action or Process

Visuals are particularly appropriate for action views and processes. While visuals vary widely accorcding to the process being presented, actions are particularly easy to depict in a sequence, and process are easy to depict in various kins of charts. Charts can represent the conmpnents, steps or chronology of an object, mechanism, organism, or organization. The most common charts are block charts, organizationsl charts, and flowcharts.

6. Illustrateing Appearance, Structure, and Function

Physical characteristics are often easier to present visually than verbally. Diagrams are drawings are especially effective ways to show the parts of objects, mechanisms, or organisms and the relationships among those parts. Only the parts readers need to know about are represented. Diagrams illustrate the complex physical components and structures of objects, mechanisms, or organisms.

7. Identifying Facilities or locations

Identifying facilities and locations traditionally has meant maps and photographs. Now, however, map also refers to a navigational tool used on the web, and workplace photographs are made as often with digital cameras as with traditional film cameras. Maps show features of a particular area, such as land elevation, rock formations, vegetation, animal habitats, crop production, population density, or traffic patters.

Chapter 9 Ensuring Usability: Taylor

2007-04-11T19:10:00.003-07:00

Chapter 9 Ensuring Usability

Characterizing Usability

The goal of usability is to place user concerns, rather than text features, at the center of the design and development processes. Usability responds to the needs, goals, skills, and contexts of people who are completing a process or using a product.

Definition of Usability
In technical communication, usability is the degree to which texts, regardless of their materiality or mode, effectively and easily enable people to accomplish their goals.

Critical Principals
Usability is guided by five critical principals that can be applied to many types of print and electronic texts, oral presentations, and visual.

Learnability
How easily can people learn to use the text and the product?

Efficiency
How productive are people using the text and the product?

Memorability
How well do people remember how to use the text and the product from one use to the next?

Error Recovery
How many errors do people make using the text and the product?
How serious are the errors and how Quickly can users correct them?

Satisfaction
How satisfied are people with the performance of the text and the product? Do they enjoy using them?

Characterizing Usability Testing
Definition of Usability Testing
Usability testing is a structured process that gathers information about specific use from people similar to the intended users.

Purposes
Usability testing has both immediate and long term purposes. the immediate purposes is to identify problems prior to the release of a text so the problems can be fixed. a long term purpose is to maintain a historical record of test results and benchmarks that can be referenced during development.

Quality Standards
Usability testing is one method of ensuring high-quality texts. When a text is not usable, various kinds of minor, moderate, or severe problems result. Minor problems probably irritate users, but they do not actually delay the completion of the task, but users usually can develop workarounds.

Limitations
Testing results are only as good as the tests; they can be accurate but not necessarily representative. When you're designing a test, you need to consider these limitations:
Test participants
Test situation
Test techniques
Testing procedures

Benefits

Everyone involved in the design and development of technical communication- writers, designers, editors, prepares technicians, print/production managers agrees that test taking takes time. The benefits, though are undeniable, because a well-planned usability testing program can provide invaluable information for revising and editing communication.

Types of Usability Testing
Organizations must make testing part of their process development and production schedules, or it simply will not get done. As the value of testing becomes more widely recognized, more organizations are employing some kind of testing. In the long run, testing during development and revision is much more cost effective than dealing with the results of poor communication. There are three broad categories of testing text-based, expert-based, and user based testing - are distinguished by the ways the information is collected and by the nature of the feedback.

Text-Based Testing
People doing text-based testing examine a range of local-level language, visual, and design features and then draw conclusions about changes that are necessary to improve the text's accessibility and comprehensibility. Several simple text-based tests for consistency can be performed at any time in the developmental process on selected pages or individual documents using word- processing software such as Microsoft Word.

Expert-Based Testing
Expert-based testing includes several kinds of reviews: technical reviews by subject-matter experts, substantive editorial reviews and design reviews. Expert-based testing is particularly useful for assessing technical accuracy and also for selecting supporting evidence and for identifying the level of detail for the intended audience.

Creating a usability testing plan
Before starting the testing process, define the broad goals and scope of your testing plan and determine what types of usability test will best meet your goals, when they should be conducted, and how the results will be reported and used.

User Analysis
Many users have significantly different skills, attitudes, expectations, and experiences than the writers and designers. What do you need to know about your users, and how do you find out?

Task Analysis
Once you have completed a preliminary user analysis, select representative users who fit the profile of your target audiences and begin assessing the task in which they are involved.

Locate Representative Test Participants
Locate and schedule participants for your test. If you have completed user and task analyses, your user profile should identify test participants who are representative of the intended users.

Develope strategies and pilot test for inquiry
Develop a list of questions, scenarios, and key points that you want to explore during testing.

Identify and Prepare a test location and materials
Find an appropriate place to conduct test that is free from serious distractions or interruptions and keep the setting of the evaluation informal and comfortable. Make sure the space you choose is large enough to accommodate both test participants and test administrators without making anyone uncomfortable

Explain the Test Procedures to Participants
You should consider the value of writing an introductory script summarizing the test purposes and procedures that can be explained by a test administrator or read individually by the participants.

Conduct the test
While the duration of the user-based test depends on the complexity of the communication you're testing, individual tests generaaly range from about 20 to 90 minutes.

Loosbrock & Kolquist

2007-04-10T22:02:00.000-07:00

Chapter 17 - Engaging in Oral Communication

In this chapter, Burnett discusses different types, purposes, and organizational ideas for oral presentations. According to the text,
a survey taken of 700 managers rated the ability to communicate ideas and plans effectively in front of an audience as the most important career skill. You can improve your oral presentation skills by understanding and knowing the different types as well as knowing how to adapt to your audience.

Types of Presentations

Presentations can be given in many different situations consisting of meetings, seminars, classes, and professional conferences.

- Informal Presentations - Informal simply means that the people know you. There can be two different audiences for an informal presentation. One would be an audience that is already familiar with your work, allowing you to be quite informal. The other is an audience that wants to learn new information on your topic. Just because this presentation is "informal" does not mean that it doesn't require an ample amount of preparation and organization.
- Formal Presentations - The audience for a formal presentation may not be familiar with you or your work so it will take more time and effort to prepare. You need to provide more background information and adjust the material to your audience's needs.
- Class Presentations - These presentations are helpful for getting practice to strengthen oral presentation skills. They also can provide constructive criticism and tell you which areas are your strongest.

Audiences

There are four possible audiences for an oral presentation:

Professional peers
Non-expert professionals
International audiences
General audiences

You may need to make adjustments for these different audiences such as content, vocabulary, and amount of detail.

Engaging the Listeners

Several options exist to assist in informing, entertaining, and motivating those listening to your presentation.

1. Create and audience-centered atmosphere
2. Encourage active involvement
3. Make what you say easy to listen to (and remember)
4. Vary the pacing and structure of your presentation

Organizing your information

There are a lot of different ways you can organize your information. For starters, you will more than likely need to use an outline or note cards.

Another aspect of organization for a presentation is the way in which your material is organized for the audience. This can be done with visuals. There are many different things to consider when using visuals including size and color.
A powerful visual tool for an oral presentation is to use PowerPoint.
Other common visual tools for presentations are handouts and/or poster displays.

Presenting Yourself

It is important to have the appropriate appearance for your presentation depending on the setting in which you are presenting. If you present yourself inaccurately, it could be distracting to your audience.
Some of the most distracting behaviors come from being nervous. These distractions cease when the speaker relaxes in front of the audience.

Vocal Characteristics

Important aspects of your vocal characteristics during an oral presentation are:

Volume - the speaker's voice needs to be a sufficient volume to project through the entire room.
Articulation - articulating each word makes everything clearer and easier to understand.
Pronunciation - Pronounce every part of each word and avoid slurring letters or syllables.
Rate - make sure not too speak too rapidly. Slower delivery allows the audience to collect their thoughts.
Pitch - pitch (your voices highness or lowness), helps you from sounding monotone which can be very boring.

After your presentation is finished it is important to be ready to answer any questions that your audience may have.

