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Writing

Description

In Chapter 3 of Technical Communication, we are immediately struck with the importance of developing a workplace writing process. The textbook outlines 5 stages (Planning, Drafting, Revising, Editing, Proofreading). Within each step is a variety of activities that help to frame and shape a document. While drafting, for example, writers not only consider structure and organization, but also page design and layout. And note that the process the textbook provides separates revising, editing, and proofreading into distinct steps; that's because each step requires distinct actions and activities. This writing process is also recursive, as the textbook indicates: "The challenging part of writing, however, is that these five steps are not linear. That is, you don't plan the document and check off a box and go on to drafting. At any step, you might double back to do more planning, drafting, or revising" (43).

The Writing Process Image activity is designed to have you reflect on your own writing process. Doing so, will allow you to better understand the ways in which you approach a writing task and help you consider, with strategies from the textbook, how you might refine your process for the workplace.

First, take a few moments to reflect on your own writing processes. Consider the following questions to help jump start your thinking:

  1. Where do you write (coffee shop, office, library, etc.)?
  2. What conditions do you prefer (quiet, listening to music, TV in background, etc.)?
  3. What do you write with (computer/laptop, tablet, paper/pen, quill/parchment, etc.)?
  4. What invention (brainstorming) activities do you use (free write, mind map, list, outline, etc.)?

Then, reflect on the ways you compose documents. Do you start with the intro and work all the way through to the end, rewriting and revising when complete in a linear fashion? Or perhaps, you bounce around writing, (re)organizing, and editing along the way, in a more recursive style.

After you have finished reading Chapter 3 and reflecting on your own writing process: (1) create an image (using MS Word, PowerPoint, crayons/markers, or by some other method/material with which you feel comfortable) that best illustrates your writing process, and (2) compose a 100- to 200-word document that explains your image, discusses your writing process reflection, and makes connections to Chapter 3 (pull in quotes and/or examples when appropriate). In this document, also consider how your current writing process might shift or evolve as you develop workplace writing processes.

Upload your image as a PDF or JPG and your document as a PDF by 11:59 p.m. Sunday, July 8, 2018.

TIP: The image should show connections among the various stages or points of your process. In other words, it should be more than just one picture. Instead, show process and progression.

