1.  Progress Report: Tech Writing Today.     

What is Technical Writing? 

• Technical writing is concerned with communicating scientific, technical, and business information so that readers can understand and use it.  
• Technical writing designs and produces effective organization and presentation patterns.  These  include the use of graphic material, explicit organization using headlines or the decimal outline system, and the use of electronic media.  
• Most technical communication is produced by and addressed to people working in or for organizations.  Consequently, there are "discourse community" roles for both writers & readers.  Discourse communities might include:
  • A Catholic junior high school.
  • An independent software company that sells its products via the Internet.
  • A research oriented university hospital.
  • An office of a federal agency, like the BIA.

Even though everyone speaks English, the same words may mean very different things in each situation.  Rather than entertainment or general knowledge, the usual aim of technical writing is practical: to help readers understand a theory or process or carry out a task.

Right Answers or Write Answers? 

The grammarian who taught the schoolteacher who taught you in 7th grade probably believed that language derived from some Platonic form.  They thought that grammar was somewhat comparable to DNA or genes, a deep and universal pattern that produced various languages.  This outlook assumed that there was a RIGHT answer to every question of grammar and usage.  Can infinitives be split?  Can sentences end with a preposition?  The rules that forbad these and other constructions were taken from Latin, not spoken English.

The model that supposes a single right answer for every question is pretty much out of business today.  Influenced by the philosophy of language and postmodernism, most scholars believe that language is a social construction.  It is a game; it is a tool; it is a set of social conventions.  The person who insists that his way of doing things is the only right way tells you more about his personality than about grammar.  

Grammar is something of a statistical study.  It is pretty hard to argue that your spelling errors are really better ways to spell common English words than the way they are spelled in the dictionary.  Even though my textbooks preach against using "impact" for "affect" and "effect," I think the battle is lost.  Apparently no one can tell the difference any longer.  The solution seems to be to replace both words with "impact."  

Grammar is also a bit of a fashion show.  You no doubt speak differently at a Spurs game, at church, with your kids, and at a professional meeting.  You might tell a colleague or subordinate: "that ain't gettin' it done."  But, I hope you would not write something like that in a progress report!

The point is that grammar should not be used as a weapon against those who make mistakes, to embarrass them; nor should it be considered some form of difficult math.  Grammar is like manners.  It offers the preferred way to effectively communicate.  It only becomes a problem when the communication falters. 

The Writing of Scientists & Engineers

One of my texts claims that "many scientist prefer a simpler style of writing but are reluctant to write more simply for fear of losing credibility or esteem in the eyes of their peers."  Even worse, they say, "in crafting a more complex style of writing, the scientist sometimes ignores audience needs" in preference for "personal or political considerations."   Trying to impress their peers, rather than inform readers, scientists & engineers typically produce documents with these traits:

• Long sentences.
• Passive voice.
• A preference for nouns instead of verbs.
• An objective, non-personal point of view.
• A preference for which instead of that or who.
• Little punctuation.
• Major ideas that remain implied, underdeveloped, or non-explicit.
• A tendency to personify the inanimate ("the missile's nose cone").
• A preference for inflated, wordy prose, multiple adjectives, & a Latinized vocabulary:
  • "It would have been difficult to accomplish a similar objective with the older techniques."
  • "It would have been hard to do the same thing with older techniques."
• Inapplicable or false logic.
• Verbosity.
• Clipped or stunted development; conciseness.

Strangely, science writing can be simultaneously verbose & concise.  Multiple adjectives or noun appositives are often too concise for readers to understand.  But a long string of concise noun phrases or adjectives creates verbose sentences.  Some of these traits are not grammatical mistakes.  Technical language addressed to peer experts may be opaque to general readers, but perfectly effective.  Problems arise when experts address non-peer readers who are businessmen, lawyers, secretaries, laborers, consumers, or customers.

Why Does Technical Writing Fail? 

Some writers lack a command of the basics of spelling, punctuation, grammar, & logical design.  Possessing those skills, however, will not necessarily enable you to write effective technical reports.  Technical writing is often characterized by three concerns beyond correctness in spelling, punctuation, & grammar:

• Audience analysis
• Explicit structure (decimal outline, headlines, bullets, etc.)
• Graphics

Some writing is author centered.  Keeping a journal as a kind of therapy or aid to insight about your life is author centered.  The author is also the primary audience.  Freshman English compositions are rather author centered.  Concerned to get something on paper, instructors often implore students to write about how they "feel" about nearly anything.  

Technical writing is reader centered.  The motto that claims "The customer is always right" can be adapted to technical writing.  If the reader doesn't understand the topic, the writing fails.  Professional writing often fails for these reasons:

• The document is not organized with headlines so that readers can find what they are looking for.
• The content of the document is not what the reader needs to do his or her job.
• Readers cannot picture themselves performing the processes described.  Descriptions of mechanisms & processes remain too abstract, objective, or vague.
• Readers have to read a sentence or section several times to understand what it means.
• Readers do not know the words or acronyms used in the document; or key terms mean different things to the reader & writer.

The first & recurrent step in fixing these problems is audience analysis, including end user testing.

How to Organize a Report: 

There is no simple formula or recipe for organizing reports.  Logical organization is a pattern of data.  Without data you have nothing to organize.  The problem is that you cannot organize material until you have it.  When you have material, organizing it involves repeatedly analyzing two things:

• The function or purpose of the document.
• Target readers.  Who will read the document?  What do they need to know?

