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After reading "Usability" . in A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing, 5th ed., please complete the exercises on page 91.

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A Rhetorical Approach To Workplace Writing 5th Edition. Prepared by the Professional & Technical Communication Program in the Department of English at the University of South Florida. Edited by Tanya P. Zarlengo Copyright © 2018 by University of South Florida. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ISBN: No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as may be expressly permitted by the applicable copyright statutes or in writing by the Publisher. University of South Florida Tampa, FL 33620 Contents Chapter 1: Rhetoric in the Workplace..................................4 Chapter 2: Purpose............................................................15 Chapter 3: Audience..........................................................19 Chapter 4: Design..............................................................38 Chapter 5: What Is PTC.....................................................75 Chapter 6: Ethics...............................................................81 Chapter 7: Usability...........................................................85 Chapter 8: Accessibility.....................................................92 Chapter 9: Writing Process................................................95 Chapter 10: Organizing Information ...............................102 Chapter 11: Writing Style................................................107 Chapter 12: Email............................................................118 Chapter 13: Letters..........................................................129 Chapter 14: Memos.........................................................135 Chapter 15: Resumes.......................................................144 Chapter 16: Presentations................................................164 Chapter 17: Instructions..................................................177 Chapter 18: Proposals......................................................189 Chapter 19: Reports........................................................199 Chapter 1: Rhetoric in the Workplace Chapter 1 Rhetoric in the Workplace: What Is Rhetoric and Why Should You Care? Before diving into a discussion of professional and technical communication (PTC), you’ll need grounding in rhetoric—specifically, classical rhetoric. What do a bunch of dead dudes from the 4th century B.C.E. have to do with professional and technical writing in the age of the internet, 3D printers, and electric cars? It’s a reasonable question. Way back in 1979, Carolyn Miller observed a commonly held position among scholars that PTC courses should be “‘skills’ courses” focused on “subduing language so that it most accurately and directly transmits reality” (610). Miller invoked the “‘windowpane theory of language’” (611) to characterize the attitude that effective professional and technical communication should transmit facts and information transparently—as through a windowpane. The windowpane theory held that any effort to tailor a message to achieve of its purpose with the target audience obscured objective reality and rendered the message inaccurate. The idea of “tailoring” a message introduces a core concept of rhetoric: to communicate effectively, a message should be shaped to suit the needs of an audience in the interest of achieving a specific purpose. Perhaps you already can see that tailoring communication to a purpose and audience is important in all communication, including professional and technical communication. In fact, you probably already approach professional writing rhetorically: • When you write an email, do you consider who you’re writing to and the relationship you have with that person as you decide how to say what you need to say? • If you’re going to ask for time off from work on short notice, do you consider whether to make the request via email or in person, and what words you will use to communicate the request? These decisions that consider the purpose, audience, and design of communication are rhetorical choices, and you make them all the time, including in work-related contexts. If it’s not yet clear to you how PTC is rhetorical, don’t worry. This textbook is designed to develop the rhetorical understanding of professional and technical communication that will help you create effective documents in the workplace. To that end, then, let’s go back to the fourth century B.C.E. for some olde tyme classical rhetoric. Classical Rhetoric Rhetoric, the art of effective communication, dates back to ancient Greece. Rhetoric grew out of the need for people to represent themselves in a court of law. The narrative handed down is that Corax of Syracuse started the first schools to teach the principles of rhetoric to help people “argue” over land. What Corax started has made a very broad impact on Western thought and the basic premises of writing and communication still in use today. Although much has changed in the subsequent centuries, one thing has not—the need to be able to communicate effectively. Unfortunately, today “rhetoric” is a term often used in the pejorative sense for persuasive or manipulative political commentary. But if you go back to the original meanings and definitions of rhetoric, A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 5 applying rhetorical principles in communication can increase understanding between people and foster development of knowledge and reason. In this way, rhetoric becomes a useful concept for learning how to construct and deliver effective communication. The fundamental tenets of rhetoric were codified by Aristotle, and contemporary Western educational models are still based, in large part, on his work. Over the years, two closely related definitions of rhetoric have emerged. The first definition holds as follows: • Rhetoric refers to the specific features of texts, written or spoken, that cause them to be meaningful, purposeful, and effective for readers or listeners. This definition emphasizes the text as an object of analysis. It dictates that the rhetoric of a text consists of its diction (word choice), types of sentence, and use of figurative language like metaphors. The idea is that paying close to attention to words and sentences is helpful and important in crafting a text that becomes effective. Inherent in this definition are two problems, both of which constrain rhetoric’s usefulness. The first problem with defining rhetoric solely in terms of textual features is that it often leads to the mistaken interpretation that rhetoric is only about style (the words on the page and the way they are put together). If rhetoric is merely a style of communicating, then it can be turned on and off—that is, a writer can use rhetoric or not use rhetoric, as they prefer. Perhaps you can see how this definition could lead to a theory such as the “windowpane” model noted above: if you ascribe to the windowpane theory of PTC, then good professional and technical writing should not be rhetorical. As noted in the examples above, professional communication requires rhetorical choices. A second problem is that this definition eliminates any ethical or philosophical dimension from rhetorical activity. As you know, words can be used to damage or hurt a person or group of people. Discussing when and where communication works to marginalize, discredit, or vilify a person or group is vital to any discussion of communication, including PTC. This ethical dimension of communication is encompassed by another, complementary definition of rhetoric. Chapter 1: Rhetoric in the Workplace 6 In a more complete definition of rhetoric: • Rhetoric refers to the work of finding and analyzing all the choices that a writer, speaker, reader, or listener might make in a situation so that the text becomes meaningful, purposeful, and effective for readers or listeners. Or, if you are the writer: • Rhetoric is the ability to discover and analyze all the possible options for communicating, and choose from those options the most effective means of creating communication that is meaningful, purposeful, and effective for readers or listeners in a given situation at a given time. This definition is a paraphrase of one offered by Aristotle in the first systematic textbook on the subject, The Art of Rhetoric, written in the fourth century B.C.E. It incorporates not just the textual features of communication (as in the first definition), but also the work of analyzing the reasons why you’re writing (purpose) and who you’re writing to (audience). The Rhetorical Situation Aristotle not only codified this more complete definition of rhetoric, he created the basic structure of a rhetorical educational system. One of the basic tenets of his system is the rhetorical situation. The Rhetorical Appeals In Rhetoric, Book 1, Aristotle defines rhetoric as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” Because Aristotle’s Greece was a predominantly oral culture, Aristotle taught that a speaker’s ability to persuade is based on how well the speaker appeals to his or her audience in three different areas (see Figure 1): • Ethos: appeal of one’s character. How you present yourself to your audience as trustworthy or credible when speaking on a subject • Pathos: appeal to emotion. How you invoke feelings in your audience A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 7 • Logos: appeal to reason. How you communicate the logic of your argument, to include evidence (e.g., facts and statistics), but also the logical and reasonable presentation of your argument (e.g., organization and structure) These areas form what later rhetoricians have called the Rhetorical Triangle. Figure 1: The Rhetorical Triangle The appeals are “proofs” the rhetor/speaker uses in delivery of his speech, because effective use of the appeals “proves” that a speaker’s argument is effective. As you might imagine not every rhetorical situation calls for the use of all three appeals in equal measure. It’s easy to see that, in professional and technical writing, credibility (ethos) and logic (logos) would be very important, but appealing to emotion might not be effective—in fact, use of pathos could harm the credibility of the document if the appeal to emotion is included inappropriately. However, as will be discussed in the visual communication chapter, even color choice can evoke emotion. When thinking rhetorically, your situation will guide your use of the appeals, and all appeals should be considered when making decisions. Chapter 1: Rhetoric in the Workplace 8 Recursive Participants Aristotle’s culture was orally focused, but as Western culture became more text based, these same appeals were adapted to the development of a written text. The appeals also are readily applicable to the visual and multimedia arguments. The rhetorical triangle can be used to represent the participants in a speech act, or any other act of communication. Because so many media are available to a communicator today, the label rhetor can be used to mean anyone communicating in any medium. See Figure 2. Figure 2: Rhetorical Triangle: Recursive Participants Note that this triangle is essentially equilateral. Why? The equal sides and angles illustrate the concept that each aspect of the triangle is as important as the others. It also suggests that a balance of the three is important. Too much of one is likely to produce an argument that will not be effective—for example, readers may find the argument unconvincing or difficult to understand, or they may stop reading. Professional and technical communication takes the theory of rhetoric and practically applies it. We can even take the rhetorical triangle and “convert” to be used in PTC. See Figure 3. A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 9 Figure 3: Rhetorical Triangle: For Professional and Technical Communication For professional and technical communicators, the rhetorical triangle gives you a starting point for the creation of any document. The triangle sits in a specific context or organizational setting. See Figure 4. Figure 4: Technical Communication in Context Chapter 1: Rhetoric in the Workplace 10 Organizational