Friday, Jan. 24

Pourover (15)

Markel and Selber, Writing Technical Documents

Planning

Analyze the rhetorical situation 

Audience, Purpose, Setting/Context, Delivery decisions and reader expectations, 

Analyze aspects of the workflow 

existing processes, time, budget, tools, collaboration, testing, maintaining the document and keeping up to date)

Invention / Generating ideas

(6 questions who what when where why how; brainstorming, freewriting, talking with others, clustering and branching)

Research

Schedule and Budget 

Consider timeline and resources

Drafting

Organizing and outlining 

(consider existing patterns, e.g., compare and contrast, cause & effect)

Consider using and adapting templates 

(they recommend caution, particularly re: design principles, engagement, and lack of content; often need to be adapted to different situations; rhetorical genre theory is pertinent here)

Applying headings and styles 

(permits batch changes; benefits accessibility; helps navigation; 

Revising

High level substantive changes

Especially re: audience, purpose, subject; avoid changes at the level of grammar, punctuation, spelling, formatting

Study writing by yourself

Seeking help from others 

(e.g., SMEs, users, stakeholders)

Editing

Mezzo- and lower-level items 

Still: start big and work your way down

Paragraph development, sentence accuracy and clarity, style guidelines, grammar, word choices

Proofreading

Smaller-level items and changes

Consistency, spelling

Reading Responses

In small groups, read 

Kira

So far, one of my biggest takeaways is that technical communication encompasses so much more than what I thought when I initially joined this class. I thought that we’d only be learning about concepts like writing instructions and technical procedures, and while those are technical communication, our project on user personas expanded my understanding of this concept. It also showed me that skills like research are important to technical communication, which has been meaningful and useful for me – especially in thinking about user experience. Another takeaway is that audience and purpose are key to technical writing – knowing who your user or reader is is critical to developing effective technical writing.

Jake

I think that every time I read one of these articles, I continue to connect it back to basic marketing ideas, which I have drawn on in previous Responses. I think this type of revise is important to all business majors, or people in professional settings in general. I relate this back to the childhood quote from school of "say it to me like I have never heard it" which my teachers always said to me. I think this is important with audiences as well, you need to assume that you can tell them as much as a professional while explaining as much as to a dummy.

Anabelle

Some of the more significant takeaways I've learned from this class are how vital research is when writing technical documents. it's very important to understand your audience and the purpose of your writing to create something compelling. I found the user Persona project very interesting because I've never done anything like it, and it showed me how you can combine research and data to learn more about a specific product. 

Henry

What I've learned most from the course so far is the organized, step-by-step approach to creating technical documents—planning, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. Focusing on collaboration and understanding the audience has been especially important because it highlights how technical writing works together with others in real-life situations. 

Agustin

I think my biggest takeaway from this class is how I have learned about all these concepts but not explicitly. Before, I knew about the importance of presentations, collaboration, ethics, and so on, but it was insightful to know why and how they are important from the literature. Not only that, but it was interesting to learn how all of these concepts that I would associate as being independent of each other are all integral in the technical writing process.

Michelle

My biggest takeaway so far in this course is that technical communication is about intentionally crafting writing to fit the needs of the user. I understand this as being one step above simply writing for an audience because technical writing is done under the assumption that the writer is doing everything they can to ensure that the user/reader is benefiting from their work. Something I’m still wondering about technical writing is what techniques writers might use to effectively communicate more complex information. Even if there are SME’s to guide them, how can technical writers ensure that the information is accessible and understandable for a general audience?

Migo

One of the most significant takeaways from this chapter and the course so far is the structured approach to technical writing, particularly the iterative process of planning, drafting, revising, and proofreading. This step-by-step method ensures that documents are well-organized, audience-centered, and free of errors. Concepts like using templates and styles are particularly practical, as they help maintain consistency across documents.

Anzhuo

My biggest takeaway is that I learned how to create fictional personas based on a large dataset and use it to reflect my target audience. The purpose of technical communication is very useful to me. I learned to think in the audience's perspective to better prepare my work. What does technical communication look like in professional setting? 

Helen

One takeaway I have with this class is considering the audience of your technical writing. Usually in class I write essays for a professor to grade, but it’s interesting to now have to consider writing for a general audience who may not have the knowledge as I do. 

Kendra

So far, the topic that has stuck with me the most was the readings on ethics and publics/audiences. Beforehand, I never thought technical writing had so many components. It's not as straight forward as I thought it was. There is more to consider when writing a technical document such as your audience and ethical considerations.