Objectives or goals of technical communication

1
Technical Communication:
Process and Product
6th Edition
Steven M. Gerson
Sharon J. Gerson
Gerson: Technical Communication, 6e © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved.

2
Chapter 3: The Goals of Technical
Communication
This chapter discusses
the following:
• Clarity
• Conciseness
• Accuracy
• Organization
• Ethics

3
Clarity
To achieve clarity:
• Provide Specific Detail
• Answer the Reporters’ Questions
• Use Easily Understandable Words
• Use Verbs in the Active Voice Versus the
Passive Voice

4
Clarity—Provide Specific Detail
BAD:
Vague word
“Put enough air in your tires.”
(How much air is “enough”?)
GOOD:
“Fill your tires to 32 pounds per square
inch.”
Specific detail

5
Clarity—Answer Reporter’s
Questions
Reporter’s Questions = who, what, when, where, why,
and how
BAD:
“We bought a new machine to solve the problem.”
• Who is “we”?
• What is the “new machine”?
• When was the purchase made?
• Where was the machine located?
• Why was the purchase made—what was the problem?
• How much did the machine cost?

6
Clarity—Answer Reporter’s
Questions (cont.)
GOOD:
“The marketing department bought a
new AABco laser printer ($595) on
June 10 for our production room.
This printer will produce double-side,
color copies unlike our prior printer. ”

7
Clarity—Use Easily
Understandable Words
BAD:
“We are cognizant of your
need for issuance of citations
pursuant to code 18-B1 CPR
violations.”
NOTE:
NOTE:
Write to express,
not to impress!
Use words that
are easy to
understand.
Write to express,
not to impress!
Use words that
are easy to
understand.
Define
abbreviations
like “CPR.”

8
Clarity—Use Easily
Understandable Words (cont.)
GOOD:
“We know you need to send citations
because of code 18-B1 Continuing
Property Record violations. ”

9
Clarity—Use Verbs in the Active
Voice vs. the Passive Voice
Avoid Passive Voice:
“It has been determined
that the machine was
broken by John.”
Use Active Voice:
“John broke the
machine. ”
NOTE:
Active voice
sentences are
less wordy and
more direct than
passive voice
constructions.
NOTE:
Active voice
sentences are
less wordy and
more direct than
passive voice
constructions.

10
Practice
• Use the end-of-chapter activities to
practice writing clearly.

11
Conciseness
To achieve
conciseness:
• Write to “fit the box”
• Limit paragraph
length
• Limit sentence length
• Limit word length

Conciseness—Write to “fit the box”
• Technical communication often “fits in a box.”
12
– An automobile’s user manual must fit in the glove
compartment.
– Instructions for baking brownies must fit on the
back of the brownie box.
• Due to technological advancements, the box
is shrinking. Consider the monitor size of:
– Cell phones
– PDAs
– E-mail screens
– PowerPoint slides

13
(cont.)

14
(cont.)
The size of this
e-mail box limits
the size of your
correspondence.

15
(cont.)
Boxes within
boxes within
boxes

16
Conciseness—Limit Paragraph
Length
• To write concisely, limit paragraph
length to approximately:
– 4-6 lines of text
– 50 words per paragraph

NOTE:
Long
paragraphs
are hard to
read.
NOTE:
Long
paragraphs
are hard to
read.
17
Length (cont.)
BAD
Please prepare to supply a readout of your findings and
recommendations to the officer of the Southwest Group
at the completion of your study period. As we discussed,
the undertaking of this project implies no currently known
incidences of impropriety in the Southwest Group, nor is
it designed to find any. Rather, it is to assure ourselves
of sufficient caution, control, and impartiality when
dealing with an area laden with such potential
vulnerability. I am confident that we will be better served
as a company as a result of this effort.

NOTE:
Shorter paragraphs
are easier to read.
Spacing gives
readers a chance to
stop, breathe, and
digest the
information.
These paragraphs
are still hard to read,
due to the sentence
and word length.
Shorter paragraphs
are easier to read.
Spacing gives
readers a chance to
stop, breathe, and
digest the
information.
These paragraphs
are still hard to read,
due to the sentence
and word length.
18
Length (cont.)
BETTER
Please prepare to supply a readout of your findings and
recommendations to the officer of the Southwest Group
at the completion of your study period.
As we discussed, the undertaking of this project implies
no currently known incidences of impropriety in the
Southwest Group, nor is it designed to find any. Rather, it is
to assure ourselves of sufficient caution, control, and impartiality
when dealing with an area laden with such potential vulnerability.
I am confident that we will be better served
as a company as a result of this effort.
NOTE:

19
Conciseness—Limit Sentence
Length
• To write concisely, limit sentence length
to:
– 10-15 words (average)

20
Conciseness—Limit Word Length
• To write concisely, limit word length to:
– 1-2 syllables (average)
NOTE:
NOTE:
All words cannot be 1-2 syllables! You
cannot shorten words like
“telecommunications,” “engineer,”
“accountant,” or “trinitrolulene” (TNT).
Change the words you can; leave
other words alone.
All words cannot be 1-2 syllables! You
cannot shorten words like
“telecommunications,” “engineer,”
“accountant,” or “trinitrolulene” (TNT).
Change the words you can; leave
other words alone.

NOTE:
This sentence is 23
words long, and it uses
five words over two
syllables (underlined).
This sentence is 23
five words over two
21
Conciseness—Limiting Word and
Sentence Length (cont.)
BAD
“During the month of July, I
made a decision to positively
impact my writing inabilities
by having a meeting with an instructional
advisor.”
NOTE:

22
Conciseness—Limiting Word and
Sentence Length (cont.)
GOOD
“In July, I decided to improve
my writing by meeting with a
teacher.”
NOTE:
NOTE:
This sentence is 13
one word over two
This sentence is 13
one word over two

23
Practice
practice writing concisely.

24
Accuracy
• Errors in your writing make you look
unprofessional.
• Proofread to catch and correct errors.

25
Organization
• Use appropriate organizational modes to help
readers understand your content:
– Spatial (good for technical specifications)
– Chronological (good for instructions)
– Importance (good for focusing your reader’s
attention on the key ideas in any type of writing)
– Comparison/Contrast (good for showing
alternatives in any type of writing)
– Problem/Solution (good for proposals)

26
Practice
practice different organizational modes.

27
Ethics
• Post Enron, IMclone, and Adelphia,
ethics in communication have never
been more important.
• Effective technical communication must
focus on:
– Legalities
– Practicalities
– Ethicalities

28
Ethics (cont.)
• Follow the Society for Technical
Communication’s (STC) six guidelines for
writing ethically, as follows:

29
Ethics (cont.)
1. Use language and visuals with
precision. (Clarity)
2. Prefer simple, direct expressions of
ideas. (Conciseness)
3. Satisfy the audience’s need for
information, not your own need for self
expression. (Clarity and Conciseness)

30
Ethics (cont.)
4. Hold yourself responsible for how well the
audience understands the message.
(Clarity)
5. Respect the work of colleagues. (Focusing
on Confidentiality, Courtesy, and Copyright
laws)
6. Strive continually to improve your
professional competence. Promote a
climate that encourages the exercise of
professional judgment.

31
Practice
practice ethical considerations.

Objectives or goals of technical communication

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Objectives or goals of technical communication