Chapter XVIII Preparing Corrospondence

2007-04-05T12:04:00.000-07:00

Chapter XVIII Preparing Correspondence

In this chapter Dr Burnett discusses correspondence. This is a very important part of technical communication because it leaves a documented record. When used properly and professionally it is a powerful piece of evidence to show proof of professionalism. When used incorrectly it is a powerful piece of evidence that can destroy you and your career. This chapter lays out the rights and wrongs of correspondence.

Characterizing correspondence
Correspondence makes the workplace go, whether in the form of e-mail, memos, or letters accurate and unambiguous communication is the oil in the working machine. For every interaction there is documentation, simple interactions can be documented with e-mail while more complex interactions would be written. Several ways that correspondence can be distinguished from other genres of technical communications are: audience, composing and revising, datedness, and conventions.

Audience
Who is the correspondence to? Keeping things as simple as possible means that letters are for external correspondence while memos and e-mails are internal.

Composing and Revising
Make sure you always read and reread your own correspondence before you send it. Hurriedly sending off a message before you reconsider content and clarity can lead to major problems. Remember, email is not confidential or private.

Datedness
Due to the nature of e-mail messages, memos, and letters responding to a current situation, correspondence of this type needs to be updated more often than other technical communication.

Conventions
Neatness, grammar and punctuation always count. Projecting an image that lacks accuracy or attention to detail could lead to negative perceptions from your audience or readers.
Burnett goes on to explain three similarities of correspondence to other genres of technical communication, ownership, purposefulness, and factors critical for all technical documents.

Delivering correspondence
With the advance of overnight delivery, “Snail mail” as the U.S. Postal Service is affectionately called is rapidly becoming a carrier of yesterday. Now, faxes are common, and email is the most common type of asynchronous correspondence; also electronic mailing lists and bulletin boards are used a lot. As for synchronous correspondence, instant messaging is becoming very popular in workplaces, sometimes replacing phone calls.

"Netiquette" (network + etiquette) guidelines are important for all electronic correspondence:

Headings: Be sure you are sending an email to the appropriate person(s). Include a description word or two in the subject line.
Content: Cover one topic only per message, and keep it brief. Don't respond immediately to an upsetting message. A good rule is this: if it would be rude to say over the phone, it would be rude to send it in an email.
Audiences: Write like the world will be seeing your message; it could be accidentally forwarded to someone who wasn't meant to see it. Ask for acknowledgement of receipt for an important message.
Conventions: In the workplace, use appropriate salutations, spell with care, don't use emoticons or abbreviations, and don't type in all caps.
Remember, email is NOT always private!! Once the SEND button is pressed the document is public record.
Burnett doesn’t say anything about this but, based on 30 plus years of working in the real world, never be the lowest ranking individual with a secret. What this means is that if you know something of importance and you don’t tell somebody, when the investigation reveals that the incident could have been prevented if you had shared your knowledge you will be held accountable. Whenever you correspond with someone keep all necessary personnel informed by using cc or bcc. When using paper use cc or via so others see the correspondence.

Composing E-mail Messages, Memos, and Letters
Burnett uses this section to lay out eight specific guidelines for effective correspondence. She also recommends considering the factors attitude and tone, organization of information and format when composing email, memos or letters.

Attitude and Tone
Creating a professional image in your correspondence is important because some people will know you only through online correspondence. To do this:

Use simple, direct language
Substitute "you" for "I" and "we" whenever possible
Don't use exclusionary language
A) avoid words biased in terms of gender, race ethnicity, marital status, sexual orientation, and religion
B) address people as individuals, not groups

Organization of Information
The content of correspondence should be organized so things can be read easily and quickly. This can be accomplished by fulfilling these three functions:

Disseminating Information: This can be done through a variety of documents and forms the basis for organizing information for readers within your organization, other organizations, and the general public. In these, identify the five W's and H used in journalism. Internal information can be dispensed various ways and can be about many different subjects
Making requests or inquiries: The people making these usually seek information, but may ask for product samples or action. Requests or inquiries usually contain six elements including the reason, the request, the benefit of what is being requested, assurance of confidentiality, if warranted, identifying time deadline, and thanking the recipient.
Some request can be answered with a form letter. Others may be answered by sending out prepared info. Answering negatively in an original response is listed in Burnett’s text. When responding to requests or inquiries that require a positive original response use these steps:
* acknowledge the request or inquiry
* say "yes"
* include some info or a source for the info
* offer helpful suggestions (when appropriate)
* build goodwill
* conclude in a friendly manner

Format
There are so many variations that exist in formats that they all can’t possibly be listed in the text. The responsibility is on the sender to make sure that it is done correctly. Burnett provides information to find templates and other useful correspondence tools.

Domino Effect of Correspondence
In this section Burnett provides a whole scenario for the reader to see how the domino effect works in a corporate situation. I think that this is a very good example because it demonstrates the importance of keeping everyone informed of the “big picture”.

Chapter 15 Creating Technical Descriptions Taylor

2007-04-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

Burnett Chapter 15 Creating Technical Descriptions

Defining a Technical Description is necessary to address the potential questions an audience may have about an object, substance, mechanism, organism, system, or location. In order to address the potential questions of an audience one needs to ask the following questions:
1. What is it? How is it defined? By whom?
2. What is its purpose? What is its importance or impcat?
3. What are the characteristics of the whole?
What does it look like?
What are its characteristics?
4. What are its parts? What is "normal" or "typical"? What are within acceptable tolerances or specifications?
What is the appearance of each part?
What are the distinctive characteristics of each part?
5. How do the parts fit together? How do they work together? What defines effective function?
Which of these questions are answered depends on the depth of detail required by the description. Complex descriptions clearly answer more questions.

One needs to examine their document in the following ways to determine whether or not to include technical descriptions:
1. Will a description help accomplish your purpose of providing information, persuading readers or listeners, or helping them complete a task?
2. Will a description help members of the audience accomplish their purpose of gathering information, making a decision, or completing an action or activity?
3. Will a description help prevent problems?

Areas commonly using technical descriptions:
Most technical manuals include a technical description of the mechanism or system that the manual deals with. The description usually appears in one of the manual's early sections, often providing a general overview followed by more detailed information.
Technical descriptions in marketing materials are usually both informative and persuasive. The information presents an overview, identifying major components and characteristics.

When a description helps the audience understand and approve a proposal.

Marketing and Promotional pieces are usually both informative and persuasive. The information presents an overview, identifying major components and characteristics.

Public Information and Education use a substantial amount of description because people need to know what something is before they make decisions about its value.
Preparing a technical descripton you need to identify the audience and task, determine the components, choose prercise diction, design effective visuals, and select an appropriate format.
Audience task. ask the audience these questions.
1. why do users want or need the information? what is their task? In what ways will the information be important?
2. do they need information in order to understand a more detailed discussion that follows? do they need to make a decision?
3. are the users interested in a general overview or a detailed description?
Components
Structural parts comprise the physical aspects of the device, without regard to purpose. For example, a simple house key is made of a single piece of metal.
Functional parts perform clearly defined task in the operation of the device. although the key has a single structural part, it has multiple functional parts.
figurative language
Is a way to ensure precision is to consider whether figurative language such as metaphors, similes, and analogies would give readers a clear description.
Visuals
Precise visuals are as important in effective technical description as is precise diction. Visuals enable the audience to form a mental image of the subject being described.

Organization
When preparing a technical description you have to make decisions about the sequence of information. Writers conventionally organize technical descriptions in spatial order to give the audience a clear view of apperance and structure.

Planning a Technical Description
1. Define the object (or substance, mechanism, organism, system or location) in the introduction.
2. Present a part-by-part description arranged in order of the parts assembly, location, or importance.
3. Conclude the description.

Chapter 14 - Creating Definitions

2007-03-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

Winkels and Sting

The subject of chapter 14 has to do with definitions in technical writing. Whether preparing a document, report, essay or any other form of technical communication, as writers, we will always be faced with the challenge of using different words in the correct context.
Rapidly growing technology has made information more readily available than ever before. This vast database of knowledge and information has resulted in people becoming more familiar with terms that previously would only have been recognizable in a particular field. This phenomenon has created a problem for writers in the sense that we must be more cautious in using certain terms. In chapter 14 ”Creating Definitions”, Burnett has laid out a resolution for this problem.

