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.
13 comments:
Technical descriptions can be a very important factor in describing a person, place, or thing to the reader. For example, when following directions such as in the instruction sheet assignment, if the reader has no idea what an oil filter looks like or where it might be, how are they to change it? You must be very descriptive in your writing to ensure that the reader understands. The use of visual aids can sometimes give the reader the information that you are not able to get across through text. By referring to a visual the reader can see what exactly you are attempting to describe to them. Knowing your audience in advance to describing a person, place, or thing can affect the way that you describe it also. I am less likely to use larger vocabulary when my audience is a younger uneducated audience than I would with an older educated audience. I would use more visuals with the uneducated audience to help describe what I am talking about, whereas with the educated audience I wouldn’t feel as obligated to.
This chapter gave a lot of good information on technical descriptions. It is very important to know who your audience is and the type of information you want to give to that audience. I work with toddlers and the technical descriptions in books has an affect on the kids. Of course the books have pictures, if there wouldn't be any pictures, the kids would immediately find something else to do because they wouldn't completely understand the story. Also, if the reading starts to get too lengthy, they become uninterested. Their attention span is very short, so most of the books that I choose to read to the children are short and to the point, that way we can get through an entire book. Organization is also very important in technical description. If someone jumps from topic to topic, it ends up confusing the audiences, but if the material is organized properly, the audience should be able to follow along without any confusion.
When we think of technical descriptions, we think of a very specific definition of something. In order to describe an event or a situation, the more descriptive you are in your presentation of it, the less likely your words may be twisted out of context. A lot of time, explaining a situation in different ways will help in case the person does not understand what you mean. The use of visual aids also is very helpful to visual learners (like me) because we can look at a picture and a lot of time, can see what we should be looking for in the end of the process or situation. So all in all, even if you think you have defined something satisfactory, you should always define it again just in case. If the person does not understand what you mean, it is not his fault for being stupid, but your mistake for not explaining well enough. I think this chapter makes us all feel mindful about how in depth we go in each of our technical documents.
Technical descriptions matter and inaccuracy or failure to take heed may prove to be costly in the end. In the NASA case lives were lost because administrators ignored the warning signs that were there. Often times you'll see someone blow off safety precautions only to see the unexpected happen. Another example I think of is the Titanic. They had the iceberg warning and I'm sure they had to know that the ship didn't turn very quickly. Again, they ignored the warning signs and found out in a hurry that the ship is sinkable.
Accuracy is definitely a must in the medical field. You are dealing with people's lives and one slip here or there may cause serious problems or even death. I believe doctors and nurses should not have to work longer than 8 hours a day because they need to be accurate and on top of things. Working long shifts could cause burnout and a tired individual is more likely to make more costly errors.
As I was reading through the chapter an example that stood out in my mind involved my Anatomy class. The entire semester we thoroughly learned about all of the different body systems and their functions. Each bone or muscle we learned about always had a specific technical description explaining in detail what its use and function was. Very precise language was especially important because at times being able to differentiate between the purpose of a vein or artery was only separated by a minor detail. Often, for clarification purposes, visuals accompanied the technical descriptions. For the class, I actually acquired 2 more Anatomy manuals so I could reference back and forth between books. I know visuals really helped me better understand and retain the multiple technical descriptions we had to learn.
Very nice summary. This chapter makes good points about technical descriptions in a document. After reading i thought about my instruction sheet homework and how added some extra detailed info for some steps, but the info was more of a 'nice to know' than info required to complete the task. And for a new user it may be too much info and may cause more confusion than clarification...
When writing technical descriptions, it is very important that you take into consideration the audience you are writing for. One of the major issues I have ran across is that the author makes the description to technical for the audience. You need to make sure that it is understandable for the audience or it cant be pointless and your message will not be taken in. I think it is also important that you don't dumb down the information to much and end up insulting the audience or even making them not take it as serious as you want them to take it. That is why it is very important that you write it correctly for the correct audience.
Would you ever want to write a romance novel and sell it to a group of 9 year olds? Didn't think so. This is why one of the first steps to figure out what to present is chosing your audience. Make sure that the context relates to what that person or persons interests are. The last thing you want to do is start the presentation off and immediately your audience is sound asleep. Give them about five at least of some interesting topics. This chapter doesn't really relate to what I do for a living because the audience I'm talking to have the same interests which is construction. Good chapter, good summary.
Technical descriptions can be very good as long as they are written so that the intended audience is properly identified and they are created in such a way that they are neither too long nor too short, i.e. they are consice and up to the point. This chapter I think focuses on these characteristics of a technical document. I think, just like it is mentioned in the chapter, visuals are one of the best ways to accompany a description. Like the saying goes "a picture is worth a thousand words". Some instructions or directions can be much easily followed if accompanied by one or more pictures.
This was a great summary, the chapter had a lot of usefully information to think about. It is always important to think about the user before writing the document.
Technical descriptions give the reader the ability to understand what you are talking about. People, places, and things all need to be explained to people because without it even though they may have read the instructions a hundred times, they may not know how to complete the instructions because they are unfamiliar with the tools or objects being worked with. You need to make sure you are writing at a level where your audience can follow. Also including visuals and being organized helps to get your point across.
As a pilot, I come across a Lot of tech documents. It is very, very important that the descitions for everything be remarkably clear because any confusion can create extremely dangerous situations not only for the confused pilot but for other pilots as well.
Technical description is one of the most important characteristics of a well written piece of technical communication. The more descriptive the text and visual aids can be about about a certain object or process, the less ambiguity there is and the more likely the reader is to understand everything well.
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