Digital Commons Network^™

38. Usability Testing, Cassandra Race

Sexy Technical Communications

I will never forget a Christmas Eve many years ago, when the kids were finally asleep and Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus began the assembly of the much desired "brand name" doll house. Out came the tools, out came a hundred or so tiny plastic parts, and out came an instruction sheet written by someone clearly from another land far away. After several hours of attempting to decipher some of the worst instructions ever written, we recruited a neighbor's 12 year old, a seasoned veteran in the world of dream houses, and the assembly was completed in time for Christmas …

36. Logic: How To Do It Wrong, Steve Miller, Cherie Miller

Sexy Technical Communications

To the mind that's yet to be "enhanced" by some strains of modern thought, the above quote probably comes across as amusing, but useless. After all, who would deny something as basic as the law of non-contradiction or the basic laws of logic? If saying "My roommate annoys me" is no different than saying "My roommate doesn't annoy me," then how can we ever say anything meaningful? Moreover, the very act of denying non-contradiction assumes the law to be true. Yet, some argue that our brains, like our opposable thumbs and other body parts, evolved not to perfect our logic, …

43. Examples, Cases, And Models Index

Sexy Technical Communications

The following are links to the examples and models of the kinds reports, letters, and other documents discussed in this book. (Some of the items are excerpts.) True, many of these examples are as much as twenty years old. However, the point here is technical writing, format, organization, style—not up-to-date technology. Even so, why not write a technology update on blood glucose monitoring systems, voice recognition software, laptop computers, wind power systems?

42. Standard Operating Policies And Procedures, David Mcmurray, Tamara Powell

Sexy Technical Communications

This chapter introduces you to policies and procedure documents and to standard operating procedure documents. Click on the links, below, to see samples.

Hand-washing policies for health care personnel

Accounting policies and procedures

Standard operating procedures: pouring dental impressions

41. Introduction To Html, Tiffani Reardon

Sexy Technical Communications

At the end of this chapter and the practice activities, readers will be able to: Goal 1: define HTML and identify what it stands for Goal 2: build a simple web page using HTML coding Objective 1: identify and use common HTML tags Objective 2: explain and apply basic tag rules Objective 3: explain attributes and use them to stylize text and images Objective 4: embed videos and other embeddable items into HTML web pages Goal 3: identify websites where readers can learn more and practice their HTML skills

1. Introduction: The Nature Of Sexy Technical Writing, Cassandra Race

Sexy Technical Communications

Did you know that you probably read or create technical communication every day without even realizing it? If you noticed signs on your way to work, checked the calories on the cereal box, emailed your professor to request a recommendation or followed instructions to make a withdrawal from an ATM, you have been involved with technical, workplace, or professional communication. So what? You ask. Today, writing is a more important skill for professionals than ever before. The National Commission on Writing for Americas Families, Schools, and Colleges (2004) declares that writing today is not a frill for the few, but …

2. Business Correspondence And Resumes, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

This chapter focuses on business correspondence--general format and style for business letters as well as specific types of business letters. Specifically: Overview of business correspondence: format and style Inquiry letters Complaint and adjustment letters Application letters Resumes

3. Types Of Technical Documents, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

For the final report in some technical-writing courses, you can write one of (or even a combination of) several different types of reports. If there is some other type of report that you know about and want to write, get with your instructor to discuss it. This chapter briefly defines these different report types; some are covered in full detail elsewhere in this book; the rest are described here. But to get everything in one place, all the reports are briefly defined here, with cross-references to where their presentations occur.

5. Proposals, David Mcmurray, Jonathan Arnett

Sexy Technical Communications

This chapter focuses on the proposal—the kind of document that gets you or your organization approved or hired to do a project

4. Business Plans, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

A business plan is a document used to start a new business or get funding for a business that is changing in some significant way. Business plans are important documents for business partners who need to agree upon their plans, government officials who need to approve that plan, and of course potential investors such as banks or private individuals who may fund the business. A business plan is very much like a proposal, except for at least one big difference. The business plan seeks to start a new business or significantly expand an existing business. A proposal, on the other …

6. Progress Reports, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

You write a progress report to inform a supervisor, associate, or customer about progress you've made on a project over a certain period of time. The project can be the design, construction, or repair of something, the study or research of a problem or question, or the gathering of information on a technical subject. You write progress reports when it takes well over three or four months to complete a project.

