Engl271-04Fall2007

Chapter 17 Summary

2007-11-27T10:47:00.000-06:00

Chapter 17 Summary

Engaging in Oral Communication

Objectives and Outcomes:

Communicate ideas and plans effectively in front of an audience

Decide and select what information needs to go into your presentation

Involve your audience either by asking questions or using notes to keep track of whats going on

Use visual aids that are appropriate for your topic

Create a professional image based on appearance and demeanor; speak loudly enough so the whole audience can hear and understand

Be a good, active listener

Types of Presentations
There are three basic types of presentations, Informal, Formal, and Class presentations.

Informal presentations are usually at work and the audience is either your professional peers or your immediate subordinates or supervisors. Topics of informal presentations usually involve work related issues. For example the book gives the example of the progress you've made designing a curcuit board for a customer. Not much background info is needed because audience is farmiliar with topic and speaker.

Formal presentations take more preparation because the audience is not farmiliar with the speaker and topic so background on yourself and topic is probably needed. A formal presentation could be a couple of experts explaining to possibe customers of a company the benefits of their new product.

Class presentations give students an opportunity to expand their public speaking skills. The other class members can be asked to act as a particular audience so the speaker can get the feel of the real thing.
Audiences

Four Types
Professional peers: Understand field jargon and background information. Presentation should be organized and well detailed. Typically ask more difficult questions at the end.

Nonexpert Professionals: Do not usually understand jargon. Want technical info but not so many technical little details. Listen to recommendations and conclusion.

International Audiences: Appreciate your awareness and respect for their culture. May not understand visual aids and hand signals the way that you intend. Simple and well defined sequence will help tremendously.

General Audiences: Multiple agendas but come together for a common purpose. Like to see clear statement of purpose, defined terms, useful analogies, interesting examples, effective visuals, and clear transitions. Like to be involved.

Involve Listeners
The audience at a presentation might lose interest if not being involved in some way. Ways to involve audience include creating an audience centered atmosphere, encourage active audience involvment, make what you say easy to listen to and remember, and change the pace and structure of your presentation.

Types of Visuals
Chalkboards or white board
Flip Charts
Posters, charts, tables, diagrams, maps, or photos
Slides
Powerpoint
Transparencies
Movies
Physical Models
Demonstrations

Professional Appearance

Things to remember for professional appearance include:
Wear appropriate clothing
Handle notes comfortably
Make eye contact with audience
Handle mistakes smoothly
Relax your hands
Relax your feet
Move naturally
Use the podium comfortably (if available)

Chapter 21

2007-11-13T02:00:00.000-06:00

Chapter 21 Team 13
Preparing Instructions and Manuals
Andy Isder & Khushboo Shakya

In this chapter, the term "instructions" refers to all kinds of instructional texts including instructional sheets, electronic help systems, print manuals, training scripts, and tutorials.

Objectives and outcomes
-Ensuring Instructions are useable by combating audience misunderstanding, using principles of adult learning, and confronting aliteracy
-Analyze task, audience, and genre
-Effectively use content elements of instructions
-Provide necessary warnings and cautions

Getting People's Attention

Instructions and manuals have an immediate prupose; to enable users to complete tasks. Three critical concerns:Lack of audience understanding, Adult Learning, and aliteracy can influence whether instructions are actually usuable.

-Begin each instruction with general information to help organize and contextualize it, such as "this instruction is in two parts".
-Simplify the language

Principles of Adult Learning

Adults like to be self directed.Instructions can provide tools for users to self-assess their prior knnowledge and experience and then move to any appropriate place in the instructions.

Adults want a reason for doing or learning something. Instructions can provide reasons for using them as a whole as well as reasons for using subsections.

Adults have prior knowledge and experiences that help them complete tasks. Instructions can use metaphors, analogies, and examples that draw on prior knowledge and experiences.

Adults have goals. Instructions can help users decide how the information fits with their goals.

Adults focus on what is practical and useful. Instructions focus on practical informantion-what, why, and how. They can also identify benefits.

Adults are internally motivated by factors such as relationships and intellectual interests. Instructions can provide users with options-how to approach a task, how to use the information, how to manage problems. Instructions can also address users in a way that encourages them to continue because they'll recieve help.

Addressing Aliteracy

Aliterate can read, but they simply choose not to. They don't want to, don't like to, don't want to take the time to, or don't think they need to. Here are some characteristics of aliteracy.

Scanning text as a regular practive rather than reading tex, whether print or electronic.
Depending on visuals rather than words for information.
Depending on icons, symbols, and logos rather than words for information.
Imbuing color, shape, position, and size with meaning to avoid written language.
Substituting various kinds of electronic communication (for example, Web sites, TV,radio, CD's, audio tapes, movies, videos, DVD's) for printed texts whenever possible.

Considering Task, Audience, and Genre

Analyzing task, audience, and genre is critical as you plan and design instructions. Skipping these analysis reduces the accessibility, comprehensibility, and usability of your instructions.

Analyzing the Task has four catagories
-Actions/behavior of personnel
-Assembly of objects or mechanisms
-Operation of equiptment
-Implementation of a process

Adapting Task to Audience
When chunking and labeling are ignored in instructions, users have difficulty differentiating the background information from the task to be completed and may not be sure what they're actually supposed to do.

Considering Instructions for International Audiences
As the global economy makes products available to more people around the works, instructions need to be acessible to a broad range of users who come from very different cultures and have varying egrees of literacy. Two approaces can adaps instructions to international audiences.
-Provide instructions translated into multiple languages
-Use visuals that are likely to be understood in many cultures
Expect the visuals to carry much of the meaning. The conventions in the illustrations make the steps in the process easy to understand with international icons, numbered steps, human involvement, and close-ups.
-Provide an easy-to-use table of contents or common navigation structure as well as introductory visual maps that help users understand how to use the instructions.
-Be consistent in the way that words, links, and visuals are used.
-If words or visuals work equally well to convey information, choose the visuals. Whenever possible, illistrate text with visuals.

Visual elements:
Effective visual s are the critical components of instructions. Combination of verbal and visual component is useful in instructions. Visuals can be used to illustrate a variety of elements:
· Parts, tooling , equipment
· Sequence of steps
· Positioning of the operator and /or equipment
· Development or change of object or equipment
· Screens and pull down menus in software development.

Professionals prefer keeping visuals as simple as possible in instructions. Drawing are preferred than photographs as they are more clear and can be used to high the main important parts.

Visual and Verbal balance:
Having visuals in instruction to complete the task quickly with less anxiety. For example the book Access for Everyone: A Guide to Accessibility with references to ADAAG[Americans with Disabilities Act Guidelines] balances visual and verbal information.

Accurate visuals:
Visuals should be used as a part of direction and not just a decorative addition. Hence writers and artists should work collaboratively to develop an effective instruction. Appropriate visuals at appropriate place can reduce a lot of misunderstanding. However even relevant pictures of inappropriate size can affect user’s ability to interpret. Visuals should always be labeled with an indication if scale.
Too small, user won’t be able to identify the important parts of the subject. Full view drawing should be accompanied by enlargement of a crucial part.

Primary Visual Instructions
Although sign and symbols are easier to understand, they don’t usually have universal meaning. For example the arrow sign in the carton box may indicate the top of the carton or it may indicate the carton’s most stable position. Color coding plays an important role in emphasis and differentiation between two similar parts.

Safety Standard:
Safety signs emphasizes on legibility rather than information. People don’t read all the information on signs. Distinct colors are used. The color indicates the degree of danger.
Warning Labels and Cartoons: Warning labels and cartoons provide a mean of communicating information to an audience. Cartoons can help the audience to visualize difficult steps and help overcome language and cultural differences for international audiences. However technical writer must be aware of varying interpretation.

Adequacy:
Information on a product should be accurate and adequate. Information can be instruction or warning. Technical professionals should be sure that their work satisfies the legal requirements for adequacy. One should be sure that their work contains enough instruction for the usage of the product and enough warning to potential risks and dangers.

2007-11-06T11:58:00.000-06:00

Chapter 19 - Preparing Proposals

Objectives and Outcomes

Identify types of proposals
Locate requests for proposals (RFPs)
Identify the appropriate means of persuasion for the proposal's audience
Understand the different necessary parts of each type of proposal
Prepare, organize and write a proposal

Proposals can begin by a company issuing a Request For Proposal (RFP). For example, The Kellogg Foundation is willing to fund plans for research into new sustainable and ecofriendly food systems. Different ecofriendly focus groups might prepare proposals as to why they should be the group to receive the funds. The readers of the proposals expect there to be certain kinds of information in the proposal. This information is:

Situation. Provide a definition of the problem or opportunity, including information that situates it in the organization.
Plan. Present a plan for resolving the problem or addressing the opportunity.
Benefits. Explain probable benefits that will result from adopting the plan.
Approach. Outline methods for implementing the plan, including 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.

Characterizing Proposals
A proposal is a form of persuasive writing meant to convince an audience that a proposed plan responds to a problem while being workable, manageable, logically organized and cost efficient. Proposals can have one of the following purposes:

Solve a problem
Investigate a subject
Sell a product of service

Types of Proposals
A solicited proposal is written in response to an RFP. The RFP contains specific information that a successful proposal will contain. These are usually external documents, sent to people outside of the company. If a product or service is needed, these can also be referred to as an invitation to bid, a bid request, a purchase request, an invitation for proposal or a request for quotation.
Sometimes a problem occurs and an RFP is not issued. In these cases, the person that identified the problem has the skill or experience to solve the problem and in turn, writes an unsolicited proposal.
RFPs are not always sent to every organization or company that might want to respond. It is a good idea to keep on the lookout for RFPs in your particular field. (For a list of RFP sources and some examples of RFPs, consult pages 681-683 in your text.)
Using Persuasion in Proposals
Traditionally, persuasion has been identified with appeals to emotion and because of this people feel it is inappropriate for technical communication. However, persuasion doesn't mean manipulation, it means using credible, logical arguments to convince the reader that the writer's views are correct. Technical writers have a responsibility to produce proposals that are ethical, logical, and credible.
Audience Concerns
Your audience must have an idea of what the problem is before they can agree to what you propose. You should identify what the problem is along with your proposed solution in your proposal. Before you can do this, you must do a careful audience analysis to see how it is they perceive the problem so you can put it in the 'right light' so they say. One of the single most important aspects of preparing a proposal is this:
"Establish that the problem or opportunity exists and then clearly show how your plan addresses it."
If you plan proposes a lot of changes or is radical in nature, people will likely dismiss it out of hand, unless you provide reasons as to how your plan will benefit the readers, the problem and the company.
Persuaders' Credibility
After you've established the problem, you must develop your credibility. Why should they pick your proposal over someone else's? Credibility can often be the sole deciding factor. There is a direct relationship between how radical your solution is to your credibility. The crazier your proposal, the more credibility you need to be seriously considered. In fact, gaining the credibility of someone with higher credibility can help you get the contract from your proposal.
Note: This is a political issue, but you should be aware that it can greatly affect your chances of winning.
Logic of Message
After you've addressed the audience's concerns and shown your credibility, you need to make sure your proposal is logical. You must be able to build a sound case, with valid, reliable evidence. After that, prepare yourself to counter any possible opposing views. You can accomplish both of these objectives by reasoning either inductively or deductively.
Induction is reasoning from the specific to the general. You can learn about an entire group of people by studying a few specific representative examples, then applying what you learned to the whole.
Deduction is reasoning from the general to the specific. Deduction is usually applied in a three-part statement:

Major premise - general statement about an entire group
Minor premise - statement about an individual within the group
Logical conclusion - conclusion about the individual

An example of deduction is this:

In an accident, smaller SUVs are safer than larger SUVs. (major premise: all A are B)
The Toyota RAV is a small SUV. (minor premise: C is an example of A)
In an accident, the Toyota RAV will be safer than a larger SUV. (logical conclusion: therefore, all C are B)

Be careful to avoid false deductions, like (All redheads are pale, Marcia has pale skin, therefore Marcia is a redhead.)
Your response to audience needs, awareness of your credibility and building logical arguments will go a long ways towards helping you win the case.
Writing an RFP
If your RFP is poorly planned or written, you will receive the same type of proposals in return. A well written, thought out RFP will generally produce the same type of proposals in return. The following seven points need to be considered when writing an RFP. These steps do not need to be considered linearly.

Identify the Problem or Opportunity - Why is it important, who cares about it?
Provide Background Information - Include information about your organization as well as information about the specific problem or opportunity.
Define the Desired Outcome - What do you want to happen? How will the outcome affect other things in the organization?
Specify the Product or Service You Need - Convey what it is you want or need, but leave room for creativity and realize that your perspective will change the further into the outcome you get and you may need to change some things.
Require Detailed Information about the Organization and Personnel - Look into the the experience of people working for the proposal company, their available equipment and work history.
Provide Process Information - Give essential details about the entire proposal process, such as: Dates, project details to be considered, proposal submitted for consideration, and the criteria you will be using to evaluate the proposals.
Establish Criteria for Selection - There is a fantastic chart that shows this much better than I can explain in words on the top of page 691. Check it out.

