Technical Writing for Fun and Profit

1. Technical Writing for Fun and Profit David E. Goldberg Department of General Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign deg@uiuc.edu

2. Motivation • Is technical writing fun for you? • Engineers prefer root canal to writing. • Something in the engineering psyche. • But you can learn to love writing. • Embrace models of writing process and the written piece.

3. Overview • Modeling the process of writing • Separating writing from revision • Elbow’s freewriting exercise • Cut and paste revision • Modeling the written piece • 3 critical needs of each piece & section • Titles, lists, and amplification • Summaries and conclusions

4. Prime Directive of Writing • Why do you dislike to write? • The endless circle of write and criticize. • Prime directive is to just write. • Can you learn to separate writing from revision? • Must practice. How?

5. Freewriting • In Elbow’s Writing with Power freewriting exercise a key. • Freewriting = writing without crossing off on anything that comes to mind for fixed interval. • Let’s do it for 3 minutes.

6. Directing Your Freewriting • Can’t always write about current thoughts. • Can direct freewriting process at piece. • Write without crossing off on next assignment. • Continue and keep going, changing subjects as necessary. • Quickplan outline to plant seeds.

7. Cut-and-Paste Revision • Write every other line. • On one side of sheet. • Use scissors and glue stick. • Take “freewriting” as raw material • Cut, paste, and interpolate between the lines. • Write new paragraphs as necessary.

8. Good and the Bad of Computers • Word processing is a delight. • Also causes lots of junk writing. • Product appears neat, content is garbage. • Freewriting+Cut&Paste as model of ideal process. • Do it really, then try to do likewise on computer.

9. Modeling the Written Piece • Do you know where to start? • What elements are necessary? • Are memos different from reports different from letters? • No! Technical writing requires few key devices • Which you can master today!

10. Elements of the Effective Piece • The fundamental structure of effective technical writing. • Titles and subtitles. • Lists and amplification. • Summaries and conclusions and knowing the difference.

11. A Fundamental Structure of Writing • Forget Rhet 105: No clever essays here. • What should I write about? How to start? • Every piece, every section need: • Background • Purpose (of the piece, section) • Roadmap (of the remainder) • Army saying: Tell ‘em what you’re going to say, say it, and tell ‘em what you said.

12. Background • Sometimes called motivation • The fundamental discontinuity • What is the context of what’s coming? • Project background, motivation, times, dates, players. • But remember, the clock is ticking.

13. Rhetorical Purpose • “The purpose of this report (memo, section, letter, e-mail, whatever) is X.” • “In this report we present X.” • Say it. Not a mystery novel or 105 essay. • Don’t confuse project purpose with rhetorical purpose. • Rhetorical purpose is the purpose of the piece (section, whatever).

14. Roadmap • Build a mental model or map for your reader. Tell them what is next. • “In the remainder, we examine X, Y, and Z.” • “The remainder of the report examines X, Y, and Z.” • If you don’t tell them where you are going, how will they know when they get there?

15. Fundamental Structure is Iterated • Same structure used at the beginning of the report. • At the beginning of the section. • At the beginning of subsections. • Less context needed when you are in the middle, but still needed.

16. Titles and Headings • Titles and section headings are important signposts. Aid skimming. • 2 conflicting objectives: Informative and interest-generating. • Examples: “An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms” vs. “Don’t Worry, Be Messy” • Letters and memos can benefit from them. Professors agree to meet. At the meeting, 4 faculty members agreed to get together for the first time in 20 years.

17. Lists and Amplification • Lists can be bulleted, numbered, either broken out or in line. • Use lists a great deal. • “In this section we cover the following 4 items:” • “In the remainder, we examine each item in more detail.” • Then amplify each item in sequence.

18. Summaries v. Conclusions • Tell ‘em what you said=Summary • Summaries are necessary, especially in longer memos, letters, and reports. • What are conclusions? • Conclusions = changes desired in audience thought or action as a result of having read this piece. • Recommendations are action-oriented conclusions.

19. Summary • Process of writing and elements of a piece. • Key: Separate creation from criticism. • Freewriting & cut-and-paste revision as formal procedures. • 3-way structure = background + purpose + roadmap • Titles, headings, lists, summaries, and conclusions.

20. Conclusions • Engineers like models • Writing more fun w/ models of good writing. • Apply writing models like Newton’s laws. • The chore of writing  the joy of writing. • To the benefit of your engineering career.