MULTIPLE MEANINGS

Words have multiple meanings. It is necessary to identify the audience and use the word correctly. Burnett uses the example of “insufficient crop”. This term could be translated differently between a farmer and a graphic artist.

COMPLEXITY OF MEANING

Burnett uses the definition for the word volt as an example. One definition of volt is simple only explains the origin of the word, yet another example of the word gives precise scientific information that is complex and full of detail. It is the writers responsibility to choose the definition that is appropriate for his intended audience and conveys the message he is trying to deliver.

TECHNICAL JARGON

Technical jargon should normally be avoided in technical writing. It is too up in the air and fails to give precise definition. Only when the intended audience is positively known to be able to understand jargon should it be used.

SYMBOLS

Symbols, such as E=mc^2, is more than likely understood by most physics students and most of the general population, but the notion of common knowledge should not be taken for granted. One method of defining the symbol is to break it down further, E(energy) = m(mass) multiplied by c(the speed of light) squared. The definition could even be taken a step further and explained in more of a sentence structure.

CONSTRUCTION OF DEFFINITIONS

The first step in construction a definition is to answer certain question that deal with physical characteristics, comparisons, whole parts, function, and operation. After this, the next step would be determining what level of technicality you intend to take the definition to. These levels can be broken down into four categories: formal, informal, operational, and expanded definition.

Formal definitions: formal definitions have a standard format. Most people are use to this format because it is the format we see in dictionaries. The format is Species (term being defined) equals, Genus (class or category to which the term belongs, plus, Differentia (distinguishing characteristics).
Informal definitions: tend to be the type we insert into communication without realizing we are defining a term. Six types of informal definitions include
1. synonym
2. antonym
3. negative
4. stipulation
5. analogy
6. illustration
Operation definitions: are relative from one field to another. For example, operational definitions for experimental researchers can specify activities researchers use to measure a variable. Or, for an engineer, they can be functions or workings of an object or process. An operation definition summarizes or outlines the primary steps involved in the process.
Expanded definitions: explain and clarify information. They also maintain audience interest and can adapt a document, oral presentation, or visual for a wider audience. Expanded definitions contain the etymology (linguistic origin), history, and examples.

PLACEMENT OF DEFINITIONS

Five basic choices for placing and incorporating definitions are:
1. Glossaries
2. Information notes and sidebars
3. Incorporated information
4. Appendixes
5. Online help

Glossaries: are mini-dictionaries located at the beginning or end of a technical document. Glossaries contain vocabulary that will be found in the document and may assume a certain level of knowledge of the reader.
Information notes and sidebars: may simply define a word or give examples of an idea. Sidebars are often more elaborated than endnotes or footnotes.
Appendixes: typically take into account a widely diversified audience and provide both operational and expanded definitions of critical concepts.
Online help: systems are designed to provided users with immediate information in several different formats. Online help is provides users with critical information online via help systems rather than published manuals.

Nelson and Kithinji

2007-03-08T10:15:00.000-08:00

Chapter 20 - Preparing Reports

This chapter discusses the concept of preparing reports. Just as Burnett states, reports account for substantial amount of writing in business, industry, government and non profits. Why would you write reports? A well written report is the only way you can communicate your knowledge and ideas to others. In every profession there is a substantial amount of report writing involved. Burnett states that to be a more successful professional you need to differentiate between informal and formal reports, examine reports’ purposes and characteristics, learn ways to plan and design them, and understand specific types and formats of informal and formal reports.

PLANNING REPORTS

The following are a series of questions you need to ask yourself to determine the purpose, assess the level of formality, identify the audiences and determine the most appropriate and effective organization;

1. Purpose – What’s the overall purpose of your report and your goal as a writer?

2. Formality – what's the appropriate tone and approach?

3. Audience – Who is your audience? What do they know and what they want to know? And what will they do with the information in your report?

4. Organization - How should you organize the report and design the information?

5. Genre - which information should you present in writing, which in visuals and which orally?

TYPES OF REPORTS

This section of the chapter presents the discussion of the function and organization of the most frequently used reports:

1. Research reports and articles

2. Task reports (recommendation, justification, inspection, information investigation)

3. Periodic activity reports (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly)

4. Progress (interim, status) reports

5. Trip and conference reports

6. Meeting minutes.

Research Reports and Articles

Research is a systematic investigation to establish verifiable information. This means discovering new knowledge rather than applying existing knowledge. Regardless the discipline, research has several characteristics:

1. Accessible – should be open to scrutiny by peers and available to public.
2. Transparent - should be clear in structure, process and outcomes.
3. Transferable – Should be useful beyond the specific research project, applicable in principles (if not specifics) to other researchers and research contexts.

Task Reports

Professionals in the technical field deal with many tasks that result in reports. Most common are recommendation, justification, inspection, information investigation. A recommendation report or justification report presents or defends specific suggestions or solutions for a particular situation. An inspection or examination report focuses on recording observable details, sometimes followed with recommendations. An investigation results in an information or investigation report that collects and evaluates information about some existing situation, but the writer need not always include a recommendation.

Periodic activity reports

Some organizations have developed reporting methods to keep track of ongoing activities within the organization. They are either filed daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly and compiled by supervisors and managers to describe the work completed by either section or group.Organizations usually list information they expect in a periodic activity report as follows:

Overview - identify the projects
Activities - Specify project activities that are completed, in process and planned.
Recommendations - Establish needed changes in scheduling, personnel and budget.

Organization can be done in one of two ways depending on your readers expectations and needs.

Chronological order - appropriate if readers expect a straightforward listing of activities with no comment or evaluation.
Descending priority order - appropriate if readers need the report to rank order the completed and in-progress work by importance.

Progress (interim, status) reports

Progress reports (sometimes called status or interim reports) summarize the progress, status, and projections related to a particular project. They are part of almost all long-range projects and may also be expected in short-term projects. Progress reports usually follows this sequence of information:

Overview - Introduce the project by identifying the purpose of both the project and the report.
Progress -Summarize the progress to date
Recommendation - Identify major recommended schedule changes
Evidence - Provide reasons for changes
Discussion - Discuss the impact of the proposed changes.

Trip and conference reports

Why are trip and conference reports important? They help the traveler to review and evaluate the activities of the trip or conference and distinguish the major accomplishment from those less important. Also, they enable the traveler to share the activities and information with people who didn't make the trip or attend the conference. Trip and conference report follow priority order. Tasks and information are ranked according to their value to your organization. Below is the information incorporated into a well organized and clearly stated report:

TRIP	CONFERENCE
Purpose and date of trip	Purpose and date of conference
Primary task (s)	Primary Task (s)
Personal role	Personal role
People contacted	Sessions attended
Question (s) raised or resolved	Information gained
Conclusions	Conclusions

Meeting minutes.

Minutes provide a record of the discussion and decisions that occur at meetings, serving as official (sometimes legal) records. Minutes provide a convenient review of the meeting for the people who attended as well as for those who didn't. Unless the minutes are to be published, they should record what was done at the meeting, not what was said by the members. They should never reflect the secretary's opinion, favorable or otherwise, on anything said or done. Roberts Rules of order recommends the format and sequence of information for meeting minutes. To learn more about this rule go to www.english.wadsworth.com/burnnet6e. CLICK ON WEBLINK and then CLICK on Chapter 20/Robert's Rules.

FORMATS OF REPORTS
You can write a report using inductive or deductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning moves from specific to general while deductive reasoning is the opposite. Most readers prefer deductive. From there, the report can be divided into 4 pieces; front matter, body, end matter, and design elements.

Front Matter of a Report
This is the beginning of the report and comes before the body. This can include a letter of transmittal and a table on contents. A letter of transmittal is not required, but helps the reader to better understand the report that follows by giving the main points up front. After the letter of transmittal comes the table of contents. The book gives two examples: numeric and conventional. Numeric is often used by government agencies and is defined by its use of numbers to differentiate each subsection. Conventional uses only all-capitol sentences and indentation to signify differing subsections.