Unformatted Attachment Preview

CHAPTER 3 Writing Technical Documents Chapter Introduction Planning CONSIDERING YOUR WRITING SITUATION TUTORIAL: Cross-Platform Word Processing with CloudOn, Quip, and More GENERATING IDEAS ABOUT YOUR SUBJECT RESEARCHING ADDITIONAL INFORMATION DEVISING A SCHEDULE AND A BUDGET Drafting ORGANIZING AND OUTLINING YOUR DOCUMENT TUTORIAL: Creating Outlines USING TEMPLATES ◾ GUIDELINES: Drafting Effectively ◾ TECH TIP: Why and How To Modify Templates ◾ DOCUMENT ANALYSIS ACTIVITY: Identifying the Strengths and Weaknesses of a Commercial Template USING STYLES ◾ TECH TIP: Why and How To Use the Styles Group TUTORIAL: Creating Styles and Templates Revising STUDYING THE DRAFT BY YOURSELF ◾ GUIDELINES: Revising the Draft SEEKING HELP FROM OTHERS ◾ ETHICS NOTE: ACKNOWLEDGING REVIEWERS RESPONSIBLY Editing ◾ GUIDELINES: Editing the Draft Proofreading WRITER’S CHECKLIST EXERCISES CASE 3: Understanding Why Revision Software Cannot Revise and Edit Your Document Chapter Introduction THIS CHAPTER PRESENTS a writing process that focuses on the techniques and tools most useful for technical communicators. Should you use the process described here? If you don’t already have a process that works for you, yes. But your goal should be to devise a process that enables you to write effective documents (that is, documents that accomplish your purpose) efficiently (without taking more time than necessary). At the end of this chapter, you will find a Writer’s Checklist. After you try implementing some of the techniques described in this chapter, you can start to revise the Writer’s Checklist to reflect the techniques that you find most effective. The writing process consists of five steps: planning, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. The challenging part of writing, however, is that these five steps are not linear. That is, you don’t plan the document, then check off a box and go on to drafting. At any step, you might double back to do more planning, drafting, or revising. Even when you think you’re almost done — when you’re proofreading — you still might think of something that would improve the document. That means you’ll need to go back and rethink all five steps. As you backtrack, you will have one eye on the clock, because the deadline is sneaking up on you. That’s the way it is for all writers. A technical writer stops working on a user manual because she has to get it off to the print shop. An engineer stops working on a set of slides for a conference presentation because it’s time to head for the airport. So, when you read about how to write, remember that you are reading about a messy process that goes backward as often as it goes forward and that, most likely, ends only when you run out of time. Remember, too, that many of the documents you produce will never truly be “finished.” Many types of documents that live online are called living documents because they are meant to be revised as new information becomes available or policies change. Benefits manuals, for example, keep changing. Planning Planning, which can take more than a third of the total time spent on a writing project, is critically important for every document, from an email message to a book-length manual. Start by thinking about your writing situation. CONSIDERING YOUR WRITING SITUATION Your writing situation includes factors that will affect your communication: your audience, purpose, setting, document type, and process. Considering the opportunities and challenges presented by these factors is an important part of the planning process. Analyzing Your Audience If you are lucky, you can talk with your audience before and during your work on the document. These conversations can help you learn what your readers already know, what they want to know, and how they would like the information presented. You can test out drafts, making changes as you go. Even if you cannot consult your audience while writing the document, you still need to learn everything you can about your readers so that you can determine the best scope, organization, and style for your document. Then, for each of your most important readers, try to answer the following three questions: Who is your reader? Consider such factors as education, job experience and responsibilities, skill in reading English, cultural characteristics, and personal preferences. What are your reader’s attitudes and expectations? Consider the reader’s attitudes toward the topic and your message, as well as the reader’s expectations about the kind of document you will be presenting. Why and how will the reader use your document? Think about what readers will do with the document. This includes the physical environment in which they will use it, the techniques they will use in reading it, and the tasks they will carry out after they finish reading it. For more about analyzing your audience, see Ch. 5, p. 89. Analyzing Your Purpose You cannot start to write until you can state the purpose (or purposes) of the document. Ask yourself these two questions: After your readers have read your document, what do you want them to know or do? What beliefs or attitudes do you want them to hold? For more about analyzing your purpose, see Ch. 5, p. 86. A statement of purpose might be as simple as this: “The purpose of this report is to recommend whether the company should adopt a healthpromotion program.” Although the statement of purpose might not appear in this form in the final document, you want to state it clearly now to help you stay on track as you carry out the remaining steps. Analyzing Your Setting Your setting includes both the situation surrounding the problem you are trying to solve and the context in which your audience will use your document. Before you begin to draft, consider the following setting-related issues: High stakes vs. low stakes. For example, will your document determine the budget for a large project, or will it be used in a more routine manner, such as to help users understand a software update? Physical vs. digital. In what type of environment