1. Intro to Technical Communication
What is Technical Communication?
Oral and written communication for and about business and industry. OR Communication using technology.
What is a team?
A group of people working towards a common goal.
What are audience types? Explain one of them.
High tech: Has similar educational & work background, has shared understanding, needs minimal background info & details
Low tech: May be co-workers or supervisors, may be familiar with topic, but not expert, may need some clarification and details
Lay:May customers or clients, may have minimal or no prior knowledge, provide sufficient explanation without patronizing tone
Multiple: Mixed levels of knowledge, may be unintended audience, provide reference to more detailed explanation
What are the three main stages of writing?
Prewriting-writing and rewriting
What is re-drafting/usability testing and why do we do it?
Improving your first draft - better communication, make it longer, make it shorter, find mistakes
Who uses TC?
◦managers
◦colleagues
◦subordinates
◦vendors
◦customers
Why is teamwork important?
◦diversity of opinion
◦you can check each other's work
◦broad-based understanding
How do you define terms to your audience?
parenthetically
in a sentence
in an extended paragraph
in a glossary
as online help with a pop‐up definition
What does the pre-writing stage involve?
Examining purposes |
Determining goals |
Considering audience |
Gathering data |
Deciding what action audience should do |
Determining the most effective channel |
Name the 1 way that you can achieve better clarity in your writing.
Give specific Details (using reporter's questions)
Define Jargon
Use active sentences rather than passive.
Why do we use TC?
For customer service
For industry instruction manuals
For letters of complaint
For seeking employment (application letter and resume)
What is the difference between a homogeneous and heterogeneous team?
BONUS: Name the 2 types of heterogeneous teams
homogeneous = all the members are the same in terms of nationality, age, experience etc
heterogeneous = team members are different in terms of location (dispersed) or nationality, age, experience etc (diverse)
Why do we care about diversity?
Diversity is protected by law
Respecting diversity is the right thing to do
Diversity is good for business
Diversity keeps company competitive
Give 2 examples of pre-writing techniques and what they involve.
Reporter Questions |
Mind mapping |
Brainstorming |
Outlining |
Storyboarding |
Organizational chart |
Flowcharting |
Name 2 ways that you can be more concise when writing.
Remove unnecessary/redundant words.
Combine sentences.
Avoid grammatical redundancy e.g. There is/are
Explain 2 reasons why effective technical communication is important.
To be successful at your job you need to write and speak effectively to others
To maintain good relationships.
To generate income (sales letters, brochures, fliers)
Give an advantage and a disadvantage for each of the different types of team (homogeneous and heterogeneous)
Homogeneous : Advantage - all members understand each other, no conflict or misunderstanding. Disadvantage: All ideas might be the same
Heterogeneous: Advantage: Diversity of opinion/ideas. Disadvantage: lack of understanding, conflicts of culture.
What things you need to keep in mind in order to communicate effectively with diverse audiences?
}Respect your audience’s cultural diversity
}Avoid ageist language
}Avoid biased language about people with disabilities
Avoid sexist language
◦Don’t ignore women or treat them as secondary
◦Don’t stereotype
◦Don’t use sexist pronouns
◦Don’t use gender tagged nouns
What are writing organizational patterns? Choose 3 to explain in detail.
•Spatial
•Chronological
•Importance
•Comparison/Contrast
•Problem/Solution
Name 3 ways you can achieve accuracy in TC?
BONUS: How is proofreading different?
Check your organizational style.
Check all the points in your plan are covered
Check your data is correct
Look for grammar or vocabulary errors
Re-format the design of the text
Technical communication depends on three things: audience, purpose and situation.
Choose 2 to explain and say what they will effect.
Explain why effective technical communication is important.
◦audience (who you are who you are communicating with)
this will effect the level of formality, the types of technical words (jargon)
◦purpose (why? you are communicating)
this will effect the tone of voice and the design of the text.
◦situation (when and where you are communicating) this will effect the communication channel used.
To be successful at your job you need to write and speak effectively to others
To maintain good relationships.
To generate income (sales letters, brochures, fliers)
Give 3 aspects of the HPI index and explain how they might effect teamwork.
Answers may very (see slide 6)
Human Performance Index (HPI)
Knowledge: Maybe employees don’t have the knowledge needed or do not understand the skills needed to complete the job.
Resources: Sometimes you may not have all of the resources need to complete the job, such as tools are missing or broken, not enough people to do the work, the materials needed are not good quality, the wrong machine was sent, limited stock, etc.
Processes: Everyone must know the process needed to complete the job, such as:
Who reports to whom?
What is each person’s responsibility?
Are responsibilities shared equally? Or not?
If there is no structure, sometimes it becomes chaotic, time is lost, or people cannot work together well.
Information: The team needs up-to-date information and accurate information to successfully complete the job. If the database information is incomplete or late, then some members of the team might not have the information needed.
Support: To succeed in any project, a team needs support, such as financial, attitudinal, or managerial. When there is little or no support, teams will suffer.
Wellness: Sometimes people get sick or injured and will be absent from work. This may negatively impact the team’s productivity. Stress and absences can lead to arguments, missed deadlines, erratic work schedules, and poor quality.
Acknowledgement: Management needs to recognize the benefits and results of collaboration. Successful workplaces reward staff with promotions, merit raises, bonuses, and awards.
Trust: A team is only as good as the trust team members have for the team effort. When team members trust each other, they are open to brain storming, complement each other’s efforts, and work towards effective communication.
Leadership: A team needs direction. Successful teams work well when their leaders provide clear deadlines, responsibilities, task goals, and fair-minded leadership.
Efficient communication: If everyone on the team is overwhelmed with emails, text messages, tweets, or instant messages, no work will get done. Too much information might be as bad as no information.
How do you ensure your audience involvement?
Personalized tone- makes your audience feel included. Use pronouns and names
Reader benefit- Show readers how they’ll benefit from your technical communication by: explaining the benefit and using positive words.
Make plan for the following essay topic
"Why we should introduce a recycling project at ADPoly"
Use one of the pre-writing techniques.
answers will vary
Make this sentence clearer, more concise and accurate. Make at least 4 changes.
it has been decided that some new engineers will be hired by someone in managerement. these new enjineers will work on the PROJECT that is coming up next manth
Explain your changes.
Answers may vary.
One example is:
Dr Beshara has decided to hire 10 new engineers to work on the upcoming Falcon aircraft maintenance project.
Gave specific details about which manager, how many engineers, the name of the project.
Fixed spelling, capitalization and punctuation mistakes.
Changed from passive to active voice.
Combined sentences and removed unnecessary/repeated words.