Chapter 21 – Preparing Instructions and Manuals

Chapter 21 – Preparing Instructions and Manuals

Chapter 21 provides excellent guidelines and information on how to create effective and usable instructions. Instructions have to be usable because someone will depend on that instruction to tell them how to perform a task. Analyzing your audience, task, & genre, effectively using text and visual content, and understanding learning principles will greatly aid you in creating effective instructions.

Principles of Adult Learning

Malcom Knowles researched characteristics of adult learners and comprised this list:

Self-concept. Instructions allow user to asses their prior knowledge and the instructions point user to appropriate place (like a search feature in a electronic help file).

Rationale. People generally like a reason as to why they should do/learn something.

Experience. Analogies and examples, when used well, can enhance learn-ability.

Orientation. Focus on the practical information: what, why, & how.

Motivation. I didn’t quite follow how Burnett ties motivation in with better instructions…something like options to instructions/manuals will appeal to a broader range of motivations I think.

Burnett points out a key factor to consider when developing instructions, aliteracy. People who are aliterate can read, but choose not to. This can be caused by any number of things: don’t have the time, don’t think they need to, or simply don’t want to. Some typcal characteristics of an aliterate reader are…

Scanning text, but not reading the text.

Depending on visuals rather than words for information.

Imbuing color, shape, position, and size with meaning to avoid writing language. I think Burnett means someone sees a picture in an instruction and says, “that’s how it should be” and doesn’t bother reading the instructions.

Analyzing the Task

Burnett identifies 4 categories of instructions…

1. Actions/behavior of personnel

2. Assembly of objects or mechanisms

3. Operation of equipment

4. Implementation of a process

Figure 21.1 on page 779 has four sections with questions to ask yourself when analyzing the task for your instructions.

Section 1 gets you thinking about the steps and detail required for the instructions. Section 2 considers the context in which the instructions will be used.

Section 3 takes into account constraints to completing the task

Section 4 wants you to start relating the task to the audience.

Analyzing the Audience

User-friendly instructions start with the author having a personal interest in the user and the instructions. A conversational tone, using “you”, and action verbs (like turn, push, adjust, etc…) are completely acceptable and help cement the link between instruction, user, and task.

It’s also very important to chunk and label your information effectively as this helps the user distinguish identify and distinguish information. A simple example is don’t bury safety points in the middle of a block of text, keep them separate and preferably in the front of the document to immediately alert the user of safety concerns.

It’s also important to consider international audiences. The world is getting smaller every day and having instructions in multiple languages is required for some products sold world wide. However, instructions that can be effectively depicted entirely with visuals can be universally “read” and understood by anyone from any country. Pages 786 & 787 provided pointers for designing instructions for international audiences, but I though a lot of their points can be applied to all instructions…

• Be consistent in the way words, links, and visuals are used.
• Use visual cue to indicate sequence or direction (like numbered steps or arrows indicating direction/orientation)
• Visually distinguish main steps from details/explanations (font size, type, style, etc..)

Choosing a Genre

The purpose, context and delivery format of your instructions affect how you should plan and design your instructions. Figure 21.6 on p790 provides several examples of purpose and delivery to give you an idea of the different genres of instructions. A key distinction to be made is that between short instructions and manuals. Manuals contain much more information and it’s important to provide users multiple ways to access that information based on their needs (table of contents, glossary, information chunking & organization)

Content

When considering your contend you need to think about your purpose and have a goal statement that matches that. You also want to have clear direct accurate information that people can understand and rationalize with.

­Purpose

You need to stick to your purpose so you don’t put any doubt in the viewers mind. Many time the purpose is stated in the title or with the visual aids.

Necessary components

This is where you list all the necessary steps to get the user to the end goal.

Order

Make sure that it is in chronological order. (in most cases)

Select Grammatical Style

This is where you decide if you want to use a short hand version or proper English.

Selecting Visual Aids

You want to select the aids that don’t confuse the user but rather give better instruction than the words.

When using visual aids you need to make sure that you make sure everyting is very clear so that you can be held liable.