will your audience use your document, and how will that environment affect the way you write it? Formal vs. informal. The setting’s level of formality — which differs significantly, for example, from a blog post to a proposal — will dictate the style and tone you will use in your writing. It will also affect the length of and detail provided in your document. Mundane vs. socially or politically charged. Depending on your field or subject matter, you may be writing about a topic that some readers will find sensitive. For example, you may be writing about replacing fossilfuel technology with renewable energy in a region where many people have jobs in coal mining or oil refining. Established vs. undefined norms of ethical behavior. If norms of ethical behavior have been established for your subject area, by all means follow them. If you are unsure about the ethical norms for a particular setting, look for those of an appropriate professional organization, such as the Council of Biology Editors (CBE) or the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Settings can have a great deal of influence over how audiences think about and use technical communication. Selecting Your Document Application, Design, and Delivery Method Once you know to whom you are writing and why, you need to select an application (the type of document), a design, and a delivery method. You have a number of questions to consider: Has the application already been chosen for me? If you are writing a proposal to submit to the U.S. Department of the Interior, for example, you must follow the department’s specifications for what the proposal is to look like and how it is to be delivered. For most kinds of communication, however, you will likely have to select the appropriate application yourself, such as a set of instructions or a manual. Sometimes, you will deliver an oral presentation or participate in a phone conference or a videoconference. For more about application types, see Part 4. For more about design, see Ch. 11. What will my readers expect? If your readers expect a written set of instructions, you should present a set of instructions unless some other application, such as a report or a manual, is more appropriate. If they expect to see the instructions in a simple black-and-white booklet — and there is no good reason to design something more elaborate than that — your choice is obvious. For instance, instructions for installing and operating a ceiling fan in a house are generally presented in a small, inexpensive booklet with the pages stapled together or on a large, folded sheet of paper. However, for an expensive home-theater system, readers might expect a glossy, full-color manual. What delivery method will work best? Related to the question of reader expectations is the question of how you will deliver the document to your readers. For instance, you would likely mail an annual report to your readers, in addition to posting it on your company website. You might present industry forecasts on a personal blog or on one sponsored by your employer. You might deliver a user’s manual for a new type of photoediting program online rather than in print because the program — and therefore the manual — will change. It is important to think about these questions during the planning process, because your answers will largely determine the scope, organization, style, and design of the information you will prepare. As early as the planning step, you need to imagine your readers using your information. Analyzing the Writing Process The process you use to create your document will depend on several key factors: Existing process. In some cases, just as with the choice of applications, an existing process will be available for you to follow as you produce your document. In other cases, you may need to create your own process. As explained in this chapter, every writing process should include time for planning, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. Time. Be sure to consider the amount of time you have available to plan, research, and create your document. In some cases, you may need to allow time for additional steps, including collaboration and testing, both of which are discussed below. Budget. Your budget will influence almost every aspect of your document: the amount of time you spend on it, the number of people you can enlist to help you, the size and shape of the document, the design of the document, and the production quality. Tools. Before you begin a big project, consider which type of writing tool will best meet your project’s needs. You probably do most of your writing with commercial software such as Microsoft Office or opensource software such as Google Docs, and you will likely continue to do much of your writing with these tools. Because of the rapid increase in the number of sophisticated tools such as Adobe InDesign and free webbased tools such as Wordpress, however, keeping up with all your options and being sure to choose the one that best meets your needs can help you create a more effective document. To watch a tutorial on cross-platform word processing, see the additional resources in LaunchPad. Specialized tools built for professional writers can be particularly useful for long, complicated projects that require extensive research. Scrivener, for example, lets you gather your research data in a single location and easily reorganize your document at the section or chapter level. Composition programs optimized for tablets, such as WritePad, convert handwriting into text, translate text into a number of languages, and allow cloud-based storage. Collaboration. Are you expected to collaborate with others when producing your document? If so, be sure to allow enough time for others to review your work and for you to review theirs. For more on collaboration, see Chapter 4. Document testing. Part of your writing process may involve testing the document before, during, or after creating it to be sure it fulfills its purpose for users. Chapter 13 discusses document testing. Ongoing maintenance. The