Body of a Report
The body of the report should be broken into two parts:
Part 1

statement of purpose or problem
summary of findings
summary of recommendations

Part 2

background to problem
literature search of information relevant to problem
approach, method, and materials (for reports of experiments, surveys)
available option (solutions)
results: collected data or findings
discussion
interpretation(s)
conclusion(s)
recommendation(s)

The second part of the report can be organized in the following ways:

Chronological Order - used for explaining processes.
Spatial Order - used to describe objects or locations.
Cause and Effect - used for problem-solving situations.
Comparison and/or Contrast - used for focusing on similarities and differences.

End Matter of a Report
This part comes after the body and is greatly influenced by the formality of the report. A more formal document may include a great amount of end matter while an informal one may contain very little or none at all. Some end matter that is commonly found in reports is as follows:

Appendixes - contains supplementary information to help the reader better understand the report.
Glossary - defines terms that the reader may not understand.
Sources Cited - placed at the very end of the document and contains a list of the locations in which the report got its information.

Design Elements
This has to do with how a document looks and contains several aspects:

Headings and Subheadings - should match from one to the next and allow the reader to easily determine when there is a change in topic.
Pagination - the numbering of each page should be easily understood by all readers.
Figures and Tables (Visuals) - should be placed in accordance with the writing and make sense to the reader.
Accessibility, Comprehensibility, and Usability - the placement of information and the formats used can greatly change how easy it is for a reader to get the information they need.

EXAMINING A SAMPLE REPORT
When going over the final revisions of a report, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Identify the Content and Context - Have as much information as possible early in the report for easy accessibility.
Anticipate Reader's Needs - Be sure the report is organized and put together with the expected reader's in mind.
Establish Connections - By linking various ideas together, the reader and get a better understanding of the material.
Use Effective Design and Visuals - Make sure all typing and spacing is consistent, information is where not fragmented, and heading and bullets are utilized wherever possible.
Make the Text Accessible - Adding preview paragraphs to help motivate the reader to read the following information.
Reflect Professional Standards - Being sure that the report conforms to professional style and usage guidelines.

2007-03-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

Drietz and Shrestha

Chapter 21: Preparing Instructions and Manuals

In this chapter Burnett discusses that uses of instructions and why that they are important in our world today. Instructions can be seen absolutely everywhere, there is no way of hiding from them. The topics that are discussed in this chapter are the following: Increasing users' understanding, Using principles of adult learning, Addressing aliteracy, Analyzing the task, Analyzing the audience, Analyzing the Genre, Purpose, Necessary components, Chronological order, Appropriate Diction, Appropriate Details, Rationale for steps, Grammatical and stylistic conventions, Appropriate visuals, Visual and verbal balance, Accurate visuals, Primary Visual Instructions, Safety standards, Liability and finally Adequacy. Needless to say this is a very long chapter that has allot of detail on each and every topic about preparing instructions.

Increasing Users' Understanding:
Burnett explains that there is a problem with people not understanding instructions.
Two examples are:

Jurors Misunderstand Judges' Instruction - Jurors most of the time do not understand judges' instruction about legal rules or responsibilities.
Patients Misunderstand Physicians' Instructions - Researchers found that when the Physicians write outpatient prescription the dosing instructions are miss understood by the patient.

Using Principles of Adult Learning:

Self-concept- being self-directed
Rationale- reason for doing or learning something
Experience- prior knowledge and experiences that help them complete tasks
Readiness- goals
Orientation-focus on what is practical and useful
Motivation- internally motivated by certain factors
Addressing Aliteracy:
People who can read but chose not to or don't like to.

Characteristics of Alliterate are the following:

Scanning text but not actually reading it
Depending on visuals rather than words
Depending on icons, symbols, and logos rather than words
Imbuing color, shape, position and size to avoid written language
Substituting things like TV, radio, Web sites, CDs etc... for printed text.

Analyzing the Task:
Instructions in either shape or form help users complete task, which can fall into these categories:

Actions/behavior of personnel
Assembly of objects or mechanisms
Operation of equipment

Implementation of a processAnalyzing the Audience: Instructions need to pay attention to the audience's needs and experience. Also using terms that are "user-friendly" lets the audience know that the writer is thinking about them when writing the instructions.

Adapting Task to Audience- This means to make it easier for the audience to read by adding things such as labeling and chunking in instructions. If these things are ignored the audience could be very confused.

Considering Instructions for international Audiences- Instructions need to be more available for audiences in the world. They need to be flexible and available in different languages and different degrees or literacy.

This can be done in two ways:

Provide instructions that are translated into multiple languages.
Visuals that are likely to be understood by many people.

Analyzing the Genre:There are a number of aspects of genre including context in which instructions could be used, format or design and options for delivery of the instructions.

Range of Options- There are instructions that provide users with both text and electronic visuals and more and more companies only provide electronic devices that will have a help system with the program. These help sites usually require the user to follow a certain amount of steps to actually get to the site that will help them. When selecting a genre to use for a particular instruction you have to look for certain things such as the instructions them selves as well as the situation you will be using them in.

There is a wide range of instructions such as:

Street signs and building signs
Packaging inserts that include directions for doing certain things such as taking medicine
Quick reference guides that provide short cuts
Electronic help systems
Procedures for tasks
Human resource manuals that include policies
Installation instructions
Operation manuals
Tutorials designed for the individual
Training sessions intended to instruct employees and customers

Purpose andDelivery- Every instruction responds to things that are integrated. For example, when arestaurant employee needs to be reminded to wash his or her hands.

There are other questions that are asked for example:

Should instructions be in visuals or text or both?
Should the instructions be in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese or all four?
Also, should the information be in employee handbook or on a sign?
Should the instructions be in the whole order of performance or should other minute steps be included?

Effects of Using Genre Badly- There can be many problems that occur when instructions are not used properly. When they are not accessible, understandable or usable, that is where people can run into problems.

Effects of bad genre include:

Negative effects on marketing
Negative effects on training staff
Negative effects on support and field staff

Standard Components- There is no best way of organizing instructions, the best way to do so is to look at what you are writing instructions for and apply it to that user. You should ask your self what readers want to read or see and will they understand this procedure. Basically always meet your user's needs.

Locating Information in Manuals- Looking for these things can be simple by looking in the table of contents, sections, or even flipping through the glossary. Users need to have an idea of what the document is about and to know how it applies to them. As well as looking up terms that appear more than once in the text.

Content Element:Content elements were supply for producing important instructions by business and industry professional in seminars of technical communication. The following contents elements are:

1.Purpose

2.Necessary components

3.Accurate chronology

4. Accurate

5.Rationale

6.Stylistic and grammatical conventions

7.Warnings anad cautions.

Purpose Instructions - should be more informative with title and supportive objective.
Necessary Compnents

Instructions are overcome by materials, equipments, defintion and parts of listing.
Chronological Order - Instructions should be in chronological order with substep in order.
Appropriate Diction - Instructions should be used diction so that reader can read them clearly.

Rationale for step-

Instructions should have many question which can justify to response for user to understand.
Grammatical and stylistic conventions

Instructions have parallel structure in statement which uses same grammatical structure.

Visual Elements: Instructions should have effective visuals to amek it usable. It should be more technical to reference in each step.

Appropriate Visuals: Visuals are most important in instructions because with the verbal subject. Visuals have follow type of elements:

a. parts, toolong , equipment

b. sequence of steps

c. posting of the operator

d. development or change of object or equipment

e. Screens and pull down menus in the software development.

There should be good combination of visual with verbal context. Accurate visual is imporatant when someone do not understanf his visual presentation. So, Accuracy should be made good direction.Primarily visual instruction Primarily visual is more supportive for instruction like color coding. It gives meaning to text with design.

Safety Standards: Instructions also required safety view to amek it wast to use. Writer also uses waring,caution to reader in some idea without risks.

Adequacy: You should know about adequacy of instruction with warning also. It will make low risk and have good product.

Chapter 6 Blog by Josh Jenson and Lee Windschitl

2007-02-27T02:39:00.000-08:00

Locating and Using Information
So what exactly is the difference between information and knowledge? The words are usually used interchangeably, however most professionals steer away from using them as synonyms. Knowledge is something we know, while information is what we use in building blocks to find knowledge. Knowledge is expressed in many different ways in every one's lives, we express them in the what we say, write, design, and also how we act, including gestures, body language and actions.
In chapter 6 we will cover the first steps of knowledge management, which allows you to better inform your audience's understanding of a certain topic. The knowledge management is based on four main points.