Chapter 20 Preparing Reports

Preparing Reports
· When you plan a report you need to ask yourself questions to determine the purposes, determine the formality , identify the audiences, decide how the report should be organized, and select the genre.

Determine the Purpose
Reports fall into one of three categories.
· To report information
· To analyze information
· To persuade readers
Writing a purpose statement gives a clear focus for a report and provides you with a way to control content and organization. A purpose statement should be placed at the beginning of the report and should state the problem, identify questions and activities related to the problem, and explain the ways the report responds to the problem.

Assess the Formality
Reports can be informal or formal or anywhere in between. Informal reports are fine when the writer has regular contact with the readers because they probably already know the background. Informal reports can be written as memos, letters, or short reports. Formal reports are used when the writer isn’t in regular contact. The background needs to be included and more documentation is required. Front and end matter are included in formal reports such as a table of contents and references. Determining whether or not to write a formal or informal report is based on the relationship the writer has with the reader and what they need to know.

Identify Audiences
Knowing the audience helps clarify purpose and organization. There are two different kinds of readers.
· Primary Readers: those who will use the recommendations for decision making and those who will be interested in the technical details.
· Secondary Readers: those indirectly affected by the conclusions and recommendations of a document

Organize the Information
1. Overview: This section states the purpose and/or problem.
2. Background: This section presents information dealing with methods of investigation as well as materials and equipment used. (optional)
3. Recommendation: This section identifies conclusions and/or recommendations.
4. Evidence: This section presents the results.
5. Discussion: This section explains or justifies the conclusion or recommendations.

Select a Genre
Information can be presented in prepared forms, memos, letters, or formal reports.
· Prepared and memos can be a routine task. Memos, letters, formal repots can be a non-routine task.
· Prepared forms, memos, and formal reports can be for internal audiences. Prepared forms, letters, and formal reports can be for external audiences.
· Prepared forms, memos, and letters can be written with an informal tone and format. Letters and formal reports can be written with a formal tone and format.
Types of Reports
· Research Reports and Articles should be accessible, open to analysis by peers and available to the public. It should be transparent, clear in structure, process, and outcomes. It should also be transferable, useful beyond the specific research project.

· Task Reports
o A recommendation report or justification report presents or defends specific suggestions or solutions for a particular situation
o An inspection report or examination report focuses on recording observable details, sometimes followed with recommendations.
o An information or investigation report is the result of an investigation that collects and evaluates information about some existing situation, but a recommendation isn’t always required.

· Periodic Activity Reports are usually used when the work is routine.
1. Overview: Identify projects
2. Activities: Specify project activities that are completed, in process, and planned.
3. Recommendations: Establish needed changes in scheduling, personnel, and budget.

· Progress Reports answer some questions like:
o How is the project going?
o Where are we now?
o Are we on schedule to meet our completion date?
1. Overview: Introduce the project.
2. Progress: Summarize the project to date.
3. Recommendation: Identify major recommended schedule changes.
4. Evidence: Provide reasons for changes.
5. Discussion: Discuss the impact of the proposed changes.

· Meeting Minutes provide a record of the discussion and decisions that occur at meetings, serving as official records.

· Trip and Conference Reports: The information is usually incorporated into a logically organized clearly stated report.

· Trip/ Conference
o Purpose
o Primary task
o Personal role
o People contacted/ Sessions attended
o Questions raised/ Information gainedConclusions

Chapter 19 Preparing Proposals

Chapter 19 Summary

A proposal is a document that is presented as a plan to do something new or change something in an organization or business. A proposal may be used in a variety of situations. A proposal generally includes some or all of the following information on it:

· Situation

· Plan

· Benefits

· Approach

· Evaluation

· Qualification

Proposals are different from reports, as the former is a document mentioning approaches to an answer while the latter are about information that have already happened, or they present an answer.

Proposals are a form of persuasive writing, that attempt to convince an audience that the proposed plan is a good solution to an existing problem. Proposals can have one of several purposes:

· Solve a problem

· Investigate a subject

· Sell a product or service

Types of Proposals

A solicited proposal is written in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP). An RFP provides a problem, i.e. the specifications for a proposal; a successful proposal must adhere to those guidelines and provide a viable solution.

