Technical Writing

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Technical Writing

• Professor Tanya Bartholomew
• University of Denver
• Sturm College of Law
• October 22, 2007

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Agenda

• Barriers to effective writing
• Audience, Purpose, Tone
• Organization
• Style
• Editing

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Barriers to Effective Writing

• Time
• Approach
• Concern about conventions
• Expectations
• No plan of attack
• Have I mentioned time?

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Audience

• To whom is my document directed?
• Colleague, supervisor, board member, employee

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Purpose

• Is my purpose to inform, to persuade, to
  reprimand, etc.?

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Tone

• Firm, professional tone
• Knowledgeable
• Plain English

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Organization

• Organizational paradigms
• Letters
• Memos reports
• Interoffice communication
• Use the same format for each type of document.

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Letters

• Heading
• Introduction
• Explain facts
• Explain the law, rule, science, business
  implications, etc.
• Explain how facts and rules, etc., relate
• State your expectations or recommendations
• Conclude

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Heading

• Name
• Address
• File reference
• Salutation

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Introduction

• Introduce yourself or your client
• Describe the problem, need, or issue.
• Establish tone

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Explain facts

• Explain the relevant facts.
• Include every fact relevant to the issue.
• Use this paragraph to tell a story about what you
  want, etc.

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Explain law

• In simple terms, explain the law, the rules, the
  science, etc.

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Explain how facts rules relate

• This is your expertise to explain how these
  relate and why thats desirable or undesirable.
• Be straightforward.

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State your recommendations or expectations

• What do you want to see happen next?
• Include future meetings, etc.
• The more specific you are, the more likely you
  are to get what you want.

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Conclusion

• Let your reader know when you will next contact
  him or her or when you should next be contacted.
• Make sure your contact information is current.

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Organization

• Time Efficiency
• Formula
• Large scale organization
• Intra paragraph organization
• Rule Structure

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Sample Organization

• I. Heading
• Standard of Review
• Overview
• Two issues
• A. Sub-heading Issue One
• Thesis
• Rule
• Analysis
• Conclusion
• B. Sub-heading Issue Two
• Thesis
• Rule
• Analysis
• Conclusion
• Overall Conclusion

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Overview

• Explain to your reader the structure of the
  analysis that will follow. Explain the overall
  organization. Include the conclusion you want
  the reader to reach and, briefly, the steps taken
  to reach that conclusion.

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Overview

• Coat Company avoids liability for Plaintiffs
  injuries because it fulfilled its duty to
  exercise reasonable care. The fighting issue is
  whether the scope of CCs duty extended to
  inspecting each coat. To establish a duty to
  inspect each coat, Plaintiff must prove the cause
  of injury was foreseeable and CC failed to
  prevent its occurrence. Because Plaintiff failed
  to establish foreseeability, Coat Company is free
  from liability.

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Rule Explanation

• Synthesized explanation
• Think of a funnel, with broadest concept at the
  outset.
• Begin the paragraph with a strong topic sentence
  it should not be narrower than or exceed the
  scope of the paragraph.
• When presenting a series of authorities, use
  transitions to signal to your reader the
  relationship between the authorities.

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Transitions to Focus Rule Explanation

• Use transitions to focus rule explanations.
• Transitions signal to your reader how the
  following sentence relates to or impacts the
  preceding sentence.
• Strategic use of transitions strengthens both
  your paragraph focus and content.

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Rule Explanationfocus on transitions

• While a property owner owes a duty to exercise
  reasonable care to protect against foreseeable
  harm, the scope of the duty does not extend to
  require the owner to protect against all harm.
  Scott v. Matlack, 39 P.2d 1160, 1166 (Colo.
  2005). Moreover, an owner is not required to
  reasonably anticipate an injury which is merely
  possible. Id. An occurrence is reasonably
  foreseeable only if a reasonably prudent person
  could have foreseen as likely the events which
  transpired conversely, if those events are
  highly extraordinary or tragically unique, then
  the occurrence is not reasonably foreseeable.
  Schmid v. Fairmont Hotel Co., 803 P.2d 166, 174
  (Colo. 1999).

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Rule Application

• Rule applications, generally
• begins with a strong topic sentence introducing
  exactly what the paragraph addresses.
• presents all of the applicable significant facts
• do not introduce new material.
• repeats key words from sources in the context of
  the facts of your situation.

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Rule Application

• Like the injuries suffered in Fairmont, the cause
  of the plaintiffs injuries was unforeseeable.
  The Coat Company has produced sufficient proof
  that no incident of this type has occurred at any
  of its stores. While the Coat Company readily
  admits that it did not specifically inspect for
  snakes, the store had no reason to do so.
  Finally, like the inspection of each outlet in
  Fairmont, the inspection of each coat for every
  possible tragically unique source of harm would
  unduly burden Coat Company.