audience for most digital documents and some print documents will expect updates and revisions. For example, periodic updates are necessary on the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s website to inform the public of product recalls and other safety hazards. GENERATING IDEAS ABOUT YOUR SUBJECT Generating ideas is a way to start mapping out the information you will need to include in the document, deciding where to put it, and identifying additional information that may be required. First, find out what you already know about the topic by using any of the techniques shown in Table 3.1. TABLE 3.1 Techniques for Generating Ideas About Your Topic TECHNIQUE EXPLANATION Asking the six Asking who, what, when, journalistic where, why, and how can questions help you figure out how much more research you need to do. Note that you can generate several questions from each of these six words. EXAMPLE Who would be able to participate? Who would administer it? What would the program consist of? Brainstorming Spending 15 minutes listing short phrases and questions about your subject helps you think of related ideas. Later, when you construct an outline, you will rearrange your list, add new ideas, and toss out some old ones. Why we need a program Lower insurance rates On-site or at a club? Who pays for it? What is our liability? Increase our productivity Freewriting Writing without plans or restrictions, without stopping, can help you determine what you do and do not understand. And one phrase or sentence might spark an important idea. A big trend today in business is sponsored health-promotion programs. Why should we do it? Many reasons, including boosting productivity and lowering our insurance premiums. But it’s complicated. One problem is that we can actually increase our risk if a person gets hurt. Another is the need to decide whether to have the program — what exactly is the program … Talking with someone Discussing your topic can help you find out what you already know about it and generate new ideas. Simply have someone ask you questions as you speak. Soon you will find yourself in a conversation that will help you make new connections from one idea to another. You: One reason we might want to do this is to boost productivity. Clustering and branching One way to expand on your topic is to write your main idea or main question in the middle of the page and then write second-level and third- Bob: What exactly are the statistics on increased productivity? And who has done the studies? Are they reputable? You: Good point. I’m going to have to show that putting money into a program is going to pay off. I need to see whether there are unbiased recent sources that present hard data. level ideas around it, branching out with connecting lines. RESEARCHING ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Once you have a good idea of what you already know about your topic, you must obtain the rest of the information you will need. You can find and evaluate what other people have already written by reading reference books, scholarly books, articles, websites, and reputable blogs and discussion forums. In addition, you might compile new information by interviewing experts, distributing surveys and questionnaires, making observations, sending inquiries, and conducting experiments. Don’t forget to ask questions and gather opinions from your own network of associates, both inside and outside your organization. For more about conducting research, see Ch. 6. DEVISING A SCHEDULE AND A BUDGET During the planning stage, you also must decide when you will need to provide the information and how much you can spend on the project. For instance, for the project on health-promotion programs, your readers might need a report to help them decide what to do before the new fiscal year begins in two months. In addition, your readers might want a progress report submitted halfway through the project. Making a schedule is often a collaborative process: you meet with your main readers, who tell you when they need the information, and you estimate how long the different tasks will take. For more about progress reports, see Ch. 17, p. 454. For more about project management, see Ch. 4, p. 64. You also need to create a budget. In addition to the time you will need to do the project, you need to think about expenses you might incur. For example, you might need to travel to visit companies with different kinds of health-promotion programs. You might need to conduct specialized database searches, create and distribute questionnaires to employees, or conduct interviews at remote locations. Some projects call for usability testing — evaluating the experiences of prospective users as they try out a system or a document. The cost of this testing needs to be included in your budget. For more about usability testing, see Ch. 13. Drafting You can begin drafting your document at any point in the planning process. You might jot down some key information for an executive summary as you are thinking about your audience and purpose. Very likely, you will come up with some compelling evidence you want to include in your document during the research phase. But at some point, you need to organize your information into a complete draft of the document. Working with organizational patterns and outlines is a good place to start. ORGANIZING AND OUTLINING YOUR DOCUMENT Although each document has its own requirements, you can use existing organizational patterns or adapt them to your own situation. For instance, the compare-and-contrast pattern might be an effective way to organize a discussion of different health-promotion programs. The cause-and-effect pattern might work well for a discussion of the effects of implementing such a program. For more about organizing your information, see Ch. 7. At first, your organization is only tentative. When you start to draft, you might find that the pattern you chose isn’t working well or that you need additional information that doesn’t fit into the pattern. Once you have a tentative plan, write an