cultures encompass values, beliefs, standards, past and current practices, expectations, industry standards, economics, and politics. Organizational settings and cultures are patterns of basic assumptions that develop within a distinct social group and/ or parent organization. These assumptions guide the type of professional or technical writing that you will do. For example, progress reports for a software development cycle will be different from progress reports for monthly evaluations of air quality, and both those reports could differ among organizations. Decorum and Kairos To help guide your entry into the writing situation, there are two terms you need to know: decorum and kairos. Decorum Decorum is the easier term to understand and on the surface looks rather simple, but it is often overlooked or misinterpreted, which can lead to a failure of communication. Decorum is a code that governs the expectations of behavior. Or, said another way, decorum is a conventional norm. For example, just as it would be a violation of expected behaviors for you to sleep in a business meeting, it would be a violation of conventional norms to use curse words in an email. The tricky aspect of decorum is that expectations for behavior and conventional norms often are unwritten within organizations. The two examples above are obvious observations of general appropriateness. However, organizational cultures have their own unwritten rules of decorum that you need to learn, especially when it comes to writing tasks. For example, some organizations will welcome and encourage you to use previous technical documents as models for the writing you do. Other organizations will frown upon this practice. When you are assigned a job writing for an organization, or when you join an organization, it is vital that you read the organizational culture, so you can begin to understand these unwritten expectations. Sometimes you will be given documents to help you—for example, style manuals or documents from Human Resources regarding approA Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 11 priate behavior-—but, often, you will have to research and closely observe organizational culture to learn the conventional norms that are unwritten. Kairos The second term is kairos. Kairos has no direct translation into English, but it is directly tied to time—specifically, an opportune, critical, or exact time or moment. In rhetorical practice, kairos refers to the right response to a specific time, opportunity, or occasion. It is sometimes characterized as doing “the right thing at the right time,” or, if you think back to the second definition of rhetoric above, it’s the part of the definition that defines effective communication for “a given situation at a given time.” Kairos helps to focus the rhetorical situation as a function of time. As a professional and technical communicator, kairos positions your rhetorical situation (purpose, audience, and design) in a specific moment—a specific time— so that you can craft your message based on the needs of the moment or situation. For example, you’ve been tasked Figure 5: Time as Occasion (Kaiwith writing the technical description ros) by Francesco Salviati, Palazzo of a proposed new water treatment Vechio Museum, Italy plant. The final report (design) will be delivered at a city council (audience) budget meeting. Your description should focus on the technical aspects of the plant and the long term cost savings of updating the plant (purpose). These directives were dictated when the report was assigned. However, you also know that currently the city council is working toward “greening” city operations, so you might increase the Chapter 1: Rhetoric in the Workplace 12 report’s effectiveness with the target audience if you highlighted sustainable practices in planned plant updates. This analysis of the rhetorical situation includes the kairotic factor of your audience’s current interest in sustainability. When you engage in rhetoric, you move toward asking specific questions about your writing situation and making strategic decisions about your products. Professional and technical writers who actively engage in rhetorical decision making understand that: • Writers always write in response to a rhetorical situation: a convergence of time, place, and circumstances that leads them to make decisions about what purpose their text might accomplish, who their audience is, what type of document/design would be most effective • Writers also make thoughtful decisions about how and when to appeal to the audience’s need for a credible and trustworthy rhetor (ethos), a logical and rational argument (logos), and an emotionally engaging experience (pathos). When the rhetor puts their decisions into practice, they create meaningful, purposeful, and effective documents. To help you begin to put rhetoric into practice, consider Figure 6. It illustrates the basic concepts of rhetoric, and gives you questions to prompt your analysis of the rhetorical situation of a given PTC project. Figure 6. PAD: How to Analyze a Rhetorical Situation Changing contexts demand changing strategies. In other words, communicating well means understanding your topic, of course, but also knowing your audience(s) and purpose(s). To that end, you can use the PAD —purpose, audience, and design—as a mnemonic device that will help you analyze a rhetorical situation and make rhetorical decisions to produce effective professional and technical A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 13 writing projects. Work Cited Miller, C. R. (1979). A Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing. College English, 40(6), 610–617. https://doi.org/10.2307/375964 Exercise You are faced with professional communication tasks all the time in your everyday life, whether as a student, an employee, or a member of a club, group, or team. Pick a communication task that you recently faced—something you’ve already completed. This task could be anything in any medium (e.g., writing, speaking, making a poster): a course assignment, a group project, a work project or task, or a project for an extracurricular club or group. If you have been asked to communicate, then you can think rhetorically about that communication project. Once you have picked a task, use PAD to analyze the rhetorical situation for this task. Address the following: • Purpose: Why am I communicating? • Audience(s): Who am I communicating to/for? • Design: What should it look like? Based on your analysis, how and what would you craft to ensure that your message is most effectively communicated to your audience. Compare your decisions described above to what you actually did when you created and delivered your message (the physical product or speech act). • Do you see yourself making rhetorical decisions even before you knew what rhetoric was? Where and how? • Do you think your analysis based on PAD would have produced more effective communication? Why/why not and how? A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 14 Chapter 2: Purpose Chapter 2 Purpose: Why am I Writing? Before starting any writing project, you need to know the answers to the PAD questions that will guide your work: If you consider these questions independently, you quickly will realize that they are inextricably connected as part of the rhetorical situation. As such, a complete understanding of a project’s rhetorical situation requires that purpose, audience, and design should always be considered collectively when making decisions about a project. However, to help you explore each question thoroughly, let’s consider them separately, beginning with purpose. Answering the Purpose Question Purpose is defined by what the audience should • Know • Think • Decide • Do • Be able to do after they read your document. Purpose helps you begin the writing process by narrowing the scope of your project based on the project’s goal or desired outcome. Your documents can • • • • • • • • • • Explain Evaluate Inform Entertain Persuade Describe Express Narrate Argue Etc. Documents can do almost anything, and, as the rhetor, it’s your job to make sure you • Know what the document should do • Communicate to the audience what your document is doing. An understanding of the document’s purpose is necessary to accomplish this work. To answer the Purpose Question, your strategy requires that you consider the end result of your project, and then make the purpose of your project clear throughout the document, while avoiding mistakes that obscure the document’s intent. You’ll notice that, in order to make decisions about the purpose of a document, you must have an understanding of the audience for whom you’re writing, and, in order to make decisions about how you will achieve the document’s purpose, you have to consider the document design that will facilitate accomplishment of the purpose. As you can see, all the elements of PAD relate when assessing a rhetorical situation: assessing purpose requires assessment of audience A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 16 and design. Consider the End Result An easy way to consider the end result of a document is to ask a series of questions that may include the following: • Why does the audience want the document? • How will they use it? • What do I want my document to achieve? • What action(s) do you want your reader/user to do? • Will they respond immediately, or file it, publish it, distribute it electronically? Make Sure Your Purpose is Clear In working to a project’s purpose, your primary job is to make sure that your readers/users know what the purpose is. You should state your purpose clearly in the document, and, in most cases, you should state your purpose as early in the document as possible. You also need to make sure the document stays focused on the purpose throughout the text. Straying from that purpose compromises the capacity of the document to achieve the purpose. For example: • In an email: Be specific in your subject and stay focused on that subject in your message. • In a report: State the problem in the introduction and make sure all subsequent information relates clearly to the stated problem. • In a description: Immediately identify the “thing” you’re describing and describe only that “thing” throughout the document. Chapter 2: Purpose 17 Avoid Common Mistakes Below are some common purpose-related errors to avoid: • Burying your purpose: Don’t make it difficult for your audience to figure out what a document is trying to do. • Confusing your end result: You will not achieve your purpose if you set out to do one thing and end up doing another. • Failing to consider the end result: If you set out unclear on what you are doing, then you will not have a clear end result for your audience. • Overlooking the idea of multiple purposes: Projects may be used any number of ways by your audience(s). Make sure that you have considered the multiple purposes your document may serve. • Confusing use of language: Your language should be clear, effective, and appropriate, as determined by purpose and audience. • Neglecting to convey vital information: Always include all information necessary for your audience to understand and/or act on the problem or issue you address. • Underestimating, overestimating, or obscuring vital information: You must give vital information the appropriate meaning and weight. Your purpose will not be achieved if you fail to make clear the relative value and/or import of information. • Conveying the wrong information: If you introduce errors, you guarantee your document will not achieve its purpose. A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 18 Chapter 3: Audience Chapter 3 Audience: Who am I writing to/for? Before starting any writing project, you need to know the answers to the PAD questions that will guide your work: If you consider these questions independently, you quickly will realize that they are inextricably connected as part of the rhetorical situation. As such, an complete understanding of a project’s rhetorical situation requires that purpose, audience, and design should always be considered collectively when making decisions about a project. However, to help you explore each question thoroughly, this chapter considers audience. Your audience is/are the person or people reading or using what you