9. Standard Operating Policies And Procedures, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

This chapter introduces you to policies and procedure documents and to standard operating procedure documents. Click on the links, below, to see samples. Hand-washing policies for health care personnel Accounting policies and procedures Standard operating procedures: pouring dental impressions (Thanks to Melissa Burke for making this SOP available.)

10. Recommendation And Feasibility Reports, David Mcmurray, Jonathan Arnett

Sexy Technical Communications

This chapter addresses a loosely defined group of report types that examine a situation, evaluate the evidence, and render a judgment. Some Rather Fine Distinctions... The reports in this loosely defined category are variously called feasibility reports, recommendation reports, evaluation reports, assessment reports, and who knows what else. They all do roughly the same thing—provide carefully studied opinions and, sometimes, recommendations. There are some subtle differences among some these types.

8. User Guides, David Mcmurray, Jonathan Arnett

Sexy Technical Communications

A user guide is essentially a book-length document containing instructions on installing, using, or troubleshooting a hardware or software product. A user guide can be very brief—for example, only 10 or 20 pages or it can be a full-length book of 200 pages or more. While this definition assumes computers, a user guide can provide operating instructions on practically anything—lawnmowers, microwave ovens, dishwashers, and so on. The more complex the product, the greater the page count. When this happens, some elements of the user guide get split out into their own separate volumes—especially the installation procedures, troubleshooting procedures, and the …

7. Writing Instructions, David Mcmurray, Jonathan Arnett

Sexy Technical Communications

The focus for this chapter is one of the most important of all uses of technical writing—instructions. As you know, instructions are those step-by-step explanations of how to do something: how to build, operate, repair, or maintain things. When you finish this chapter you will be able to: Analyze and evaluate a set of technical instructions Write clear and accurate instructions with an introduction and conclusion Develop and design an instruction manual for a specific audience

11. Handbook Basics, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

A handbook, as we are defining it here, is a combination of concept, instruction, and reference information focused on a specific topic for a specific audience's needs.

12. Titles, Abstracts, Introductions, Conclusions, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

Formal technical reports over eight to ten pages contain several components that deserve their own focus because they are important in technical reports and because people are unfamiliar with them: Titles explores strategies for making document titles specific but not paragraphs long. Abstracts provide several kinds of summaries of the report contents and conclusions. Introductions get readers ready to read reports by indicating the topic, purpose, intended audience, contents, and orther such matters. Conclusions shape how readers view and understand the report upon leaving it.

13. Oral Presentations, David Mcmurray, Cassandra Race

Sexy Technical Communications

A common assignment in technical writing courses—not to mention in the workplace—is to prepare and deliver an oral presentation, a task most of us would be happy to avoid. However, while employers look for coursework and experience in preparing written documents, they also look for experience in oral presentations as well. Look back at the first chapter. Remember how important interpersonal communication skills are in the workplace. The following was written for a standard face-to-face classroom setting. If you are taking the online version of Sexy Technical Writing, oral reports can be sent in as "scripts," or audio versions can …

15. Report Design, David Mcmurray, Jonathan Arnett

Sexy Technical Communications

Technical reports (including handbooks and guides) have various designs depending on the industry, profession, or organization. This chapter shows you one traditional design. If you are taking a technical writing course, make sure the design presented in this chapter is acceptable. The same is true if you are writing a technical report in a science, business, or government context. Technical reports have specifications as do any other kind of project. Specifications for reports involve layout, organization and content, format of headings and lists, the design of the graphics, and so on. The advantage of a required structure and format for …

16. Book Design Overview, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

The following provides an overview of the typical components of a printed technical book and the typical content, format, style, and sequence of those components. Certainly, no single user guide, technical reference manual, quick-reference document, or other such document would actually have all of these components designed and sequenced in precisely the way you are about to read. Instead, this review will give an overview of the possibilities—let's say the range of possibilities. Before you begin reading the following, grab a number of hardware and software books so that you can compare their content, style, format, and sequencing to what …

14.Ethics In Technical Communication, Tamara Powell

Sexy Technical Communications

Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i.e. the mean relative to us, this being determined by a rational principle, and by that principle by which the man of practical wisdom would determine it. Now it is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect; and again it is a mean because the vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while virtue both finds and chooses that which is intermediate. Hence in respect of its substance and …

17. Common Page Design, David Mcmurray, Jonathan Arnett

Sexy Technical Communications

Page design means different things to different people, but here it will mean the use of typography and formatting such as you see in professionally-designed documents. Our focus here is technical documentation, which implies modest, functional design.

