Technical and Professional Writing Commons^™

Implementing Plain Language Into Legal Documents: The Technical Communicator's Role, Peggy Bivins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses the benefits of using plain language in legal documents and the role technical communicators can play to help implement plain language. Although many definitions for plain language exist, it is best described as reader-focused communication that presents information in a manner that makes it easy for a reader to find, understand, and use the information. Plain language facilitates comprehension by using shorter, less complex sentences; active voice; and common words. All these elements aid in processing and understanding information, especially unfamiliar concepts. Laypeople, unversed in the law, frequently have difficulty understanding traditional legal writing. The complex sentences ...

Business Communication For Success - Gvsu Edition, Unnamed Author, Mark Schaub, Jenniffer Eckert, Anessa Fehsenfeld, Rhonda R. Hoffman, Adam Krusniak, Tami Mccoy, Rachel Jean Norman, Julian Toscano

Open Textbooks

About the GVSU Edition

This text is an adaption of Business Communication for Success, an open textbook produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing in 2015.

Chapters 9, 18, and 20 of Business Communication for Success: GVSU Edition were revised and rewritten by student authors in 2017, as part of a course in the Writing Department at Grand Valley State University. All other chapters retain the content and formatting of previous editions.

Note about the 2015 edition:

The edition produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing was itself adapted from a work distributed ...

Open Technical Writing: An Open-Access Text For Instruction In Technical And Professional Writing, Adam Rex Pope

Open Educational Resources

This book presents technical writing as an approach to researching and carrying out writing that centers on technical subject matter. Each and every chapter is devoted to helping students understand that good technical writing is situationally-aware and context-driven. Technical writing doesn’t work off knowing the one true right way of doing things—there is no magic report template out there that will always work. Instead, the focus is on offering students a series of approaches they can use to map out their situations and do research accordingly.

Engl 1301 - English Composition I - Language And Communication, Glenn Shaheen, Ymitri Mathison, Delinda Marzette -Stuckey, Richard Schmitt

Open Education Resources

This OER packet contains the course materials for ENGL 1301 - English Composition I . In academic settings, the reasons for writing fulfill four main purposes: to summarize, to analyze, to synthesize, and to evaluate. You will encounter these four purposes not only as you read for your classes but also as you read for work or pleasure. Because reading and writing work together, your writing skills will improve as you read. Eventually, your instructors will ask you to complete assignments specifically designed to meet one of the four purposes. As you will see, the purpose for writing will guide you through ...

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

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 ...

What's In A Genre?: The Relationship Between Reader And Text, Anabelle Mahoney

Senior Honors Projects

The way in which literary genres are understood shapes how one reads and interacts with different texts. Genre expectations affect both how individuals choose texts to read, and then how those texts are understood. Therefore, labeling literature as a certain genre affects the relationship between writer and reader. Literary nonfiction is unlike most genres as it promises a certain truth to its readers. One cannot deviate too far from “the truth” in nonfiction writing and still fulfill the genre; the relationship a reader has with a text changes if it is not considered “true enough.” Author James Frey, who marketed ...

Magic And Witchcraft : Critical Concepts In Historical Studies, Michael Bailey

History Books

Magic and witchcraft have been important components of almost every human culture throughout history, and continue to be so in the present day, both globally and in the West. These topics have attracted an enormous amount of scholarship, but publications are often scattered, and scholars working in one area rarely address research produced in others. These volumes bring together important representative publications spanning antiquity to the present day, and setting Western developments in a global context. Significant attention has been given to the major witch hunts of early modern Europe, because scholarship on early modern witchcraft has often driven the ...

02.14: Technical Definitions And Descriptions, Jonathan Arnett

Open Technical Communication

Upon completion of this chapter, readers will be able to:
1. Explain and apply the 5 primary characteristics of technical definitions.
2. Write a definition using appropriate content, descriptors, details, length, placement, and audience analysis.
3. Avoid common technical definition problems.
4. Explain and apply the 5 primary characteristics of technical descriptions.
5. Write a description using the 6 common parts.
6. Organize a description according to the 3 common organizational patterns.

She Has It All: Love And Character Depth In Jane The Virgin, Samantha Lamkin

Cardinal Compositions

No abstract provided.