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Conclusion

• A conclusion following a rule explanation and
  application concisely informs the reader of the
  conclusion you expect it to reach.
• A conclusion also states the concise reason the
  reader must reach that conclusion.

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Sample Conclusion

• Accordingly, Coat Company is not liable for
  Plaintiffs injuries because Plaintiff failed to
  prove the scope of Coat Companys duty extended
  to inspect each coat.

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Style
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Logical Flow
Choose Transition Words Carefully.

• I THINK HOWEVER I AM.
• I THINK NEVERTHELESS I AM.
• I THINK IN ADDITION I AM.

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Transitions

• Transitions
• Using transitions help insure that your reasoning
  is logical and complete.
• Transitions are used to add an additional
  point, to indicate a difference, to indicate a
  similarity, to illustrate or explain an idea, and
  to conclude.

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Examples of transitions

• To add a new point
• moreover, next, also, in addition, in fact,
  finally, further, furthermore, next
• To indicate a difference
• conversely, however, alternatively, but, contrary
  to, in contrast, on the other hand, rather than
• To indicate a similarity
• similarly, likewise, also, as, like
• To illustrate or explain an idea
• To illustrate, for example, after all, as an
  example, for instance, in fact, in particular, in
  other words, simply put, specifically
• To conclude
• As a result, consequently, accordingly, in
  summary, therefore, thus

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Choose Transition Words Carefully
Logical Flow

• The degree of judicial inquiry will also depend
  on the complexities and gravity of the legal
  issues raised by the charge against the
  defendant. A v. B., 1 P.2d 3 (Colo. 2005). For
  example, traffic misdemeanor cases are easily
  understood by laypersons and the consequences are
  usually not severe. Id. Thus, the inquiry in such
  cases need not be extensive. Id. However,
  Miller, if convicted, faces a mandatory jail term
  and not a simple parking fine.

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Concise

• Eliminate Throat Clearers
• It is significant that
• It is clear that
• It is noteworthy that
• It must be remembered that
• It is generally recognized that
• It is interesting to note that

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Concise

• Do Not State the Obvious.
• Now I am going to apply the law to the facts of
  this case.

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• Eliminate Words that Add No Substance.
• Plaintiff strenuously objects to Defendants
  statements.

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Concise

• Choose one word when one word will do.

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Concise
Avoid Repeating Redundancies

• advance warning
• close proximity
• estimated roughly at

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Action
Active Verbs

• Passive voice  Every week, all confidential
  material was shredded and discarded.  (Who
  shredded and discarded the material?)
• Active voice  Every week, the company shredded
  and discarded all confidential material.

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Action
Choose Action, not Abstraction

• Example
• There are four elements of the crime of
  kidnapping in the statute.
• Revision
• The statute sets out four elements of the
  crime of kidnapping.

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Action
Nominalizations

• Nominalization An agreement was made by the
  parties to reach a decision by Friday. (13 words
  passive voice)
• Revision The parties agreed to decide by Friday.
  (Seven words active voice)

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STYLE
Emphasize Favorable Information with Details

• Example Ms. Smith drank at the party.
• Revision Arriving at the party, Ms. Smith
  immediately began drinking beer and downing shots
  of Jack Daniels during a drinking game.

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Grammar
Pronouns

• A pronoun must agree with the noun it
  replacesthe antecedent.
• --number
• --gender
• --person

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Grammar
Pronouns

• Each pronoun should clearly refer back to its
  antecedent.
• Officer Robert OMalley, who arrested Howard
  Davis, said that he was drunk at the time.

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Editing

• Materials Needed
• Print copy of memo
• Draft copy with comments
• File
• Record
• Writing text, Dictionary and thesaurus
• Ruler
• Brightly colored pen

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Editing

• Action Plan
• Organization
• Content rule explanation and rule application
• Paragraph and sentence structure
• Grammar and punctuation
• Citation

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Editing

• Overview paragraph
• concisely states the general issues or principles
• provides a roadmap of the discussion

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Editing

• Discussion
• begins with a strong topic sentence introducing
  exactly what the paragraph addresses.
• Uses headings and subheadings as appropriate.
• Moves from larger to smaller concepts.
• Incorporates transitions to explain relationships
  between concepts.

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Editing out the most annoying mistakes

• Its
• Since or as rather than because
• No pronoun agreement he/their
• Incorrect comma use
• Passive voice
• Nominalizations

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Grammar
Spelling

• Proofread!Dew knot trust spell Czech. Err roars
  may still past threw.