18. Headings, David Mcmurray, Cassandra Race

Sexy Technical Communications

One of the most useful characteristics of technical writing is the use of headings. Headings are the titles and subtitles you see within the actual text of much professional scientific, technical, and business writing. Headings are like the parts of an outline that have been pasted into the actual pages of the document. Headings are an important feature of professional technical writing: they alert readers to upcoming topics and subtopics, help readers find their way around in long reports and skip what they are not interested in, and break up long stretches of straight text. They make text easy to …

19. Bulleted And Numbered Lists, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

Lists are useful because they emphasize selected information in regular text. When you see a list of three or four items strung out vertically on the page rather than in normal paragraph format, you are likely to pay more attention to it. Certain types of lists also make for easier reading. For example, in instructions, it is a big help for each step to be numbered and separate from the preceding and following steps. Lists also create more white space and spread out the text so that pages don't seem like solid walls of words. Like headings, the various types …

20. Special Notices, David Mcmurray, Tamara Powell

Sexy Technical Communications

Special notices are an important feature of professional technical writing: they highlight special information readers need to know to understand what they are reading, to accomplish what they want to do, to prevent damage to equipment, and to keep from hurting themselves or others. Your task in this section is to learn the different types of special notices, their uses, and formats.

21. Tables, Charts, Graphs, David Mcmurray, Tamara Powell

Sexy Technical Communications

One of the nice things about technical writing courses is that most of the papers have graphics in them—or at least they should. A lot of professional, technical writing contains graphics—drawings, diagrams, photographs, illustrations of all sorts, tables, pie charts, bar charts, line graphs, flow charts, and so on. Graphics are important in technical communication. We learn more from a document when graphics are included (Gatlin, 1988). In fact, people learn about 1/3 more from a document with graphics than without (Levie and Lentz, 1982). A recent study found that readers learn faster and are better able to use the …

22. Graphics, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

One of the nice things about technical writing courses is that most of the papers have graphics in them—or at least they should. A lot of professional, technical writing contains graphics—drawings, diagrams, photographs, illustrations of all sorts, tables, pie charts, bar charts, line graphs, flow charts, and so on. Once you get the hang of putting graphics like these into your writing, you should consider yourself obligated to use graphics whenever the situation naturally would call for them. Unlike what you might fear, producing graphics is not such a terrible task—in fact, it's fun. You don't have to be a …

23. Help Desk: Creating An Index, Cassandra Race

Sexy Technical Communications

In long technical documents, an index, or a list of almost everything in the document, is found at the end of the document. The index is a helpful tool for quickly locating information, and many readers expect it. There are several techniques for creating an index, but the most efficient and up to date is right at your fingertips. Microsoft Word allows you to create an index for a single word, a phrase, or even a symbol. You can also create an index item for a topic that covers several pages or paragraphs, or one that refers to another entry, …

24. Writing Process: From Audience To Rough Draft, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

The writing process takes you from the very beginning of a writing project—finding topics and analyzing audience and purpose—all the way to the end—writing and revising the rough draft. The following chapters focus on some of the key phases of that process: Strategies for team-writing Audience Analysis Brainstorming and invention Narrowing Outlining Note-taking Libraries, Documentation, Cross-Referencing Strategies for Peer-Reviewing Power-Revision Techniques

25. Audience Analysis, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

The audience of a technical report—or any piece of writing for that matter—is the intended or potential reader or readers. For most technical writers, this is the most important consideration in planning, writing, and reviewing a document. You "adapt" your writing to meet the needs, interests, and background of the readers who will be reading your writing. The principle seems absurdly simple and obvious. It's much the same as telling someone, "Talk so the person in front of you can understand what you're saying." It's like saying, "Don't talk rocket science to your six-year-old." Do we need a course in …