Technical Writing

Technical Writing

Midterm reviewer

• Exposition- It means explanation. Exposition is the type of prose most frequently used in everyday communication such as medical reports, sales memoranda, legal briefs, business letters , and advertising copy.

• Narration- is the best expression of the very human need. "to tell" . The writer is primarily concerned with the depiction of an event and the progress of an action.

• Persuasion- is very complex, and a simple definition will not really suffice, however, to start with, we can say that persuasion is the use of language to make a reader o a hearer perspective.

• Single Sourcing- Refers to the development of content with the intent of producing all of the parts of the document in multiple format.

  
  

  Content Reuse- Refers to the management of content by breaking it into small enough components or topics so that each topic can be used in the appropriate place. 

• Single Sourcing- Refers to the development of content with the intent of producing all of the parts of the document in multiple format.

  
  

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  •Content Reuse- Refers to the management of content by breaking it into small enough components or topics so that each topic can be used in the appropriate place. 

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How to present documentation content

• •What do you need to know

  •How the audience use the documents

  •How long you have to work on the project

  •How many different deliverables are produced from the same content

  •Decides whether it is task-based or reference-based

How to present documentation content

• Task-based Documentation- This could involved different manuals, different screens, different process to achieve the goal

  Clearly define the starting point and the stopping for each task.

  What is the step the users does to start the procedure?

  What is the final step that indicates success?

   

Presenting task-based  

• •Present each task

  •A description of the task

  •Its purpose

  •A lead-in heading

  •A set of numbered steps are typical

Reference-based approach  

• What the product does

  What it looks like

  What each menu, item and button do? 

Scenario-based information

• •Think of a scenario as the basis for everything you write .

  •Identify key goals for users of the products and then each goal create a scenario, or path, or how users will accomplish the goal

  
  

• Technical knowledge- means logical understanding of how systems and processes work and interact with each other.

  •User knowledge-the more knowledge you have, the better documentation you can create.

Writing for Multiple Audience

• Major Issues Categories Variables

  
  

  Political

  Economic

  Social

  Religious

  Educational

  Technological issues

  Linguistic – (US) 3,425.6 (Europe) 3, 425,6

Tips for Effective Communication

• Limit your vocabulary

  Keep the sentence short ( no more than 20 words)

  Define abbreviations and acronyms in a glossary

  Avoid idioms and slang

  Use active voice whenever possible

  Be careful with graphics

  Be sure someone from the target culture review your documents