• define technical writing and describe its characteristics
• explain the roles that analysing your audience and clearly identifying your purpose play in technical communication
• identify the audiences for a particular technical document
• develop an audience profile
• describe writing strategies for multicultural audiences
• write a document as a collaborative effort
• use a variety of methods to define technical terms so they are meaningful for the audience and its needs
• describe the ways in which copyright law and the fair use concept apply to the use of information from other sources

Commentary

Understanding the Technical Communication Process

Technical writing is just one part of technical communication. In technical writing, we, as authors, communicate information to readers. To define technical communication, we need to examine the elements involved communicating technical information. These elements are the author, audience, message, and purpose. The author creates the message containing the technical information to serve a particular purpose and then transmits it to the audience.

These elements are discussed in greater detail in chapter 1 of Markel and unit 1 of the course guide. Review the characteristics and excellence measures of technical communication in Markel's chapter 1 to understand the factors that contribute to effective, excellent technical communication.

Analyzing Your Audience

Markel (7) says that the fact that "technical communication... addresses" a specific audience is its most "significant characteristic." When authors begin to plan a document, one of the first things they do is analyze its audience,  which may consist of one or more groups of readers. As you plan and write technical documents, you must learn about your readers so that you can fulfill their information needs.Chapter 5 of Markel and unit 2 of the course guide discuss how to analyze and develop a profile of your audience.

You can classify your audience into two broad groups:  primary and secondary.

The primary audience is the one to whom the document is directed. This group consists of the main recipients of the document, and it has a direct role in responding to the document.

Here some examples of a primary audience:

For this document:	This group is the primary audience:
Report about developing a training program for the staff of an information technology department	Vice-president and department managers
Monthly status report on a computer application project	Managers and staff directly involved in the project
Memo on the process of tracking an order from receipt to fulfillment and billing	Supervisors and staff, such as customer service representatives, accounts-receivable staff, and order-fulfillment staff, who are directly involved in handling orders

The secondary audience consists of readers who are interested in the document or may use the information in it. This group does not have a direct role in responding to the document.

For this document:	This group is the secondary audience:
Report about developing a training program for the staff of an information technology department	Human resources manager and specialists, information technology staff, upper management, and others in the organization interested in training
Monthly status report on a computer application project	Users of the computer application, others who are interested in the it, and clients
Memo on the process of tracking an order from receipt to fulfillment and billing	Managers responsible for the departments handling the orders and information technology personnel interested in the computer systems involved in order tracking

Markel also categorizes basic categories of readers by their level of knowledge about a topic. The basic categories are general reader, technician, expert, and manager. Review his discussion of these categories to see which types of readers fit into each group. Table 5.4 offers some guidelines for writing to each category of readers.

To analyze your audience, you need to gather information about its demographics, level of knowledge, level of interest, information needs, attitudes, expectations, and document use. The Guidelines on page 104 in Markel and the "Analyzing Your Audience" section of unit 2 of the course guide list questions to help you conduct your analysis. Markel presents an Audience Profile Sheet in figure 5.6 that you can use for describing your audience. Here is a sample of an audience analysis for a COMM 393 project similar to your assignment 1. You'll receive specifics about this assignment in module 2, which is focused on carrying out the steps of planning and executing a project. We'll address it here in module 1 because of the need to understand your audience. The documents developed for the audience described here are presented in module 2.

In our global economy, more products and services are distributed internationally, and the audience for technical documents becomes more diverse. Readers of technical documents may come from different cultures and be nonnative speakers of English.Writing for multicultural audiences is discussed in greater detail in the "Understanding Multiculturalism" section of chapter 5 of Markel and in the "Writing for Multicultural Audiences" section of unit 2 of the course guide.

Identifying Your Purpose

Once you have analyzed your audience, you must identify your purpose and develop a strategy for writing the document. Your purpose, for example, may be to inform, explain, persuade, or demonstrate. It may also consist of a combination of reasons. Markel's chapter 6 describes how to define your purpose and develop a purpose statement. It also discusses determining a strategy for creating the document and various constraints that can influence its development.

Defining Technical Terms

When writing to an audience about a new or unfamiliar topic, you need to define and describe terminology that your readers may not know. Defining unfamiliar terminology is a crucial writing strategy for communicating technical information to an audience, especially a general audience.

You must develop definitions that are appropriate for your readers. Creating effective definitions for technical words or phrases depends not only on your readers' characteristics, such as their level of education, knowledge, and experience, but also on their need. A definition of diabetes for students in an introductory college biology class would differ from one for a group of medical interns. Your definition should give your readers sufficient detail and use language that makes sense to them.

Three type of definitions are available: parenthetical, or informal; sentence, or formal; and expanded. Several techniques are used for creating expanded definitions. Such as examples, analogies, negations, and comparisons. You can select the type of definition and techniques to use by looking at your audience and purpose.

You may also need to consider where to place your definitions in a document. Some options are in the text itself, in footnotes, in a glossary, in appendices, or in hypertext links.

Chapter 9 of Markel and the beginning of unit 9 of the course guide describe how to create definitions, tailor them to your audience, determine the type of definition to use, and decide where to place them. Focus especially on the "Tailoring Definitions to the Audience" section in unit 9 to see how to shape definitions for different audiences.

Ethical and Legal Considerations

Review Markel's chapter 2 for a presentation of the ethical and legal considerations involved in technical communications. Pay particular attention to the copyright law and fair use concept described there. In addition, examine the "Ethics, Copyright Law, and the Web" section of Markel's chapter 21 on "Creating Web Sites". You should be aware of the copyright law and how writers can use information from other resources.

Collaborative Writing

Writing collaboratively is common in technical environments, especially on larger documents. In an academic environment, you also work on collaborative projects that include writing. Writing collaboratively is one of the characteristics of technical writing, according to Markel (9). Review his chapter 4 to learn more about collaborative writing, its advantages and disadvantages, and working together effectively as a team.

Electronic Tools

Markel's chapter 4 presents a good overview of the various electronic tools that can enhance the writing process, development of technical documents, and communication of technical information. You will find this overview in the section entitled "Using Groupware and Other Communications Media." You can skim this section for more information about these tools and how they can help you in planning, researching, designing, writing, and revising technical documents.

Summary

In this module, we've looked at what technical communication is and its characteristics, the importance of knowing your audience and purpose in planning technical documents, the need to follow copyright and fair use practices, and ways to define technical terminology.

In module 2, we'll explore the application of these ideas to the documentation developed during the planning and execution of a project. In a technical environment, the documents created during the life cycle of the project provide project sponsors, management, members of an organization, and others with information about the content, status, results, and conclusions of a project.

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