Technical Writing

Technical WritingDr. Will KurlinkusDirector of Technical WritingWho am I: Im a doctor of technical communication. 1Who Are You?NameMajorFuture CareerSomething youd like to learn about writingAnimal People Tell You, You Look Most Like

Make a seating chart2What are the Work Patterns of Technical Communicators? Activity: Give me a one sentence definition of technical communicationcondensation: take big complicated things and change them into small easy to understand things. This is the wicked problem of communication.

31. Information DesignersWhat is design? How do you use multimodality in your field?Ethos, pathos, and logos, again

Information design: Rachels Internship at NASA: Had to create visualizations of data. Why do this? User manual vs an online forum?NormanDangerous wave sign from Anderson4

Which gas station wouldyou trust with your creditcard information?Things that are pretty work better.Japanese researcher Kurosu and Kashimura (1995) ATMs

Pathos: Why is this a fact. Well, we get less frustrated with pretty things, were more willing to work through them. In terms of creations (not just people) we tend to think that time and thought went into them so that if theres an error its our fault. Similarly, when you are in a more relaxed mindstate you solve problems quicker.

All this to say, as we read about, we need to make our documents pretty. Now, what it means for a document to be pretty in an art class vs. an engineering class might be different, but a hint of artfulness, what classical rhetoricians call sprezzatura, never hurts. 62. User AdvocatesWho are the users of your texts? What does it mean to use a text?What does it mean to advocate for a user?How are texts adapted for audiences?Whats the difference between an audience and a user?User-centered vs. Designer centered design

Usable vs. UsefulSocial listeninguser innovationsExample: starbucks splashsticks; duct tape prom; we looked at the clear rx pill bottle last time

73. Stewards of Writing Activity in OrganizationsWhat types of documents might you create to teach someone else a skill?Who taught you to write the genres of your other classes?Team written documents? How?

How have you learned the types of documents you write in your other classes? Who taught you? Was it informal and formal? What are these documents? Are there instructions around your labs?8Why Scannability?Dual path readingMost important info firstOne idea per paragraphHeadingsBulletsImage captionsUseful linksNumerals stick out

Use three documents and improve their scannaility together: A poster from the hallway. A resume. A block of technical text.Scannability and non-native English speakerscan scannability improve comprehension?9

Scannability and the economics of attention aka rhetoric.10ScannabilityWhat do we see first?Whats the reading pattern?Whats the visual hierarchy?How are things grouped?Whats most important?Whats least important?What could be better?How is color and font used?How are vectors used?

Lets look at some examples

OU Career Center13Lets Make Something Scannable!

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