Preparing Proposals

To prepare a good proposal it is easier if you know why so many are turned out or rejected. Dr. Allen, Chief of the Division of Research grants at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) compiled a list of reasons why over 600 of proposals to the NIH were rejected. These reasons can easily be adapted to other kinds of proposals.

~ 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

Planning

Preparing proposals will generally go more smoothly in you plan the project ahead of time. The following guidelines will help.

~ Be aware of deadlines. Submit proposals early if possible. They will not be accepted if they are late.

~ 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

once you have the schedule established you need to plan a detailed review of whats expected by studying the RFP carefully. the fallowing guidelines should help the planning.

~ Read and reread the RFP. Characterize the organization (read the mission statement) and analyze the situation.

~ Identify and substantiate the problems or opportunities you are addressing. Include the hot buttons associated with those problems or opportunities.

~ If at all possible, meet with the key people involved to discuss the problem or opportunity.

~ Propose a plan that responds to the problems or addresses the opportunities.

~ Organize the plan in an outline or a flowchart to help you create schedules and budgets.

~ Know the evaluation criteria that will be used to determine acceptance or rejection.

~ Analyze probable competition.

~ Consult with coleagues to receive feed back about the plan.

~ Create a manageable budget for implementing the proposal.

Drafting

When you are ready to begin drafting your proposal you need to turn again to the RFP. These fallowing guidelines may help during your drafting.

~ If an RFP exists, follow it exactly. If no recommended format exists, use the generic one presented in this chapter. If you use the language of the RFP, you demonsrate to the audience that you understand the situation.

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

~ Provide information about thte 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.

many RFP's use a specific format however others do not. If there is not a structure recommended inquire if one is typically used in the particular business or organization. If no standard exists use the generic structure...

Budgeting

budgets are usually a rather important part of proposals. The budget shows planned expenses and perhaps income, shown in a list or spreadsheet. Typical budgets usually include items such as direct costs, equipment travel, office supplies, and postage. While putting a budget together you need to identify what indirect costs could arise. These overhead expenses can include a percentage of of the expense of operating costs of the facilities, using the service of staff and using specialized equipment.

Most proposals also require a budget narrative, which helps explain each individual item within your budget, linking each one to the implementation and evaluation of your plan. Unless the RFP specifies a specific format for your budget narrative you can use one of these three ways:

1) Add a column to the budget summary or spreadsheet called "Budget Narrative" and provide an explanatory sentence for each line item.

2) Add a footnote reference to each line item and list the explanatory sentences in footnotes directly following the budget itself.

3)Provide a separate subsection in which you explain the rationale for each category (and line items as necessary) in short, coherent paragraphs.

Evaluating

2007-10-30T12:05:00.000-05:00

Chapter 18: Preparing Correspondence

Objectives and Outcomes:

-Understand that correspondence, an important kind of technical communication, does not exist in a vacuum, nor does it have rigid format prescriptions.
-Compose correspondence using appropriate planning strategies, selecting appropriate content, and developing an appropriate organization so the document is legible, readable, and usable.
-Present good news in direct (descending) order. Present bad news in indirect (ascending) order.
-Positively influence readers’ perceptions of your professional competence by using direct language, adopting a you-attitude rather than an I- or we-attitude, focusing on readers rather than yourself, and avoiding exclusionary language.
-Understand and respond to the factors in the rhetorical situation that affect the composition and interpretation of correspondence.

Characterizing Correspondence

-Audience: Although notable exceptions exist, correspondence typically address one person or an identified group of people—for example, coworkers, managers, customers and clients, suppliers, and the press.
-Composing and Revising: Because you are usually familiar with your audience’s expectations and your content (queries from you or information for them), correspondence is often written fairly quickly and may not undergo as many revisions as other technical documents.
-Datedness: Because correspondence usually responds to a current situation, the information is most e-mail messages, memos, and letters need to be updated more frequently than other technical documents.

Delivering Correspondence
Headings:
-Check the To line of your e-mail message to confirm that you are responding to the appropriate person or persons (and not to an entire list if you don’t intend to.
-Include a brief descriptive note in the Subject field to aid reading, storing, and searching at the other end. “RE: RE: FWD: RE: Phone Call” is not a descriptive subject line.

Content:
-Cover only one topic per message to make replying, forwarding, or organizing achieved messages easier.

-Keep the message brief and on topic.
-Indicate the content of the original message when replying by quoting pertinent portions or by summarizing the subject. You do not need to copy the entire message.
-Do not respond immediately to a message that upsets you; in all cases, avoid flaming, which is an unprofessional, emotional, and usually rude electronic response. If you would be unprofessional to say the words over the phone or face-to-face, avoid sending them in an electronic message.
Audiences
-Write as if the whole world will read your message, because messages can be easily and accidentally forwarded.
-Confirm that the reciepent actually received and important message by asking for acknowledgement.

Conventions
-Begin with an appropriate saluation such as the person’s name. Do not begin a workplace e-mail with “Hey.” (Sometimes in a rapid-fire series of very short e-mails between a small group of people, salutations may be omitted after the initial identities have been established.)
-Spell and use words with care.
-Avoid emoticons and cutsey, abbreviated spellings in professional correspondence, such as J or “c u” for “see you.”
-Avoid using all caps. This is considered SHOUTING. Use upper- and lowercase text.

Composing E-Mail messages, Memos, and Letters
The following guidelines should help you compose effective correspondence:
-Include a descriptive subject line if appropriate.
-Address your audience directly.
-State objectives or ask questions initially; follow with explanatory material.
-Organize material in direct (descending) order if you anticipate a neutral or positive response.
-Organize material in indirect (ascending) order if you anticipate a negative response.
-Enumerate or bullet items for clarity.
-Be specific about the action (if any) that you want the reader to take.
-End with a friendly comment.

When composing e-mail, memos, and letters you should consider these factors to make your document more comprehensible usable:
-Attitude and tone
-Organization or information
-Format

Domino Effect of Correspondence
Any single message can trigger a series of e-mail messages, memos, and letters. It is all part of the communications process between and within companies.

The first example starts with a complaint letter to Tele-Robics, Inc. from a customer. This is then followed by a series of e-mails and memos. With each one there are specific guidelines and formats to organize the document.
-Complaint Letter from Customer
Audience: customer states complaint early and explicitly.
Professional practice: customer chooses a formal salutation, based on the fact that he doesn’t know the recipient of the letter.
Action: customer asks that the problem be corrected.
Information: customer reviews history of the problem, and states what has been done to try and fix the problem.
Format: customer chose a usable format and a standard block style.

2007-10-24T11:31:00.000-05:00

Chapter 16: Creating Process Explanations

Erin Collopy and Tom Wilmes

Objectives and Outcomes

Understand that process explanations present an overview of sequential actions in chorological order.
Use process explanations as part of larger documents, including manuals, orientation and training materials, marketing and promotional materials, and public information.
Use a conventional sequence of technical description, process explanation, and benefits or advantages that an audience can use.
Prepare effective process explanations.

Defining Processes

Process explanations explain sequential actions to members of an audience who need enough details to understand an action or process, but not enough to necessarily enable them to complete it. These processes must be accurate and accessible to work.

An example of this would be a rubric for a class assignment.

Using Process Explanations

Process explanations often appear in the same kinds of documents as technical descriptions. Here you can decide whether to include the process explanation and what kind of details to include by examining the purpose and task of the document.

-Will the process explanation help accomplish your purpose?

-Will it help the reader understand the process?

Reports

Provide the audience with background information for understanding critical technical processes. The typical sequence for a report’s introduction is the Technical Description, Process Explanation, and Benefits or Disadvantages.

Task Manuals

They are used to complete complex tasks accurately.

Orientation and Training

Managers frequently appreciate simple straightforward process explanations students may need more detailed info

Marketing and Promotional Materials

Process explanations are best defined in a context of complete information.
It is more useful to define, describe, and illustrate the background of a process and its materials first, then show them how to do it.

Public Information and Education

Readers of general interest publications are usually interested in technical information. Not all of these readers may have the knowledge to fully understand the process though. Therefore, one could use more pictures or more text and simpler definitions to convey the message to the reader.

Preparing Processes

Audience and Purpose

Identifying your audience and their purpose for reading your document or watching your presentation will more fully help you understand how to prepare the process explanation.

Identification of Steps

An essential part of process explanation is defining the steps. If the time needed to complete a step is important, be sure to include that too.
The order of steps forms a guideline to easily follow for the process explanation. It will also help in your choice of visuals.

Effective visuals for process explanation

· Flowcharts

· Timelines

· Schedules

· Drawings

· Time-lapse photographs

· Sequential drawings

Diction

· The audience and purpose will affect which language you use. An important decision is to use an active voice or a passive voice. A passive voice when you want to emphasize the recipient of the action. Use an active voice when you want to emphasize the doer of the action.

· Active voice: The automatic timer activated the machine.

· Passive voice: The machine was activated by the timer.

· Notice how the machine is receiving the action in the passive voice and the timer is giving the action in the active voice.

Organization and Format

· Since process explanations are usually chronological, headings and subheadings are effective at telling the reader when the process moves from one step to the next.

· Obviously, the less expert the audience, the less complex the information should be. But, non-experts may need a more careful explanation which could take longer than the experts’ explanation.

· Numbering the steps is also optional, depending on the audiences needs.

Chapter 15

2007-10-22T19:31:00.000-05:00

Chapter 15
Creating Technical Descriptions
By: Jake Droessler and Elijah Wreh

Objectives and Outcomes:

-Understand that technical descriptions’ can be used to organize specific details about, substances, mechanisms, organisms, systems, and locations for an identified audience.
-Summarize physical characteristics, answering questions you expect your readers to have about appearance, acceptability, and impact.
-Use technical descriptions in observation notes, manuals and training materials, proposals and reports, marketing and promotional materials, and public information and education.
-Prepare technical descriptions:

-Meet audience needs by answering their questions
-Partition your subject into structural parts and/or functional parts
-Adjust diction to audience needs, choosing accurate terms, and using appropriative
metaphors.
-Choose from a variety of visuals: photographs or realistic drawings, topographic and
Contour maps, phantom views, overlaps, schematics and writing diagrams, cross-
Section maps, exploded views, blueprints.
-Typically use spatial order to give a clear view of appearance and structure.

Defining Technical Description

The word descriptions have many meanings, but in short description summarize physical characteristics, answer questions you expect your readers to look at. Some of the characters of descriptions as are following: substance, mechanism, organism, system, or location. Some of the questions one may include ion their descriptions are: What is it or what are you talking about, the definition of what you talking about, who describe it, the purpose, importance and impact, the characteristics, appearance and parts involved.

Using Technical Description

This aspect of technical description explains when one needs to know how to use technical description. One needs to know when to use technical communication when writing a technical paper, article, or document. You need to also include a detail description about what you are talking about and writing. They are important because they will help you to know whether these descriptions will help in accomplishing your purpose, will a single description help the audience accomplish their purpose, and will the description help stop future problems.

Observation Notes

This part focuses on answering questions that will help in getting description of what you are writing about. After taking down observation notes, the notes, the notes will then will write down so the audience can read them, or may be used as the starting point for a more official document.

Training Materials

This involve the type of descriptive tools been used in description technical writing. It includes the type of system the technical writer will use and put into play. The materials need to be important in other for it play a pivotal role in your writing and give the audience an incite about what you talking about.

Proposals and Reports

The proposals can range in size from a one page letter to several hundred pages of feature specifications. In other words, the writing proposal is a vehicle that carries the terms of an agreement and form parts of the basis for a subsequent paper or document. The reports are incorporated in the description and served as overall aspect of the technical description.

Marketing and Promotional Pieces

Technical descriptions are both informative and persuasive when used in marketing materials. The main points are stressed and other information is put on the specification sheets (specs). These pieces often include visual aids.

Public Information and Education

Public information usually has a lot of description because it consists of details that people need to know. The three main forms of presentation for public information are newspapers, general-interest magazines, and Web sites. This information is usually accompanied by visuals.

Preparing a Technical Description:

Audience’s Task

Technical descriptions should address their intended audience. A writer needs to analyze the purpose of reading the document and identify what questions are expected to be answered:
·Why do users want or need the information? What is their task? In what ways will the information be important?
· Do they need information in order to understand a more detailed discussion that follows? Do they need to make a decision?
· Are users interested in a general overview or a detailed description?
· What details do the users need: Dimensions? Materials? Assembly? Function? Capabilities? Benefits?
Insufficient information will lead to unanswered questions. Use information that responds to the audiences’ probable questions.

Components

In order to describe something you need to separate it into different components. Some confusion can occur when trying to separate. To easily separate something you need to look at two parts:
Functional parts-perform clearly defined tasks in the operation of the device. Although there is one single structural part, it can have multiple functioning parts.

Structural parts-comprise the physical aspects of the device, without regard to purpose.

Diction

Diction of a technical description should be precise, so the information can be verified. To be able to be precise you need to:
1. Choose the most specific terms appropriate for your audience.
2. Choose technically accurate terms.
3. Consider the value of metaphor to convey descriptions.