The first of which would be finding/selecting information, which is obtained by locating the information you need from sources and determine what source or bit of information would be the most useful. The second part is about organization of the information. Using indexing and cataloguing you can link relevant parts of selected information. Thirdly, the information is refined by summarizing it, and adding your own personal insight to the topic. Last but not least is the using of the information, by sharing or ‘pushing’ it to those that require it.
Classifying information and data further we find we have two sources, a primary and a secondary. The primary source is information reported directly by someone directly involved with the action or event. A secondary source on the other hand, is interpreted by a second or third person. A report or interview, for example, from an engineer would be considered a primary source, and the technical report prepared by the writer would be a secondary source.

Finding the information in itself is a daunting task. With researchers estimating information available on the internet approaching 2 exabytes (2 billion gigabytes), finding the right online database or search engine is a hard thing to pull off. Online catalogs, reference databases, web research, internal records of organizations, corporate libraries, government documents and offices, and personal observations all come into play as valuable locations to look for information for a topic.

Searching theses sources usually include a keyword search, or searching for a word, phrase, or a combination of these that relate to the topic. A subject search on the other hand, searches a database for preset categories that it will search upon. Along with these searches they can be further refined to exclude different factors such as date of the information, language, what type of information (books, magazines, presentations), and the format of the information itself.
Locating and Using Information
Personal gain as we read in Chapter 6 is achieved through hands on experience. When it comes down to getting a position at a job site, many workers well take a hands on experienced work to that of a new employee. Guidelines that will help your data be credible are as follows:
· Identify your problem
· View the experience of the worker
· Determine what observer you chose to be Viewer or a Interacting Viewer
· Take key notes for future reference
· Search for common occurrences in data rather than assumptions
· Make reports that represent the whole project
· Make an abundance in observations
· Support generalizations on your views
When it comes down to the interview process of an employer there are three basic processes in which you need to repair in also:
· Gather information on what you know and what you need to know and what you expect to learn
· Approach the interviewer and select location, how you want to get a hold of them and time, note that all of these if not chosen correctly can hamper interview abilities
· Identify what topics you like to cover to add range to the topic and provide more room to expand
Other great tips for the interview process is being able to say the interviewees name and also knowing what questions you’d like to ask. Whether it’s convergent or divergent questions you need to know what to ask. Convergent questions focus on straight answers, while divergent focus on an open ended answer and leave a lot more room for conversation. Coming prepared for a interview is essential to giving off a good impression.
Interview Guidelines
· Ask questions that can’t be answered simply and require detail
· Use knowledge you already know to further evaluate on a yes or no question to further the information that is given to you
· Make sure questions are focally responded to, to avoid rambling
· Ask one question at a time and never chain questions this can lead to confusion and misunderstanding
· Use your knowledge on the subject at hand to narrow response to what you want to know
· Have questions to convey the answers back to the topic at hand to get out of a rambling situation
· Research the topic at hand to ask questions that show you have done your research not only to impress but also to keep the respondents attention
· Refer to respondents work if able to help your questions
· Ask questions a respondent feels attacked by but not threatened to get answers
If you are not able to get a hold of the respondent or times just can’t meet up. Try reaching them by phone or e-mail. Even though face to face is preferable sometimes all that is left is a letter or a pre recording of answers and questions you both feel would be asked and answered.
Actions and Attitudes for Effective Interviewing
Interpersonal Behavior
· Be respectful
· Know the person’s name
· Address person formally
Body Language
· Show interest in topic
· Use eye contact at all times
· Watch for body language to show progress
Interviewing Conventions
· Confirm the interview beforehand
· Arrive on time never late to show a good example
· Prepare in advance for the interview ahead
· Give time for a response
· Don’t interrupt unless rambling is about to ensue
Mechanical Considerations
· Be prepared bring self notes if necessary
· Ask statistical questions to show knowledge about topic
Surveys and graphs are also good ways to view data that is considered during an interview. Some examples could be: Dual alternatives which are usually either or questions giving a quick response for the interviewer, Multiple choice questions which give the respondent a choice of answers they feel is closest to the question being asked, Rank ordering which allows the respondent to order in list of importance to them, Likert scales which allow a respondent to show their opinion on a question that was given, Completions which have the respondent fill in information where you leave blank or wonder about, Essay or open ended questions allow the respondent to express how they feel on that given question.
Four steps to credibility
1. Authorship
· Can you identify with the author?
· Is it a person, corporation, or college?
· Are they credible?
· Is there a sponsor?
2. Timeliness
· When was it posted?
· Last update?
· How often is it updated?
· Is information up to date?
3. Purpose
· Do they persuade, inform, or sell?
· Is there an intended audience?
· Is there any advertising?
4. Content
· Is the topic detailed?
· Does it confirm prior knowledge?
· Is the information fully cited?
· Can you verify claims?
· Is there spelling errors?
· Can you sense a bias to information?
Avoiding Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined is using someone’s work as your own. Examples can be, using quotations found or heard, using someone’s ideas, Coping a process of another individual or using words or images not produced as your own. All this is avoided using citations and giving credit to where you have found the information given. You can use wording like According or This person says to give credit as a source also, paraphrasing the information at hand can save for a citation at the end rather than every sentence.

Chapter 2 Blog

2007-02-06T09:21:00.000-08:00

Chapter 2 blog
Understanding Culture and the Workplace
Alex Peters
Brad Buche

Chapter Headlines
Noticing culture in the work Place
Understanding the importance of culture
Analyzing culture
Increase culture awareness

Noticing Culture in the Workplace

The United States is a multicultural, multiracial place. It is very hard to do anything with out having to interact with a culture that is different from your own. There was a census taken in the year 2000 that showed the following demographics;

Nearly 18% of people in the united states speak a different language other than English at home.
Racial minorities own nearly 15% of U.S. companies.
Slightly less than 70% of people counted by the U.S. census are white. Slightly more than 12% are black. Another12% are Hispanic or Latino origin. Nearly 4% Asian. About 1% are American Indian or Alaska Native.
Slightly more than 11% of people counted by the U.S. census were born in another country.

With that said, it is obviously important to know about, and understand different cultures. Your ability to communicate successfully in the workplace includes your ability to recognize and positively respond to culture-specific-attitudes, actions, and tools.

Understanding the importance of culture

More and more companies are paying attention to culture as part of making their organization a good place to work. Many organizations are addressing cultural differences by encouraging diversity and including forthright statements about culture, diversity, and human rights for its employees, contractors, and suppliers.

Analyzing culture

When examining two different cultures even something as little as a smile, or a head nod can mean totally different things. For example a head nod could mean that the person is listening to you and is understanding what you are saying, but not agree with what you are saying, for one culture, and in the next it could mean that they are agreeing with you, and that they are on the same page as you are. Small things such as this could throw business relationships of very easily.

Increase cultural awareness

There are a couple things that you can do to work more productively and respectfully with colleagues from various cultures;

Be a keen observer
Demonstrate respect for people and practices
Demonstrate interest in other cultures by your actions and attitudes
Listen carefully

2007-01-31T21:47:00.001-08:00

Chapter 3: Drietz, Shrestha

Chapter 3: Reading Technical Information
In this chapter Burnett describes different ways of reading that can help someone better understand. Some of these ways are the following: Identifying Purposes, Reading-Writing Relationships, Strategies for Effective Reading, Identify Structure and Hieracrchy, Determine the Main Points, Draw Inferences, Generate Questions and Examples, and Monitor and Adapt Reading Strategies.

Identifying Purposes:
When people start to read there are certain things that they read for. The main thing in identifying purposes is what you are reading for and why. This way you will have a better understanding of what you are to get out of the reading. The following are a few purposes for reading:

Reading to asses
Reading to learn
Reading to do
Reading to learn to do

Reading Writing Relationships:
Whether you think about it or not your reading and writing are very closely related. When reading articles Burnett describes looking for words that you understand and when we find one that we are completely lost with, that is when the piece of writing loses us. Therefore she describes writers having to think of who their audience is and write for that audience so when they read it they are not confused.

