Technical writing

1. Technical writing September 14, 2012

2. Today • The Writing Process • Memos

3. Review – Audience Analysis

4. Benefits of audience analysis • Understanding who will read and use your document helps the writer (YOU) determine: • - Type of document (i.e, IM vs. e-mail vs. formal letter) • - Content, organization, emphasis. • - Style and tone of writing. • - Format.

5. Four Categories of Readers • Expert – highly trained individual with extensive theory & knowledge. • Technician – individual who applies practical application of theory to real things. • Manager – individual who makes organization operate smoothly. • General reader – better known as general public.

6. Questions to ask about your audience • Who is my audience? • How many people will make up my audience? • How well does my audience understand English? • How much does my audience know about my topic? • What is my audience’s reason for reading my work? • What are my audience’s expectations about my written work? • What is my audience’s attitude toward me and my written work? • What do I want my audience to do after reading my work?

7. The Writing Process Think  Brainstorm  Plan  write  Revise  Write Edit  Write (revise, write, edit, write, etc.).

8. What writing is • Writing is a dynamic process. - It involves thinking, writing, editing and revision, re-writing, etc.

9. What writing is • Writing takes time. • You might think editing and revising are a waste of time. • WRONG • Bad writing takes more time and costs more money in the end. (misunderstandings, lost sales, damage to you or your organization’s reputation).

10. Before writing • GET THE INFORMATION !!

11. Before writing Do some research: • Audience analysis. • Research on your topic • - Sometimes this is simple, sometimes it takes a lot of work.

12. Step 1: Planning • The goal here: Get something on paper. • ANYTHING. • - At this point, worrying about quality is not important. • Planning before writing will: • a) make you more comfortable with your topic. • b) make the actual writing MUCH easier.

13. Planning Methods • Clustering. • Brainstorming. • Outlining.

14. Clustering

15. Brainstorming

16. Outlining

17. Planning Methods • Clustering. • Brainstorming. • Outlining. None of these methods is superior to the others. - Find what works best for you.

18. Step 2: Drafting • Using your plan, write a “rough” or first draft. • - Take the words/phrases in your plan and put them into sentence and paragraph form. • Don’t expect a perfect product after the first draft!

19. Step 3: Revising • DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! • First: Make sure you have allowed enough time to revise. • - Try to wait at least a day between your first draft and beginning revisions. • - You may ask someone to look at your draft before starting revisions.

20. Step 3: Revising • Revision = “Rethinking” • Some things to consider: • Is this accurate? Are my facts correct? • Is this relevant to my audience and purpose?

21. Step 3: Revising (Things to consider)- Content • Is this accurate? Are my facts correct? - Figures/tables, names, addresses, costs, statistics, etc.

22. Step 3: Revising (Things to consider)- Content 2. Is this relevant for my audience and purpose? - Any unnecessary information? - Too technical or complicated? - Inappropriate?

23. Step 3: Revising (Things to consider)- Content 3. Have I explained myself adequately? - Too little information? - Is anything missing?

24. Step 3: Revising (Things to consider)- Organization 1. Have I clearly identified my main points and shown why they are important?

25. Step 3: Revising (Things to consider)- Organization 2. Is everything in the correct order?

26. Step 3: Revising (Things to consider)- Organization 3. Is there anything that I can cut out?

27. Step 3: Revising (Things to consider)- Organization 4. Are related items grouped together?

28. Revision - Example

31. Step 3: Editing • “Quality control.” • Edit your writing only after you are satisfied with the “big” decisions about content and organization.

32. Step 3: Editing • Editing involves checking: • Sentences • Word choices • Punctuation and spelling • Grammar • Clarity

34. Editing sentences 1. Avoid sentences that are too long or complicated. - Try to make one long sentence into two or three shorter ones.

35. Editing sentences 2. Combine short, choppy sentences. • Be careful of this when editing longer sentences. • Can make the style too simple or the tone too blunt.

36. Editing sentences 3. Edit sentences to tell who does what to whom (or what). • The clearest sentence pattern in English is: subject - verb – object (s-v-o) s v o John drank the water. s v o Our website contains a link to many different training programs.

37. Editing sentences 4. Use strong, active verbs rather than verb phrases. • Many writers try to make their work sound more “important” by using verb phrases where they are unneeded. • i.e. “work in cooperation with”  cooperate.

38. Editing sentences 5. Avoid putting too many modifiers before nouns..

39. Editing sentences 6. Replace wordy phrases or clauses with one- or two- word synonyms.

40. Editing sentences 7. Combine sentences beginning with the same subject or ending with an object that becomes the subject of the next sentence.

42. Assignment Brainstorming revision Outline Memo Please check the website for information. Deadline: Next Friday (September 21)