Technical Writing Notes

This class was different than what I expected. I came into the class thinking I could write memos and documents since this was my job for more years then I want to mention. Each week I found out there was room for improvement. When I look back over the first memos and compare them to the recent work there is a noticeable difference. The detail and clarity of the message has improved. I can include more information in fewer words. I am sure there will be fewer follow up questions on future work related memos.

Instead of focusing on writing projects targeted at useless tasks we wrote documents with meaning. Having a project that lasts for weeks with required periodic updates is typical of workplace writing. Having to do a major project with other team members happens often. Working with a great group that is eager and open to constructive feedback, like I had, is rare.

Learning about target audience, rhetoric, and structure have helped improved my ability to communicate with others. The biggest problem I had was email communication. The things learned applying these concepts writing memos can be applied to email writing with the same effective results.

Blogging was the most difficult part of the class. Writing something to post for all to read was a little intimidating at first. I found it harder to write my post after reading the posting of others. I wanted to make sure my posting was as good as the post of others in the class, so the pressure was on. More pressure was added making sure I stayed original while the posting of others was in the back of my mind.

I feel I the class was worth the time, money, and effort. With the class experience being so different than my expectations I ended up learning more than I thought possible.

Publishing

Many thanks to Tom Sumner for an informative introduction to publishing. Learning about the many levels of editors that screen the books before they get considered for actual printing amazed me. The job of editing requires reading many bad books. As a student interested in a subject I find text books boring at times. I can only imagine an editor needing to read and correct things in a book when they have no interest in the subject.

As an editor there is more work to do than just making sure the words are written well. Designing book jackets, writing cover copy, and directing complete rewriting takes a special talent. An editor needs to be a graphic artist, a critic, write copy, and handle writer's egos and different personalities.

Each of the guest speakers has had something in common. As writers we need to be informative, concise, and interesting. Selling books, old lamps, or news it still comes down to being able to put into words ideas to capture people's eye by standing out from the crowd.

Persausion Over Done

The Persuaders was a little alarming. I noticed the outcomes of two marketing plans. One worked and one failed. Marketers have so much information on people that they can target their message down to a single person. By developing multiple messages and going to each person they were able to affect the outcome of a primary election in Ohio. The mass market approach used for Song Airline failed.

Advertising is big business. They put a lot of effort into getting information, developing products and pitches, focus groups, testing, and marketing. Getting an effective message to the right buyer has always been their focus. I had never thought of advertising as a science before seeing this.

As technology changes targeting is getting easier for them. Each time there is a change in technology the ad people adopt it to their use. If we figure out a new way to block ads, like TIVO, they change to product placement. We get pop up blockers, they develop a method to run ads first before your video starts streaming.

As advertisers gain more data and technology evolves I can see each person becoming a specific target. The cable and satellite boxes are addressable and could become the next target of direct advertisers. Imagine getting custom messages delivered automatically to your house.

My Change in Viewing Tech Writing

When I review technical or professional writing now one of my first thoughts is to figure out the target audience. This puts me into a frame of mind to understand the material better. Knowing the intended audience sets my expectations of what I should learn from reading it. I evaluate the quality of the material compared to who is intended to be reading it.

One recent paper I read was a history report that was written for postgraduate history majors. Knowing the audience helped to reduce my irritation with the frequent use of technical terms I had to stop and look up to understand. When I found other less technical words that could have been used to convey the same meaning it would frustrate me in the past. Now I understand he is just using words his peers understand. Something I learned from this is writing with specific technical terms where they are not needed could unnecessarily narrow your audience.

Another recent example of audience specific writing was the admissions orientation web site. I was directed to visit the site as part of my major certification. This site is intended for incoming freshman to the WSU business program. Many of the items covered were not applicable to someone seeking a second career. Viewing the information from the viewpoint of someone just graduating high school the material makes sense. I will suggest the possibility of creating a second site targeted at more mature learners during my advising session.

Targeting the audience is key to getting the information across. If the material is too technical they will not read it unless the need for the information outweighs the frustration of the difficult reading. If you write in terms that are too simple the reader will lose interest and could miss the point of the material.

Blogs Commented on this week

Jenny Mockford 1-29-10

Daniel Storz 2-4-10

Question

I am a little confused. When the assignment is to post on two classmate previous posts do we post the comments in our blog or as a comment on their blog? Last week and this week I posted comments to their blogs. The draw back is they need to review and post the comments, if they don't post them the comments are not seen by anybody.

Media Kit For Viewing

Fortune Media Kit

I was able to follow the directions to map a network drive written by Michael Sasser. His directions were detailed and as far as I can tell accurate. This demonstrates the types of documents that can be written if you are familiar with the subject. To write instructions the more you know helps you to be able to relay the information to someone else.

It was a good job on the rewrite of the sample we were given. The difference between the original, filled with "inside jokes", and Micheal's version shows what a professional document should look like.

Blog for FEB 9

Class Exercise

Text Book Rhetoric

Advertisers need to focus on what their client company does best, package it with the right amount of rhetoric, and have people see it as much as possible. In analyzing the rhetoric it becomes possible to question the value of the claims made. The statements can be accepted as true for the analysis. By observing how the claims are made and what is not claimed enables us to become better consumers.