Strategies for Effective Reading:
This section of the chapter was split into three different areas to help with reading. The three areas are the following:
Skim:
When skimming a document it is a good idea to run through everything quickly to catch where the main points are and to also understand what kind of information is going to be present in the document. This strategy is also useful when thinking about how long the document itself is.
Scan:
Scanning can be mistaken for the word skim, but it means something a little different. When scanning you are looking for key terms as well as locating specific images, charts or examples. These things are usually located by the use of bold, italic type and also by key terms.
Predict:
While you are skimming and scanning you can now predict what the document will be about. This will help you better understand what you are getting yourself into and what you may need to take out of the reading. Also, by predicting, you can also think of questions to ask yourself before reading the document that way you are paying more attention when you read.

Identify Structure and Hierarchy:
Burnett describes this as the headings in a document to highlight what is important and what may be coming up next in the reading. She also describes how abstracts in a reading can be the easiest to understand because it is shorter for one and you are more likely to read abstracts faster and even understand them better if you tend to anticipate what they are about.

Visual cues: Burnett describes visual cues as, "cues that help you recognize the hierarchy of ideas in a document." The following are three that she describes:
Information is chunked so that relationships are clear.
Information is arranged so that the sequence is clear.
Information is emphasized so that important elements are signaled.

Previews and Reviews:
Previewing and reviewing is explained by Burnett as giving you a chance to understand and then reinforce the structure of the reading. By previewing and reviewing it gives the reader a better understanding of what the reading is about and will have a better chance of remembering the information later on.

Determine the Main Points:
By determining the main points of a document you can pick out what is most important and helps you to better understand material in the document. Burnett also describes by doing this it can you with understanding the relationships with in a certain document. Things such as italicized words, or boldface type, or hanging indents can draw attention to something that is probably important.

Draw Inferences:
This is the portion in which we can mention whole detail the subject and imply it. The reader draws Inferences to be specific WIth ideas and be technical in writing.
Generate Question and Examples:
The most readers are asked this six levels of question;

a) Knowledge question: It talks about the specific method in the information.
b)Compreshension question: It refers to incorporate idea with the reader writing.
c) Appplication question: It mention about the specific knowledge int he theories.
d) Analysis question: It outlet the analysis of the information.
e) Synthesis question: It refers to particular structure.
f) Evaluation question: It makes evaluation on the inforamtion from the subject.

Monitor and Adapt Reading Strategies:
The readers are basically engaged in their text with effective concepts. So, the reader plan to monitor their
strategies with implies. And they want to give best result with their ablity.

Chapter 10 Erickson, Arce

2007-01-29T06:22:00.000-08:00

Chapter 10 Organizing Information
This chapter uses four major sections to help the reader understand better why information organization is so important as well as how to organize information. They are: Transforming information into knowledge, Developing the Organization of Information, Implementing the Organization of Information, and Using Organization.

Transforming information into knowledge
The process of transforming information into knowledge is important because it makes sense of that info. It is essential because the organization of information affects the rest of your project, and the more ways you organize it, the more things you’ll see in it. If you don’t do this, other people will organize it in their own minds, maybe interpreting it differently than you would have chosen.
Strategies for organizing information are common but you need to have reason behind the one you choose. Choose the one that will convey information to your audience most effectively. It could be a document, oral presentation or a visual.
Developing the Organization of Information
This section of the chapter is broken down into the three strategies useful for organizing information. Each of these subsections explains how to organize info using the specific strategy. They are also ways to experiment with and test your organization to make it more effective.
Outlines
This is a tool to help you manage your material in an easy manner. It makes it easy to rearrange, add and delete information, which helps when putting together your document for presentation.
Storyboards
Story boards are a related sequence of hand drawn or electronic sketches of pages or screens that organize their critical points. Storyboarding is used by communicators to show the ideas of a final project to an audience.
Tables and Spreadsheets for Organizing Information
Tables and spreadsheets enable you to classify information into comparable groups and then identify categories of details about each group. Collected information can be sorted and organized into your spreadsheet.
Implementing the Organization of Information
In this section Burnett once again uses her opening paragraphs to introduce options pertaining to the implementation of organization. Her opening statement, “The way information in a print or electronic document, oral presentation, or visual is organized affects the meaning that the audience constructs,” starts the chapter off with an idea of importance. She closes her introduction by listing the last of eight subsections titled: Alphabetical Order, Numeric Order, and Continuums, Topic Sentences and Transitions to Signal Organizations, Whole/Parts Organization, Chronological Order, Spatial Order, Ascending/Descending Order, Comparison/Contrast, and Cause and Effect.
Alphabetical Order, Numeric Order, and Continuums
This subsection briefly explains the three ways listed in the title for organizing information. It gives examples of each way for better understanding.
Topic Sentences and Transitions to Signal Organizations
This is a short subsection that explains how to use topic sentences and transition words or phrases to effectively make a paragraph flow so as not to lose or confuse a reader. This is important when making web sites because poorly working websites seldom get repeat looks.
Burnett finishes this subsection by explaining that all of the following apply to written documents, oral presentations, and visuals thereby keeping the reader in touch with her opening statements in her section intro.
Whole/Parts Organization
This subsection does a good job of explaining whole/parts organization, which is the relationship of an idea (the whole) with its parts on a macro or micro level. The visual examples are just right for the explanation.
Chronological Order
Chronological Order is a short, detailed paragraph with visual examples using chronological order to organize information by sequence or order of occurrence.
Spatial Order
Spatial Order --- arrangement by relative physical location --- describes the physical parts of nearly anything, from cellular structures to the orbital path of the moons around Jupiter. Visuals are particularly effective for spatially arranged material because they help to see the actual physical relationships.
Ascending/Descending Order
Ascending/descending orders present readers with information according to quantifiable criteria. Descending order uses most to least important order; ascending order, a least to most. Topic sentences, usually first in the paragraph, are second in a paragraph that has been arranged in ascending or descending order.
Comparison/Contrast
When information has been organized by contrast and comparison it tells readers about similarities and differences. This type of organization can be seen in pros and cons of an argument as well as advantages and disadvantages in consumer products. Burnett lists many more examples in her text.
Cause and Effect
The cause and effect organization of information focuses on precipitating factors and results. This is on of the most complicated forms of information organization. Making strong arguments involves considering the ways to organize the information and avoiding errors in logic.
Using Organization
Burnett uses the last section to wrap all of the subsections together to give the reader an idea of how organized information can be used effectively during any technical communication. She gives an example of when each type of organization can be used. She makes a point of putting web page addresses throughout her chapter for assistance clarification and examples of everything she said in her text.

Chapter 1 Bradley Seykora, Sachin Rajbhandari

2007-01-23T11:57:00.000-08:00

Chapter #1
"Characterizing Workplace Communication"
Due Week 2
pg. 3-35

Main Headings:
1) Importance of Effective Communication
2) Defining Technical Communication
3) Context of Constructing Meaning
4) Accessibility, Comprehensibility, and Usability
5) Communication in the Workplace
6) Constraints that Communicators Encounter
7) Individual and Collaborative Assignments

Chapter 1 discusses Technical Communiction and all its components. Technical Communication defines, describes, and directs activities in business and industry, government and research institutions, hospitals and farms. Almost all professions have technical documents, oral presentations, and visuals. No matter what field of study or profession technical communication is every where.

Importance of Technical Communication
Technical communicators has responsibility to design, develop and produce documents, oral and visual presentations.

To achieve a career success and have greater job satisfaction one should communicate effectively. Even the surveys reports shows how much is speaking and writting skills important for success. For effective communication, everything should be logically, gramatically correct and appealing. The person possessing these skills are more effective in communication. With effective commmunication, one can handle a person, a team, or an organization.

Definition of Technical Communication
Technical communicataion is defined rhetorical based on rhetorical elements like content, context, purpose, audience, organization, visuals, document designs, uability, language, and conventions. These above elememts should be considered by an experienced communicators. An effective technical communication can define, direct, and describe activities and members inside a workplace or in different sectors of a community.

