Words of

Wisdom
 The Technical
Communication process
Week 3
An Overview of the Process
• Like all processes, document production proceeds in stages.
• Almost all writers agree that the process is both
• linear (following the sequence step by step) and
• recursive (returning to previous steps or skipping ahead as necessary).
• Usual sequence
• Plan by discovering and collecting all relevant information about the
communication situation.
• Draft, test, and revise by selecting and arranging the elements in the document.
• Finish by editing into final form.
Flow chart of the
Process
1. Planning Your Document
• During the planning stage, you answer a set of questions concerning
• your audience,
• your message,
• your document’s format, and
• the time available for the project.
• Depending on the situation, planning can be either brief or lengthy.
• Better writing results from better planning
• To plan effectively, must do the followings.
1.1 Situate Yourself
• To situate yourself, you need to determine what you are trying to do.
• Take a moment (or several) to think through your answers to the
following questions.
• What Is Your Goal?
• How Much Project Knowledge Do You Have?
• Is There a Model to Help You Focus Your Thinking?
• Are Global Issues Involved?
• Are Legal or Ethical Issues Involved?

1.2 Create an Audience Profile

1.3 Create a Document Plan
• To create a document plan,

• establish your content needs (must determine what you know about the topic
and what the audience knows and needs to learn)

• establish your strategy (determine how to carry out your goal: your creative
concept)

• decide whether to use a genre (a standardized way to present information)

1.4 Design your Information
• choose an overall organization

• plan how you will present information within that organization

1.5 Design your Template
• A template is a general guide for the look of your page.
• It is closely related to a style sheet, a list of specifications for the
design of the page.
• The goal of a style sheet – consistent visual logic
• The parts of a style sheet are the width of margins, the appearance of
several layers of heads, the treatment of visuals and lists, the position
of page numbers, and the typeface.
Sample template

• Title—24 point bold Arial, set up and down (i.e., capitalize all important words)
• Level 1 Heading—12 point Arial bold, set flush left, up and down
• Level 2 Heading—12 point Arial bold, set flush left, up and down, followed by a
period
• Text font—12 point Arial
• Spacing—single-space within paragraphs and double-space between
• Visual aids—set flush left
• Caption—10 point Arial italicized, set flush left, up and down; include the word
Figure followed by a period, then the title and no period
Words of Wisdom
1.6 Create a Production Schedule
• A production schedule is a chronological list of the activities required
to generate the document and the time they will consume.

• Need to answer the following questions:

• How much time do I have?
• Present to deadline
• How long it will take to perform each activity
• How much time do you need to discover the gist (essence) of your document?
• How long will it take to draft the document?
• How much time must you allot to the revision and review stage?
• How long will it take to print the final document?
 • Also consider the time it will take to produce the final document.
• Who will type it?
• What kind of system will you use?
• Word processor?
• Professional typesetter and printer?
• E-mail?
• How well do you know the system?

• Who is involved in producing the document?

• number of people involved can be one (you) to many especially if there is a review process.

• What constraints affect production?

• Time, length, budget, method of production, method of distribution, and place of use.
2. Drafting & Revising your Document
• Drafting and revising is concerned with “getting it down” and
“making it easy for your reader to grasp.”

• Activities involved in drafting and revising are

2.1 Research to discover information (keyword searching in a library or on the
Web, interviewing users, and interviewing experts: detailed discussion later)
2.2 Design your information to help your reader
2.3 Testing
2.2 Design your information to help your Reader

General Principles
• For an audience with little prior knowledge about a topic, use the familiar to explain the
unfamiliar.
• For readers familiar with a topic, don’t belabor the basics. Use accepted terminology.
• For all readers, do the following:
• State your purpose explicitly.
• Make the topic of each section and paragraph clear.
• Use the same terminology throughout.
• Choose a structuring method that achieves your goal.
• Write clear sentences, shorter sentences (under 25 words), rely on the active voice, etc.
• Make your writing interesting
2.2.1 Better Design Guidelines –
Use Context Setting Introductions
• Your introduction should supply an overall framework so that the
reader can grasp the details that later explain and develop it.