A proposal that is submitted without an RFP being issued is called a unsolicited proposal. This type of proposal is written not to an RFP but to a perceived need. Unsolicited proposals are often internal documents, responses perceived need by someone in an organization.

Sources of RFPs

· RFPs are regularly issued by several types of organizations:

· research and nonprofit foundations

· educational institutions

· government agencies

· private business and industry

Using Persuasion in Proposals

When writing a proposal, one should take into consideration all the potential arguments and concerns that could be raised when reading the proposal. Writing effective proposals requires persuasion, which should not be confused with manipulation. Persuasion means applying credible and logical arguments to convince readers that the writer's view is appropriate.

The following factors have been identified as critical aspects of persuasion since Aristotle described them in his Rhetoric in the fource century of BCE:

· Audience Concerns: The most important aspect of preparing a proposal is "Establish that the problem or opportunity exists and then clearly show how your plan addresses it." The proposal writer must clearly suggest why the changes will be beneficial to the readers and/or listeners to negate the effects of cognitive dissonance, a principle that believes that people reject or at least devalue information that conflicts with their existing beliefs.

· Persuaders' Credibility: Credibility is making the readers believe that you are reasonable, honorable and display goodwill. Credibility, even though a political issue, greatly affects the acceptance or rejection of your proposal. The more drastic changes your proposal suggests, the more credibility is required for your proposal to get accepted.

· Logic of Message: A proposal must be logical and also based on sound assumptions, providing with it valid and reliable evidence. Also the proposal must acknowledge and respond opposing views. There are two ways of reasoning your ideas

o Induction: Induction is reasoning from the particular to the general.

o Deduction: Deduction is reasoning from the general to the specific. Traditionally, this reasoning takes a three-part argument:

§ Major premise - general statement about an entire group

§ Minor premise - state about an individual within the group

§ Logical conclusion - conclusion about the individual

Considering Requests for Proposals

To write an effective proposal, the writer needs to understand the RFP writer's point of view. To understand that, the writer should be good in writing an RFP himself as well.

· Writing an RFP: The preparation of an effective RFP includes several steps:

o Identify the Problem or Opportunity

o Provide Background Information

o Define the Desired Outcome

o Specify the Product or Service You Need

o Require Detailed Information about the Organization or Personnel - information such as personnel, available equipment, and work history.

o Provide Process Information - information such as dates, project details, proposal submitted for consideration, criteria for evaluating the proposal

o Establish Criteria for Selection

· Managing the Proposal Process: Managing the proposal process involves responding to general questions from vendors, consultants, or researchers, coordinating the schedule for submission of proposal, evaluation of proposals and the responses about acceptance or rejection to those who submitted proposals.

Preparing Proposals

According to the NIH (National Institutes of Health), the 10 top reasons proposals were rejected were as follows:

1. Lack of new or original idea
2. Diffuse, superficial, or unfocused research plan
3. Lack of knowledge of published relevant work
4. Lack of experience in the essential methodology
5. Uncertainty concerning the future direction
6. Questionable reasoning in the experimental approach
7. Absence of an acceptable scientific rationale
8. Unrealistically large amount of work
9. Insufficient experimental detail
10. Uncritical approach

Making sure that none of these criteria fit in your proposal will dramatically increase the chances of assisting the creation of your proposal. Also, being acquainted with the subject you are proposing will also help a lot as well! (Go figureJ)

Planning

When preparing proposals, the preparation should go smoothly if the project is planned well. This means by following the next guidelines, the proposal should go well:

1. Be aware of deadlines
2. Create a well structured schedule for completing the proposal
3. Understand the criteria grading your proposal
4. Understand what the background knowledge of the decision makers are

Being aware of the deadline is VERY crucial because by missing the deadline, your proposal will not even be considered most of the time!