Context of Constructing Meaning
A communicators delievers something but the meaning is constructed by the audience. So, the interpretation of the audience varies. It can be affected by exuberance which means the interpretation always adds something not intended and deficiency which means the interpretation always ignores things that have been noticed. We can say that the information and situation in constructing a meaning is dynamic, the respond varies in a particular situation.
i. Technology and Ethics in technical communication
Technical word relates to technology, so is the fast growing technology is affecting Technical communication. One of the technology that is fast growing is Computer-mediated Communication. Its a way to communicate, interact with, retrieve and interpret information in variety of context and shape communication for variety of purposes. The technology can influence several factors though.
a> take notes, sustain reading lengthy notes, keep track of yourself where you are.
b> managing active windows.
c> privacy- monitoring the activities in a workplace, work under privacy laws.
d> Immediacy - Based on time delays, there are two communication. Synchronus communication is simulataneous at real time like chat room, white board environment.
Asynchronus communication is digital communication like voice mail, e-mail, or online which may have certain time delay but this type of communication allows more time for
reflection and can be more productive.
e> Permanency - Backing up data files helps retrieving the erased data. A main server can be kept the data that we might think is erased and can be referenced in future.

Besides having purpose to inform and persuade audience, an effective communicator consider factors considering himself in situation of an audience. He should know how an audience will feel and interpret to his ideas. So, his ideas must construct a meaning. Technical communicators have to make difficult decisions but there might various way to resolve it. But dealing with ethical dilemmas is not always easy and they obviously exist. But one should be aware of and avoid ethical violation in a workplace so that it might not affect your belief and standing in your workplace. The information to be included or excluded depends on ethics.

Accesibility, Comprehensibility, and Usability
Documents, audio-visual presentation must meet the criterias for reader, listener, and viewer i.e. should be
i] accessible- can be seen and heard.
ii] comprehensible- can be understood.
iii] usable- can be used easily and productively.
Physical factors of audience, environment, text, oral and visual presentations affect the accessibility, comprehensibility, and usability of the information.

Communication in the Workplace
Communicating in the workplace exist through different forms. Each situation requires some form of technical document, oral presentation, or visual aid and the list could go on and on because the terminology is not standardized. There are five standard workplace documents a technical brochure, a Power Point Presentation, a technical report, a Web site, and a set of instructions.

Standard Elements you can use or look for in your own communication:
1) Preview what's to come.
2) Define critical terms.
3) Use headings to call attention to key points.
4) Select details appropriate for the audience's level of understanding.
5) Use a design that contributes to accessiility, comprehensibility, and usability.
6) Select typographic devices (such as bullets, italics, and boldfacing) to call attention to information.
7) Use visuals (such as a table) to reinforce, illustrate, or explain the text.

Constraints that Communicators Encounter
No matter what type of document you will be creating there will always be constraints to work in.

1) Time constraints
2) Subject and Format Constraints
3) Audience Constraints
4) Collaboration as a Constraint
5) Constraints in Data Collection
6) Constraints in Technology
7) Constraints Caused by Noise

Individual and Collaborative Assignments
A guide to help teach employees and other about technical communication.

1) Define technical communication
2) Identify general audiences
3) Identify accessibility, comprehensibility, and usability?
-Who's the sponsor?
-Who are the intended audiences?
-How accessible is the site?
-How easy is the site to understand?
-How easy is the site to use?
4) Assess a short memo
-weekly progress
5) Assess a technical explanation

Chapter Summary
This chapter is full of information of what should be considered and how to go about creating technical documents. The lists of what things to be considered in your documents I found to be most valuable. Hopefully, you will better understand what things you need to start creating technical documents.

Chapter 7 "Planning and Drafting"

2007-01-23T09:58:00.000-08:00

Chapter 7 "Planning and Drafting"
Week 2

Experienced writers take the time to investigate. They are concerned with their audience, they go lengths to make sure what they are presenting or writing is accessible, comprehensible and usable. Inexperienced writers forget about planing and their audience. Professionals use these 5 steps to ensure quality: Inventing and Exploring Planning and Organization Drafting and Designing Revising EditingChapter 7 has a focus on the previous items and also gives strategies to becoming an expert.

Inventing and exploring:
For any kind of project, document,or oral presentation, a considerable amount of time is spent in inventing and exploring. This step enables to take a tentative decision and discover the source of knowledge within yourself. During the inventing and exploring process we go through two different steps:
1. Problem solving process
2. Problem solving strategies.

While preparing a document, presentation or visual, exploring the materials and inventing an idea plays an important role. This furthermore allows dealing with the problems related to the document. Different problems may arise during the process, an effective problem solving process aid in working efficiently. Problems can be interfaced with the certain problem solving process which can be listed as:

· Identifying the problem
· Gathering the information
· Formulating alternative solutions
· Drawing with the similar past experience
· Selecting the best plan of action
· Getting started with the best solution
· Monitoring the outcome of the process
· Evaluating and determining the success of the problem solving process.

The successful problem solving strategies commonly used are Brainstorming, cause and effect, synectics and 5 Ws+H questions.
Brainstorming is one of the most commonly used methods of problem solving strategies, where one can suggest and test all the possible ideas.
Other side, cause and effect analysis looks for the cause of the problem and deals with the cause to solve the problems. Synectics is another strategy, often common collaboratively. Bringing together different ideas encourages effective problem solving.

Planning and Organizing

Project planning is successful to produce a good result which also manages time. You can assess to the list of things to be done and their deadlines. The most commonly used project management tools are Gantt charts and Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) chart, these charts track the project activities.
Considering Rhetorical Elements:
During planning, you need to make decisions about the various rhetorical elements. Some rhetorical elements are content, context, purpose, audience, organization visuals, document design, usability, language conventions. Each element affects the other, Change in one element influences the other elements. Ethics of the situation should be paid more attention during the planning process.

Assessing the logic
It’s important that the document should be logical, the problems in logic generally fall into following categories:
Using data from authorities
Presenting facts without drawing inferences
Drawing inferences
Establishing causal relationships
Using data from authorities:
Audience responds to the popular authorities, you will get a good positive response if the data collected is from the recognized authorities.
Presenting facts without drawing inferences:
The facts presented can mislead the audiences if it is incomplete, out of context, oversimplified, or distorted.Omitted or incomplete data:
The data that is omitted or accidental can mislead the audience. Missing of some information can lead to different result creating confusion.
Out of-context data:
Out of context data often being accurate can mislead the audience, because of the lack of the appropriate information.
Oversimplified or distorted data:
An oversimplified data can give a distorted view to the audience; it just focuses on the simple idea of the data ignoring the relevant details and other possible situations.
Drawing Inferences:
Using data to make generalizations, be careful to not make false conclusions
Hasty Generalizations:
Making a conclusion before using all information
Irrelevant Functions:
Criticizing something for not having characteristics you think it should have
Composition and Division:
Certain characteristics are falsely attributed to a whole, and vise verseEstablishing Casual Relationships:
Audience is mislead by poorly drawn conclusions.
· Condition Not a sufficient cause: A cause that can produce the effect on its own is the sufficient cause, a week cause-effect relationship misleads an audience.
· Variables Not Correlated: sometimes the variables used might not have a cause- effect relationship.
· Fallacy of post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc. : Fallacious logic, the first event must be the cause of the second, can undermine the integrity of the document.
.
Drafting

After planning for the document, drafting is another important step,
different ways for drafting are:
· Sketching the important things and noting the key points during drafting and developing them
· Composing the entire design, working beginning till end
· Preparing an outline of the rough draft
Making online outline sketch as the framework

Selecting Person
Choosing which view point your information will be given is very important for success. First person (I, we) if you were involved, Second person (you) mostly for instruction, Third person (he, she, one, it, they) emphasize action, these are guidelines used to assist in your presentation.