The sequence of events in solving a problem is "author centered," involving steps like these:

• You have a problem (or have been assigned a problem).
• You determine ways to gather data.
• Someone gathers data.
• You analyze the data to produce findings.
• You analyze findings to make recommendations.
• You make recommendations.

In reporting the data, you wish to create a "reader centered" document.  You do that by using a headline system to help readers find information they are looking for and by using a topical pattern of organization instead the chronological one you used to solve the problem.  Typically you reverse some of the chronological elements to create something like this order:

• Define the problem (including background and context).
• Make recommendations (who, what, when).
• Support the recommendations.  
  • Present the findings to explain the reasoning that led to the recommendation (why).  
  • Explain how to implement recommendations (how).
• Appendixes: 
  • explain the method of data collection.
  • raw data; tables used to create graphs, maps.
  • affiliated data: bibliography.

Things to Catch in Revision:

Attitude:  The attitude or tone seems to be to prove that I am smarter than you are.  The proof is that I know fancier words than you do.  Like so many communication errors, this one illustrates a lack of audience analysis.  Typically the writer elaborates minute levels of detail and multiple applications or possibilities that the reader -- who is struggling to simply get a sense of the theory or understand what the document is about -- cannot possibly follow.  Your spouse should have "fixed" this for you..  When you are explaining the great things that you did at work today and his or her eyes start to glaze, it is time to come down from the clouds to seek some common ground; to look for a nod of the head indicating that he or she is following along.  Sound truly professional by being understood.  Write conversationally.

Audience:  What do you want the audience of your paper to do after they have read it?  Keep this in mind.  You want the reader to accept your proposal and provide funds; you want the reader to perform some process; you want the reader to recognize that you did your job.  No matter how technical, every piece of writing has some element of persuasion.  No matter how prominent the task of simply recording and documenting a process, every document is addressed to a human reader, not to a robot.  Programs designed to find keywords, for example in resumes, simply sort documents for a human reader.  The robot will not give you a job.

Unity:  In college composition and creative writing classes, students are often told to simply write about anything.  The assumption is that the writer will discover what he thinks about some social or personal issue through the process of writing.  The organization of such essays and creative writing is internal.  The organization of technical writing is external, using headlines and a skeletal structure such as the decimal outline system.  Clear writing begins with clear thinking.  If you do not clearly know who you are addressing and what you wish to say to them, readers are unlikely to guess what you have in mind.  Formal papers have an informative abstract.  Memos have a subject line.  Before you begin writing, identify who your audience is and try to state your main point in one sentence.  

Order:  You investigate problems chronologically.  The sequence is typically this.  You have a problem, you employ methods to gather data, you examine the data, and perhaps you solve the problem and make a recommendation.  Technical writing typically inverts the pattern, because it is reader oriented.  The reader wants to know what you found or what you recommend.  Reports typically begin with a recommendation and then explain the basis for it.  The assumption is that you know more about the topic of your writing than anyone else.  You are the expert.  You are the one who performed the action described by the report.  The core or major point of your document is your professional judgment or recommendation, which functions like a thesis statement.  The rest of the document provides evidence to convince a reader that your judgment is correct.

Passive Voice:  Every English teacher admonishes students to use active voice because it reflects how we speak.  Spoken English syntax begins with a subject, then uses a verb, and often has a direct object.  Passive constructions invert this order, beginning with an object and implying a subject.  When "a decision was made" it is often understandable that the person who made the decision is not eager to claim all the responsibility.  It is also true that one rarely seems to have that ideal power to so totally decide an issue or a policy.  Nonetheless, you should avoid passive constructions.  I continue to admonish students to at least fight with their grammar checker, which will identify passive constructions.  Again the issue is somewhat statistical.  A few passive constructions will pass unnoticed, but sentence after passive sentence will put people to sleep, cause them to suspect that you are a robot, or simply generate vagueness.  

How to spot passive construction.  In Word, run the spell checker.  When the menu comes up, check the tiny box on the bottom, left: "Check grammar."  Then click on the "Options" tab. In the lower right text box, choose "formal."  This will automatically select almost all the grammar options.  You may also wish to click on "settings" to see grammar checking options.  

"It has been determined that your effort is below the standard . . ."  What is your reaction?  "Oh, yeah!  Who made that judgment and on what evidence?"  No one wants to do business with voice mail or robots. 

Abstraction:  "Safety is our highest priority."  "Good writing is an essential part of your job."  Anyone disagree with these statements?  Probably not, because they are so general.  If you are thinking of these as the subject line for a memo, there must have been an event or series of events that focused your attention on the topic.  You became interested in the issue because of the specific events -- so share them.  Create interest for your readers by illustrating the problem.  Technical writing often relies on graphic material to illustrate mechanisms and processes of assembly or disassembly.  Use verbal illustrations.  No one is moved to the point of action by vague slogans.  You motivate people to act by convincing them with concrete examples of what happens when safety issues are ignored or when people do not take the time to revise their writing.      

Tech Writing: Unlike creative or discursive writing, technical writing is characterized by these traits:

• It addresses specific readers
• It instructs readers in how to solve problems
• It reflects the culture and goals of social organizations
• It is often produced collaboratively
• It relies on explicit structures to increase readability (e.g., decimal outline system)
• It employs graphics as well as words
• It is produced by electronic tools and perhaps for electronic media (e.g., the Internet)

Tech Writing Theory: 

• Know exactly who your reader is
• Know what you are writing about (do not repeat technical terms you do not understand)
• Be accurate, concise, and conversational
• Use explicit organization: headlines, decimal outline, bullets
• Use graphics

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