write. Throughout this book, audience, reader, recipient, and user are used interchangeably to designate your audience. Understanding audience and all that term encompasses is one of the most important and challenging tasks you will face on the job. Once you begin the work of understanding and addressing the concept of audience, you are on your way to being a successful professional and technical writer. Answering the Audience Question To answer the audience question, you need to perform an audience analysis. Here are some broad questions to get you started: • What type of person/people will be reading the document? For example: Are you writing for executives, engineers, the general public, etc.? Is your audience knowledgeable about or experienced with your topic/issue/problem? Are they favorably, unfavorably, etc., inclined toward your topic/issue/problem? • Why is your audience reading the document (notice the relationship to purpose)? For example: What does the audience want from the document? What is your audience expecting: to be asked to act, to be given information, to receive a recommendation, etc.? • How will your audience use your document (notice the relationship to design)? For example: Will they simply read the document, or will they responsively interact with it (e.g., modify, edit/revise, or develop it)? Where and how will they engage with the document? Will they be reading your document online, using it in hard copy in a lab environment, viewing it in a meeting, etc.? Audience analysis means you need to consider the type, knowledge, physical location, disposition, experience, interest and expectations of your potential audience(s). You’ll want to pay close attention to cultural factors, as well. Differences in culture significantly inform whether your document will be effective in communicating to your audience and achieving its goal. Audience Types Audience is a dynamic construct. That means your audience is a moving target. Audiences are living things composed of people, and, as you know, people transform, adapt and evolve all the time. While we use the term “audience” like it’s a singular, static entity, “audience” is a dynamic, changing group of people. In analyzing audience, then, your job is to come up with an “informed guess” about the character and qualities of your reader(s). In A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 20 many cases, you will have multiple audiences (and multiple purposes) for a single document, and you need to think through and explicitly identify all possible audiences and their relationships to your document as you make decisions about how to write your work. You also may need to do research to make sure you understand the following as well as possible: • Who will see your document? • Where it will be circulated? • What strategies and language are required to effectively communicate with your audience? Primary Audience To do an audience analysis, your first job is to identify the primary audience—that is, the person or group most directly interested in or connected to your document. You will write principally to this person/group, as your primary audience represents the person/group for whom your document must be most useful and effective. You may be acquainted with this group and have the luxury of bringing your personal experiences with your primary audience to the table when you sit down to write, but your primary audience often will be unknown or little known to you. In this case, you will have to research their needs, expectations, and communication norms and standards. Some approaches to audience research are discussed at the end of this chapter. Secondary Audience Once you have determined your primary audience, you also need to consider your secondary audience(s). These groups will have different reasons for reading your document and different expectations about what they will get out of it, but, because they too will be looking for information in your document, they are readers who need to be considered. For example (See Figure 1), you are a junior engineer tasked Chapter 3: Audience 21 with writing the preliminary technical specifications for a pedestrian bridge improvement in a greenway project. Your primary audience are engineers and the project manager who will be responsible for overseeing the bridge project. However, you also are keenly aware of your secondary audiences: the unit supervisor who will be promoting a junior engineer in the coming months, and the finance people who have to make sure the project can be completed within the specified budget. A further complication is that the draft of your document must first get past the initial audience, who will review the document prior to distribution to the primary and secondary audiences. The initial audience here is the senior engineer on the project, who doesn’t like you very much. Ultimately, your technical specifications will be included in a larger recommendation report for the bridge project. This full report will be read by the vice-president of sales, who will either approve it or request changes (initial and secondary audience), before she sends it to another key audience: the potential client who sent out the Call for Proposals (CFP) for the bridge. The client represents another primary audience as it is this reader who will decide, from all proposals received, which engineering firm should get the contract. Figure 1. Example Audience Analysis A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 22 Communication is not an isolated one-way event, but instead, a circuit involving many people, many audiences. A combined audience will read most of the documents you write on the job, especially longer documents (e.g., reports). While Figure 1 does not show that your audiences might be talking to each other about your document, they may and often do. You need to approach audience analysis as a multi-layered event that takes into consideration the social process of communication. Considering all of the potential audiences is a vital aspect of professional and technical communication. Audience Expertise Categories Although audiences are varied and diverse, they can be broken down into four general knowledge categories that describe each reader’s expertise in your field or subject. These general categories can serve as a guide to help you develop an understanding your audience. Lay Audience (Knowledge Level: Uninformed) The lay or uninformed audience is not expert in the technical field, discipline or subject matter about which you are writing. The lay audience has a practical interest in your focus, rather than an interest in the technical details, specifications, or operations of your subject. Most likely, the lay audience has a personal stake in the topic with an emphasis on how the subject matter affects them, their priorities, their lives and/or work. To write for this audience, consider the following: • Focus on the big picture—the results, not the methods • Explain facts and figures in the simplest terms • Define all terms • Use illustrations and/or graphics to visualize information and highlight what’s important • Employ comparisons and anecdotes that are familiar to the lay audience to relate your subject matter to experiences that are part of their everyday lives Chapter 3: Audience 23 • Provide enough background information to put data and conclusions in context • Draw conclusions for the audience and explain them fully, rather than leaving it to the audience to derive conclusions or implications Executive Audience (Knowledge Level: Acquainted or Informed) The executive audience may have some technical knowledge, but is definitely not an expert. They are interested in the big picture, and generally will be use your document to act or make decisions, often involving money. Therefore, they are concerned practical matters such as: How does this matter affect the company, the business as a whole, and/or the industry? To write for an executive audience, consider the following: • Provide some background information. The executive audience will need less background than a lay audience because executives are familiar with the business of the organization and most likely will have been exposed to the topic of your document. • Explain facts and figures • Discuss the implications of data and/or specifications rather than the details of data or specifications • Supply opinions, interpretations, and recommendations that would be helpful when making decisions, in addition to conclusions Note that executive audiences working in your organization will be more informed about your subject and be better acquainted with the organization’s communication norms and conventions than executive audiences with the same level of knowledge who work outside your organization. Audience of Technical Experts Outside of Your Field (Knowledge Level: Acquainted or Informed) A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 24 An audience of technical experts who work outside of your field are expert in some field, but not in the field in which your document is situated. Because they are experts, this audience will have a high level of knowledge and skills, but they aren’t expert in the technical knowledge/skills of the field on which your document focuses. To write for an audience of technical experts outside your field, consider the following: • Focus on technical description of how things work (rather than implications or interpretations) • Supply technical data, details, and methods, but • Define terms and concepts specific to your field • Do not explain basic terms or concepts, or general/obvious technical/scientific principles • Discuss how the information provided relates to the entire project (i.e., all fields involved) Audience of Technical Experts in Your Field (Knowledge Level: Expert) The audience of technical experts in your field are field specialists who have the knowledge and skills necessary to fully understand and contextualize the information your document provides. This audience will not need background information that explains technical terms, concepts or scientific principles that underpin the field, and they will be able to understand and interpret technical shorthand, such as equations, formulas, or abbreviations and acronyms. When you supply data, you may wish to include all details and observation, even when they appear inconsequential. Your audience of technical experts might want to examine seemingly trivial information because it could lead to useful insights. To write for an audience of technical experts in your field, consider the following: • Focus on technical descriptions of how things work (rather than implications or interpretations) • Include context or background only if it relates to specific situations or methods new or previously unknown within the Chapter 3: Audience 25 field or concerning your subject • Supply all technical data, observations, and methods in detail • Draw any conclusions clearly and explicitly from data These four categories are neat containers that help get your audience analysis started, but, in practice, the categories above exist more accurately on a continuum, as seen in Figure 2. Figure 2. Audience Analysis: The Expertise Continuum In the example at the beginning of the chapter, in which you were writing a specification for a pedestrian bridge, here’s how we can classify the expertise levels and types of different audiences: Primary Audience Analysis Primary Audience • Other engineers: Technical experts in your field • Project manager: Executive in your organization with some technical knowledge Secondary Audience • Unit Supervisor: Executive in your organization with some technical knowledge • Finance People: Executives in your organization with some technical knowledge Initial Audience A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 26 • Senior engineer: Technical expert in your field (review/recommend revision of specification drafts) Secondary Audience Analysis Initial and Secondary Audience • Vice-president of sales: Executive in your organization with some technical knowledge (review/recommend revision of report drafts) Primary Audience • Client (end user): Executive outside your organization with some technical knowledge who also will have • Technical experts in and outside of your field who