Audience-appropriate terms

You need to cater your terms to your audience, bring the terms into their level. Not everyone is an expert on the topic so they need to be able to understand what you are talking about.

Accurate Terms

Using accurate terms is another way to be precise in technical descriptions. An example is differentiating between two and three dimensional objects. Is a ball round or is it spherical? By doing this you can avoid confusing your audience.

Figurative Language

Do metaphors, similes, and analogies give your readers a clear description? By looking at this question you can determine if your readers will understand the terms you are using to describe your subject.

Visuals

Using precise visuals is just as important as using precise diction. Visuals help your audience form a mental image of the subject you are describing. Remember to label and title visuals. The purpose of a visual is:
· Visuals give an overview.
· Visuals describe interior components; give an image of the way parts fit together.
· Visuals describe individual parts in relation to the whole; give an image of each individual component.
· Visuals show patterns.

Organization

When preparing a technical description, you need to decide on your sequence of information. Technical descriptions are usually given in spatial order to help the audience have a clear view of appearance and structure. Sometimes chronological order is used; an example would be how to assemble a staples box. Technical descriptions should have a title or a section heading. This gives a good definition and a statement of the purpose or function of the document. You may need to incorporate material elements that will increase interest in the document. Here are some elements that can help you add interest and appeal:

· Background information: What is the history? What are current developments?
· Parts-whole relationships: Where does the object fit in relation to similar ones?
· Qualitative distinctions: What separates it from similar objects?

The body of a technical description should use a part-by-part description arranged in order of location, assembly, or importance. Each section of the body needs to keep the same format.
The conclusion of a technical description needs to explain how the parts fit and function together. To make the conclusion more interesting tries to include the following elements:

· Applications: How is it used?
· Anecdotes or brief narratives: Who uses it?
· Advantages/disadvantages: What are the benefits and/or problems?

Chapter 14

2007-10-15T18:56:00.001-05:00

Chapter 14: Creating Definitions

By: Michael Adams

Objectives and Outcomes

Avoid problems caused by multiple meanings, complexity of meanings, technical jargon, and symbols.
Create several categories of definitions:

Informal definitions: synonym, antonym, stipulation, negative, analogy, and illustration
Formal definitions (species = genus + differentia)
Operational definitions summarizing steps involved in a function
Expanded definitions using etymology, history, and examples

Make appropriate decisions about using definitions in glossaries, information notes, and appendixes

Changes in Word Meanings
Not only do the meanings of words change in life but new words are coming into our language everyday. While writine a technical document you will have to define critical terms and when you do that you will have to make sure you use a definition that your audience can grasp.

Multiple Meanings
Some words will take on different meanings when they are used in different enviroments. For example focus in biology means the localized area a disease is in while when used in earth science it means where the origin of an earthquake is. These multiple meanings can screw up your document especially if your audience is mainly nonexpert professionals. To get by this problem make sure to note who your audience will be and adjust your definition accordingly.

Complexity of Meaning
Complexity can be looked at in two ways, simple or detailed. Your choice on which style to choose relies on the audience and the situation. If it is to long for your audience they may lose track of what the topic of your paper is or they may just not understand because you had made the definition too vauge.

Technical Jargon
This is another thing that will need to be explained and is sometimes looked over when a professional is explaining a topic to someone not in that profession. The best way to explain a piece of jargon sometimes is to do this:

Perhaps the most dangerous time exists when people are unaware of a robot's dwell-time. (Dwell-time is the time of inactivity between a robots motions)

Symbols
Not all parts of a technical document are verbal and sometimes you may use symbols. It is a very good tip to make sure you have an explaination of the symbols you used somewhere in your document so as to reduce confusion if your document is read by someone without a background in the topic.

Construction of Definitions
Effective definitions can answer many readers questions before they even ask them. After aswering the usual "What is it?" question your definition can answer questions concerning: Physical Appearance, Comparisons, Function, and Operation.

Formal Definition
Because dictionaries use a form of definition called formal definition many readers think that it is the only way to give a simple yet detailed definition of a subject. The format of a formal definition is always the same: Species equals Genus plus differentia.

For example: A robin is a thrush with a red breast and yellow beak.

Formal definitions can be any where from short and simple like the example or as detailed as an encyclopedia but all of them will share the same format.

Informal Definitions
These are the types of definitions we will use in communications that we usually don't even realize we are using them. There are six types of these defintions: Synonym, Antonym, Negative, Stipulation, Analogy, and Illustration. Three of these will be explained farther because they are very usefull to use in technical documents and in presentations

Analogies are very useful because they work great when trying to come up with a way to quickly define an object.
Illustrations are also very useful because there will be times where you have to explain something but by the time you are done as they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Stipluations are when you will give examples of how you would use your object normally and are also very usefull.

Operational Definitions
This definition will outline the key steps in a function. Situations that need an operational definition mainly need to answer questions like "How does it work?" Many times this definition will go beyond and help the audience visualize the appearance of your subject too.

Expanded Definitions

Expanded definitions explain and clarify information. They also maintain audience interest and can adapt a document, oral presentation or visual for a wider audience. The most common forms are etymology, history, and examples.

Presenting the etymology (the linguistic origin) of a term is appropriate for general audiences
The history of a term is also appropriate for general audiences as well as an audiences with technical experience in that field
Relevant examples have value to all audiences

Etymology

Etymologies anticipate questions such as: How did this object get its name? or how old is this word? By presenting the linguistic origin of a term sometimes gives insight into its current meanings. Etymology information is found in dictionaries or specialized reference books. Etymologies are a useful part of a definition if knowledge of the original meaning will increase your audiences understanding of the modern meaning and usage.

History

Presenting historical background about the development and use of the term or subject puts its current meaning into perspective. The historical background can cover thousands of years or decades.

Examples

Using specific examples to illustrate the application of a term effectively expands a definition.

Placement of Definitions

Writers of technical material have five basic choices for placing and incorporating definitions, although the choices are not mutually exclusive.

Glossary
Information notes and sidebars
incorporation information
appendixes
online help

Glossary

A glossary is a mini-dictionary usually located are the beginning or the end of a technical document. The definitions are usually located on the page were the term initially appears. There are advantages and disadvantages to having the glossary at the beginning or at the end. For instance by having a glossary at the beginning of a technical document the reader may not have a frame of reference and may not be able to judge which terms to focus on.

Information Notes and Sidebars

When readers need extended information it may interrupt the flow of the text if included in the main discussion. Presenting this information as information notes or sidebars gives the reader the option of reading the additional information if they need it.

Information notes may simply define a term. They also do many other things such as provide examples or cited related studies
Sidebars provide more elaborate information than footnotes or endnotes

Appendixes

Lengthy documents intended for readers with widely varying backgrounds often have difficulty appealing to the entire range of readers. For example if someone may be confused if a document jumps into a subject that they do not understand. An Appendix can be useful because it can provide nonexperts with much needed information while not boring the experts with information they already know.

Online Help

Online help systems are designed to provide users with information immediately in different formats. Some online help features include:

an alphabetic index of all help topics available to users of this software
a list of frequently used topics that often save time
on screen box that provides hints and wizards (shortcut to common practices)
a searchable database to answer questions

Virtually all these online help options include various kinds of definitions to assist users who are confused or stuck

Chapter 12 Summary

2007-10-07T22:09:00.000-05:00

Chapter 12 Summary: Using Visual Outcomes
By: Michael Jirik and Stephanie Kerkaert

Technical Visuals:

Visuals in contemporary technical documents should have a specific purpose and convey specific content. Not only do visuals attract attention and add appeal, they also strengthen documents in other ways.
1. Visuals can be more specific than text.
2. Well-designed visuals can usually be understood more easily than text.
3. Visuals can be processed more quickly than text.
4. Visuals help readers learn.

Incorporating Visuals:

Incorporating visuals involves balancing and integrating verbal and visual information, adjusting visuals for different audiences, and knowing when to choose visuals instead of text.
Visual/Verbal Combinations:
When deciding on appropriate visual/verbal combinations, there are several choices.

1. All text
2. Text with supporting visuals (More text than visuals)
3. Visuals with supporting text (More visuals than text)
4. All visuals

These proper use of these combinations should be taken into consideration in the following situations:
· When the audience's understanding of the technical content is limited.
· When speed is critical, and reading text would slow the process
· When the process is more clearly illustrated visually

Adapting Visuals to Audiences:
Visuals can be adapted to different audiences by the complexity of content, presentation, and sometimes color and size. Audience members who are not experts need more frequent and simpler visuals than experts. Since non-experts also may not understand visual conventions that experts readily recognize, they may need additional explanations beyond the standard level of titles, legends, and captions.

Conventions in Referencing and Placing Visuals:
Textual Reference- As a general practice, visuals should be referred to in the text. Include adequate information in your text reference such as the figure number and title. Textual references may be embedded references in sentences or parenthetical references.

Labeling- Complete labeling includes identification, title, and caption. The following conventions are generally followed to help readers locate, interpret, and verify visuals:

· If a formal report has more than five visuals or includes visuals that readers would need to access independently from the text, include a list of figures or list of tables at the beginning of the document.
· Include the complete dimensions of objects in each visual, making sure to specify the units of measure or scale.
· Whenever possible, spell out words rather than using abbreviations. If abbreviations are included, use standard ones and include a key.
· Identify the source of the data as well as the graphic designer.

Placement- Place visuals as close as possible following the text reference. Surround visuals with white space to separate them from the text of the document.

Visual Functions:
7 Major Functions of visuals:

1. Provide immediate visual recognition
2. Organize numeric or textual data (i.e. tables and diagrams)
3. Show relationships among numeric or verbal data (i.e. tables, graphs, and diagrams)
4. Define or explain concepts, objects, and processes (i.e. drawings, photographs, and diagrams)
5. Present chronology, sequence, or process (i.e. line graphs, flow charts, organizational charts, and milestone charts)
6. Illustrate appearance or structure, which may include describing objects or mechanisms (i.e. drawings, photographs, maps and diagrams)
7. Identify facilities or locations (i.e. maps, charts, schematics, and blueprints)

Function 1: Provide Immediate Visual Recognition-Some things need rapid visual recognition, and this can be provided by symbols that are used by most countries:
· A solid blue circle with a white symbol signals a safety precaution.
· A yellow triangle 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 the slash.

Function 2: Organize Numeric or Textual Data-Numeric and textual information identifying the characteristics of ideas, objects, or processes can be displayed in tables. Established conventions for designing and effective table:
· Place columns to be compared next to each other.
· Round number is possible.
· Limit numbers to two decimal places.
· Align decimals in a column.
· Label each column and row.
· Use standard symbols and units of measure.
· Use footnotes for headings that are not self-explanatory.
· Present the table on a single page whenever possible.

Function 3: Show Relationships-Spatial relationships are often depicted in various kinds of maps, although drawing and photographs are also frequently used. Quantitative relationships exist between two or more sets of data that can be displayed using several types of visuals, but the most frequently used are graphs, including line graphs, scatter graphs, pie graphs, bar graphs, and pictorial graphs.

Function 4: Define Concepts, Objects, and Processes-Visuals can be valuable as definitions, which can be more efficient and useful than textual descriptions. Visuals can illustrate details that are difficult to describe, where explaining the same information in words would not be as effective.

Function 5: Present Action or Process
Action can be presented by showing a sequence of drawings, such as the movement of a whale breaching as shown in Figure 12.28 in the text. Action and process may also be depicted by charts. Block charts show divisions and subdivisions of a system or process. An organizational chart shows division of hierarchy. A flowchart shows a sequence of steps in a process and sometimes how long each step takes. Charts provide a basic visual overview.

Function 6: Illustrate Appearance, Structure, or Function
The best way to present physical characteristics visually is to provide diagrams and drawings. Diagrams illustrate the complex physical components and structures of objects, mechanisms, or organisms. Adding labels and color help to enhance diagrams. Drawings can depict the actual appearance of an object or organism. They can delete unnecessary information and be simple to still be effective.

Function 7: Identify Facilities or Locations
Maps are used to show geographic information. They can be categorized into topographic, demographic, agricultural, meteorological, or geological data. Maps can also refer to web sites by providing information to the overview of the website. Maps provide boundaries, symbols, population density, land elevations, and so on. Photographs provide an actual view of a subject. Photos can be taken of objects through a microscope to view details of such small things not able to be seen by the human eye. There can also be aerial and satellite photos.

Conventions in Use of Color
Color can be an extraordinarily powerful tool to help create more effective visuals when the appropriate conventions are followed.

