Technical and Professional Writing Commons^™

Thinking Outside The Toolbox: A Teaching Resource For Vocational Writing, Dustin Ledford

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This capstone project combines elements of contextualization, professional writing, and process pedagogy to create a course design for teaching writing in the technical college/vocational school setting. With this course design, students are asked to complete a variety of scenario-driven, workplace-related writing tasks that teach fundamentals of college composition including research, critical thinking, and process-based writing. With this sample curriculum, students write from realistic scenarios from the healthcare industry, especially tasks from the medical office environment. The goal of this course design is to model and promote new practices for teaching writing in vocational settings to better engage students in these …

Reflecting On And Shattering My White Lens: A Critical Autoethnography On My Experience As A White Editor Working With Authors Of Color, Kelsey Medlin

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This critical autoethnography aims to reveal how the cultural biases of a white majority industry impact the stories they select for acquisition and how they are edited. As an editor, I came to this topic from my personal desire to see if my own whiteness affects the way I view writers of color, their stories, and the audience that the companies market to. Thus, the purpose of this project is to explore the current conversations on the topic of diversity within the publishing industry and whether the conversation is making a connection between the lack of diversity in the workforce …

Adventures In Storytelling: An Editor's Guide To Better Fiction, Rachel Frank

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Writing fiction can be daunting for beginning writers. This graphic guide seeks to make fiction more accessible, using the unique affordances of the graphic medium to explain fictional concepts and techniques in a clear, engaging way.

The Biography Of Dr. Joseph Mbelolo Ya Mpiku: A Congolese True To His Roots, Looking Beyond The World He Lives In., Zola Matingu

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This is the biography of Dr. Joseph Mbelolo Ya Mpiku, a Congolese man who has lived in three different countries, on three different continents, immersed in three different cultures. His life experiences enriched his knowledge of other cultures, and his own culture kept him grounded in his identity.

His story can be relatable to people from various cultures across generations, as culture is a key element of the way an individual sees and defines himself. A culture doesn't just benefit those from where it originated; it can be shared to enrich the human experience, not just in the differences, but …

Creating Effective Style Documents: A Practicum In Trade Publication, Kristen Tardio

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

It is no secret that the field of publication thrives on collaboration: among publishers, editorial and production team members, designers, marketing and publicity staff, sales representatives and promoters, authors, illustrators, reviewers, and, of course, readers. However, an equally important yet less-explored relationship exists within this industry, between publishing staff and a text itself. As such, despite this crucial connection, the technical means by which the final product is created may also be overlooked.

This practicum examines these technical resources: style guides/sheets (especially for house style), their creation, and their usage in publishing, specifically how they pertain to sales material. Also …

Creating A Web Presence For A Small Business Using A Holistic Content Strategy Approach, Tabitha Akins

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Creating a Web Presence for a Small Business Using a Holistic Content Strategy Approach details the content strategy process used and work done to revise a small business website, in order to better meet the content needs of both the business and its customers.

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 …

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, …

32. Common Spelling Problems, David Mcmurray, Tiffani Reardon

Sexy Technical Communications

For some writers, their main spelling problem is similar-sounding words, for example, principle and principal or affect and effect. These problems cannot be flagged by software spell-checking functions. Here is a list of these commonly confused homophones (different spelling; same or very similar pronunciation), with examples of their correct use. All definitions in this section are from the Merriam Webster dictionary via the Merriam Webster Dictionary mobile application.

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 …

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.

34. Information Structures, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

The main parts of a technical-writing course focus on applications—ways technical writing skills are applied in the real world. However, these applications use varying combinations of information infrastructures. An information infrastructure is (1) a type of information content (such as descriptive writing), (2) a way of organizing information (such as a comparison or classification), or (3) both. The information infrastructures reviewed in this appendix are the ones commonly used in technical writing. Of course, there are other infrastructures—maybe some that scholars of technical writing have not yet pinned a label on, but these are the most common and the most …

35. Logic: Common Fallacies, Steve Miller, Cherie Miller

Sexy Technical Communications

In the last chapter we discussed passages where bright individuals with PhDs violated common fallacies. Even the brightest among us fall for them. As a result, we should be ever vigilant to keep our critical guard up, looking for fallacious reasoning in lectures, reading, viewing, and especially in our own writing. None of us are immune to falling for fallacies. Until doctors come up with an inoculation against fallacies, I suppose the next best thing is to thoroughly acquaint ourselves with the most common fallacies. I chose the following fallacies by comparing a dozen or so university sites that list …

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 …

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.)

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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

26. Task Analysis And Task-Oriented Documentation, David Mcmurray, Tamara Powell

Sexy Technical Communications

When you write instructions, procedures, and "guide" or user-guide information (generally called documentation), you normally must use a task approach. That means providing steps and explanations for all the major tasks that users may need to perform. Of course, some instructions involve only one task—for example, changing the oil in a car. But we are concerned here with more complex procedures. While this chapter uses computer software as an example, these techniques can apply to any multi-task procedure—for example, operating a microwave oven. Chapter Objectives At the end of this chapter, students will be able to 1. Define documentation 2. …

28. Power-Revision Techniques, David Mcmurray, Jonathan Arnett

Sexy Technical Communications

The linked chapters here cover some of the most important aspects of writing—what's more important than the information you put in a document, how you organize it, how you link it all up together? When you look at all these powerful ways you can review (look for potential problems) and then revise (fix those problems), you might think they're tedious and time-consuming. They do take some time, but don't worry...this stuff becomes second nature rather quickly. If you spend some time analyzing writing in the ways outlined in this chapter, the way you write and the way you review what …

29. Searching Libraries, Documenting Borrowed Information, And Cross-Referencing, David Mcmurray, Cassandra Race

Sexy Technical Communications

This section in this appendix focuses on: Libraries—Finding information libraries Documentation—Indicating sources of borrowed information Cross-referencing—Pointing to other information in your own documents and those of others.

31. Common Grammar, Usage, And Punctuation Problems, David Mcmurray

Sexy Technical Communications

In this chapter, we will cover only those grammar, punctuation, usage, and spelling problems that give people the biggest headaches. Technical writing professionals try to simplify grammar rules as much as possible without hurting the language or putting themselves in straitjackets. Typically, they work in teams and frequently move in and out of projects—so that the same document may be worked on by different writers and editors during the space of just a few years. That's why any guidelines based on interpretation or personal style or judgment must be avoided.

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, …