read the specification and report back to him Figure 3 is another way to visualize the knowledge levels of your audiences, and another way to classify the general expertise categories. Figure 3. Amount of Information to Include as a Function of Audience Knowledge Chapter 3: Audience 27 As Figure 3 shows, you can gradually increase the amount of technical information you include in a document based on the expertise level of your audience. For the lay or uninformed audience, always keep things simple. For informed audiences, like technical experts, you can increase the amount of complexity. Beyond Expertise An audience’s expertise in the subject matter about which you write is a fundamental and defining component of a useful audience analysis for a professional or technical writing project. However, expertise most definitely is not all there is when considering how your document will be read and interpreted by an audience. While professional concerns like expertise are a fundamental focus of professional and technical writing projects, considerations beyond professional factors always play a role in an accurate assessment of audience. Audience and Organizational Hierarchy The organizational infrastructure in the place where you write can influence communication decisions, as it informs and defines relational power dynamics in the workplace. A power-related facet of audience analysis situates reader(s) within an organizational tree. An organizational tree or chart (see this sample organizational chart or Google one for yourself) describes the organization’s hierarchy of roles and responsibilities. This visual representation of an organization’s structure describes how the organization’s personnel relate to each other, who has oversight of which departments and/or personnel, and who is responsible for making which decisions. Considering these hierarchies informs how you should address your audience and fulfill their expectations. As you analyze your audience, consider your reader’s position (i.e., job or role in the organization) in relation to your position within the organizational hierarchy. Think about how your various audiences relate to or view your role in the organization. This understanding may guide your choices of language and tone, and also help A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 28 you incorporate your organization’s political and cultural conventions. Think about the differences between a document you create for a supervisor or a board of directors vs. a group of your peers or subordinates. You’ll see that this comparison correlates to not only knowledge level, but also to power dynamics within the organizational hierarchy. Another factor related to organizational hierarchy is a reader’s decision-making role (which is often, but not always, tied to position or job). Audiences with decision-making responsibilities are important to consider in your audience analysis because the decisions these readers make can have significant, far-reaching, and/or long term impacts on the people inside and, potentially, outside your organization. It is vital that your document communicate effectively to audiences with such consequential authority. Audience Personality Audiences are made up of people, of course, and all people have their own unique personalities and quirks. Groups, too, have standards, norms of conduct, and, yes, quirks that define the group’s culture. Further, people and groups interact in the circuit of audiences discussed earlier in the chapter, and these interactions color and shape how the audience as a whole will behave. Perhaps now it’s clear how audiences are dynamic living things. As previously discussed, you cannot be expected to fully capture all the individual and collective quirks of your audience in your audience analysis, but you can learn or become aware of elements of an audience’s personality that will help you create a document that more effectively communicates to your audience. Think back to the pedestrian bridge example. As you recall, the senior engineer who is your initial audience in charge of draft revisions is not into you. With this information in mind, you would want to make each draft you submit as thorough and polished as possible. Also, the unit supervisor who is part of your secondary audience is in charge of hiring for a promotion you totally want. This knowledge motivates you to produce the highest quality product possible. As another example, if you know the project manager, who is part of your primary audience, rarely reads anything all the way Chapter 3: Audience 29 through, you definitely should thoroughly develop the executive summary, concluding recommendation paragraph, and any other sections the project manager likely would jump to in the interest of finding key information quickly. Audience Interest The interest your audience will take in your document is important factor in audience analysis that needs to be considered from two perspectives: • What is the audience’s attitude toward the subject? • What are the audience’s reading preferences? All audiences, and all individuals within audiences, have inherent biases. It is your job to try to understand the audience’s bias and adapt accordingly. Readers may or may not have a friendly, hostile, indifferent, or interested view of the information you are communicating. Be as aware as possible of the attitudes readers bring with them. While this is much easier said than done, as you gain experience in reading your organization’s culture and work more with people from outside your organization, you’ll become more adept at reading biases and attitudes. For example, your audience may not find a robust discussion of fasteners as interesting as you do, so, while information about fasteners should be included in your technical specification, maybe don’t spend four pages discussing the fascinating world of flange bolts. The other important factor in audience interest is reading preferences or how audiences read. Today’s business person is probably suffering from information overload. Because of all of the information, varying people have developed various reading strategies to deal with incoming information. At any given time, your audience may use one or more of the following reading strategies. • Skimming: Looking for general or main ideas, or to see if everything that should be there is there. These readers aren’t really trying to get any deep understanding or detailed informa- A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 30 tion from the document. • Scanning: Looking for keywords. These readers will stop when they see a keyword, read the a sentence or two around the keyword, and then move on if it’s not what they need. • Search Reading: It’s what you do every time you do a Google search. You read just enough get what you’re looking for, and then you stop. This approach is similar to scanning, but often times readers may not know the exact keyword they are looking for until they find it. • Receptive Reading: These readers are actually reading what you write to get a complete understanding of your work. And they are probably reading most every word. • Critical Reading: This is the type of reading audiences do when they are approaching something new. Critical readers usually read every word as they work to develop as thorough an understanding of the subject as you document allows. Taken together, your reader’s disposition toward your subject and reading habits directly correspond to how the reader consumes your work and what they are looking for within it. Cultural Factors Remember that the business and technical world is increasingly increasingly global. Keep in mind that the audience for your document may be multicultural. In that case, you need to take the time to research and understand the business practices of audiences from other countries, and be very thorough in ensuring that your text will not be misunderstood by or offensive to readers from countries and cultures other than your own. Biased Language Technology has made our lives easier and brought our world closer together, making it accessible to conduct business on global level. When adapting a message to your audience, be sure to use language that is sensitive to implied biases. Avoid expressions that refer to gender, race, ethnicity, age, and disability unless they are necessary for understanding the context of the situation. Avoid use Chapter 3: Audience 31 of idioms and phrases, as they are can be confusing or offensive in other cultures. Being audience-aware is a very big, very important job. Consider this: No matter how accurate, technically sophisticated, or life-changing the information in your document is, if your audience doesn’t understand it, can’t access it, or is offended by it, the information won’t go anywhere and the message doesn’t matter. The response of the audience ultimately determines how successful the document is, and knowing how to identify and analyze your audience is a crucial skill for all writers. Avoid Common Assumptions About Audience When conducting audience analysis, it’s easy to fall into a trap of faulty assumptions. This is a list of the easiest and most common errors of assumption, but you must be mindful throughout your work to avoid generalizing your audience. Be careful of the following assumptions: • The person you are addressing (primary audience) is always the only audience • The audience is like you in expertise, character, or expectations • The report has a finite time period of use • The writer (you) and/or the audience always will be available for reference or to answer question about the work • The audience is familiar with the reasons why the document was produced • The audience has been involved in daily discussions of the material • The audience has time to read the document Making any of these assumptions can decrease the effectiveness of your document. Researching Your Audience If you are an expert in your field and you are asked to write your fellow field experts, you will have a pretty solid idea what your auA Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 32 dience expects from the document and how they expect to be given the information. However, odds are that you will need to write for primary audiences outside your field and with differing knowledge levels at some point, if not often. And you most definitely will be tasked with writing for secondary audiences from wide-ranging fields and levels of expertise. When you are tasked with writing for diverse groups with whom you are to varying degrees familiar, you will need to research your audience. There are any number of ways to conduct this research. The ones mentioned below are only some common methods. Internet A good place to start is the Internet. Consider the type of audience you are researching, and identify some defining characteristics—for example, field or discipline, location, age, interest, role in the organization, or any other aspect of their character that could inform their engagement with your work. Once you have considered who the audience might be, search for artifacts from that group or similar groups. The information you find might include studies conducted by other researchers in the field, census reports and other public records, scholarly or trade journals, or professional or public articles written by or for the group, as well as official websites for professional organizations and government departments or unofficial blogs. In addition to government, professional, and scholarly conversations about your audience, you can read what members of an audience think about their community and themselves, and maybe even the topic or issue your technical communication actually addresses. You are looking for are looking for documents or artifacts in any other media that might give you insight into the following questions: • How does the audience talk between and among fellow members? • How does the audience talk to people outside the group? • How do people outside the group communicate with your audience? • Is the audience thinking or talking about the topic or issue that’s the subject of your document? If so, Chapter 3: Audience 33 • What does the audience think about your topic or issue and how do they talk about it? When you read/view these sources, try to listen for