Cautions against Misuse of Color:
Problems to Avoid:
· Overuse of decorative color
· Too much color
· Cultural insensitivity

Suggestions for Appropriate Use of Color:
· Signal Safety: The most widespread international agreement about the use of color is probably with traffic lights. Government agencies and international organizations use color to signal various conditions as well as levels and kinds of dangers.
· Attract attention: Color can attract readers to the topic. A colored drawing will likely attract more attention than a black and white drawing of the same thing.
· Enable accurate identification: Colors can help readers focus on certain features of the object. For example, by using green to symbolize the lymphoid system, the reader can easily distinguish the lymphoid system from other systems of the body.
· Show structure or organization: Using color to relate specific information makes it easier for the readers to understand. They are able to chunck information together.
· Highlight components and their process or movement: Color can show readers a path of movement through a visual and track changes.
· Aid Comprehension: Color can make an image easier to understand. Colors in photographs may be added to create "false colors" to images with shades of gray or pictures already with color may be intensified.
· Influence interpretation: Color influences the way viewers interpret information in visuals such as phase diagrams, which are familiar to chemists, physicists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists.

Color in Designing Electronic Documents:
Color in electronic documents is just as important as color in paper documents. One must consider different elements that will affect the way in which the visual is viewed. Some things to take into consideration is whether the image will be viewed on a screen of higher or lower resolution, in a room with dim or bright lights, and if the document will be printed. If the document might be printed, consider how the color may differ from on screen to on paper and how it might look if it is in black and white.

Chapter 13 Summary

2007-10-07T14:38:00.000-05:00

Greg Gehrman and Jake Vorhies

Chapter 13

Designing Electronic Communication

Objectives:

Identify the characteristics and features of effective electronic communication
Understand the principles of effective design for various electronic media
Analyze key aspects of information architecture: organizing, labeling, and navigating
Analyze key aspects of effective Web page/screen design: layout, color, and graphics
Understand the standards and tools fro designing electronic communication
Understand the iterative design process
Assess Web sites for usability and accessibility

Characterizing Electronic Communication:

Interactive and nonlinear: accomplish tasks, sometimes something as simple as accessing information on static web pages.
Virtual and open: The virtual spaces allow users to move beyond boundaries at will. Standards and conventions are fluid, leading to varied designs and functionality, and often uneven experiences.
Complex and dynamic: Integrate diverse components.

Types of Electronic Communication:

· Computers

· Cell phones

· PDAs

Web sites and web-enabled environments:

-The World Wide Web is the largest part of the Internet, a huge network comprised of other networks and millions of individual computers. Internet traffic is routed along a number of backbones, which are primary networks owned by organizations and companies.

Audiences and Electronic Communication:

· Reading and Navigating Electronic Communication- Reading electronic media is not simply reading an electronic display of information; instead, it is interactive and brings with it a number of complications.

o Screen and page size- How much the reader can see at one time

o Legibility- How easy it is to read what’s on the screen

o Responsiveness- How quickly should a system respond to users’ actions

o Navigation-How easily can readers navigate the Web site

o Equipment and service- How much are readers constrained by physical realities

· Navigating Electronic Communication- finding different ways to look through the Web site and arriving at the same page.

Principles and Practices of Effective Design:

Information Architecture: The Framework that structures content.
Page/screen Design: The look and feel of the information in the space on the screen, another mechanism to help users understand information organization context.
Content: Is organized and written differently from electronic communication than for traditional print documents.

Information Architecture:

Organizing information:

Categories of information available to users are determined.
Relationships of categories of information are established
Pathways through information are created based on judgments about relationships among categories by the designers
Points of interaction are established

Labeling Information: Labels are pervasive in electronic communication. Labeling information effectively is one of the most important ways that you can assist users of electronic information, because people tend to scan electronic materials for key words.
Navigating Information:

Menus: Are generally horizontal or vertical lists of links to sections or individual pages within a Web site.
Breadcrumb Trails: Are sequential lists of pages that let users know where they are on the site and where they have been in relation to either the site’s home page or their entry point onto the site.
Embedded Link: Are links within text that take users to another page or site.

Page/Screen Design:

Layout

Content:
Identification:
White Space:
Scrolling:

Color
Graphics

JPG image: Joint Photographic Experts Group
GIF image: Graphics Interchange Format
PNG image: Portable Network Graphic

Developing Effective Content:

· Writing for Electronic Communication

o Be Concise

o Keep chunks of text short

o Use headings and bulleted lists

o Use active voice

o Consider international readers

o Use an “inverted pyramid” structure for organizing information

o Limit in-text links to other sites and provide information about the links you do include.

· Building Credibility

Standards and Tools

· Markup Languages, Scripts, and Programming

o HTML is a system of tags that, when inserted into plain-text documents, tell Web browsers how to display documents.

· Style Sheets and Templates

o Style sheets contain information about elements such as fonts, heading levels, colors, and backgrounds.

o Templates can also be used to manage the layout of Web pages.

· Style Guides

o Include info about the way that particular info is designed and should be maintained.

Understanding the Iterative Design Process

· Planning the Iterative Process- you need to know its purpose and scope, the overall look and feel, the resources you’ll need, limitations you must contend with, and the schedule.

· Analyzing existing sites

o Can cut your planning time by allowing you to identify what works and what doesn’t.

· Creating prototypes of your Web site

o Involves developing mock-ups of ideas for your Web site and brainstorming those ideas with team members, clients, and possibly potential users.

· Coordinating the Process

o Make sure that everyone in the group know what they are doing

Ensuring Usability and Accessibility:

Understand the opportunities and limitations of the virtual environment 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.
Concentrate on good design principles and integration rather than on what “cool” things you can do with programming languages, unless those functions help the majority of your audience receive the information and services you are offering.
Use various methods for providing information so that you accommodate the greatest number of visitors.

Features of Accessible Electronic Communication:

Provide alternative representation of information
Use alternative tagging
Add transcripts and captioning to audio

Individual and Collaborative Assignments:

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?

Compare impact of screen size

What are the differences in screen display?
What are the differences in the ways content is presented?
What is gained or lost in the different screen sizes? In content? In convince?

Credibility of Web sites
Credibility of nonprofit organizations
Assess the usability of your university’s Web site
Create a prototype for a Web site
Consider privacy policies

How easy is locating the privacy policy?
Does the site appear to collect information about visitors? If so, what information is collected? How is it collected?
Does the site appear to share the collected information? With whom and why?
How can users “opt out” of information collection?

Assess Web writing style

In what ways does the writing conform to principles of effective writing for the Web?
In what ways does it fail to conform?

Nicky Bleiel

2007-10-04T12:28:00.001-05:00

Nicky Bleiel presented to our class on Tuesday September 25 about wikis. She is employed by ComponentOne based out of Pittsburgh, Pa. The trip was a company sponsored event. Prior to speaking for our class she had made a trip to St. Louis, MO where she presented to an STC Chapter.

Knowledge management is the way organizations gather, manage, and use the knowledge that they acquire. The organizations depend on human communication to pass on knowledge. A wiki is a collaborative website that can be edited by anyone who is allowed access. The most commonly used wiki is Wikipedia. Wiki’s give businesses a competitive advantage in the business world. By sharing information between the employees of the company, businesses are able to have a broader knowledge of multiple topics. They stay up to date on current issues, updates, and new changes within the corporation. This saves the company time which enables them to be more productive. It also makes working together in an office setting easier. If members of a team are unable to meet together they can still share their information with each other and get it in a timely fashion.

Wikis are a very useful tool when it comes to knowledge management. In an environment where groups need to work together and coordinate ideas, they are almost essential. Wikis provide a method of sharing information that can be updated or corrected by anyone in the group. This means that information is accurate almost constantly, no matter what circumstances may occur. Another great thing about Wikis is that everyone has access to it. One part of the group may be in Europe, while the other part may be in Florida, but they have access to the same information, while still having the ability to update it.

There are several drawbacks to using a wiki that should be considered. Initially wiki users may have problems with the format and syntax rules associated with the wiki, although editor programs are available and relatively simple. Another problem could be maintaining a navigation/organization that matches site growth, which would entail some type of supervision to ensure data, is entered into appropriate areas and does not have excessive redundancies. This navigation/organization maintenance also is concerned with finding a balance between the original structure of the wiki and how content from the group is used on it. If users are entering their information in different and unexpected ways, the wiki may need to be restructured to comply with these changes. One of the most common concerns with a wiki is that users may use the wiki maliciously, adding false information or obscene content. False information or obscene content pose real problems for wikis which are open for public access on the internet. All of these drawbacks are important points to be considered if someone may be planning on implementing a wiki. These negative aspects of the wiki provide valuable knowledge about the credibility and effectiveness of wikis as internet web sources and areas in which to work.

There is a lot of information about Knowledge Management and opportunities that lie behind the computer screen. There is a move towards wikis and with good reasons. The information that Nikki taught us many important things in her presentation and our class greatly appreciates the time she has taken to come and present to our class.

Chapter 11 Summary

2007-09-30T21:10:00.001-05:00

Chapter 11 Summary
Mike Hutton and Cameron Klundt

Information Design
Information Design can be most easily defined as simply the way you organize a document. Burnett explains 5 elements of Information Design that people should be aware of when creating a document

5 Categories of Design
Textual- The characters, such as letters, numbers, and symbols that are used in a document.
Spatial- The white spaces in the document, as well as placement of textual and graphical elements.
Graphic- Visual images, bullets, lines, arrows, punctuation. Any visual aid in a document.
Color and Textural- The details regarding color, such as hue and saturation. Also texture of the surface of document, such as glossy or smooth.
Dynamic- The motion that is implied in a document. The flow that your eyes follow in a document.

Chunking and Labeling Information
Chunking and labeling information creates an easier path for the reader to navigate the document. This involves organizing topically relevant information together. This makes the document flow and makes it easier to understand.
Using White Space to Chunk Information- Once you have deciphered how to organize your document, white space can help you chunk it. There are a few ways to do this:
Margins: the widths of white space on either side, top, and bottom of text.
Alignment: how the text-lines measure up to each other. For example, a fully justified alignment will line up each side of the document, so that each line of text is the same length.
Leading and Line Length: how long the text lines are, and the spacing in between lines. A larger space between lines makes a document easier to read, but creates a longer looking document.

Headings to Label Chunked Information
Used to let the reader easily identify the topic of the upcoming information. Can be a sort of ultra-short summary of the text in that section. Also allow readers to take a mental breath between bits of information.
Arranging Related Chunks of Verbal and Visual Information
When a project is underway it is important to start with a good sold base. The base in Verbal and Visual include how many columns are used and how the pictures are integrated with the text.

Using Design Conventions
When arranging a text it is important to look at the whole page as a grid. This allows an individual to organize the textual and visual chunks. The use of columns is most common. Pages that have one column are often for in-house technical reports, two columns for operation manuals, and three columns for newsletters. How pictures are integrated is important as well. It is preferred to have a picture in with the wording but only if there are a few pictures. Having too many pictures can be distracting.

Avoiding Problems in Arranging Information
Chartjunk- Miscellaneous graphic junk that serves no point
Tombstoning- Making headings to long and posing potential confusion.
Heading placement- Not Having enough space between headings.
Window and orphans- Making sure there are not a few words on the next line resulting in a lot of excess space.

Emphasizing Information
Creating a document or Webpage it is important to make certain information stand out and catch a reader’s eye. There are pre designed web pages that can help you make the right information stand out, in a good way.

Typefaces
When an individual uses a font that affects the reader’s attitudes and reactions it is called typeface.
Serif or sans serif- Most common uses tiny fine lines at the top and bottom of letters.
Typeface variations- Proper selections should influence a reader and should not be difficult to read.
Type Size- Using the proper size font will encourage readers, too large or small will sway readers.
Style Choice- Using different styles including bolding and capitalization can highlight dangers and warnings, will draw attention to important details.

Typographic Devices
It is sometimes needed to distinguish between text with the use of numbered lines, bullets, underlining, boxes, and other various ways.
1.) Number lines are common when a list of instructions is given and a proper order must be followed.
· Bullets are used when all items of a list are equivalent.

Underlining- should only be used for hyperlinks, was originally used in typewriters that did not have a bold or italics keys.

Boxes and shading are used to emphasize information.

Color provides emphasis by allowing information to stand out from the rest of the document.

Chapter 8

2007-09-30T10:17:00.000-05:00

Chapter 8
Revising and Editing
By: Elijah Wreh

Objective and Outcomes:

Differentiate various types of revising and editing and develop the skills required to complete these tasks.
Revise and edit to make documents, presentations, and visuals more accessible, comprehensible, and usable.
Understand that revising is a global function involving complex, interrelated strategies and decisions.
Identify and correct inconsistencies and errors in a draft.
Review a draft of a document that has been carefully edited and then analyze the resulting final version to study the impact of the changes.

Types of Revising and Editing

-Revising primary focus is on intercontinental aspects of the document which include content, organization, argument, and design.
-Substantive editing focuses on global aspects of the document.
-Design review focuses on the overall design of the document.
-Copyediting focuses on global aspects which include logic and format and locals are language conventions along with consistency.
-Proofreading involves eradicating typographical errors in the electronic version without comparing to the original.
-Administrative editing focuses on compliance with the organization’s policies and management of a range of tasks related to electronic.