When we are originally planning, these few things should be assumed in the creation of your plan:

1. Read and reread what is the purpose for the proposal
2. Identify and substantiate the problems or opportunities you are addressing
3. Meet with the key people involved to discuss the problem
4. Propose a plan that can solve the problem effectively
5. Organize the plan to an outline form
6. Understand the evaluation criteria
7. Analyze the competition’s views
8. Acquire others view points on the idea
9. Create a manageable budget for implementing the proposal

Drafting:

When drafting the proposal, it is important to turn back to the RFP. These next pointers should assist during the drafting stages:

1. If an RFP exists, follow it exactly. If there is no recommendation, use the one that is used in the book
2. Establish a solid link between the problem and the plan.
3. Provide as much information as possible. Even in the implementation stages.
4. Create arguments and counterarguments to address potential objections.
5. Use specific details and examples to show more strength in the idea you are presenting.
6. Use a “you” attitude when possible and appropriate

Budgeting:

Most proposals will require a budget narrative (or walk through) of your plan. Unless asked to be proposed in another way, a budget plan can be proposed in one of three ways:

1. Add a column to the budget summary and provide an explanatory sentence for each item line
2. Add a footnote reference to each line item and list the explanatory sentences in footnotes directly following the budget itself
3. Provide a separate subsection in which you explain the rationale for each category

Also, funders often begin reading proposals by turning to the budget and budget narrative. By doing this, they are attempting to understand the focus of your material.

Evaluating:

Once the draft is complete, it now must be evaluated. In this case, some general guidelines that should be followed while evaluating are:

1. Determine if the RFP directions have been followed
2. Make sure the draft meets or exceeds the criteria for the evaluation
3. Examine the accuracy of the technical document
4. Study the feasibility of the plan
5. Review the acceptability of cost
6. Solicit reviews of the draft from colleagues

Revising:

Once the evaluation of your proposal from yourself and your other reviewers are completed, you should have some general ideas for revising the proposal. On top of those issues that you find, these other issues should also be addressed:

1. Add, modify, or delete information to meet RFP evaluation criteria
2. Make sure the argument is coherent
3. Check to make sure the document design conforms to the design specifications

Organizing and Submitting Proposals

There are many different ways proposals can be arranged.

Sequencing Information:

If there is no specific sequence required for the proposal, this one should work well.

1. Introduction
2. Plan
3. Benefits
4. Approach
5. Evaluation
6. Qualifications

By submitting a proposal like shown above, this will make a solid, general proposal outline for the evaluators.

Submitting a Proposal:

In the past, it was typically known that a proposal would be done in written form. However, now people will do so online or in an oral presentation form. The main reason that the online form is becoming the norm is because:

1. Money
2. Time
3. Space
4. Flexibility
5. Data Protection

A strong oral presentation will also strengthen a proposal because not only can he say what is on the proposal, but he may also adjust his words towards his audience.

Ch. 17 (Again...)

**NOTE: There has been a little confusion over which group was assigned Ch. 17 so we both ended up writing summaries for the same chapter.

Effective oral communication is a critical component in any job or profession. The book states “the ability to communicate ideas and plans effectively in front of an audience” is the most important career skill according to more than 700 managers.

TYPES OF PRESENTATIONS

Informal Presentations: This type of presentation usually takes place in some type of weekly business meeting. It consists of professional peers and is considered informal because the audience is probably already familiar with you and your work. Another example of an informal presentation occurs with special interest groups or community members. In this case, individuals want to learn new information that you present and is usually followed up with a discussion.
*NOTE: Informal presentations require adequate preparation and organization. The “informal” aspect solely means you are already familiar with your audience or the information you are providing will act as a catalyst for discussion.

Formal Presentations: These types of presentations generally take more time and effort because you are presenting to an audience that is not familiar with you or your work. For your audience, including sufficient background information in your presentation is essential.

Class Presentations: This type offers important feedback that is honest and helpful from the audience. The audience can give you constructive criticism as well as point out particular positive aspects of your presentation.