the values and the language that communicates these individuals’ needs, in addition to the communication conventions they employ. This information defines what counts as effective communication for the audience. Structured Research Depending on the assignment you’ve been given and the expectations of the document, you may be afforded the opportunity to engage in more formal or structured research into your audience. These circumstances are rare and precious, as they give you the chance to gather empirical evidence about the people for whom your writing, rather than relying exclusively on informal inference and subjective interpretation. Observation If you can talk to or observe your target audience(s), you can learn how they speak to and interact with each other and with the objects and materials they use to do their jobs. If you are permitted this type of direct interaction, it will give you invaluable insight into the the daily standards, practices and norms of the field in which your target audience operates, not only from a professional perspective, but on an interpersonal level, as well. Surveys Surveys are particularly useful for providing statistics about demographics and answering specific questions directed toward your audience. You can ask straightforward questions about race, gender, beliefs, attitudes, but carefully consider the response options and what is implied in the language you use. You don’t want to bias your participants’ responses by giving them a poorly worded question, or offend them with objectionable or culturally insensitive language. Interviews Unlike surveys, answers in interviews are more personal and A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 34 open-ended. When deciding whether and whom to interview, consider that interviews take more time than surveys. You can get more in-depth with interviews, but you’ll be talking to fewer people, which means you’re not necessarily getting the broadest perspective. Prepare your questions ahead of time and avoid “yes/no” questions that discourage dialogue and are better suited to survey methods. Focus Groups Focus groups are like interviews, but, rather than being conducted one-on-one, they are conducted with an assembled small group of people. You would want to create a comfortable setting that encourages participants to interact not only with you, but with each other. Participants should be free to discuss their opinions. Using a moderator can keep participants on task, mitigate any hostility between personalities, and conclude the session on time while you interact with the group. As with observations, you would want to conduct a few focus groups to ensure that you’re drawing reliable conclusions from the sessions. Each of these methods has its merits and challenges, and the method you choose should depend on the context and scope of your project. Often, a combination of methods is most beneficial. However, none of these structured methods may be an option for you. If not, you will have to go back to the good ol’ Internets, and just talk to as many people as you can who might offer credible insight. As stated earlier in the chapter, audiences are dynamic, and, for all your best efforts, your analysis of audience will yield an “informed guess.” But that “informed guess” and the effort you put into making it are absolutely vital to the success of your document. Remember, no matter how thorough, informative, insightful, or generally amazing your work is, that work is meaningless if your target audience doesn’t understand, stops reading, or is excluded from the document. It is your job to ensure the work you create can be understood and used the way it needs to be. Chapter 3: Audience 35 Exercises 1. Pick a subject and find two works on that subject—e.g., a professional presentation, speech, document, video, etc. Your works can focus on a product (e.g., electric car), or a service (ride sharing services), or anything else about which you can find professional and popular (i.e., general public) works. a. Do an audience analysis for each of the two works. • Identify primary/secondary audiences, as appropriate • Identify all relevant audience characteristics and categories for each audience (i.e., knowledge level, personality, biases, etc.) • Explain your reasons for characterizing the audience the way you do (i.e., What’s your evidence for your conclusions?). b. Compare the two analyses • Are the audiences the same for each work? Different? How do you know? 2. Choose the best audience research method (this may be one or a combination) for each scenario and explain your decision: Health Sciences 1. You are creating a pamphlet describing the benefits and side effects of a pill that helps lower cholesterol. Your employer is the pharmaceutical company that produces the pill. They have supplied the data, but you need to present it clearly to users and potential users of the medication. 2.You are designing a computer patient information system for a hospital and want to know how to make it most efficient for doctors, nurses, and staff. 3. You want to research the demographics of an area surrounding a A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 36 new medical center to determine what services would be most useful. Engineering 1. You have developed a new user manual for a printer, and you want to find out if it is helpful to users of the product. 2. You need to research a city’s traffic patterns to decide exactly where to install signs and directions towards a newly constructed bridge. 3. You have developed a tutorial for a new computer software program, and want to determine its usefulness to users. Business Writing 1. You are creating a handout for a meeting that you will run with a colleague, and you want to make sure you list all major talking points for the both of you. 2. You are producing a report on your company’s financial standing for potential investors. 3. You are giving a presentation on your company’s latest product to an audience of potential buyers. You want to research their needs in addition to providing proof of the product’s success with other groups. Chapter 3: Audience 37 Chapter 4: Design Chapter 4 Design: What should my document look like? Before starting any writing project, you need to know the answers to the PAD questions that will guide your work: If you consider these questions independently, you quickly will realize that they are inextricably connected as part of the rhetorical situation. As such, an complete understanding of a project’s rhetorical situation requires that purpose, audience, and design should always be considered collectively when making decisions about a project. However, to help you explore each question thoroughly, let’s look at design. When you are tasked with a writing assignment, the genre or form of the final product often is specified (e.g., write a report, a memo, etc.). Knowing the genre conventions gives you a basic set of ideas for what the document should look like, but many decisions remain as you work to design a document that is visually appealing and easy to read. A document’s overall appearance affects the reader’s attitude toward the document, and determines whether the reader can find and engage with information simply and efficiently. Answering the Design Question Design incorporates two major concerns: • Format of the page • Incorporation of graphics or visuals This first part of this chapter addresses the design of the page and the arrangement of words on the page. The second part of the chapter discusses graphics and other visuals, their use and type. Business and technical documents need to be designed well because documents must compete for your reader’s attention in the workplace. Some, perhaps all, of your readers are only looking at your document because they are required to do so as part of their jobs. These readers will scan your document or only read sections relevant to their purposes. Good design ensures that the document is easy to read, and a document that is easy to read contributes to the document’s overall effectiveness. The design of your document will be based on your audience and your purpose. Once you’ve determined these two factors, use can use the following general guidelines to design your document. You should make decisions about document design in the planning stages, before you actually begin to write, because what you write will be informed by the format used to presenting your words to your audience. With this in mind, you will need to make choices regarding the following design elements: • Shaping the appearance of the page • Styling words through typographic elements • Crafting access to information • Adding other design features Chapter 4: Design 39 Figure 1 illustrates a document design flowchart. Once you have made these choices, you must stick to them and use them consistently throughout the document. Figure 1: Document Design Flowchart. A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 40 Shaping the Page Shaping the page includes three primary factors: margins, white space, and grids. Margins Most desktop publishing software, as well as Microsoft Word and other word processing programs, automatically set default margins. It is important to consider whether the default margins are the best design choice for your documents. You need to be sure you have left ample room around your page to accommodate format issues like binding and display conditions. You will select your margin space based on your audience, purpose, and final delivery. For instance, if your document will be printed and bound on the left side, you should leave a margin of at least 1 ½ inches on the left side to allow room for binding. You will need to ask for guidelines if you don’t know for certain how much space to leave or how the document will be used or circulated. Margin decisions also include the use of justified or unjustified text. Justification refers to the alignment of type along the left and right sides of the margin. The previous two paragraphs are left justified: the type aligns on the left, and type edge is ragged on the right. This paragraph formatted using full justification: the type aligns on both the left and right sides of the page. You probably are most familiar with left justification in your writing projects, but full justification is commonly used in books and other formal documents and materials. Like margins, ask for company guidelines about justification. Default left justification (also called “ragged right” justification) won’t always be appropriate. White Space White space remains one of the most important features of document design. White space is all the empty “white” space not filled by words, images, or other visual elements. It provides a way to separate sections of the document, and this separation is invaluable for the reader—both visually and mentally. White space can do three very important things in a document: Chapter 4: Design 41 Provide a break for the reader’s eye (see Figure 2) Figure 2: Page with little white space (left) compared to one with white space (right). Keep elements together (see Figure 3) Figure 3: White space showing like elements together. A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 42 Isolate or emphasize important elements (see Figure 4) Figure 4: White space emphasizing information. To understand the significance of white space, imagine text on a page as noise—voices reading the words on the page. White space provides your reader a quiet space—literally—to take a break from the visual noise of the text and the mental noise of information. These spaces, these brief rests, allow the reader to pause for a moment to process what you’ve told them and to get ready to move forward before re-entering your text. As with any rest—however slight—the reader returns to your work just a little more focused and receptive to the document. If you’ve ever experienced mental fatigue looking at a page of solid text with no breaks, then you can imagine how white space helps the reader. Grids Chapter 4: Design 43 Grids allow you to design a page with the “big picture” in mind. Grids give you a consistent page layout that readers will use to access the information. Grids are like page maps that you make during the planning process. These page maps standardize placement of text