outline to help you stay on track as you draft. To keep your purpose clearly in mind as you work, you may want to write it at the top of your page before you begin your outline. To watch a tutorial on creating outlines, see the additional resources in LaunchPad. Some writers like to draft within the outline created by their wordprocessing program. Others prefer to place a paper copy of their outline on the desk next to their keyboard and begin drafting a new document that follows that outline. Whichever method you prefer, you can begin drafting by filling out the sections of your outline. You don’t need to work in a particular order, but keep an eye out for sections that are too skimpy and may need more content, and watch for sections that get overloaded and may need further dividing with new headings, paragraphs, or both. Keep in mind, too, that you may choose to reorder or eliminate sections of your outline as you draft. When you do, make sure you make changes deliberately, so that nothing gets moved or left out by mistake. USING TEMPLATES For your draft, you might consider using an existing template or modifying one to meet your needs. Templates are preformatted designs for different types of documents, such as letters, memos, newsletters, and reports. Templates incorporate the design specifications for the document, including typeface, type size, margins, and spacing. Once you have selected a template, you just type in the information. For more about design, see Ch. 11. Using templates, however, can lead to three problems: They do not always reflect the best design principles. For instance, most letter and memo templates default to 10-point type, even though 12-point type is easier to read. They bore readers. Readers get tired of seeing the same designs. They cannot help you answer the important questions about your document. Although templates can help you format information, they cannot help you figure out how to organize and write a document. Sometimes, templates can even send the wrong message for your particular audience and purpose. For example, résumé templates in word processors present a set of headings that might work better for some job applicants than for others. In addition, the more you rely on existing templates, the less likely you are to learn how to use the software to make your documents look professional. GUIDELINES: Drafting Effectively Try the following techniques when you begin to draft or when you get stuck in the middle of drafting. Get comfortable. Choose a good chair, set at the right height for the keyboard, and adjust the light so that it doesn’t reflect off the screen. Start with the easiest topics. Instead of starting at the beginning of the document, begin with the section you most want to write. Draft quickly. Try to make your fingers keep up with your brain. Turn the phrases from your outline into paragraphs. You’ll revise later. Don’t stop to get more information or to revise. Set a timer, and draft for an hour or two without stopping. When you come to an item that requires more research, skip to the next item. Don’t worry about sentence structure or spelling. Try invisible writing. Darken the screen or turn off the monitor so that you can look only at your hard-copy outline or the keyboard. That way, you won’t be tempted to stop typing to revise what you have just written. Stop in the middle of a section. When you stop, do so in the middle of a paragraph or even in the middle of a sentence. You will find it easy to conclude the idea you were working on when you begin writing again. This technique will help you avoid writer’s block, the mental paralysis that can set in when you stare at a blank screen. TECH TIP DOCUMENT ANALYSIS ACTIVITY Identifying the Strengths and Weaknesses of a Commercial Template The template from Microsoft Word shown here presents one approach to writing a résumé. The questions below ask you to think about the assumptions underlying this template. 1. How well does the explanation of how to use the template (located under “Objective”) help you understand how to write an effective résumé? 2. How well does the template explain how to reformat the elements, such as your name? 3. Does the template clearly describe what you should do if you wish, for instance, to include a list of references, rather than use the phrase “References are available upon request”? USING STYLES Styles are like small templates that apply to the design of smaller elements, such as headings. Like templates, styles save you time. For example, as you draft your document, you don’t need to add all the formatting each time you want to designate an item as a first-level heading. You simply highlight the text you want to be a first-level heading and use a pull-down menu or ribbon at the top of your screen to select that style. The text automatically incorporates all the specifications of that style. TECH TIP If you decide to modify a style — by italicizing a heading, for instance — you need to change it only once; the software automatically changes every instance of that style in the document. In collaborative documents, styles make it easier for collaborators to achieve a consistent look. To watch a tutorial on creating styles and templates in Word, see the additional resources in LaunchPad. Revising Revising is the process of looking again at your draft to see whether it works. After you revise, you will carry out two more steps — editing and proofreading — but at this point you want to focus on three large topics: Audience. Has your understanding of your audience changed? Will you be addressing people you hadn’t considered before? If so, how will that change what you should say and how you should say it? Purpose. Has your understanding of your purpose changed? If so, what changes should you make to the document? Subject. Has your understanding of the subject changed? Should you change the scope — that is, should you address more or fewer topics? Should you change the organization of the document? Should you present more evidence or different types of evidence? For