PREPARING A PROFRESSIONAL PRESENTATION
Being able to identify who your audience is will help you to specifically tailor your presentation so it best fits them. Possible audiences may include:

Professional peers: They are knowledgeable and understand your field of work. Your presentations towards them should be carefully organized and include supporting evidence.
Non-expert Professionals: They have an understanding of your field of work, but are less familiar with specific technical jargon and may not be up to date on current theories or practices.
International Audiences: Requires you to become aware of particular cultural customs and/or expectations for both courtesy and effectiveness.
General Audiences: This type includes a wide variety of individuals with varying needs and interests.

PURPOSE OF PRESENTATIONS
Clearly defining the purpose of your presentation will help you identify the primary and secondary goals for your own presentation.

Informative presentations: Gives audience verifiable information usually for decision making or background purposes.
Persuasive presentations: Tries to persuade your audience for or against a particular product, proposal, or position.
Demonstration: Informs your audience about how something is done by demonstrating and explaining the process.
Training sessions: Utilizes hands-on experience by teaching your audience how to do something.

ORGANIZING A PROFRESSIONAL PRESENTATION
1) Create an audience-centered atmosphere
Research who your audience is and appropriately relate comments and content that are relevant and interesting to them.
2) Encourage active involvement
Try and get your audience involved as much as possible by including them in demonstrations.
3) Make what you say easy to listen to (and remember)
Make your stories brief and to the point. Also, make connections between the new information you are presenting to previous information your audience may already know.
4) Vary the pacing and structure of your presentation
Avoid overwhelming your audience by cramming too much information in your presentation. Alternate between difficult material and easier material.

**Make your presentations easy to follow with good organization, structure, and transitions. Also, utilize note cards or outlines to help guide you through your presentation without getting lost or off track.

PREPARING MATERIALS FOR A PROFRESSIOAL PRESENTATION
**Visuals are very valuable and aid in the understanding of your presentation. Visuals help clarify complex concepts and help reinforce the content of your message. Visuals are separated into categories: charts, diagrams, schematics, graphs, tables, maps, drawings, and photographs. They help in organizing and supporting your information as well as encourage attention and engagement from your audience.

**Visuals may be presented in several ways including white boards, flip charts, slides, posters, etc. It is important to keep in mind the size and color of your visuals in relation to your audience and physical environment.

**The use of PowerPoint for oral presentations can be useful for several reasons. However, try to avoid cramming too much information in a slide. Try to ensure usability by including appropriate key concepts in a slide and making it easy to read and follow. Also, do not use PowerPoint to simply read word for word your presentation. Use the slides as an outline to help you with key points.

**Handouts can be useful by giving your audience something tangible to follow as well as take notes or refer back to later.
-->Handouts should be stapled together or somehow attached.
-->Usually distribute handouts either at the beginning or end of your presentation.
-->Include enough detail in your handouts to highlight key points and reinforce main topics from your presentation.
-->Explain to your audience when to refer to a particular page in your handout.
-->Only include handouts if it will enhance your presentation.

**Make posters aesthetically appealing and easily readable to ensure proper accessibility, comprehensibility, and usability.
**Create and maintain a professional appearance by avoiding behavior or appearance that may distract from the presentation.
**Remember vocal characteristics such as: loudness, clarity, tone, and rate.
**Adequately prepare yourself for questions from the audience

EVALUATING PRESENTATIONS
The process of successfully and fairly evaluating a presentation involves actively listening to the presentation. Being able to assess oral presentations will not only help others increase their effectiveness, but assist you as well.