and graphics throughout the document. Grids vary in type and design, but Figure 5 below shows three standard examples of grids. Figure 5: Page Grid Examples. The first sample (far left) in Figure 5 is a two-column grid or vertical grid. The far right is a horizontal grid with noticeable “chunks” of information. The one in the middle is a combination of them both. These are simply three standards of grid examples. You can and will design your own grids when you sit down to create a document. When you do, remember that using grids gives you a page template that helps with effective and consistent page design. Styling Words You need to consider typographic choices to make your documents easier to read. Typographic choices also help guide the reader through the document. There are four considerations for typographic choices: • • • • Typefaces Sizes Emphasis Capitalization A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 44 Typefaces All typefaces are divided into two major types: Serif or Sans Ser- if. See Figure 6. Figure 6: San Serif (top) and Serif Fonts (bottom) Serif fonts have “little tails” on the letters while sans (meaning “without” in French) serif fonts are “clean” since they have no “tails.” Sample typefaces follow: 12 point Times New Roman 12 point Arial 12 point Courier New 12 point Garamond 12 point Comic Sans In most conventional print documents, headings are formatted in a sans serif font and body text are formatted in a serif font. For online documentation, both headings and body tend to be sans serif. But you can experiment with different typefaces. Readers become used to conventional fonts that they have seen over and over again. This habituation to certain fonts can be good if you do not want to call your readers attention to your design choices. Using conChapter 4: Design 45 ventional fonts tells your reader that you are doing things “by the book”—like turning in a paper for a class using Times New Roman. In that case, you want your instructor to be focused on content and not forming opinions about your unconventional design choices. Conversely, a change in typeface will be noticed by the reader, even if only slightly, and that extra attention could make it easier for the reader to notice typographic elements like headings when scanning, or, if submitting a proposal, to distinguish your organization’s offer from other firms. However, a word of caution about font selection. Fonts are designed to convey mood and tone. They work on the human mind like different voices. The mood and tone of a font conveys emotion (remember pathos?), no matter how subtly. As you pick through fonts, make sure that the voice you choose to speak your words is appropriate for your rhetorical situation. Like many bungled design choices, choosing the wrong font for the job will hamstring the effectiveness of your document before your audience has read a word. For example—Pro Tip: Do not ever write a technical document using Comic Sans. You can call it the Comic Sans Rule: No PTC documents in Comic Sans. Just. Seriously. Don’t do it. Unless you’re writing a memo to clowns. And even then, no. Sizes This text is written in 11 point font. Body text is usually between 12 or 10 point. Headings size will vary, but consider that you will have multiple heading levels (e.g., Heading level 1, 2, 3, etc.), and no heading level should be smaller than your body text. Also, headings need to be readily spotted by your audience. As you think about size, then, consider that your headings should be neither obnoxiously large nor insignificantly small. Each heading should be easily seen, but not disruptive to the reader. The table below provides some examples of font sizes and uses. A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 46 12 pt Body Text 20 pt Heading 2 or 3 36 pt Big Heading 1 42 pt Title Emphasis Typographic highlights for emphasis that you can use are Bold, Italics, Color, or Underline. Some conventional uses of emphasis include bold for important phrases (i.e., key concepts), or italics for special terms (especially on first use). However, use special typefaces and highlighting options sparingly. Overuse of emphasis results in loss of effectiveness when the reader sees the emphasis so often that it doesn’t seem emphatic any more. Overused emphasis also is visually distractly, causing the reader to focus more on the type itself then the information. Both of these conditions decrease the overall effectiveness of the document If you do decide to use typographic emphasis, remember that, like your other design decisions, you need to be consistent with the use of emphasis throughout your document. If you bold an important keyword in one section, make sure you bold important keywords throughout the document. Like headings, emphasis is a visual cue. You can also use creative typefaces for emphasis, but the above rule applies. If you use creative typefaces, use them thoughtfully and do not overdo it. Following are several creative typefaces that you could possibly use when making design decisions. Or you could add some emojis. Okay, really, to complement the Comic Sans Rule, NO emojis in PTC documents. Capitalization Capitalization is another way to add emphasis, BUT YOU NEED TO BE CAREFUL. Sentences or long passages in full capitals letters are difficult to read, and also give your readers the impression that Chapter 4: Design 47 you are yelling at them. You can use all capital letters for emphasis to highlight a word or short phrase (as in the Emoji Rule above). For single word headings capitals may also be considered for a design choice. As with other emphasis typography, use all capital letters very carefully—unless you WANT to yell at your audience. Accessing Information Readers need to be able to simply and efficiently access the information you’ve compiled in your document. Two of the most effective ways for readers to access information is by incorporating headings and lists into your documents. Headings and lists function as both a way to organize information and as a design feature. Headings and lists are textual elements that communicate information, but they also are visual elements that draw the eye and break up the page into readable portions, or chunks, of information. Headings and lists also serve as visual cues that tell the audience what type of information is coming up—i.e., a new topic (headings) or several items that all relate to a current topic (lists). Headings and lists organize both the page and the information on the page. Headings Headings serve as a roadmap of your document—often literally, as they form the basis of the table of contents. Following the map laid out by headers should provide readers reliable access to different types of information. Headings are one of the most important design elements in professional and technical writing. To illustrate this claim, consider the following: Imagine a 50-page report. Hold it in your hands. Open it up and flip through it. It has no headings. Not one. Just 50 solid pages of text, tables, and graphs. Close that right up. Now open it again, and see the headings that navigate you through the content. Which document are you going to read? Thanks, headings. Headings are the best. Keep in mind the chaos of the headingless document as you design your own projects. If you’re using headings, you are on your way to success as a professional and technical writer. A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 48 Decide on Levels of Headings Since headings function as a roadmap to your document, you should have a system based on the level of headings. You should match size of the heading to its importance. For example Heading 1: Sections Heading 2: Major Topics Heading 3: Minor Topics In general, you shouldn’t use more than four levels of headings. Although headings are important, excessive use of headings make the document seem fragmented or cluttered. If you use too many headings, they no longer provide structure, they just add distraction. Below are some guidelines to creating effective headings. Write Concrete and Specific Headings You should always write descriptive headings that include concrete language. Generic headings like “Section 1” or “Part II” are not useful for the reader because they provide no information regarding content. Write Parallel Headings Parallel headings are easier for the reader to access and remember. Parallelism means that the heading is written in an identical grammatical form. The headings in this document are an example of parallel construction. The following table shows an example of parallelism. Chapter 4: Design 49 Table 1: Non-Parallel and Parallel Headings (Source: Lannon, John. Technical Communication. 9th edition. New York, Longman: 359.) In Table 1 above, the non-parallel headings used a mixture of phrases and sentences in varying grammatical forms. Look at the first words of the non-parallel list items: clean, writing, it is, disks, keep. This is a random-seeming mix of nouns, verbs, and verb tenses. It reads as careless and disorganized. Look at the first words in the parallel list: clean, write, keep, keep, and keep. All these words are active verbs in the imperative mood. These headings are orderly, symmetrical, informative and easily scanned. When you decide how to structure your headings, remember that it does not matter the grammatical structure of the heading (or list), as long as it is consistent and parallel. Other Heading Considerations As you are considering when, where, and how to use headings, you also want to keep in mind the following related design guidelines: • Page Breaks: Keep heading with the section it covers even if it means adjusting the page break. • Spacing: Put more space before the heading than after it. The heading separates text from the section above it, but is related to the section below. • Table of Contents: Match headings to table of contents A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 50 (when applicable). Both the table of contents and your heading are roadmaps of the document. • Section Introduction: Do not use words like “this” or “it” to start the first sentence after the heading (e.g., Section heading “Kittens” followed by, “They are the fuzziest.”). The heading is not part of the document text; it describes or identifies the subject of a section. • Online Documents: Incorporate more headings in online documents to accommodate online reading styles and the absence of page breaks. Lists When highlighting specific information or when you need to break up information, consider using lists. The most common types of lists are the bulleted list and numbered list. Bulleted lists highlight a set of components, items, or ideas. Numbered lists highlight a sequence or amount of components, procedures, items or ideas. In addition to the advantage of breaking up information on the page, list elements are isolated by surrounding white space. This white space lends emphasis and significance to each list item, while visually establishing that list items as related and this connects list items in the reader’s mind. Other List Considerations When using bullets you should also consider the following design decisions: • Do Not Overuse. Too many lists will fragment your text, and you’ll lose continuity. • Be certain a list meets your goals. Lists show relationships between list items (as a set or sequence). If you’re not trying to show a relationship, don’t use a list. • No Such Thing as a List of One. You need at least two items to make a list, preferably three. • Be consistent in design. Like all other design elements, pick a Chapter 4: Design 51 list format (e.g., type of bullets, spacing, parallel grammatical structure, etc.) and stick with it throughout the document. Other Design Features Other design features you should consider incorporating when planning your documents include the following: • Visuals • Text boxes • Lines/borders • Header/footer Visuals Visuals enhance not only the aesthetic appeal of the page, but visuals can provide compelling support to your document through the incorporation of a functional or motivational graphic. For more information on visuals, see the Visual Design chapter. The remainder of this chapter focuses on visual elements that augment textual elements. Text Boxes Text boxes, call-outs, pull quotes, or