more about audience and purpose, see Ch. 5. On the basis of a new look at your audience, purpose, and subject, you might decide that you need to make minor changes, such as adding one or two minor topics. Or you might decide that you need to completely rethink the document. There are two major ways to revise: by yourself and with the assistance of others. If possible, use both ways. STUDYING THE DRAFT BY YOURSELF The first step in revising is to read and reread your document, looking for different things each time. For instance, you might read it once just to see whether the information you have presented is appropriate for the various audiences you have identified. You might read it another time to see whether each of your claims is supported by appropriate and sufficient evidence. Start with the largest, most important issues first; then work on the smaller, less important ones. That way, you don’t waste time on awkward paragraphs you might eventually decide to delete. Begin by reviewing the document as a whole (for organization, development, and content), saving the sentence-level concerns (such as grammar, punctuation, and spelling) for later. One effective way to review your whole document for coherence is to study its outline. If you have used Word’s style tools to insert heading levels, you can view the outline of your document on screen, as shown in Figure 3.1. If you haven’t used style tools, you can still sketch an outline of your document based on its headings and content. FIGURE 3.1 Studying the Organization of a Document Using the Outline View GUIDELINES: Revising the Draft After you finish your draft, look through it to make sure the writing is well organized, well developed, and coherent. The following questions can help you study the draft yourself; they can also be used as a helpful guide for your reviewers. Does the draft meet readers’ expectations? If, for instance, the readers of a report expect a transmittal letter, they might be distracted if they don’t see one. Check to make sure that the draft includes the information readers expect and looks the way they expect it to. Be especially careful if the document or site will be used by people from other cultures, who might have different expectations. For more on writing for multicultural readers, see Chapter 5, page 103. Has anything been left out in turning the outline into a draft? Check the original outline to see that all the topics are included in the document itself. Review the outline of the final draft to focus on the headings. Is anything missing? Is the organization logical? The document is likely to reflect several different organizational patterns. For instance, the overall pattern might be chronological. Within that pattern, sections might be organized from more important to less important. When you look at the headings, are these patterns visible, and do they seem to work well? For more on organizational patterns, see Chapter 7. Are the arguments well developed? Have claims been presented clearly and emphatically? Has sufficient and appropriate research been done to gather evidence that supports the claims effectively? Is the reasoning valid and persuasive? For more on conducting research, see Chapter 6. For more on using evidence effectively, see Chapter 8, page 179. Is the emphasis appropriate throughout the draft? If a major point is treated only briefly, mark it for possible expansion. If a minor topic is treated at great length, mark it for possible condensing. Is the draft honest, and does it adhere to appropriate legal standards? Is the information presented honestly? Is any information misleading? Has any critical information that might counter the argument been omitted? Does the document adhere to appropriate legal standards of intellectual property, such as copyright law? Does it comply with relevant accessibility standards? For more on ethical and legal issues, see Chapter 2. Does the document come across as reliable and helpful? Check to see that the writing style is fully professional: modest, understated, and cooperative. For more on a professional persona, see Chapter 8, page 188. SEEKING HELP FROM OTHERS For technical documents, it is best to turn to two kinds of people for help. Subject-matter experts (SMEs) can help you determine whether your facts and explanations are accurate and appropriate. If, for instance, you are writing about fuel-cell automobiles, you could ask an automotive expert to review your document. Important documents are routinely reviewed by technical experts before being released to the public. For more about having another person review your draft, see Ch. 4, p. 73. The second category of reviewers includes both actual users of your existing document and prospective users of the next version of the document. These people can help you see problems you or other knowledgeable readers don’t notice. For instance, a prospective user of a document on fuel-cell technologies might point out that she doesn’t understand what a fuel cell is because you haven’t defined the term. How do you learn from SMEs and from users and prospective users? Here are a few techniques: surveying, interviewing, or observing readers as they use the existing document interviewing SMEs about a draft of the document conducting focus groups to learn users’ or prospective users’ opinions about an existing or proposed document uploading the document to an online writing space, such as Microsoft SharePoint or Google Drive, and authorizing people to revise it For more about these techniques, as well as usability testing, see Ch. 13. It is important to revise all drafts, but it is especially important to revise drafts of documents that will be read and used by people from other cultures. If your readers come from another culture, try to have your draft reviewed by someone from that culture. That reviewer can help you see whether you have made correct assumptions about how readers will react to your ideas and whether you have chosen appropriate kinds of evidence and design elements. As discussed in Chapters 