Ryan Kniefel & Andrea Kircher
Ch. 17 – Engaging in Oral Communication
Chapter 17 talks about how to communicate ideas and plans effectively in front of an audience. It explains how to organize your thoughts and ideas into a well organized presentation through the use of outlines, visuals, and the type of audience you will be presenting to.
Types of presentations:
Informal Presentation- Usually consists of discussion. The audience is a group of peers or people already familiar with you and your work.
Formal Presentation- Audience is not familiar with you and your work. Requires more preparation and detail in order to give the audience background information about the topic.
Class Presentations- Very helpful in strengthening your oral presentation skills. A benefit of class presentations is the honest feedback you can receive about your strengths and weaknesses.
Audiences:
Professional Peers- Assume you have high degree of technical expertise, tend to ask more difficult, in depth questions.
Non-expert Professionals- Includes people in decision making positions; Want the technical information but don’t need to receive the in depth details.
International Audiences- Appreciate awareness and respect of their culture. Like to see visuals in the presentation for better clarification.
General Audiences- Appreciate clear purpose, defined terms, useful analogies, examples, and visuals.
Types of Presentations:
Informative Presentation- gives the audience verifiable information
Persuasive Presentation- attempt to convince audience about advantages of accepting a particular proposal or position.
Demonstrative Presentation- Shows audience how to perform a certain task.
Training Session Presentation- teaches audience how to perform a task usually with hands-on experience. (Training for a job)
Engaging your Audience:
Strategy 1- Create an audience-centered atmosphere. Find out something about your audience in advance so you can come up with examples that will relate to them.
Strategy 2- Encourage active involvement. Get the audience involved through discussion, questions, or demonstrations.
Strategy 3- Make what you say easy to listen to and remember. Don’t overload audience with information by rambling on with stories. Stick to the point.
Strategy 4- Vary the pacing and structure of your presentation. Don’t be monotone. Make presentation exciting.
Visuals:
Examples: Charts, diagrams, schematics, graphs, tables, maps, models, drawings, and photographs
Visual memory is stronger than auditory memory. Use visuals to help refresh the memory of the audience
Power Point Presentation:
One if the most effective tools for oral presentations. Use the power point as an outline for the presentation. Do not read of off the slides!!!
Handouts:
The use of handouts can be very effective. Handouts give the audience a reference and a place to take notes.
Professional Appearance:
Wear appropriate clothing- Wear clothing that you are comfortable in. Avoid wearing shiny jewelry that will distract the audience.
Handle Notes Comfortably- Number the notes or cards so you are not fumbling around trying to find the next one.
Make Eye Contact- Making eye contact with the audience shows confidence.
Handle Mistakes Smoothly- If you happen to make a mistake, apologize and continue on.
Relax Your Hands- Don’t fidget around with hands. Relax hands by resting them on the podium or along your side.
Relax Your Feet- Wear comfortable shoes. Don’t sway back and forth.
Move Naturally- Avoid nervous actions. Move naturally and comfortably by focusing on what you are trying to say and not on how you look.
Use the Podium Comfortably- Don’t lean or clutch on the podium.
Vocal Characterization:
Volume, pronunciation, rate, and pitch are important factors when giving a presentation. You must speak loud enough so that everyone in the room is able to hear you. This may require the use of a microphone in some situations. Well pronounciated words will eliminate the audience from any confusion in your presentation. Avoid racing through your presentation. This will cause your audience to be overwhelmed. Present the information in an average rate of speed. The pitch of your voice in a presentation is a key factor in how your audience will respond to you. Have liveliness in your voice when presenting information, monotone speakers can cause the audience to lose interest.

Chapter 12 Using Visual Forms

· Visuals not only attract attention and add appeal; they also strengthen documents in other ways.
o Visuals can be more specific than text. An example from the book suggests that the word tugboat can represent anything from “Tommy Tug” from the children’s story to barge tugboats. The use of a visual is easily identifiable.
o Well-designed visuals can usually be understood more easily than text. When you are working with numbers a graph might be a more effective way to convey what you want to say than text. Most people are better able to process and remember trends that are presented in graphs and charts.
· Visuals can be very important to increasing the accessibility and usability of your documents.
· It is important that you how to incorporate visuals into a document, as well as understand specific functions of visuals in technical documents and, conventions in using color.
o Visuals should illustrate explain, demonstrate, verify, or support the text
§ There are four basic layouts for visuals and text.
· All text
· Text with supporting visuals where there is mostly text.
· Visuals with supporting text where there are mostly visuals.
· All visuals.
· Visuals can be adapted to different audiences by the complexity of content, presentation, color, and size. When you are presenting to non-experts you may need simpler and more frequent graphs and pictures.
· You should refer to visuals in the text, rather than just include the visuals and expect the audience to make the connection. Include enough information in your text reference such as a figure number and title.
o Labeling: Complete and accurate labeling of visuals makes them easier to use. Identification, title, and caption are all required for complete labeling.
o Placement: In most cases you want to place the visual as close to the text reference as possible. Surround visuals with white space to separate them from the text of the document.
· Visuals fulfill one or more functions in technical documents. There are seven major functions.
o Function 1: Provide immediate visual recognition.
o Function 2: Organize numeric or textual data.
o Function 3: Show relationships among numeric or verbal data.
o Function 4: Define or explain concepts, objects, and processes.
o Function 5: Present chronology, sequence, or process.
o Function 6: Illustrate appearance or structure, which may include describing objects or mechanisms.
o Function 7: Identify facilities or locations.
· Color is a great way to add to your document using color effectively is important.
o Overuse of decorative color contradicts the basic functionality of the document.
o Too much color can distract or annoy the reader.

