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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