11 and 12, people from other cultures might be surprised by some design elements used in reports, such as marginal comments. ETHICS NOTE ACKNOWLEDGING REVIEWERS RESPONSIBLY When you write on the job, take advantage of the expertise of others. It is completely ethical to ask subject-matter experts and people who are similar to the intended audience of your document to critique a draft of it. If your reviewer offers detailed comments and suggestions on the draft or sends you a multipage review — and you use some or many of the ideas — you are ethically bound to acknowledge that person’s contributions. This acknowledgment can take the form of a one- or two-sentence statement of appreciation in the introduction of the document or in a transmittal letter. Or you could write a letter or memo of appreciation to the reviewer; he or she can then file it and use it for a future performance evaluation. Editing Having revised your draft and made changes to its content and organization, it’s time for you to edit. Editing is the process of checking the draft to improve its grammar, punctuation, style, usage, diction (word choice), and mechanics (such as use of numbers and abbreviations). You will do most of the editing by yourself, but you might also ask others for assistance, especially writers and editors in your organization. One technology that enables people at different locations to work together is a wiki, a website that lets authorized readers edit a document (also referred to as a wiki) and archives all the previous versions of the document. For a discussion of using wikis to create collaborative documents, see Ch. 4. GUIDELINES: Editing the Draft After you address the big-picture revision issues, consider these five questions related to the verbal and visual elements of the draft: Are all paragraphs well developed? Does each paragraph begin with a clear topic sentence that previews or summarizes the main point? Are all claims validated with appropriate and sufficient support? For more on paragraph development, see Chapter 9. Are all sentences clear and correct? Make sure each sentence is easy to understand, is grammatically correct, and is structured to emphasize the appropriate information. For more on writing effective sentences, see Chapter 10. Are all the elements presented consistently? Check to see that parallel items are presented consistently. For example, are all headings on the same level structured the same way (perhaps as noun phrases or as gerunds, ending in -ing)? And check for grammatical parallelism, particularly in lists, but also in traditional sentences. For more on parallelism, see Chapter 10, page 225. Is the design effective? Does the document or site look professional and attractive, and is it easy to navigate? Do readers find it easy to locate the information they want? For more on design, see Chapter 11. Are graphics used appropriately? Are there opportunities to translate verbal information into graphics to make the communication easier to understand and more emphatic? Are the graphic types appropriate and effective? Are the graphics linked to the text? For more on graphics, see Chapter 12. The resources devoted to editing will vary depending on the importance of the document. An annual report, which is perhaps the single most important document that people will read about your organization, will be edited rigorously because the company wants it to look perfect. A biweekly employee newsletter also will be edited, but not as rigorously as an annual report. What about the routine emails you write every day? Edit them, too. It’s rude not to. Proofreading Proofreading is the process of checking to make sure you have typed what you meant to type. You are looking for minor problems caused by carelessness or haste. For instance, have you written filename on one page and file name on another? Have you been consistent in expressing quantities in numerals or in words? Have you been consistent in punctuating citations in your list of works cited? For more about proofreading, see Appendix, Part C. Look particularly for problems in word endings. For instance, a phrase such as “we studying the records from the last quarter” is likely a careless error left over from an earlier draft of the sentence. Change it to “we studied the records from the last quarter.” Also look for missing and repeated words: “We studied the from the last quarter” or “We studied the the records from the last quarter.” Although your software can help you with some of these chores, it isn’t sophisticated enough to do it all. The following sentence contains three errors that you should catch in proofreading: There are for major reasons we should implementing health-promotion program. Here they are: 1. “For” is the wrong word. The word should be “four.” 2. “Implementing” is the wrong verb form. The verb should be “implement.” This mistake is probably left over from an earlier version of the sentence. 3. The article “a” is missing before the phrase “health-promotion program.” This is probably just a result of carelessness. By the way, a spell-checker and grammar-checker didn’t flag any of these errors. Although some writers can proofread effectively on the screen, others prefer to print a copy of the text. These writers say that because the text looks different on the page than it does on the screen, they are more likely to approach it with fresh eyes, as their eventual readers will, and therefore more likely to see errors. Proofreading is vital to producing a clear, well-written document that reflects your high standards and underscores your credibility as a professional. Don’t insult yourself and your readers by skipping this step. Reread your draft carefully and slowly, perhaps out loud, and get a friend to help. You’ll be surprised at how many errors you’ll find. WRITER’S CHECKLIST In planning the document, did you analyze your audience? (p. 44) analyze your purpose? (p. 44) analyze your setting? (p. 44) select an appropriate document application, design, and delivery method? (p. 45) analyze your writing process? (p. 46) generate ideas about your subject? (p. 47) research additional information? (p. 48) devise a schedule and a budget? (p. 48) In drafting the document, did you organize and outline your document? (p. 49) use templates, if appropriate? (p. 50) use styles? (p. 51) In revising the draft, did you study the draft by yourself? (p. 54) seek help from others? (p. 56) Did you edit the document carefully? (p. 57) Did you proofread the document carefully? (p. 58) EXERCISES For more about memos, see Ch. 14, p. 376. 