marginal glosses are a way to highlight specific information. You do this by selecting the information you want in the body of your text and displaying it as a visual element separate from the body of your text. Different fields call them different things. No matter what you call it or how you format it, when you pull a particular quote or line of text away from the body, it draws attention to to the quote and also adds an aesthetic element that draws the reader’s eye. And, just like all the other design elements we’ve discussed, you’ll want to decide on the style of your text boxes (i.e., fonts, font size, color(s), boarders, A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 52 placement on page, etc.), and then stick to those choices. Lines and Borders You can also add borders or lines to add visual appeal and another way to help break up information and allow easy access for the reader. If you choose to incorporate borders and/or lines, think carefully about the design you will use. Borders and lines command your readers attention. Stars or other cute borders (e.g., paw prints) are generally not appropriate in a business environment, but a simple border may well be a good design decision. Lines or horizontal rules provide a way to help break up information and can function as a divider between major (or even minor) points. Horizontal lines can be used to complement heading, as long as you use them thoughtfully. Using lines with headings draws added attention to the change of topic, and amplifies visual appeal. Headers and Footers Figure 7 provides a visual example of a header and footer. Headers and footers represents the placement of information that you want to appear on every page of your document. Figure 7: Running Header and Running Footer Chapter 4: Design 53 Your page numbers will be in either a header or a footer, but you can include other information as well: company name and/or logo, date, revision number or date, title of document, client name, etc. Including this information on every page helps your readers keep track of which document they are reading, and where they are in the document. Headers and footers are especially effective in longer documents. Visuals and Graphics Contemporary tools and technology allow you to present data to your audiences in visually appealing ways using tables, charts, graphs, and illustrations. Building these visual representations has never been easier, and the impact of visuals on your audience is substantial. Microsoft Word, and other word processors, have built in functions that will create tables, graphs, and charts, as well as insert illustrations. In spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, you can input data in a spreadsheet, and then convert that data into visualizations like bar graphs or pie charts. Using Canva, one of many online document design applications, you can use any of hundreds of templates that combine images with text to produce projects such as infographics, logos, and newsletters. As you can see, visuals often can be created using simple interfaces, drawing and editing tools, and templates. This chapter will develop your understanding of when and how to deploy visuals, so you can integrate them successfully in your work. Using Visuals Why add visuals? Visuals are more interesting than text. Text is abstract and reading requires extended concentration. It takes time and effort for readers to follow a textual message. Visuals, on the other hand, are immediate and viscerally engaging. This visceral appeal is a key aspect of what makes visuals so useful, even in professional and technical writing. Readers get the message quickly and directly, engaging with the information both logically, and, to varying degrees, affectively. Remember, even colors and shapes suggest A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 54 mood. Visuals present data to your audience for quick access and interpretation in a tidy, eye-catching package. Visuals are interesting. As discussed in the Design chapter, your audience often is reading not because they want to, but because they have to. Anything you can do to increase the audience’s interest, focus, or comprehension would be appreciated, and an appreciative audience is more favorably inclined toward your document. However, like the textual design elements, visuals should be used thoughtfully and sparingly. Not only will the impact of the visuals be diminished through overuse, but your document will seem to the audience to lack deep analysis or critical thought, more like a comic book than a technical report. Think of visuals as the life of the party; they’re exciting, but they can get really annoying after a while. Visual Design Decisions When you are making design decisions regarding visuals, you have two decisions to consider: • What type of visual will be most useful and appropriate for your audience? • Where will the visual be most effectively placed to serve your purpose? You’ll notice that designing visuals presents you with a smaller PAD rhetorical situation. To make an effective visual, you will need to know what purpose it serves based on the needs of the audience, then you can design the visual. As you consider purpose and audience, keep in mind that the same data can accomplish different purposes for different audiences depending on the visual design you choose. For example, if you have data that describes the environmental impact of runoff from commercial farming, an audience of technical experts might want to see a table or line graph describing the amounts of different types of runoff over time, but a lay audience might benefit from an infographic that visualizes the sources of runoff in different seasons. Same data, completely different visuals to suit different audiences’ needs. Chapter 4: Design 55 Integration of Visuals into Your Text Norms for integrating visuals generally are consistent for all types of visual elements. Prior to a discussion of different types of visuals and what they do, you’ll want to know how to include visuals in your document. Visuals should be named based on type and with a number that corresponds to their position in the document—e.g., “Figure 1” or “Table 4.” When naming figures and tables, start with “Figure 1” or “Table 1,” and then count up for each additional figure or table. Depending on your document conventions, you may number figures and tables sequentially throughout the entire document, or you may start over at “1” with each new chapter or major section. Note that while naming conventions generally distinguish between figures and tables, everything that’s not a table usually gets labeled as a figure. To integrate a figure/table into your document, you must observe the following conventions: • Introduce a visual by name and refer the audience to a visual in the body text—e.g., “(See Figure 1)” or “Figure 1 illustrates…” • Supply a full explanation or interpretation of the information a visual represents or communicates in the body text after introducing the visual. A full discussion of the visualized data is necessary to fully integrate a visual into a document. Introducing a visual by name and description should happen before you present the visual whenever possible. You shouldn’t ask your audience to go back and find the visual after you have described the information it presents. The audience should be able to refer to the visual while reading your interpretation. However, you can introduce the visual, provide the visual, and then continue in your explanation or interpretation of the visual after it has been presented. When you are ready to place the visual in your document, note the following label convention: • Label the visual with the name and a caption above or below the table/figure—e.g., “Figure 5. Ratio of cuteness to fluff in baby bunnies.” You can put the label (name and caption) above or below the A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 56 visual. These labels will have a consistent typographical style in your document—e.g., body text font, bold, 10pt. You also may need a citation under the label, if the visual came from another source. See Figure 8 as a guide for labeling visuals. Figure 8. How to label visuals. The work you do to standardize the integration of visuals in your document organizes visual elements within the larger project, and ensures that references to visuals can be added easily to an Index of Figures or Table of Contents. In discussing how to integrate visuals, you’ve seen that the text and the visual work together in a document to add depth to your audience’s understanding of your information. However, each visual should be intelligible and useful if it were to be examined alone. For each visual you design—before you integrate it into your document—ask yourself if, on its own, the visual stands up as: • An accurate representation of the data/information. • A thorough representation from which conclusions may be logically drawn. If the visual you have made passes the above test, it can be added to your document for the benefit of the audience. Types of Visuals Knowing which kind of visual to use is as important as knowing when to use them. The most common types of graphic visual aids may be grouped into five different categories, each with its own unique purpose: • Tables • Graphs Chapter 4: Design 57 • Charts • Illustrations • Numerical Equations Tables Tables allow you to display and compare data in an efficient, compact format that is organized and easy to read. Table 1 supplies a company’s sales, overhead, and profit over a period of ten years. The information in Table 1 represents a decade of information about three different data points, and puts those figures in conversation with each other, allowing the audience to draw some quick conclusions about financial trends within the company. The body text of the document in which this table would be included would explain the data and conclusions in more detail, but the key information may be gleaned with a glance at the table. Effective tables should: • Display exact quantities of data clearly and accurately A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 58 • Display descriptive column and row labels • Present multiple variables • Compare sets of data to each other When deciding whether or not to use a table, consider that tables supplying too much data are not effective. Tables put datasets in conversation. If you have too many conversations—too many datasets—in a table, your audience will lose track of what’s being said. Also, make sure that the information displayed is clearly labeled both within the table and in the caption. Without proper labeling, tables are just a meaningless assortment of letters and numbers. Graphs Graphs allow you to display the relationships and interactions between multiple variables. Graphs have horizontal and vertical axes that display these variables: the horizontal axis (x-axis) displays the categories to be compared (independent variables), and the vertical axis (y-axis) acts as a baseline, displaying the range of values for comparison (dependent variables) or a measure of the categories. As with tables, graphs need to be titled, captioned, and cited (if applicable). The name of a graph should be “Figure 1,” or whatever number is next in sequence, so that you can refer to the information within your document. The two most common types of graph are bar graphs and line graphs. Line Graphs Line graphs typically display the relation between variables over time. In Figure 9, notice that the x-axis is in years. Time is a common set of independent variables against which the dependent variables on the y-axis are compared. Line graphs generally do not display exact values very well. The audience must estimate the exact values by approximating the position of the line on the x- and y-axes at a given point. However, line graphs display trends in the data over time (or other independent variables) more effectively than bar graphs. Chapter 4: Design 59 Figure 9. Sample Line Graph Bar Graphs Bar graphs display the values of multiple variables and are well-suited for comparing variables to each other along an axis of independent variables (See Figure 10). Like line graphs, the exact values at specific points on the bars must be estimated, but bar graphs effectively represent