• You can use an introduction to orient readers in one of three ways:

• to define terms,
• to tell what caused you to write, and
• to explain the document’s purpose.
2.2.2 Better Design Guidelines –
Place Important Material at the Top
• Placing important material at the top—the beginning of a section or a
paragraph—emphasizes its importance.
• Put statements of significance, definitions, and key terms at the beginning.
• E.g. The next two sentences, from the beginning of a paragraph, illustrate
how a writer used a definition followed by a list of key terms.
The assets of a business are the economic resources that it uses.
These resources include cash, accounts receivable, equipment, buildings,
land, supplies, and the merchandise held for sale.
2.2.3 Better Design Guidelines –
Use Preview Lists
• Preview lists contain the keywords to be used in the document.
• They also give a sense of the document’s organization.
• You can use lists in any written communication.
• Lists vary in format.
• The basic list has three components:
• an introductory sentence that ends in a “control word,”
• a colon, and
• a series of items
• E.g. A test package includes three parts: test plans, test specifications, and tests
2.2.4 Better Design Guidelines –
Use Repetition and Sequencing
• Repetition means restating key subject words or phrases from the
preview list;
• Sequencing means placing the keywords in the same order in the text
as in the list.
• Example
A test package includes three parts: test plans, test specifications,
and tests. Test plans specify cases that technicians must test. Test
specifications are the algorithmic description of the tests. The tests are
programs that the technicians run.
2.2.5 Better Design Guidelines –
Use Coordinate Structure
• Coordinate structure means that each section of a document follows
the same organizational pattern.
• E.g.
2.3 Testing
• asking other people to interact with your document in order to
discover where it is effective and where it needs revision.
• The goal is to turn your alpha version into a finished, smooth beta
version
• Two types:
• Formal Testing
• Informal Testing
2.3.1 Formal Testing
• Is conducted in a Usability Lab, which contains enough technology
• e.g., one-way mirrors, video cameras, scan converters, banks of
monitors
• to allow an empirical rendering of what occurred as the reader
interacted with the document.
• This type of testing can occur only in a formal laboratory setting and
• is usually beyond the normal resources of a writer.
 2.3.2 Informal Testing
• involves the writer asking members of the target audience, or sometimes people familiar
with the target audience, to review the document.
• Methods for performing informal tests vary, ranging from the author creating various
questions for the tester, to the author simply getting from a tester feedback on what is
effective.
• One common method: soliciting comments about the five dimensions of usability (the 5 e’s)
• Effective: Does it help readers achieve their goals?
• Efficient: Can users complete their tasks with speed and accuracy?
• Engaging: Is the document pleasant to use?
• Easy to learn: How well does the document facilitate the readers’ interaction with the process?
• Error tolerant: How well does the document help the reader avoid or recover from mistakes?
3. Editing or Finishing
• Editing (or finishing) means developing a consistent, accurate text.
• In this stage, you refine your document until everything is correct.
• You check spelling, punctuation, basic grammar, format of the page,
and accuracy of facts.
• You make the text agree with various rules of presentation.
• In general, you edit by constructing checklists.
• Create a set of quality benchmarks (quality standards used to judge a
product).
Example
Benchmark for
a Web
Document
Example - Original
Example - Edited
Finally, Producing the Document
• Producing a document involves the physical completion—the typing
or printing—of the final document.
• This stage takes energy and time.
• Failure to plan enough time for physical completion and its inevitable
problems will certainly cause frustration.
• Many people have discovered the difficulties that can plague this stage
when their hard drive crashes or their printer fails.
• Although physical completion is usually a minor factor in brief papers,
in longer documents it often takes more time than the drafting stage.
Assignment 2 (Group submission)

1: Do Q7. on page 79 of book (not pdf)

2: Do Q8. on page 79 of book (not pdf)

Thank You!