Verb Mood Selection of appropriate verb mood is important during drafting. Mood allows audience to feel emotion of what is being presented. Inactive mood states facts or opinions Imperative mood expresses commands or gives direction Subjunctive mood expresses recommendations, wishes, conjectures, indirect requests, and statements of conditions.
Selecting Active or Passive Voice
An Active voice will make it easier understand what is going on. Active voice is mostly appropriate and makes things more interesting. Passive voice is for when the receiver is more important than the agent.
Using Plain Language
Plain language simplifies everything and eliminates language problems
Eliminates unnecessary or inappropriate formalisms
uses strong verbs
its direct
Even the government believes its a good idea and uses it whenever possible
Avoiding Density
This is where many good ideas are packed into a tiny paragraph and are unable to be fully understood. Ways to avoid this are:
Separate information into many sentences rather than few large ones.
Develop important points separately
Add examples and explanations to illustrate points
Use direction
Add transitions
Use headings and subheadings
Illustrate objects and concepts
Use visual devices

Individual and Collaborative Assignments
1 Track your writing process
2 Analyze your writing process
3 Create a rubric
4 Interview a professional
5 Look at the process of translation
6 Determine the appropriate voice 7 Explain active and passive voice
8 Revise an explanation to eliminate density
9 Revise using given-new structures

Chapter 5 Krekelberg, Heidinger, Buss

2007-01-18T10:13:00.000-08:00

Burnett Chapter Blog

Chapter 5
"Collaborating In The Workplace"
Due Week 1
pg. 143-182

Main Headlines:
reasons to collaborate
types of collaboration
good collaborator
negotiating conflicts
individual and collaborative assignments

Chapter 5 is called "Collaborating In The Workplace". This chapter gives the reader a sense of how to be a good team member when he or she is working within a group. By the end of this chapter, you will be further educated on the tactics used to be a good team member, the skills needed to provide the type of work required, and how to deal with conflicts within a team.

Reasons to Collaborate
Seventy to eighty-five percent of writing done in the workplace may require collaborating with another co-worker or even a client. There are four main reasons you may want to collaborate:
1. Subject of the project
2. Process used in the project
3. Product that collaborates create
4. Benefits of collaboration
Subject of the project
When working on a project, one may find it easier to work with one or more people that are experts on a certain subject. Hence, you get a little bit of knowledge from many different people since they have different points of view.
Process used in the project
This can enrich how a document is written or how it is structured. This also allows more feed back when writing the document then just your own opinion.
Product that collaborates create
The reason for collaborating on a single project is, for example, because someone wanted to create a web page about a topic on how to work out math problems. The people that were to read it may not like the single person’s way of doing it and may want another author’s point of view on how to work their way through.
Benefits of collaboration
A few of the benefits of collaborations are the many points of view you get from the other people whom help with the paper or a project, making it sound better or be better. Another benefit is it may help save time on a project.

Types of Collaboration
There are many different types of collaborations: coauthoring, consulting with colleagues and contributing to team projects which three of the many different types.
Coauthoring
This is when people contribute to a project equally as much as everyone else in the group. Two or more people team up and put their ideas together and everyone in the group will decide what gets added, cut from the project all together, and what gets modified.
Consulting with colleagues
A good example of consulting with colleagues is when a person is in a development department at a company. In order for them to develop anything, they are going to have to speak with other departments at the company to find out if their idea will work or not. For example, they will have to talk to the engineering department to find out if they can produce such a product, or if they cannot, they might have to change the structure or the placement of a part.
Contributing to team projects
When working with a team, one can assign a certain team member a part of the project and make one or more people in charge of the group. Also, at the same time, people in the group have to work with each other to know how their part in the project fits with the entire project.
Being A Good Collaborator
Allan Ackerson, lead technical writer for a company in Colorado springs said that collaborators, especially if they are team leaders, should follow these three guidelines
1.Treat people like you'd like to be treated
2.Identify strengths and weaknesses of the team members and use them accordingly
3. Insist on excellence
Ackerson says that these three guidelines are important when working in a team because it requires common sense and courtesy.
These several points will help you to be a more effective team member:
1. Self-assess
2. Be engaged and cooperative
3. Listen
4. Conform to conversation conventions
5. Ask questions
6. Share
7. Use technology effectively
8. Reflect
Within this chapter, these following points are broken down and explained as follows.
1. Self-assess
First you must evaluate your strengths and weaknesses as a collaborator. For help with that, visit the website, www.english.wadsworth.com/burnett63.
CLICK ON WEB LINK
CLICK on Chapter 5/ self-assessment
2. Be Engaged And Cooperative
To have the best result in a collaboration, come to the group discussions with an open mind. Once you find you have an open mind and a receptive attitude, the following guidelines will make the best sense
ALWAYS come prepared for any collaboration meeting. Gather the necessary information and bring something to contribute to the meeting
Be able to articulate
3. Listen
Make sure you listen and keep an open ear to what speakers are saying. Take notes on what they say as well as key points. Discuss what you have heard to make sure the point was gotten across clearly.
The last five points deal with concluding the meeting. Make sure you ask questions and make clear what the speaker as well as yourself is trying to make. Use resources and technology that is available to you such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and reliable Internet sources.Share information that is brought to the table at each meeting. Make copies of things you've found and make sure your team members make copies of the materials they have found as well.
When dealing with conflicts within a group, make sure you are solving them in a timely and polite manner. The more a problem dwells, the more difficult of a time you will have keeping the group copacetic.
Negotiating Conflicts
The text outlines 3 kinds of conflicts that often take place in the workplace; affective, procedural and substantive.
II. Effective Conflicts
An interpersonal disagreement. An affective conflict arises from disagreements based on physical, or idealistic characteristics two or more people might not share with one another. A person that has a problem working with another person based on their race, or values, has an affective conflict. The text suggests that the best way to deal with an affective conflict is to acknowledge ones differences and biases from the get go and work from there, trying not to let them affect your work.
III. Procedural Conflicts
A disagreement on how things are to be run within a team. When a procedural conflict comes up it is either a dispute about the set meeting time, delegation of work or unclear instructions on how to complete the task. The best way to avoid a procedural conflict is to start off a collaboration by sitting down and discussing every aspect of the planned project. For example, delegating sections of work, setting up time frames, and finding out personal constraints on how much or little a person can work each day/week/month.
IV. Substantive conflicts
A substantive conflict deals with agreeing over the final purpose of a collaborative project. As well as what details and information should or should not be included.
The text says that it is always a good idea to have team members that are going to bring up possible substantive disagreements early in a project in order to deal with them quickly. It also suggests that bringing up substantive conflicts is sometimes even helpful. Kind of "playing the devils advocate" and bringing up possible problems that arise may help in the final product.

Individual and Collaborative Assignments

There are 9 steps to doing individual and collaborative assignments. They are as follows:

1. Address a complex problem- prepare notes about how to approach the technical memo and the information design sheet. And when you have done so, revise your information sheet. And finally, write and analysis of the revised sheet[pg. 175]
2. Evaluate your collaboration- tape record your sessions and talk about it with one of your collaborators. Notice interesting behaviors from everyone, did anything surprise you, and figure out who was in charge of that particular meeting, was the time productively used, did each person contribute to the meeting, and where were the problems.
3. Identify appropriate technology- find out what type of technology is compatible with every group member such a computer lab or sit down all together and write things out
4. Examine collaboration in your discipline- interview someone in the certain discipline you're working with. Find out things you should learn. Create a question/answer type of format and talk to the professional.
5. Identify parallels in writing and design- identify at least 6 different ways in which product design and development teams are similar to document design. Prepare a list with examples to share during meetings.
6. Draft a team agreement- understand every ones goals, assign tasks for each member to contribute to, assign dates things need to be completed by, have a process for resolving conflicts, have an order of authorship, and have a high standard for the quality of work being done.
7. Evaluate computer software- establish a type of criteria for the software program that enables you to do your tasks. Then, use your criteria to see if it is effective.
8. What kind of tools that can aid collaboration have you used- there are several tools you can use to help your collaboration such as: email, whiteboard, shared databases, web and video conferences, real-time chats, and group meetings.
9. Track your own collaborative behavior- keep a log in which you list the progress you have made. Write down each time, what went wrong, how you can improve them, review and analyze your interactions and what was interesting about them. Include in your discussion the way you prepared and how you collaborated as well as how it went.

Hopefully by the time you are finished reading these notes and Chapter 5, you will better understand how to collaborate in the best way you can in and outside of the workplace.

Welcome to English 271-05 @ MSU, Mankato

2007-01-16T09:27:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Engl 271-05 course blog!

We will use this blog to discuss the readings in Burnett's textbook, Technical Communication, 6th edition.