Chapter 15 Technical Descriptions

1. Chapter 15Technical Descriptions

2. Technical Descriptions • Provide concrete details, precise words, and visuals • Show readers what an object, mechanism, or product looks like, is assembled, or works • Sometimes detail processes instead of objects, mechanisms, and products • Require writers to recognize audience needs and expectations as well as pay careful attention to language use

3. Technical Descriptions • Are routine in the workplace • Are crucial in helping workers accomplish their jobs successfully • Can be stand-alone documents or parts of other documents

4. Technical Specifications • Are similar to technical descriptions in many ways • Use short phrases and visuals to give readers information quickly and efficiently • Often describe parts or procedures of the product or process • Are often written for audiences who need technical information about products they have purchased

5. bigfoto.com Components ofTechnical Descriptions

6. Introduction • Can identify the object, product, mechanism, or process to be described • Can discuss what background information the audience needs to know • Can give a general and brief description of the object, product, mechanism, or process • Can provide an overview of the rest of the technical description, if it is long

7. Background • Can provide contextual information that readers need to fully understand the description • Provides detailed information about something unfamiliar to an audience • Can be written for experts or non-experts

8. Parts and Characteristics • Is the main section of a technical description • Divide the object, product, or mechanism into its distinct parts, characteristics, and, in some cases, both • “Parts” refers to the physical and tangible pieces of the thing itself • “Characteristics” refers to describable qualities of a thing that are not parts

9. Visuals • Gain attention of the audience • Establish authority • Reach a broader audience • Improve organization • Simplify information retention • Clarify difficult or abstract information • Provide examples of written descriptions • Illustrate processes • Depict relationships between information • Emphasize important information • Highlight key points

10. freeimages.co.uk Composing Technical Descriptions

11. Descriptive Detail • Appeals to readers’ five senses: sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing • Means describing according to characteristics, in most cases • Is prioritized based upon the thing described and audience needs

12. Description Organization • Uses a pattern suitable to the subject matter and audience needs • Tend to be based on versions of the “division organizational strategy” • Is based on the idea that some things can best be understood by treating them as a series of smaller parts

13. General to Specific Organization • Uses two different strategies • Provides readers with descriptions that progress from general information to specific descriptions, or • Moves from specific descriptions to more general descriptions

14. Spatial Organization • Helps readers navigate information pertaining to physical objects or places • Is useful in technical descriptions that detail relatively large objects or places • Is appropriate when writing descriptions of objects that require discussion of parts and pieces as they relate to each other in space

15. Chronological Organization • Moves readers through a sequential process related to time • Guides readers through the events of a particular activity from start to finish • Is used when technical descriptions describe processes

16. Headings • Provide navigational queues to readers • Are used to designate individual sections • Separate each part or piece of the object, product, mechanism, or process in a separate paragraph or section

17. Parts Lists • Are used sometimes used to itemize many parts of an object, product, mechanism, or process • State in advance if the description is going to take the audience through the details of many parts

18. bigfoto.com Ethics

19. Objectivity • Is required for technical descriptions to be ethical • Doesn’t make value judgments about the thing being described • Doesn’t try to sell it, or in other cases, doesn’t try to degrade it • Lets readers make their own value judgments

20. Alerts • Suggest risks to the audience • Could be either words and phrases or visuals such as warning signs • Help decrease the risk of legal ramifications

21. Usability Testing • Is required by some technical descriptions to ensure accuracy • Helps to create more effective, useful descriptions • Depends on the length of the document, its purpose, and its audience