The Revision Process

Revision of a piece of document or paper play a pivotal role in one writing career; As a matter of fact, when ever one write a paper or a document one need to carefully go over it several times in other to eliminate grammatical errors. Another option could be asking other people who are experts in English to go over your paper for common errors and mistakes. In addition to this, one need to get feedback, make acknowledgment and select strategy.
Redesigning Documents
For this part, one needs to design a pragmatic formula that will help in their revision process. A formula that will give readers the nitty-gritty of what you are actually talking about and meant in your paper or document.
Revision Strategies
As a matter of fact, in other for one to be a successful writer one need to be innovative and creative in their writing styles. This can only be done if one engages in a number of revision strategies that will help them with their document, oral presentation, or visual in a new dimension. Moreover, for this process to be successful and implemented well, one can text changes to encourage re-vision and design changes to encourage re-vision.

Levels of Edit

The word editing means going over a piece of document or paper for grammatical errors. Henceforth, an effective editor can only improves a document’s by going over it at least three to four times and ask other people to go over it too. The term content accuracy is the job of the writer or editor to carefully check on each other for errors. For instance, in the print media there are writers, editors, and editor-in-chief. When the writer writes his stories it is taken to the editorial staff for errors and editing before publication to the general public. The design review basically assures the consistency of all elements of design, from small to large.

Common Copyediting Problems

This aspect of revision and editing include four areas which include: use concrete details, use direct language, use positive phrasing and eliminate wordiness.
-The use of concrete details explains how to use words that are concrete and refer to what actually you are talking and writing about. This will help you make your writing precise and accurate if you use specific details and examples.
-The use of direct language should be simple and very plain. The use of indirect language will result in inappropriate attempt to use inflated or abstract language. So, use words and language that are very easy to understand.
-The use of positive phrasing: effective writers need to put into play positive and good phrasing for several reasons. A good phrasing will send positive signal to the audience.
-The elimination of wordiness: using too many words or the act of wordiness can make your writing difficult to understand because the audience is forced to reinvest through unnecessary wording to read important information.

Proofreading

Before any document is published it has to go through oral presentation and visual approval. One needs to carefully proofread and do a final check. During proofreading, one does not need to add new information and to rewrite. It required a straight check for accuracy and consistency in five different perspectives: mechanical conventions (include punctuation and spelling), grammatical conventions (include grammar and usage), design conventions (include typographical errors and visual displays), disciplinary conventions (include abbreviations and citations) and typographical conventions (symbols and numbers).

Individual and Collaborative Assignments

-Edit sentences for wordiness.
-Revise law to make more comprehensible.
-Use a software editing program.
-Evaluate a software editing program.
-Interview a professional.

Chapter 10 Summary

2007-09-27T14:55:00.000-05:00

Chapter 10 : Organizing Information

Laura Sanders & Bart Hall

Objectives and Outcomes:

Organize information as part of knowledge management

Use outlines, storyboards, and tables as tools to test various ways to organize information

Use topic sentences and transitions to signal organization

Use conventional organizational patterns-whole/parts, chronology, spatial order, ascending/descending, comparison/contrast, cause and effect-to present information verbally and visually

Transforming Information into Knowledge
Turning information into text is sometimes a very messy process. Organizing information is one way you can insure that the information will be correct. Also take into affect the audience(s) when you are in the planning stages. Your goal should be creating an audience-based document or presentation so that readers or views can get an understanding of your topic.

Developing the Organization for Information

Outline: Outlines should stay flexible so you can change things easily without having to rewrite most of your document or visual. Outlines are not intended to restrict you, they are tools used for managing information. Outlines do not need to be formal, you can simply jot down information as you get it. They can be useful in planning, organizing, and drafting your document.

Storyboards: Storyboards have two broad purposes: 1) a powerful organizing tool for writers and designers, and 2) a short, dramatic visual summary showing the gist of the final product. Storyboards are a related sequence of hand-drawn or electronic sketches of pages or screens that organize their critical points. Using a story board can help you plan highly visual projects such as tutorials, training videos, ads, and web sites. They can be either passive or active. A passive storyboard is a simple sequence of thumbnail sketches or screenshots of a web site. Active storyboards usually require the user to be engaged in the process, and example would be power point presentation.

Storyboard Guide Lines:
-Don't invest a lot of time or effort, keep storyboards sketchy.
-Keep them easy to modify.
-Make them interactive if possible.
-Make them early and often, always use them on a protect that is new or innovative.

Tables and Spreadsheets for Organizing Information: These enable you to classify information into comparable groups and identify categories of detail about each group. If you create spreadsheets on the computer you have the advantage of numeric data. You can organize and interpret data using various formulas. Using color in a table is also very critical to many professionals including scientists, designers, and printers.

Implementing the Organization or Information

Alphabetical Order, Numeric Order, and Continuums: Alphabetical order of organization is most useful with such documents as dictionaries, encyclopedias, glossaries, indexes, and phone books. Numeric systems are effective because each item is identified by a single number. A continuum is used to rank or rate objects being used.

Topic Sentences: A topic sentence identifies both the content and organization or a paragraph. Transitions act like glue that connect ideas and sentences within a paragraph. They can also link paragraphs, and relate one section of a document to another.

Whole /Parts Organization: This form of organization uses a relationship of whole parts whether it’s an object, idea, or entire system, and parts of that whole either on a micro level or a macro level. In whole/parts organization, the main idea is to have a clear, well thought out topic sentence which is then broken down into further detail to make the information more comprehensive and accessible.

Chronological Order: This is used when the purpose is to give instructions, describe processes, or trace the development of objects or ideas. This form presents material arranged in an order of sequence occurrence.

Spatial Order: This form involves arrangement by relative physical location and describes the physical parts of almost everything. For example, use of spatial order in the form of a blueprint will give you specification of dimensions for a machined part. It is very useful to have visuals with this kind of organization.

Ascending/Descending Order: Ascending order refers to putting quantifiable criteria in order of least to most important and descending is just the opposite. Types of this organization include a numbered list, bull’s-eye chart,percent graph, bar or line graph.

Comparison/Contrast: This type of organization will tell you the similarities or differences of a certain, topic, idea, or situation. Comparison will show the similarities and contrast will give you various differences. Some forms used in this specific type of organization may include paired photos, multiple or paired graphs, or a table.

Cause and Effect: This form deals with factors and results which can be moved from cause to effect or effect to cause. It is very important to know the differences between inductive and deductive reasoning when arguing a cause and effect situation. Inductive reasoning is going from specific instances to broad generalizations. Deductive reasoning moves from general premises to specific causes.

Using Information:
Organizing information helps you meet the needs of the content, purpose, and audience. Organizing can also help make a paragraph or document more understandable, as well as overcome some of the noise that interferes with a readers' acceptance or comprehension of information. Organization can also be used to adapt your material to the readers' attitude, by using what you know about your induction and deduction.

Chapter 9 Summary- Ensuring Usability

2007-09-23T19:58:00.000-05:00

Chapter 9 Summary
Ensuring Usability
Ron Schulz, Joseph Haack

Objectives and Outcomes
-characterize usability and understand the crucial role that its principles play in allowing people to accomplish tasks.
-understand factors that characterize usability and usability testing.
-differentiate and use and use text based testing, expert based testing, and user based testing
-identify, plan, and conduct various types of usability tests based on user and task analysis.
-define accessibility and understand the relationship between accessibility and usability.

Characterizing Usability
-usability is the process of putting user concerns and needs first over text features.
-the meaning of the term "text" has been expanded in this chapter to include: a combination of written words and visuals.
Critical principles of usability:
learnability
efficiency
memorability
error recovery
satisfaction

Characterizing Usability Testing
-Definition of: a process that gathers specific information about use from those who are similar to the intended users.
Purposes:
Immediate- ID problems prior to text's release
Long-term- to maintain a historical record of benchmarks and previous results to used for reference during development

-provides info about the way the users think, believe, feel and perform
-Usability testing ensures high-quality texts.
-Limitations: results are only as good as the test itself. They can’t be conducted on everyone in every situation. Keep the following in mind when designing a test: participants, situation, techniques, and procedures.

Types of Usability Testing
Text-based: incorporates checklists, readability tests, and computer programs to assess a text's features.
-Microsoft Word provides 2 types of readability test scores: Flesch Reading Ease (indicates how easy the text is to read), and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (rates text based on US grade level).

Expert-Based: used for assessing technical accuracy, selecting supporting evidence, and identifying the level of detail.
User-Based: gets information based on users. The US government urges the use of such testing because of its importance.

Concurrent Testing- creates realistic scenarios for the user to respond to
Retrospective Testing- includes questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and audience feedback cards.

Conducting Usability Testing
Consider the following issues when planning testing:
1. Goals
2. Criticality
3. Constraints
4. Schedule
5. Involvement
6. Timing
7. Goodness of fit
8. Ease of use
9. Usable Form
10. Updating

User Analysis- investigating the ways users think and how they differ individually. Usability is determined by how well the text works for users who want to accomplish certain tasks.

Task Analysis- selecting representative users who fit the target profile. Be sure to consider the following criteria that the users will face: task steps, resources, constraints, task environment, problems, and frustrations.

Implementing the test plan (steps)
1. Locate Representative Test Participants
2. Develop Strategies and Pilot Test for Inquiry
3. Identify and Prepare a Test Locations and Materials
4. Explain the Test Procedures to Participants
5. Conduct the Tests

Reporting Test Results
First, review data- then determine the critical findings. Then, organize the findings into prioritized categories. Once categories are organized and established, prepare a test report that includes the procedures, participants and findings.

Ensuring Accessibility
Accessibility focuses on providing access to information and services- especially to those who have disabilities (mobility, hearing, cognition, vision).
Principles of Accessibility:
· Equitable use
· flexibility in use
· simple and intuitive use
· perceptible information
· tolerance for error
· low physical effort
· size and space for approach and use

Accessibility and Electronic Communication
Websites need to be aware of and accommodating to their diverse audiences in order to optimize their objectives of sharing information.

Accessibility and Gov’t Regulations
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that the electronic and information technology of federal agencies, vendors and contractors must be accessible to ALL people with disabilities.

2007-09-16T23:19:00.000-05:00

Chapter Six Summary: Locating and Using Information

Tara Forner and Justin Tufte

Objectives and Outcomes
- Identify and se electronic database resources relevant to your research
- Execute a specific, targeted electronic search using advanced search techniques
- Gather research data using several nonelectronic techniques
- Integrate research successfully into your text
- Avoid plagiarism

Quantitative data- describe measurable elements (quantities) in mathematical or statistical terms
Qualitative data- describe observed or reported information (qualities)

Consider searching electronic sources in the following order:
-Library’s online catalog
-Online reference materials
-General reference database
-Disciple-specific database
-Government databases
-The Internet and World Wide Web

Online Catalog
Online Catalog includes; books, bound periodicals, audiovisual holdings, electronic resources. Each book is in the Dewey decimal system and sorted into different categories and then subdivided with individual numbers. This helps you be able to find the correct volume out of the stacks.

Online Reference Materials
Most of the references and materials used by reference libraries are online. Two of the most used are handbooks and specialized encyclopedias. Handbooks used their information in tables, charts, diagrams, graphs, and glossaries. Specialized encyclopedias are used for an overview because they summarize and discuss facts and theories about your subject.

General Reference Database
After using the first two searches then you can do a topic search for published articles. These articles are from academic journals, periodicals, and newspapers. They generally just provide an overview of the topic.

Discipline-Specific Database
These searches give you the chance to search publications and reports that relate to your initial search. They come in print, CD’s or online format.

Government Documents and Offices
U.S. government is required to publish many of its documents, research findings, and proceedings. There are many Web sites that are updated regularly by the U.S. government, which makes information cheap and easily accessible.

Web Research
You can use general and discipline-specific searches, but some of the most reliable include; www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, www.excite.com, and www.metacrawler.com.

Searching Electronic Resources
More and more print information is being turned into online formats. This may make searching more easier or more harder. It makes you use more advanced search techniques to be more specific on your topic search.
Consider the following critical questions so that you get information that will be more useful:
-What are the key terms? What are synonyms for these terms? What alternative terms are used to refer to the topic?
-What indexing source does the database use?
-How do you want o combine the terms?

Keyword Searches
These are more flexible searches that usually include parts of the word, phrases, or some combination of both. You usually use these in the beginning of your search when you are just trying to filter out not related topics.

Subject Searches
These are predetermined categories that you can search within the database. On some databases you can limit your search. Such as;
-Time frame. Do you want information from the past ten years? Five years? Current year?
-Types of materials. Do you want only books? Articles? Articles in refereed publications? Audiovisual materials? Presentations?
-Language(s). Do you want materials only in English? Also in German? French? Russian? Spanish? Chinese?
-Print Format. Do you want only titles? The full citation? The complete record with the abstract if it’s available? The full text?

Searching Other Sources
Although the internet is a great resource, there are many other resources that can be of great use.
Here are some of those resources:

Internal Records
This is the data that businesses or organizations keep about their transactions. This information may include financial transactions, manufacturing and marketing records, or shipping records.

Corporate Libraries
Organizations such as law firms keep extensive libraries for their employees. These libraries may provide many services that can provide help in finding information for employees.