Chapter 15 - Technical Description

Technical description is basically giving a characteristic to a person, place, or thing. Questions about size, color, purpose, and importance could be answered. The depth in which you describe something can vary from a few words to a few pages depending on how detailed you want it to be. Technical Descriptions are very important in that if not given enough emphasis, a reader might underestimate its importance. When deciding how to describe something ask yourself:

• Will a description help accomplish your purpose of providing info, persuade readers or listeners, or help them complete a task.
• Will a description help people gather info, make decisions or complete an activity or action
• Will it help prevent problems

Technical Descriptions are used in many different fields. They can help new employees learn how a program work or instruct students on how to set up or use the campus website. However they are used, they can help make thins easier and more understandable. Using simple readable words letting the reader know it is “you the reader” I am projecting my information to are key in helping someone use this information. Also Giving specific information related to the field, Making sure the materials are easily comprehensible and accessible so it can be easily found.

Ways that Technical Descriptions may be used.

• Technical Manuals- describe mechanisms or systems that the manual deals with
• Training Materials- helps teach someone how to do a task or how to use a helpful tool
• Proposals and Reports-gives an overview then appropriate details directed at the reader
• Marketing and Proposal Pieces- usually give information and then tell the positive sides of it. They will try to persuade you into liking or putting there product or material.
• Public Information and Education- gives substantial information and descriptions about things simply because people need to be informed before making decisions about things

When deciding what information to give to the audience, you must first answer some questions. What is the task, and what do they want to know? Are you trying to help them make a decision, or do they just want a simple overview? Answering these questions will help the reader stay interested as long as you direct the technical descriptions to their needs.

Two components of descriptions:

• Structural parts comprise the physical aspects of the device, without regard to purpose.
• Functional parts perform clearly define tasks in the operation of the device

When conveying the descriptions to an audience you must very precise so that your information is verifiable. Three ways of doing this are…

• Audience –Appropriate Terms- The audience is what you want to think about when deciding how specific of info you want to give. Non experts need more detail than do experts and would probably need the details in simple terms.
• Accurate Terms- Make sure that you clear and concise words when describing things. One good example is when someone says ball, a ball is supposed to be a round object but not always. A triangle is different than a pyramid. If you find the terms you want to use to be more difficult or unclear to your audience you may want to use different words or even a diagram.
• Figurative Language- another way to ensure precision is to use metaphors, similes, and analogies that are clear and appropriate descriptions for the audience.

Visuals
Visual Aids are another great way to help the audience understand what you are telling them. The visuals can be anything from photos to videos, as long as it helps the reader form a mental picture. Some descriptions are difficult without visuals so put some thought in when deciding how to describe them.

Organization
Organization is a critical factor when designing any technical document. You want make sure that is easy to follow and make sure every step is understandable and concise. Descriptions should be titled so it is easy for someone to identify. The beginning should be a small overview of the overall purpose. Some Directions use history background that would interest the reader. The body of the description should be part by part and explain the purpose of the document At the end, a conclusion can be incorporated by stating use, benefits/problems and, who uses it, although not all descriptive documents have a summary and just end with the final step.