comparisons between groups or between groups over another variable, like time. Figure 10. Sample Bar Graph A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 60 Keep in mind that there are many line and bar graph formats and styles to choose from. The right one for your document depends on the variables you need to represent and the desired appearance of the graph. When designing a graph, ask yourself: • Who is my audience? • What do I want my graph to say to them? • Which type of graph will be the most effective at conveying the data? • How should that graph look? Do some research, look at examples, and select the graph format and style that best suits your data and your audience’s needs. Charts While graphs let you see how variables interact with each other, charts allow you to visualize relationships of individuals parts within a whole. There are a variety of charts to choose from depending on your purpose. Pie Charts Pie charts (See Figure 11) are easy to interpret and visually appealing, but do not display complex dynamics well. They visualize ratios efficiently, but they can reduce complex issues to percentages of a single variable. If you have one variable and you want to show ratios of the variable, a pie chart may be the right choice. However, always consider whether the pie chart oversimplifies the issue or condition being presented by highlighting only one variable, and then consider whether Figure 11. Sample Pie Chart Chapter 4: Design 61 the oversimplification renders the data in the chart misleading. When designing pie charts, you also need to consider color and texture. The effectiveness of the visualization depends on the ability of your audience to easily identify parts of the whole. Consider whether the pie chart will be printed in black and white or color, and whether you will need to add texture or grayscale to ensure that all pieces of the pie are clearly visible. Effective pie charts should: • Display the exact percentages for each segment • Add up to 100 percent • Include at least two segments (charts may become overly complex if you include too many segments) Organizational Charts Organizational charts divide things, such as organizations, into multiple parts of the whole, however, unlike pie charts, the organizational chart can show relationships between the parts. For a typical business setting, the top of an organizational chart would contain the President or CEO of a company and the bottom would contain the lowest level employees, displaying a hierarchical structure (See Figure 12). Figure 12. Sample Organizational Chart A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 62 Flowchart Flowcharts typically describe a process from start to finish, accurately displaying things such as algorithms and workflows. You probably have seen many of these throughout your lives. Flowcharts frequently are used to display multiple possible decisions and outcomes as part of a process. A flowchart is deterministic or causal—that is, the choice made determines the response. Tree Chart Tree charts are like flow charts in their illustration of processes, but where flowcharts are deterministic or causal, tree charts, or decision trees, viFigure 13. Sample Flow Chart sualize probabilities or cost/benefit relationships. Tree charts illustrate conditional or joint probabilities based on a thread or stream of choices. Tree charts can be used to strategically make decisions and assess the probability of multiple outcomes. Figure 14. Sample Decision Tree Chapter 4: Design 63 Gantt Chart Gantt charts are used to display the a process as a function of time. Gantt charts map out the total amount of time to be spent on a process or project, and then break that time up into segments that visualize specific tasks to be completed during specific time periods along the project timeline. This type of chart displays the steps needed to complete a project, allocates the amount of time needed to complete each step, and represents both concurrent and consecutive tasks. Gantt charts are useful in project management and proposals. If you have used Google Calendar or a similar digital calendar system, then you have turned your life into a Gantt chart. Figure 15. Sample Gantt Chart Illustrations Illustrations allow you to show your audience representations or depictions of places or objects. By using illustrations in your documents, the audience can better understand the relationship between the appearance and information. For example, a labeled illustration of a bunny a) points out the location of its little nose; and b) identifies that the nose is the seat of bunny cuteness, as you are discussing in your cute report. The bunny illustration, therefore, augments A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 64 your report on the cuteness of bunny noses by allowing the audience to not only understand the information in your text, but see it for themselves on the bunny illustration. Because of this relationship between information about an object and an illustration of the object itself, you will want to consider the following when designing an illustration: • What medium will this document be published in? • How does this medium affect your illustration? • Will the document be available to the audience in black and white tones or color? • What type of illustration should I use? These questions ask you to consider the type and scope of illustration appropriate for your document. To “illustrate” something simply means to “demonstrate” or “show” it, and you can illustrate information using many different types of illustrations. Below are some common illustrative visuals you might consider: Pictograms Pictograms are pictures or icons that stand for words or phrases. Pictograms for a non-technical audience makes information and/or data more accessible and appealing. Pictograms also can resonate with multicultural audiences. An apple icon communicates “apple” clearly and to many different cultures. That’s why pictograms often are used in infographics, on street signs, and in any number of different types of public communication. However, pictograms can be misleading if the picture is unclear, or if a target audience identifies an icon as something other than you intended. It’s also possible that a picture or icon could be mean different things to different audience, and this could lead to offense. To mitigate these risks, you will want to choose your pictogram carefully, and include a key when appropriate, so all your readers will understand the data being presented. Photographs Photos are useful for displaying how something looks in real life. Chapter 4: Design 65 They give the audience vivid representations of places, living things, or objects. The photographs you provide should show the subject of the photo from a perspective and/or in a context that is most relevant to your work. Try to give the audience a realistic and useful view, and make sure you crop the photo to eliminate any unnecessary details. You may wish to add labels to the photograph to point out important details. You may also be helpful to include a familiar object in the frame to give your audience a sense of scale. If the image is not your own, you will need to obtain permission from the owner, and make sure the image is cited properly. Maps Maps display relative positions, locations, and relationships between physical locations or among an array of data. Two important factors to consider when designing maps are a) resolution; and b) keys. When you are integrating a map into your document, you will need to be sure that the map is large enough and of sufficiently high resolution to ensure legibility for your reader. You also will need to provide a sufficiently detailed key to the map to ensure that your readers can identify relevant information. A scale may also be necessary to communicate relative distances. Schematic Drawings Schematic drawings, such as blueprints and wiring diagrams, are useful for depicting complex systems in a simplified, easier to understand manner. This type of illustration helps to display the arrangement(s) of internal mechanisms within complex technologies. Figure 16. Sample Schematic Drawing A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 66 Diagrams Diagrams present a schematic representation with highlighted elements of structure, appearance, and/or mechanism. Exploded diagrams include cutaways that show the interior of the place or object within the diagram, giving the audience a more in-depth portrayal of its structural features and internal workings. Figure 17. Sample Diagram Clip Art Clip art describes readily available, pre-made digital illustrations of simple design. Stock photo are not usually included in the clip art category. Clip art was developed to provide a wide range of general purpose subjects and styles in multiple file formats. They are easy to find and use, and, for the most part, generic and indistinctive. Because clipart tends to commonplace, its use will not distinguish your document as unique or visually innovative. However, clip art has its advantages. Often clip art is free. It’s easy to find clip art images that are not associated with licensing restrictions. And the neutral and/ or conventional characteristics of clip may be effective for a broad range of general audiences. If you want a unique, distinguishing, or highly engaging visual, you probably don’t want to consider clip art. But if you are looking for a quick, readily accessible, and generally recognizable image, clip art may be worth a look. Chapter 4: Design 67 Numerical Equations Visuals of numerical equations illustrate calculations. Showing your math can support or validate your conclusions drawn from your data. Visualizing equations also can represent to your audience how to perform complex calculations. Equations and calculations should be placed within the document in the order that they would be performed, and calculations for engineering should include the following: • Information required to perform the analysis or design (i.e. drawings, material information, design criteria, etc.) • Problems and solutions organized to be read from the top to the bottom of the page • A summary of the solution For more complex equations, as when equations exist within equations, show both equations first, and then repeat the second equation with values substituted. The source or sources for the equations must be cited, if they are not your own. Lastly, your calculations should be detailed enough that your work can be easily replicated by other professionals within your field. Replicability is fundamental to your credibility with your audience. Infographics Infographics, like most visuals, represent information in graphic form. However, unlike most of the visuals discussed in the is chapter, infographics are notable for their ability to communicate large amounts of information and/or thematic concepts (See Figure 18). A single infographic can convey a significant amount of data, represent data patterns and relationships, and identify changes in variables over time or in space. Further, infographics often are highly visually appealing and frequently create visual narratives that make engaging with infographics even more enjoyable for an audience. A Rhetorical Approach to Workplace Writing 68 Figure 18. Sample Infographic However, infographic can be visually challenging. Because of the volume of information infographics can present, and because infographics include engaging visuals and textual information, “reading” an infographic can require as much effort as reading text. They also tend to be vibrantly colored and employ symbols and icons to signify variables, so they can present to your audience like a picture book. Not every audience will appreciate being asked to read a picture book. Further, while infographics can tell dynamic stories with Chapter 4: Design 69 data, those stories tend not to be very nuanced. In general, infographics are more useful for general audiences and broad concepts, but not appropriate for highly technical information or complex interpretations. Infographics use words, numbers, and pictograms, and can incorporate photographs, or other types of visuals, as well. In general, infographics • Create a strong visual narrative �...
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