Personal Observations
Personal observations have long been a great tool for collecting data. This would include experiments done by experts and even your own hands-on experience.

Interviews and Letters of Inquiry
In an interview you need to gather necessary information about the subject, approach the person you want to interview and identify the categories of question you want to ask. There are two broad categories of question:
- Convergent questions: have one correct answer.
- Divergent question: are open ended and are more useful in problem solving.

Surveys and Polls
These are very effective opinion gathering strategies. Surveys can be designed using any of six different types of questions:
- Dual alternatives: yes or no questions.
- Multiple choice: questions: a list of answers with only one that is correct.
- Rank ordering: order items according to preference.
- Likert scales: rate items numerically or verbally.
- Completions: fill in the blank to complete an item.
- Essays or open-ended question: allows full expression of one’s opinion.

Using Sources Ethically
With all of the information on the Web, plagiarizing has become easier and more frequent. One must if their sources are credible and how to incorporate the information from these sources into their projects without plagiarizing.

Assessing Credibility
The ease of posting information on the Web has made it difficult to judge whether information online is credible. You need to know where the information came from and if there are any biases or incorrect information in the material. Here are some key items to pay attention to when judging the credibility of a Web document:
- Authorship: Can you identify the author or webmaster on the site? Is the author identified as a person, a corporation, a university? What do you know about the credential of the author or organization? Does the site have a sponsor that might have vested interest?
- Timeliness: When was the site originally posted? When was the site last updated? How regularly is the site updated? Is the information current or outdated for your needs?
- Purpose: Can you determine from the design and content if the site is intended to inform, persuade, or sell? Can you determine the intended audience? Does the site have advertising banners? Do they affect the content?
- Content: How detailed and well-researched is the content? Does the new information confirm or disconfirm your prior knowledge? Does the author fully cite sources and link to respected sources to support assertions? Can you verify the author’s claims using other resources? Does the content contain spelling and grammatical errors? Can you identify a particular slant or bias to the information?

Avoiding Plagiarism
Plagiarism is when you use a piece of work that is not your own without attribution. Here are some instances of plagiarism:
- Using exact quotations from a document, presentation, Web sites, or visual designs and images without attribution.
- Using someone else’s unique ideas without attribution.
- Using someone else’s unique processes without attribution.
- Using a piece of work that has only been changed slightly without attribution.

Individual and Collaborative Assignments
7 tips when working on an individual or collaborative assignment:
- Learn about your own academic library.
- Learn about a corporate library.
- Recommend resources.
- Identify keywords and subject headings.
- Compare sources in your field.
- Compare internet sources.
- Interview a professional.
- Identify and correct plagiarism.

2007-09-16T23:05:00.000-05:00

Chapter 7 Summary

by Terry Fraser and Jed Stark

Planning and Drafting

Objectives and Outcomes

- Learn the strategies used by experienced writers as they explore, plan, and draft documents, oral presentations and visuals -
- As part of inventing and exploring, use a problem-solving process with proven strategies: brainstorming, 5 Ws plus H, cause-and-effect analysis, and synectics
- As part of planning, consider types of planning, use project-management tools, make decisions about rhetorical elements (content, purpose, task, audience, constraints, organization, and design), assess the logic.
- As part of drafting, select the appropriate person and verb mood, use plain language, avoid density, and use given-new constructions

Experienced writers typically ask whether their documents, oral presentations and visuals are accessible, comprehensible, and usable. In contrast, inexperienced writers tend to be concerned with whether they have enough content, minimize their planning, and not think much about the audience.

The following are steps professionals typically move through during the creative process:

-Inventing and Exploring

-Planning and Organizing

-Drafting and Designing

-Revising

-Editing

This chapter focuses on what happens in inventing/exploring, planning/organizing and drafting, and suggests a number of strategies to help you become more expert-like in these parts of the process. Revising and editing are the focus of the next chapter.

The writing process used to be described in three linear stages: pre-writing, drafting, and revising. Further research has shown that the steps are actually recursive, that is they can happen more than once, and more than one at a time.

It is a good idea to begin your writing process by asking questions. Questions about the context, the subject, the document, oral presentation, yourself and your role(as a writer, speaker or designer), reader or reviewer.Think about each of those possible questions and brainstorm some answers to them. For example: Why am I, the reader, reading this document? What is my previous knowledge on this topic? What do I need to know? What will influence my interpretation? Asking yourself these questions in advance helps you plan and organize your piece for your target audience. (See Fig. 7.5 p238 for an in depth list of questions)

Inventing and Exploring

Communicators spend a lot of time talking to themselves. Inventing ideas and listening to how they sound. You must run over your ideas, look up background references, make observations, do experiments and basically trouble shoot your entire idea until you believe it is at the best it can be.

Problem Solving Process

Effective problem solving can make your work much easier. individuals and groups in the workplace that want to be at their top production follow a problem-solving process. They initially:

1) Identify the context ( politics, policies, parameters for solutions) and the problem (which may be defined differently by different people)
2) They gather and evaluate information in order to set priorities.
3) They then typically formulate alternative possible solutions that may differ from conventional approaches, being careful to defer judgment about the preferred solution.
4) The individuals in the group then draw on their own knowledge and experiences with similar problems in order to determine the preferred outcome for success.
5) They later asses the alternatives and select on plan of action.
6) After finalizing the plan, they get started on the most appropriate, efficient solution, considering technical, organizational, and interpersonal factors.
7) As the solution is implemented, people need to monitor the individual and group performance against the outcome.

8) Now the group can finally evaluate their performance to determine the success of their problem solving process and the final product

Problem Solving Strategies
This chapter focuses on four different strategies for you to hopefully solve your problems.

- Brainstorming
- 5 Ws + H
- Cause-and-effect
-Synectics

We all should know what brainstorming is, the process of bouncing around a bunch of ideas without making a decision until at least a few ideas have been suggested. The 5Ws plus H is a common formula associated with journalism. Many of us i assume have run into this formula in many of or writing classes.

*Who- who is involved?

*What- What is involved? What should be Changed?

*When- When should it be done? when is the most appropriate or convenient time?

*Where- Where should it be done?

*Why- Why should it be done?

*How- How should it be done?

Another effective strategy that is common in quality control circle is the Cause-and-effect analysis, which focuses on the root cause of a certain problem. for a business causes of specific problems can be seperated into four categories, Machine, Employee, Material, and Method. There is a good chart on page 232 to give you an idea what this method involves.

The last problem solving strategy is Synectics. this is coined from the greek word syn, meaning "to bring together," and ectos, for "diversity." Together it suggests that this word means bringing together a diversified opinions or ideas. This encourages workplace professionals to combine unrelated ideas as a way of working with a certain problem. Doing this helps develop new perspectives and solutions. Using a variety of methods, such as metaphors, analogies, role playing, and simulations, the trouble-shooters first define the problem then they put themselves into it and using one of these methods act out the problem and see what they can do about it.

Planning and Organizing

There are three types of planning that experienced writers use prior to beginning drafting:

1. Schema-driven planning
2. Knowledge-driven planning
3. Constructive planning

Schema-driven planning is when you create a document according to an existing format or template. A schema is your knowledge, your mental image of what is expected for the given situation. If you were to write a memo, you know what it would look like, or a cake recipe, or a business letter. There is a certain format to each that is different from the others. Knowing these formats allows you to write what you need with less work on what it should look like, and what kind of information to include.

Knowledge-driven planning is when you have a great deal of knowledge about the topic your are writing about. For knowledge-driven planning to work, your information must be very well organized and to the point. Much like giving an informational speech on something you have a lot of knowledge about, it is easy to wander and follow tangents. Stay on task.

Constructive planning would be used if you have a very difficult writing task. You must use careful analysis of the purpose, audience, task and other constraints to successfully use constructive planning. It will however help to keep you organized, on task, and creating and meeting deadlines. Often, a combination of two or even all three types of planning are used.

Project Planning

Two types of charts can be used to help with time- and project-management: Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) charts and Gantt charts. PERT charts allow you track activities and show how they depend on each other, while Gantt charts use time lines to track activities. Both tools are easy to use with computer software, and can be used to keep all of the team members up to date with project deadlines and percentage complete.
A very important part of planning revolves around the ethics of the situation. No matter how accurate your information, or impressive your design, or how eloquently you speak, if you are perceived as unethical your audience won't think twice about what you have to say. You must find a balance between your personal beliefs and your public positions on your topic(s).

Assessing the Logic

You must make sure that your document is logical. Problems with logic generally fall into four categories:
1. Using data from authorities
2. Presenting facts without drawing inferences
3. Drawing inferences
4. Establishing causal relationships

Using data from authorities usually gets good response from audience members, but only if that authority is well grounded in the topic. Make sure you research the authorities you use, and try to use non-partial ones.
Having facts are great but if you don't show how they logically connect with your topic, they will only serve to confuse the audience.
During your planning, you obtain data and then draw inferences based on that data. Making hasty generalizations could lead to inaccurate inferences. Make sure there are multiple sources giving you the same conclusion, or you may have just happened to pick the only one with that conclusion when in fact the majority go the other way.
Lastly, when using cause and effect, be sure that the effect has sufficient cause. Some causes may be a sufficient cause(only one cause for the effect) or they may also be a contributing cause(cannot stand by itself, but helps other causes to bring about the effect).

Drafting
Drafting is writing of the text and prepping the visuals. There are many different approaches to this stage of the process, each different for writers, or speakers, and designers.

- You may want to create small pieces of the draft during the planning stage, write small notes of key points you don't want to forget and when your planning seems to be done you take these notes, develop them, and fill in the remaining spaces.

- You may sit down and compose or design from beginning to end without interruption.

- You may want to draw up an outline and notes or a rough sketch, using this a guide for when you write or draw, going back to them whenever you find a snag.

- you may generate an online outline or sketch as the framework of your document and then stick to this outline.

- You may want to take your time, work slowly as you ponder and polish your work as you go along and figure it out as you go.

- Or you may take the opposite approach and work very rapidly letting the ideas tumble out onto each other.

The best approach is to try several of these strategies in order to see which one works best for you. Also you need to look at drafting as a continual process, something that you are always doing as you go through your work, you draft as you think of new ideas, it is seldom a "do it once" part of the process.

Selecting Person

Choosing among first, second, or third person relies on the purpose and audience of your presentation or document. First person (I, We) is appropriate when you are narrating events in a sequence where you play a significant role. Second person (You) is normally reserved for instructions where readers are being directed to complete particular actions. Third person (He, She, One, It, They) is the most common, enabling you to emphasize the sequence of action rather than yourself or the readers.

Verb Mood

mood refers to the characteristics of various verbs which show a presenters attitude towards their statement. During your drafting, you should select verbs that convey the mood that is appropriate to the situation

- Indicative mood states facts or opinions or asks questions.

fact nurses us a rectal thermometer to take a baby's temperature

Opinion Child-care providers prefer a thermometer strip rather than a rectal thermometer for taking a baby's temperature.

question Why should child-care providers use a thermometer strip to take a baby's temperature?

-Imperative mood expresses commands or gives a direction.

command (you) Use a rectal thermometer to take a baby's temperature.

direction (you) Get a thermometer from the drawer labeled "Thermometers" in utility room II

- Subjective mood expresses recommendations, wishes, conjectures, indirect requests, and statements of conditions contrary to fact.

recommendation When children are hospitalized, we recommend that parents be wit them. (not are)

Wish I wish the clinic were able to provide more well-baby classes. (not was)

Conjecture If the budget were not cut, we would have electronic thermometers. (not was)

indirect request if the rectal thermometer were to break, a baby could be seriously injured. (not was)

condition The parent asked if the examination were almost over. (not was)

contrary to fact

Process explanations deal with observable, verifiable information which is why is written in indicative mood. however you also need to be able to recognize and use imperative mood and subjective mood in appropriate contexts.

Selecting Active or Passive Voice

Your selection of either active or passive voice depends on your subject, the purpose and focus, as well as your audience. Active voice focuses on the doer of the action and de-emphasizes the receiver, which is appropriate in most situations. Active voice is used more commonly because it is much more interesting to read, more direct, pretty much you would use in every situation unless you have a specific reason not to. Passive voice is usually used when the receiver is more important than the agent. To better understand this concept use the figure on page 248.

Using Plain Language

Plain language makes understanding even the most technical document much easier. You should strive to use plain language whenever possible. Here are some characteristics of plain language:

-Common, everyday words, except for necessary technical terms.
-"You" and other pronouns
-The active voice
-Short sentences
(as described by the presidential order stating all government documents must be in plain language)
Using plain language will increase the comprehensibility and usability of your documents, oral presentations, and visuals.

Avoiding Density

Sometimes you may have one paragraph on a single topic, but there are so many ideas pack into it that it is difficult to see the connection between them. This is an example of a 'dense' paragraph. Here are some suggestions for avoiding density:

-Separate information into several sentences rather than a few very long sentences.
-Develop important points in separate paragraphs.
-Add examples and explanations to illustrate points.
-Use direct diction.
-Add transitions within paragraphs and between paragraphs and sections of a document.
Concerning visual aids:
-Use headings and subheadings to identify key sections.
-Illustrate objects and concepts to aid understanding.
-Use selected visual devices to highlight key ideas: lists, bullets, tables, underlining, italics, boldface.

