Technical Writing Audience Who are your readers? What is

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Technical Writing
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KEYS TO WRITING SUCCESSFUL TECHNICAL PROSE

• Purpose
• Audience
• Style
• Accuracy
• Completeness

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Audience

• Who are your readers?
• What is their level of technical expertise and
  background?
• What are their needs?
• How will you successfully satisfy those needs?

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Audience knowledge background

• Highly Technical
• Semi-Technical
• Non-Technical
• Note aim at lowest level of knowledge among your
  readers.

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Developing Audience Awareness

• Write as if you are providing answers to embedded
  questions
• Imagine questions the reader will naturally ask
  about the system and answer them
• Anticipate the reader's expectations and fulfill
  them

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Writing Style

• Write for your readers
• Write to inform, not impress
• Less is more

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Basic Principles Of WritingEffective Technical
Prose

• Clarity
• Conciseness
• Readability
• Coherence
• Accuracy Completeness

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Achieving Clarity

• 1. Organize your materials logically
• Answer embedded questions in a logical
  sequence.
• Proceed from the simple to the complex from
  general concepts to detailed information.
• Place highly detailed and secondary materials in
  appendices.
• 2. Use short, simple sentences.
• 3. Use the active voice.

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Achieving Clarity

• 4. Use punctuation accurately avoid using
  dashes, slashes, parenthesis, and other ambiguous
  punctuation marks.
• 5. Keep related words together place modifiers
  close to the words they modify.

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Achieving Clarity

• 6. Avoid vague referents, such as it, this,
  and that.
• 7. Replace complex words with simple words
  "later" for "subsequently," "use" for "utilize,"
  etc.
• 8. Clearly define technical terminology.
• 9. Summarize complex procedures ideas in simple
  lists, diagrams, charts, tables, other visuals.

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• Conciseness Use the Active Voice
• Notice that the passive voices always
• Uses the wordy and weak verb to be forms
  instead of strong descriptive verbs.
• Uses the past tense verb form instead of the
  active strong present tense form.
• Alters the normal syntax order of
  Subject-verb-object so that the Subject-is
  acted upon- by the Object.

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Example of passive voice corrected to more
concise active voice

• Passive
• Jim is in the process of being kicked by john.
• Jim is being kicked by john.
• Jim is kicked by john.
• Active
• John kicks Jim.

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Example of passive voice corrected to more
concise active voice

• Passive
• The return key should be pressed by the user.
• The return key should be pressed.
• Active
• Press the return key.

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Achieving Conciseness

• 1. Omit unnecessary words
• "the fact that,"
• "very rapidly,"
• "the reason for this is because," etc.
• 2. Replace
• future tense (use present tense)
• passive voice, (is, am, are, was, were and be)
• weak verbs (forms such as "will," "be," "do,"
  "make")
• .

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Achieving Readability

• Present ideas logically in order of need,
  function, or complexity
• Guide your readers' expectations by using
  transitional, connecting sentences between
  paragraphs sections.

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Achieving Readability

• Use examples, lists, visuals, illustrations,
  charts to aid reader comprehension vary your
  presentation.
• Use lots of white space only a few different
  type fonts.

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Method of Development

• Different types of descriptions use different
  methods.
• Chronological order
• Sequence
• Use general definitions
• Use analogies similes metaphors
• Comparisons
• Use illustrations
• Drawings
• Diagrams
• Photographs
• Charts

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Types of Descriptions

• Description of features
• Description of procedure
• Description of products

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Description of External Features

• Describes briefly the external features of the
  product.
• Can be found in catalogues and order forms.
• HP refill kit, black, for use in C6615A cartridge.

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• DESKTOP TALKING CALCULATOR
• Calculator with sloping keypad. Clearly announces
  all functions and numbers. Functions include
  addition, subtraction, multiplication, division,
  percentage and memory.

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Metric Ruler

• Yellow plastic 30cm metric ruler with bold visual
  and tactual markings each centimeter and half
  centimeter. Larger markings each 5cm.

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Wikki Stix

• Colorful waxed sticks that can be twisted,
  stuck on surfaces and shaped then untwisted and
  reused. Comes in a set of 48.

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TACTILE PROTRACTOR

• Yellow plastic with bold visual and tactual
  markings. Supplied with a set of chart pins and a
  location sleeve to assist in maintaining the
  protractor position.

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SIGNATURE GUIDE

• Credit card sized, durable black plastic guide
  with a rectangular cut-out (1.3 x 7cm) in the
  centre to correspond with a standard size
  signature. Useful for signing forms and letters.

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POSTURERITE LAP DESK

• Tray-style desk that fits users lap by way of
  soft padding underneath the desk. Features a bar
  at bottom edge of tray-top to stop books
  slipping.

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Description of Procedure

• Similar to instructions
• They are mainly intended to give readers an
  understanding of the general process rather than
  instructing them how to work through it. See Page
  138

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Description of Products

• Gives detailed information on a product such as
• Appearance
• Functions
• Components
• History

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Description of Products

• Should ask the basic questions to answer this
  type of description are
• What is it like?
• What is it used for?
• What are the parts of the product?
• How do the parts fit together?
• How does it operate?
• How do you use it?
• See page 139-142

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Operating

• Instructions

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Operating Instructions

• Work Place care and use of
• Forms
• Equipment
• Tools

• Consumers
• New products

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Operating Instruction

• Unlike descriptions, instructions enable the
  reader to do something with minimum hesitation.
• They do not necessarily require him to understand
  the operation.
• Gives the user necessary steps and details so
  that the operators can get the job done without
  unreasonable guesswork.

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Analyzing Your Audience

• Ask yourself questions
• How much do the readers need to know to operate
  the product safely and properly?
• What do they already know about the product?
• Do they know the terminology?
• Are they likely to read the instructions in a
  quiet place or noisy surroundings

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Components of Instructions

• Headings
• Introductory explanations
• Tools or materials
• Warnings
• General background
• Sequenced instructions
• Trouble-shooting guide
• See page 150-151

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Assignment

• Page 144-145
• Exercise III
• Page 155-156
• Exercise I
• Extended exercise
• Find an unusual object that you know how to use
  but use an object that is not used by most
  people.
• Write instruction that are easy to read and
  follow.
• It must have at least 10 steps.
• Have three people who have not used the object
  before use your instructions and complete the
  task.
• Make revisions between each person.
• Have each of the three people write a one
  sentence summary of their experience.
• You write a concluding paragraph explaining the
  experience and any revisions to the instructions
  you needed to make.

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The End