1. Read your word processor’s online help about using the outline view. Make a file with five headings, each of which has a sentence of body text below it. Practice using the outline feature to do the following tasks: a. change a first-level heading to a second-level heading b. move the first heading in your outline to the end of the document c. hide the body text that goes with one of the headings 2. Your word processor probably contains a number of templates for such applications as letters, memos, faxes, and résumés. Evaluate one of these templates. Is it clear and professional looking? Does it present a design that will be effective for all users or only for some? What changes would you make to the template to improve it? Write a memo to your instructor presenting your findings, and attach a copy of the template. 3. Proofread the following paragraph. For information on writing effective sentences, see Chapter 10 and Appendix, Part C. People who have a federal student loan can apply for program from the Department of Education that is intended to give relief to former students with moderate incomes by sketching the payments out over a longer period. The program calculates monthly payments on the basis of income. In addition, the program forgave balances after 25 years (10 years if the the person chooses employment in public service). The monthly-payment calculation, called income-based repayment (IBR), determined by the size of the loan and the persons income. For some 90 percent of the more than one million people who have already enrolled, the IRB works out to less then 10 percent if their income. The program also caps the payments at 15 percent of a persons income over $16,000 a year (and eliminates payments for people who earn than $16,000). CASE 3: Understanding Why Revision Software Cannot Revise and Edit Your Document You are an engineer who has been asked to write a project report regarding a defect in a wireless heart-rate monitor for bicyclists. Your supervisor has some concerns about the quality of the writing in the draft of the report you submitted and has asked you to rework the introduction. To get started revising the report, go to LaunchPad. In Chapter 3 of Technical Communication, we are immediately struck with the importance of developing a workplace writing process. The textbook outlines 5 stages (Planning, Drafting, Revising, Editing, Proofreading). Within each step is a variety of activities that help to frame and shape a document. While drafting, for example, writers not only consider structure and organization, but also page design and layout. And note that the process the textbook provides separates revising, editing, and proofreading into distinct steps; that's because each step requires distinct actions and activities. This writing process is also recursive, as the textbook indicates: "The challenging part of writing, however, is that these five steps are not linear. That is, you don't plan the document and check off a box and go on to drafting. At any step, you might double back to do more planning, drafting, or revising" (43). The Writing Process Image activity is designed to have you reflect on your own writing process. Doing so, will allow you to better understand the ways in which you approach a writing task and help you consider, with strategies from the textbook, how you might refine your process for the workplace. First, take a few moments to reflect on your own writing processes. Consider the following questions to help jump start your thinking: 1. Where do you write (coffee shop, office, library, etc.)? 2. What conditions do you prefer (quiet, listening to music, TV in background, etc.)? 3. What do you write with (computer/laptop, tablet, paper/pen, quill/parchment, etc.)? 4. What invention (brainstorming) activities do you use (free write, mind map, list, outline, etc.)? Then, reflect on the ways you compose documents. Do you start with the intro and work all the way through to the end, rewriting and revising when complete in a linear fashion? Or perhaps, you bounce around writing, (re)organizing, and editing along the way, in a more recursive style. After you have finished reading Chapter 3 and reflecting on your own writing process: (1) create an image (using MS Word, PowerPoint, crayons/markers, or by some other method/material with which you feel comfortable) that best illustrates your writing process, and (2) compose a 100- to 200-word document that explains your image, discusses your writing process reflection, and makes connections to Chapter 3 (pull in quotes and/or examples when appropriate). In this document, also consider how your current writing process might shift or evolve as you develop workplace writing processes. Upload your image as a PDF or JPG and your document as a PDF by 11:59 p.m. Sunday, July 8, 2018. TIP: The image should show connections among the various stages or points of your process. In other words, it should be more than just one picture. Instead, show process and progression.
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Attached.

Running Head: Writing Process Image

Writing Process Image
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Name
Lecturer Name
Due Date

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Writing Process Image
Writing Process Image

Planning

Drafting

Revising

Editing
Proofreading

The process of writing is not a linear process as outlined in chapter three and in the
above image. It involves returning back to...


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