Using Given-New Analysis

Given-new constructions are when new information is connected to what the audience already knows, either from background knowledge or from immediately preceding text. It is very important to make sure your ideas logically follow one another. It is easy to assume your readers(listeners) know more than they do, so you neglect to include background or connecting information that the readers(listeners) need. Refer to page 253 for some nice examples of given-new analysis.
Documents written with this analysis are typically easier to understand and remember.

2007-09-09T20:01:00.000-05:00

Chapter 5 Summary

Jake Droessler and Josh Wentzel

Objectives and Outcomes:
1. To understand that writing in the workplace will involve collaboration.
2. Recognize situations that make collaboration appropriate, such as subject, process, product, and benefits. Also recognize situations that could cause conflict.
3. Develop skills to participate in different types of collaboration: coauthoring, working with colleagues, and team projects.
4. Learn to develop skills that are typical of a successful collaboration. Such as listening, asking questions, sharing ideas and thoughts, using technology effectively, and reflect.
5. Avoid interpersonal conflicts. Negotiate potential procedural conflicts, and encourage substantive conflicts.

The four main reasons that collaboration takes place:
· Subject of the project
· Process used in the project
· Product that collaborators create
· Benefits of collaboration

Subject of Project
When working on some projects, there needs to be collaboration to make the project a success. The subject matter of the project can require more than just one person researching and reporting. For example, the building of a bridge would require tons of collaboration. The engineer, drafter, contractor, and right down to the laborers themselves would all have to collaborate to make that project a success.

Process Used in the Project
The process that is used in a project will often dictate how much collaboration is needed. More often than not a project will require a fair amount of collaboration to complete it. A lot of tasks require feedback from more than just one person that started the project. Working together in a group will help eliminate a one sided view and will make the project go faster and better.

Product That Collaborators Create
The end product is the collaborators goal and they want it to be perfect. A web site for example is something that needs to be appealing to its intended audience but also should be accurate with its information. For example, a web site that wants to explain some normal automobile maintenance would want to have instructions from a certified auto mechanic rather than from Mr. Johnson down the street. It would make the website sound more professional.

Benefits of Collaboration
Some of the benefits of collaboration are the ease of communication, you can use a Web conference instead of trying to get everyone together at one specified time in one place. Also, collaboration has personal and orginizational benefits. Many people like being part of a team and succeeding as a group. Less burden on only one person, the workload is spread out among many individuals.

Disadvantages of Collaboration
· Takes more time than individual work.
· Managers want to much control.
· Unwilling to share credit.
· Conflicts can ruin a group if not worked out.
· Too much criticism.
· People have different ways of approaching issues.
· Responsibility, either too much or too little.
· Technology may not be availible.
· Ethics may be questioned in some instances.
Types of Collaboration:

Coauthoring

Many people have a wrong understanding of collaboration, they believe that both authors contribute equivalent parts. Really all the authors submit ideas, but they are willing to compromise with the others. Each collaborator analyzes their ideas strengths and weaknesses to achieve the best product.

Consulting with Colleagues

Consulting can provide us with constructive criticism to help us assure quality in our work. People should be willing to consult as well as provide consultation to their co-workers.

Contributing to Team Projects

Contribution does not necessarily have to be equal, but all members of the team should voice opinions on what each persons responsibilities and roles are within the group.

Being a Good Collaborator:

Ackerson gives three guidelines to follow:

1. Treat people like you'd like to be treated.

2. Identify strengths and weaknesses of team members and use them accordingly.

3. Insist on excellence.

Self-Assess

People need to look at their work in a way free from bias, personality, and prejudices.

Be Engaged and Cooperative

· Always come prepared.
· Be able to articulate the purpose of your collaborative work.
· Be articulate in expressing your views.
· Be cooperative and supportive.
· Be direct in stating your own opinions, and respect the ideas of others.

Listen

Active listeners are attentive, involved, interested. They pay attention to what their collaborators say and don't say, also the manner of speaking and tone of voice. By being an active listener you will learn more, and accomplish more as a team.

Conform to Conversation Conventions

All collaboration requires some type of conversation. Here are some tips to make conversations easier:

All conversations
· Select an appropriate location with minimal background distractions.
· Look, sound, and act interested.
· State your points clearly.
· Provide explanations and examples as needed.
· Share the turn taking
· Respond to the other person's ideas.
Face-to-face conversations
· Make direct eye contact.
· Respect personal space.
Telephone conversations
· Don't eat, drink, or chew gum while on the phone.
· Don't put people on hold for more than a few seconds.
Electronic conversations
· Keep in mind that all electronic messages can be forwarded, printed, or permanently stored by any recipient, so be sensible, even cautious, about what you send electronically.
· Copy only enough of the message you're responding to in order to provide a context or a reminder; do not copy the entire message unless you need a legal record.

Ask Questions

By asking questions you can determine how much you already know, and what you need to learn.

· Ask open-ended questions that require comments or discussions rather than questions that ask for yes or no responses.
· Ask questions that focus attention on a range of rhetorical elements important to the project: content, context, purpose, key points, audience, conventions of organization and support, and conventions of document design.

Share

Asking questions is a good way to get information from colleagues, but you also need to give them detailed information to help assist them. Establishing a schedule is the most effective way to get information exchanged.

Use Technology Effectively

Groupware
Groupware is software designed to facilitate group interaction, usually changes the way collaborators plan, share documents, give and receive feedback, and make decisions.

Two important factors of groupware are:

1. Time
2. Location

Awareness

Team members need to be aware of the Interaction, Workspace, and Information they are using and sharing with other members. This can help avoid miscommunication and misunderstandings.

The three areas for team awareness are:

1. Interaction.
2. Workspace.
3. Information
Keeping in mind the who, what, when, where, why, and how of things.

Privacy

Respect group members privacy in sending and sharing information. You should also be cautious in using files and information from other group members.

Reflect

Look back over all the information you have received and re-assess its value, decide whether to keep information or get rid of it. This will help you maintain organization and clarity.

Negotiating Conflicts:

As you become more involved in collaborations, you will need to develop skills to manage problems and negotiate three different types of conflicts.

Affective Conflicts

Are due to personal attitudes and biases, as well as personality and values. To succeed in a project you need to develop interpersonal relationships. You need to respect others in your group and get along with them. If you do not make an attempt to do this these conflicts will set-back progress of the project and lead to other problems.

Procedural Conflicts

Groups need to outline how they will operate, many experienced collaborators use these critical factors to help run smoothly:

1. Meeting details
· Settle details of meetings: time, place, duration.
· Agree on what preparation should be done for meetings.
· Discuss the collaborative approach the group will use.

2. Team roles and responsibilities
· Identify the responsibilities each individual will assume.
· Determine how to monitor the group's progress.
· Decide on order of authorship based on some mutually acceptable criteria.

3. Productive management of conflict
· Agree on ways to minimize affective and procedural conflict.
· Agree on ways to encourage substantive conflict.
· Decide how to negotiate among alternatives and resolve disagreements.

By taking care of these three critical factors first you can reduce the chances of having set-backs due to procedural conflict down the road.

Substantive Conflicts
Includes decisions about the projects content, purpose, audience, conventions of orginization and support, and conventions of design. Two things should be agreed on before the groups starts collaboration. Agree on the purpose of the collaboration and agree on project objectives and outcomes.

A number of things can be done in order to make the collaboration a success.
1. Voice explicit disagreements- dont hold ideas inside
2. Consider alternatives to plan.
3. Ask provocitive questions. Stay on topic with questions.
4. Take a productive and critical perspective. Give only constructive criticism.
5. Seperate ideas and personality. Don't mistake objection of idea for attack on you as a person.

Cultural Differences and Expectations
Cultural differences can lead to conflicts in collaboration because of how different people are used to approacing things different ways. Like in Chapter 2 conflicts can be caused by someone misinterpretaion of something that another collaborator says or does.
When working in a group one should expect some conflicts due to cultural differences. How the group overcomes the conflict is the big picture. Understanding other cultures can cut those conflicts down but will not eliminate them. People need to be calm and try to realize that not everyone has to approach things the same way they, themselves do.

2007-09-07T16:32:00.000-05:00

Chapter 4 Summary

By Tom Wilmes and Erin Collopy

Identifying Purposes

There are two purposes professionals have when preparing a technical document:

Concisely and accurately convey verifiable information
Persuade audiences to attend to the information.

Identifying Audiences

You must identify your audience’s needs and specific issues before you analyze it, this is the intended audience.

There are four types of audiences:

Initial Audience: the person to whom you submit a document but not necessarily the decision maker.

Primary Audience: the person for whom your document is intended and the one who will use the information.

Secondary Audience: receive and read the document. They have the most interest because they are affected by the information in it.

External Audience: people outside the immediate organization but are affected by the information or decisions based on it.

Individual Readers may fit into more than one category. For example; a company VP is an expert in business but a student in an Aviation course.

Analyzing Audiences

Strategies for analyzing audiences:

Context in which a document is interpreted
Purpose and motivation of the audiences
Prior knowledge of the audiences including, education and professional experiences
Reading level
Organizational role of the audiences

Talking with people in the areas of Design and Development, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service can help you understand what to put into the document.

Context

It is vital to consider the physical and political context and working conditions in which the audience will interpret and use documents, presentations, and visuals. A repair manual used by technicians needs to have a sturdy cover and pages that lie flat as well as visuals and headings that can be easily scanned. A busy executive reading that same manual needs to have it formatted so it has clear , abstract headings, brief explanations and justifications, and conclusions and recommendations.

Purpose and Motivation

Knowing the audience’s purpose and motivation helps you adjust receptivity and decrease resistance.

Receptive audiences: You can present recommendations initially and then support them in subsequent sections

Resistant Audiences: You can present the problem, discuss the alternatives, and then lead to the most appropriate and feasible solution, hoping audiences are persuaded by your interpretation.

Prior Knowledge
If you can estimate audiences prior knowledge, you will be able to determine the appropriate vocabulary and content. Both education and workplace experience influence prior knowledge. The level, type, and duration of a persons education strongly influence prior knowledge, affecting a persons comprehension of concepts and their application.

Vocational-technical Training focuses on providing a practical or applied knowledge.
Professional or academic training focuses on providing a theoretical understanding as well as a practical experience

Reading level
Writing for an audience’s level is important; if audiences cannot understand and act on the written information, it is useless. Knowing an audience’s reading ability helps you adjust content and approach. Writers should not automatically assume, however that the smarter the audiences, the more difficult the material should be. A very intelligent person may not have a high reading level; another person may be able to read complex material in one specialized area, but not in another.

Factors that affect the ease or difficulty of a text:

Content: Is the content concrete? Supported with explanations? Need prior knowledge?
Context: Does it explain the context? Is it familiar to the audiences?
Purpose: Purpose clearly stated? Will the audience agree with the purpose?
Audience: Does the document target the right audience and reading level?
Organization: Is it logically organized? Is the information coherent?
Visuals: Are visuals mixed in? Are they appropriate and appealing?
Design: Is it appropriately chunked and labeled? Style and format appropriate?
Usability: Can the audience use the information?
Language conventions: Does it conform to grammatical and mechanical conventions?

Two types of organization:

Hierarchical organization: people work best when directed, bosses at top, managers in middle, workers at bottom.
Nonhierarchical organization: everyone contributes equally to the productivity of the organization.

Adjusting to Audiences:

Address audiences with different levels of expertise by adjusting the complexity of the material.
Address audiences with different organizational roles by shifting focus of the discussion and choice of details.
Address audiences by designing web sites that enable audiences to construct unique sequences of information to meet their own needs and interests.

When choosing which audience to write for you need to identify and write for the primary audience and identify and consider the secondary audiences. Use design elements to make information accessible in both paper and electronic messages.

Chapter 3 Summary

2007-09-04T13:53:00.000-05:00

Chapter 3 Reading Technical Information
By: Elijah Wreh and Anil Shrestha

Objectives and Outcomes
1. Understand that workplace professionals and presentations read comments, listen to conversations and presentations, and view visuals for a variety of purposes: assessing and making decisions, background, learning to do a task, and actually doiung a task.
2. Recognize that reading and writing are synergistically linked activities-each affects the other.
3. Use the strategies of experienced communicators:
-Skim, scan, and predict
-Identify structure/hierachy: document features, visual displays, and organization.
-Determine the main points.
-Draw inferences:tacit assumptions, implications, ethics, and impact of implications.
-Generate questions and examples.
-Monitor and adapt strategies before, during, and after reading.

Identifying Purposes
There are variety of purposes you read for in a professional workplace. These purposes can be categorized into four main categories.

1. Reading to assess
2. Reading to learn
3. Reading to learn to do
4. Reading to do

1. Reading to assess- This reading enables you to decide whether the document will be useful for you or someone else.
2. Reading to learn- This reading allows you to learn information for problem solving , decision making, and background knowledge
3. Reading to learn to do- This reading enables you to learn how to complete tasks.
4. Reading to do- This reading helps you to complete tasks.

