Blog Post 4 – What we’ve learned

During week 4, we learned a lot about writing procedures and manuals. We had an assignment to create a procedure document for Humans v. Zombies at RIT, which I found very challenging due to my lack of knowledge of the game. I learned a lot about keeping not just the primary audience in mind, but also secondary and tertiary audiences. 

The importance of manuals was also emphasized this week, as we watched an episode of Owner’s Manual and saw how much having a manual or some sort of information could make all the difference in succeeding in a task or not. It was interesting to see this alongside the discussion board asking us if we read manuals before using something. Many said they didn’t use the manual for specific things such as software or items similar to something they already owned, such as a new phone model. This made me think about why I didn’t read many of these manuals and most of my reasonings came from the fact that they’re not written accessibly and are quite verbose. If I ever had to write any manual in the future, I would keep this in mind to create clear, yet concise, instructions. Except in situations where you need to be extremely precise, possibly using legal jargon, there isn’t much reason for wordy manuals. 

-Ace Gray

Visual Appeal in Technical Writing

Throughout this course, there has been so much information provided that I have been able to successfully apply to my writing to improve it and connect with my audience through it. One thing that has stuck with me intensely through this course has been the concept of visualization within your writing. Many ideas for making sure that your writing is appealing to your viewers fall within the category of visual appeal and organization.

One assignment we did in this course was to create an infographic on a topic of our choosing. One of the most important aspects of this assignment was to organize it so that the information was portrayed honestly and clearly. We learned beforehand that some information that documents or infographics show can be extremely misleading due to stretched or skewed numbers. When I was in the process of creating my infographic, I had gone through and made sure of several things; the words were able to be read easily, the information was easily accessible, the design was appealing to the viewer, and the pie chart was accurately and honestly displayed. Before taking this course, I don’t think I would have the knowledge to check and revise my work to account for the visualization appeal to that capacity. Knowing how well it has soaked into my brain now, I am sure that in the future I will have this knowledge ready in my brain for when it is needed next.

Ella Watts

Applying Technical Writing Lessons

Out of the topics we’ve learned in class, the discussions we’ve had about editing and readability are changing how I approach my work. I’m approaching editing more carefully and focusing on both the big picture and small details. The levels of edit I hadn’t heard of past surface level proofreading have made me more thorough when going over my work. Especially when it comes to essays, I think the visual breakdown of paragraphs and making sure I’m presenting information in a coherent order has changed my process. I am now focusing on the flow of words and spacing of information more. 

Demographics and understanding my audience on a deeper level has also helped me tailor my language and tone and get rid of unnecessary jargon. I think accessibility within my text is important and I’ve been thinking about that more as well. Now that I’m continuing to write and think about these topics I can make sure what I’m writing is clear, concise, and engaging.

Robin Kapon

Technical Communications in the Workplace

For almost three years now, I’ve been working as a systems engineer, writing and editing technical documents. Although, I’ve always had relatively strong communication skills, it occurs to me that I’ve never actually taken a technical communications course. So, when I decided to return to grad school and had an opening in the spring semester, I opted to finally enroll in Technical Communications at RIT. I think the most influential aspect of this course has been centered around understanding my intended audience. To be sure, I’ve certainly understood how to target a particular age group, or a certain education/experience level. I change the ways that I interact with others depending on the circumstances. Still, the depth involved in profiling my reader has perhaps eluded me.

Profiling my readers by their role in the project will be somewhat difficult in my career. Technical communications are carefully version controlled, with a lengthy and intensive approval process. To that end, I can’t truly tailor specifications to each of a.) action takers, b.) advisors, c.) evaluators, and d.) gatekeepers individually. I can, however, attempt to keep all four groups in mind to ensure each stakeholder’s needs are met.

In particular, I found the ideas of global and transcultural communication to be insightful. Although it may seem my line of work is immune to global consideration, (I work on minorly classified government projects), awareness of other cultures can’t be a bad thing. International cooperation will hopefully play a larger role in future advancements and preparing for it now is in our best interest.

A more immediate call to action for me in the workplace, however, isn’t just one topic. Rather, it’s an overarching and recurring theme throughout the course that should be utilized. With a few modifications each time, the four steps of technical communication should be significantly useful to me. First, almost invariably, ‘Make a Plan and Do Research’. Regardless of how familiar a subject may seem, ensuring the intended purpose of a particular document is fully understood leads to efficiency and accuracy in the final product. The second step of technical communications is the most variable, being highly contingent upon the type of communication. Here, I’ll generalize the second step as ‘Determine the Type of Correspondence’. Am I writing an e-mail to a co-worker, supervisor, or perhaps even an executive? Am I, instead, writing a proposal for a potential client? Or, am I writing assembly instructions for the integration and test team? Am I writing a user manual? Or, requirements for a subcontractor? Reacting appropriately for the project at hand will simplify step three, ‘Organize and Draft’. Know the necessary components, outline your thoughts, and verify your conclusions. Once the pieces are detailed, they can be put together by ‘Choosing Your Style, Design, and Medium’. Although we consider this fourth step the final step, in reality, the process tends to be quite iterative. We almost never get it right on the first pass. That’s okay. Editing, revising, and peer review point out errors in judgement, any oversights or gaps in knowledge, and differing perspectives.

In short, taking this course has already proven useful in my career. Despite thinking I would learn the finer points of spacing (two or single space after punctuation?), when and how to punctuate after bullets or enumeration, for example, I’ve learned so much about the approach to technical writing. Creating a plan and altering it for the task at hand will make me better at my job and more efficient with my time.

-Taikara Yohe

Understanding Your Audience in Writing

As a physics major, a portion of my coursework revolves around reading research papers and engaging in discussions about their findings. As an undergraduate, I often encounter papers that seem inaccessible to me. They are filled with field-specific jargon and complex mathematics that I struggle to grasp fully. While I recognize that these papers are tailored for experts in the field, I can’t help but wonder why they aren’t crafted with a broader audience in mind.

One of the key lessons I’ve taken away from studying technical writing is the importance of understanding the intended audience and the document’s purpose. Throughout the semester, we’ve analyzed examples where this principle was overlooked, resulting in documents that are difficult to comprehend. I aspire to carry this awareness into my career as a scientist, particularly as a researcher, with the goal of reshaping the way scientific papers are written. By considering not only my fellow scientists but also anyone with an interest in the subject matter, I aim to make my work more accessible and engaging.

This has prompted me to adopt logical mapping techniques for both my documents and their intended audience. Allowing me to gain a comprehensive understanding of who may be consuming my writing, I strive to strike a balance that caters to all potential readers.

~Noah Manning