One of the publishers of my text books, Pearson, has a companion web site. They follow the standard advertising drill of pushing the rhetoric. They build ethos by stating "Pearson is the world's leading education company." They base this on the number of customers. They do not claim to be the best at teaching or the cheapest. A further attempt to build ethos is a statement about awards they have won. The awards were for excellence in book binding. This does not lead me to believe they are the best at teaching.

Pathos is used when they let us know "We aim to help people make progress in their lives through education and information – to help them to 'live and learn'." An appeal to people that Pearson is trying to make sure we move forward and to live. This imperative that we cannot live without buying these books is hard to believe.

Pearson appeals to our logos with "It is known around the world for its independent and authoritative information." If all these unnamed people know about it Pearson must be good. No true testimonials or references are provided at the site.

With all of the rhetoric and lack of any claims that I feel good about my buying habits for text books does not change. I still must buy the books based on the class requirements. This blog has as much impact as Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes. We read it, we agree or disagree, we move on a little wiser for having spent time with it, but we still buy the books we are told to buy.

This Week's Blog

The worksheet

When I reviewed my email files to find one to write about I noticed a pattern. The more familiar someone was with you the less information and "niceties" there was in the email. In each of these messages the tone was set in the first line of the email. I knew the content of the message before reading the entire text.

Chase Bank opens their formal business email with Mr. Charles E. Pelaske Jr... This tips me off there may be something legal in the memo. The opening was followed by legal stuff telling me they changed the terms on a credit card I do not use. Publisher's Clearing House does not know me at all. They refer to me as Mr. Pelaske before they offer to fix my financial position. The most familiar was from my brother. “Check this out" was all he wrote and he included a web site address.

Chase tried to maintain a friendly tone. Other than the opening paragraph, the message was bland and unappealing. Writing this type of message is difficult. The ability to deliver bad news while trying to keep customer goodwill takes talent. Chase effectively balanced the bad news by reminding customers of the services available to them for the increased cost.

Publisher's Clearing House sent their usual promotion of giving away millions of dollars. The email was a full page of how the reader could become rich and how others have already become rich by clicking on the link. The sale of actual merchandise does not occur until you have clicked on the link. The tone is upbeat throughout the entire email. They want the reader to feel the sense of urgency to click the link by the use of bold print with underling. These mental pushes are on the key parts requesting the reader to respond now and prompt entry needed. The reference to others that lost because they failed to respond seems mildly threatening. This approach must work because they have been using it for decades.

My brother's email would be impossible to discern a tone in without the entire context of where the link went and why he sent it to me. This short an email may be acceptable between family members. In the work place it would be a mistake, no matter how well or how long you worked with someone. The intended joke could backfire by misinterpretation.

The World of Rhetoric

Rhetoric is used to drive home any point the speaker or writer is trying to make. Here in the Northwest the news media is focused on the emotional appeal of "the Northwest connection" to draw the viewer in with pathos of "this could have been you or someone you know". Hearing this rhetoric with every story that happens anywhere else in the world becomes tedious.

The Fox News Channel hits us with the combination of their logo "Fair and Balanced" followed by images of their star reporters to build our perceived ethos of their reporters. Does this rhetoric work for you? It does not work for me. Fox makes further attempts at logos by stating they are America's number one news channel. I watch Fox just for the humor value of the excessive rhetoric. Fox may have a high number of viewers but many could be watching for the same reason as I do.

The attempts to pull at my heartstrings with these pitches become annoying after hearing them continuously. They begin to fall into the clichéd ethos of "4 out of 5 dentists recommends...". I begin to doubt the veracity of the source after hearing the phrases so many times.

I can understand the desire of the news media to build a relationship with their viewers. The result could be beneficial in terms of revenue generated by a growing loyal audience. It may be better to focus on giving us more information in the time slot allowed by reducing the rhetoric.

Writing Class Expectations

Writing has always been easy for me. As long as I am familiar with the subject or have a point to make, I can communicate my ideas in a clear manor. My issue is with writing for a new audience, such as a new manager or for a new teacher in a classroom. Without knowing what they are expecting in style or the specific information my audience is looking for I develop writers block.

For my current writing class I think writing style should not be an issue. In technical writing the format is usually straightforward. Memos have a routine structure that is clear. The information needs to be written as brief as possible while relaying all the facts. Proposals, resumes, and the other types of documents we will be writing will also have predetermined style limits. These style limits improves the possibility of producing documents that will meet or exceed the expectations of the instructor.

The content of the documents we will be writing is still unclear. There remains the opportunity for error in content without some guidance. The directions were clear enough for a few hundred words on writing for this blog. By relaying my thoughts on fulfilling the expectations of my audience, I am hoping for help on learning how to write for a wider audience without the need for too much direction on content.

As the semester progresses we will see how the writing style changes in this blog. I would like to see a clear improvement when comparing this blog entry with my final blog entry at the end of April.

Welcome To 402

This is a blog test to see if it works. I'm sure the other posts will be of more interest in the future.