Reading-Writing Relationships
Reading and writing played a meaningful role in our day to day activities. What ever the situation may be, one have to be a effective reader and writer in order to communicate effectively with others from different Languages. Whenever, one is communicating to a audience that is comprises of people from different languages and cultural backgrounds, one have to be precise and put out the message thoroughly and accurately. There are tons of people out there especially in our society today, who find it very difficult and hard to understand English, so whenver one communicate, whether it is done by the print and electronic media or whatever means of communications, it should be done in the simplest format. For instance, a gentleman from Russia told me about his reading ordeal, that is he read an article from CNN and he found it very difficult understanding the nitty-gritty about the article.
How will you considered this individual? Effective or non-effective reader and writer!

Strategies for effective Reading
There are plenty of strategies to make one an effective reader and writer. However, the author of this book listed three things, namely: skim, scan and predict. I considered it as SSP in my own word.
Skim-Whenever one read a document, they need to skim through it as soon as possible in order to understand the content and mainpoint of the document. The secret begin this, is to get a quick understanding of the document and what is it all about.
Scan-For this part, before one read a document, one should scan through the document thoroughly, by running their eyes from the top of the page to the bottom of the page, paying keen attention to any phrase or word that is unusual and not understandable.
Predict-In the process of skimming and scanning through the document, begin to ask yourself reasonable questions and formulate hypothesis in your mind. This will help you get an insight about the document when you are done reading.

Identify Structure and Hierarchy
Technical documents have certain structure and hierarchy. They have features such as heading, visual cues, and previews.
Document features: Standard features of a document can help readers know what to anticipate.
Visual cues: Visual cues help readers distinguish the hierarchy of ideas in a document. Readers have an easier time understanding and using documents that have the following features.

1. Information is chunked
- Related information is chunked so that relationships are clear
- Heading and subheadings signal and separate topics
- Spacing between lines and sections separate related information
2. Information is arranged so that sequence is clear
- numbers or letters indicate the sequence
3. Information is emphasized so that important elements are signaled
- type size can indicate the hierarhy
- placement on a page or screen can indicate hierarchy
- using different fonts,type style variations, and icons

Previews and Reviews: previewing and reviewing enables the reader to identify then reinforce the structure or organization of a document.

Determine the main Points
It will sound pretty much awkward, if one read a document or an article from a newspapers and don't understand the main points. Readers need to pay key attentions to what, who, where and how whenever they read a document or an article. This will aid them in understanding the main points of a document.

Draw Inferences
Most people find it difficult and hard whenver they read a document, article, commentary, news stories or what ever the documents may be. But theoretically speaking, it is advisable and appropraite for one to draw inferences and take down notes, make connections and draw conclusions while reading. This will assist them to be an effective and productive readers in their career.

Generate Questions and Examples
Asking questions help understand a document. Sometimes readers benefit from using traditonal taxonomy ( a formal method of classification). One widely used taxonomy uses six levels of questions.
- Knowledge questions emphasize the recall of specifics.
- Comprehension questions require responses that incorporate knowledge as well as understanding.
- Application questions require specific applications of principles or theories.
- Analysis questions emphasize the separation of objects, mechanisms, systems,organisms,operations,clearly establishing the relationship between these parts.
- Synthesis questions expect the reader to focus on organizing or structuring the parts to form a unique whole. The response may either serve as an over all plan or explain a particular phenomenon.
- Evaluation questions require readers to judge something’s qualitative and quantitative value.

Monitor and Adapt Reading Strategies
Effective readers are aware of what they’re doing when they move through a document. They’re actively engaged in their reading; they’re aware of their comprehension of concepts and terms. when their comprehension or speed decreases , they adjust their strategies to meet the needs of the situation.

Individual and Collaborative Assignments--Footnotes
1. Identify the purpose, methodology, result(s), and conclusion.
2. Identify the purpose, methodology, result(s), and conclusion.
3. Identify the main points.
4. Determine kinds of reading.
5. Compare differences in reading purposes.
6. Interrogate a document.
POSTED BY ELIJAH WREH AT 10:06 AM

Chapter 2 Summary

2007-09-02T21:14:00.000-05:00

Chapter 2 Understanding Culture and the Workplace
By: Michael Adams and Luke Ylvisaker

Objectives And Outcomes
1. Define culture and recognize the critical role that it plays in the workplace.
2. Understand factors that contribute to various cultures.
3. Analyze and understand the ways in which culture affects workplace communication.
4. Work more productively and respectfully with colleagues from various cultures.

Noticing Culture in the Workplace
Culture plays a big part in our lives at the workplace. By working for a company in America we are opened up to many cultural differences mainly because we are a country that is made up of many different cultures. Now to be an effective member of a company we need to be able to adapt to different cultures. The smoother we can adapt the more efficient we can be in the workplace. And you may think that culture is just a difference in race or nationality but, culture also includes differences in religion and disabilities too.

What's Normal?
The ability to notice and understand a culture sometimes depends on if you can recognize it. Parts of someones culture can be easily visible to us while our own culture can be invisible because we see it as "normal". For example like when we greet someone in the Midwest a lot of us like to use a handshake, we see that as "normal" but it's actually a cultural difference compared to someone from Japan who likes to bow when they are greeting someone. The only way to become culturally aware is to become aware of our own culture first and look at what we think is "normal" through someone else's eyes.

Cultural Blindness
So this whole talk about what we think is "normal" has another effect on us. It can make working at a multi-cultural company very hard. For instance lets say you have a client from Israel that wants to have a teleconference with you. You would probably feel indignant if the client insisted that you have to do it this Sunday. To us we "normally" don't work on Sunday because we consider Sunday and not a part of our regular work days. In Israel in a different culture it is considered a normal work day. This is a time where being culturally aware plays a big role in making sure that the teleconference goes smoothly and being aware will make your work life go easier at other times too. Defining Culture
What is culture? The general definition is that culture is a group of learned beliefs/values that influences our day to day actions. These actions help to make our culture include the tools we use in life, the way we act in different situations, and the way we communicate.

Globalization and Localization
Why should we worry about cultures then? As said before culture plays a big role in how a person will conduct themselves in the workplace and how efficient someone can be. In a global corporation attention has to be made to make your advertisement/product global "friendly". If you try to put an add up with a girl in a bikini front and center it will probably work in the US and Europe. That same ad put up in the Middle East may cause a a very big problem. All because of the culture differences that you weren't aware of between the US and the Middle East. Where localization comes in is a way you would adapt your product for one specific area. For instance that ad you put up in the US and the Middle East,you may be able to "localize" the ad by removing the picture of the girl and replacing it with your company logo. Then you have a global ad that is localized for specific areas.

Cultural Values
So why should we value our cultural awareness? The ability to use your cultural awareness while writing a technical document will be greatly helpful when you write one. If you were writing instructions on how to put a staples box together and you wrote all of the instructions in English, the instructions will probably be messed up when you try to translate them to Spanish. The ability to value other people's culture will make your product receive a better response from the users, increase the efficiency of your meetings, and hopefully show other people in your business that they need to be more culturally aware to bring up their effectiveness in the business.

Analyzing Culture

National cultures

1. Sometimes understanding differences doesn’t eliminate a cultural gap

Languages

1. English is spoken on 5 continents by people who make up 49 percent of the worlds population.

2. Since language is a political hot button, demanding the use of a particular language in the work place can alienate colleagues.

Proxemics

1. The study of the physical distance between people

2. Generally people from North America expect lager intimate and personal space than people from many other countries

Time

1. Different cultures treat time in two different was Monochronic Polychronic

2. Monochronic People

a. Tend to do one thing at a time
b. Take time commitment seriously
c. Concentrate on the specific job

3. Polychronic
a. Tend to do many things at ounce
b. Respond to interruptions
c. Consider time commitments as desirable not absolute

4. Organizational cultures is the shared beliefs and behaviors of people in an organization compromise. One way to describe it would be contrasting practices that characterize activities in the organization

Individuals and their culture
1. Professionals all have different factors that influence the ways in which they participate in,contribute to and react to other cultures

Increase Cultural Awareness
1.There are many ways to make a cross-cultural experience more successful here are a few
a. Be a keen observer
b. Listen carefully to your employees
c. Be patient and flexible
d. Make every effort to meet and engage people of other cultures

Chapter One Summary

2007-08-29T14:54:00.000-05:00

Greg Gehrman and Jake Vorhies

Chapter One Summary:

Characterizing workplace communication

Objectives:

· Define technical communication, its criticality in the workplace, and its relation to job success.

· Understand the role of genre, technology, and ethics in technical communication.

· Describe rhetorical elements that experienced communicators consider, including context, purpose, audience, organization, and document design.

· Identify factors that contribute to accessibility, comprehensibility, and usability.

· Identify constraints that affect workplace communication.

Importance of effective communication:

Professionals who communicate effectively, whether technical communicators or technical experts, usually achieve more career success and have greater job satisfaction than those without the skills to communicate their technical knowledge. More than 90% of the technical professionals have reported that speaking and writing skills are important to their success.

Defining technical communication:

Recent definitions of technical communication consider it rhetorical.
Technical communication is rhetorical because it is the art and craft of communicating technical information appropriately and persuasively to intended audiences, in complex contexts, for particular purposes.
These rhetorical elements also are important because they are the very factors that experienced communicators typically consider when planning, drafting, and revising documents, oral presentations, and visuals.

Genre in technical communication:

· Genres (information and situations) are dynamic: they change synergistically in response to particular circumstances – that is, each affects the other. They are also situated in a particular community’s workplace tasks or activities.

· This book as a whole is about genres in technical communication – the ways documents, oral presentations, and visuals are created and used for particular purposes, in particular situations and cultures, at particular points in time.

Communities:

· Discourse communities- identifiable groups with a common, often specialized, language.

· Communities of practice- a group of people who have a joint enterprise, mutual engagement, and shared repertoire of resources.

Technology in technical communication:

Interpretation is not only influenced by genres and communities, it is also influenced by the technology you use. What is broadly called computer-mediated communication (CMC) is a process of human communication via computers. Technology influences several factors:

Sustaining reading of lengthy text or reading for extended periods.
Keeping track of your place in the text.
Managing and maintaining multiple, active on-screen windows.
Locating and reviewing difficult or confusing information.
Taking notes, highlighting relevant text, adding personal comments and questions.
Checking other places in the text and returning to your original place

Technology further influences what you say and how you say it, affecting privacy, immediacy, and permanency.

Privacy- virtually all electronic communication in the workplace can be monitored. It is simply not private - ever.
Immediacy- You can decide when to communicate by participating in Synchronous communication (real time) or Asynchronous communication or delayed communication like mail or email.
Permanency- Information on a computer- especially on corporate and institutional servers- is frequently backed up and archived.

Ethics in technical communication:

Preparing documents, oral presentations, and visuals that are accessible, comprehensible, and usable is not enough for workplace professionals. Beyond those considerations, you must also respond to the context and culture, define and focus the content, analyze the task and audience, organize the information, and design the specific document. To be an affective communicator, you must also consider factors that influence you and your audience as you and they construct meaning.

Accessibility, Comprehensibility, and Usability:

Each document, presentation, or visual must meet these criteria:

Be physically accessible, so a reader, listener, or viewer can see or hear it
Be comprehensible, so a reader, listener, or viewer can understand it
Be usable, so a reader, listener, or viewer can use it easily and productively

Remember that effective communicators need to make information accessible, understandable, and usable. Your communication should be timely and purposeful, which can happen if you follow these four maxims:

Quality- What you say should be accurate and verifiable.
Quantity- What you say should be as informative as necessary – not too much information or too little information.
Relevance- What you say should be relevant.
Manner- What you say should be “perspicuous”; thus, you need to avoid obscurity and ambiguity and also be brief and well organized.

Communication in the Workplace:

Elements that you can use in your own communication:

Preview what’s to come.
Define critical terms.
Use headings to call attention to key points.
Select details appropriate for the audience’s level of understanding.
Use a design that contributes to accessibility, comprehensibility, and usability.
Use and accessible font appropriate for print or on-screen use.
Select typographic devices (such as bullets, italics, and boldfacing) to call attention to information.
Use visuals to reinforce, illustrate, or explain the text.

Constraints that communicators encounter:

Time constraints
Subject and format constraints
Audience constraints
Collaboration as a constraint
Constraints in data collection
Constraints in technology
Constraints caused by noise

Individual and collaborative assignments:

Define technical communication
Identify general audiences
Identify accessibility, comprehensibility, and usability
Assess a short memo
Assess a technical explanation

Welcome to the English 271-04 Fall 2007 blog

2007-08-28T11:01:00.000-05:00

Welcome!

You have found the course blog for English 271-04 at Minnesota State University, Mankato. We will "blog" our textbook, Rebecca Burnett, Technical Communication, 6th edition, this semester.

You will summarize your assigned chapters in blog entries and comment on the blog entries that you do not write, with blog comments.