Learning about Technical Writing

1. Michael Soto
Reflecting
Upon
Technical
Writing

2. I. Rhetoric
II. Collaboration
III. Cultural Considerations
IV. Ethics
Table of Contents

3. • Technical communication is an extensive field
that includes any form of communication that
demonstrates some of the following
characteristics:
– “Communicating about technical or specialized
topics, such as computer applications, medical
procedures, or environmental regulations.
– Communicating by using technology, such as web
pages, help files, or social media sites.
– Providing instructions about how to do something,
regardless of how technical the task is or even if
technology is used to create or distribute that
communication.”-STC
Applying Technical Communication
Defining the Field
This is a field that is growing not only
yearly, monthly, daily, but also by the
minute. Technical communication comes
down to one thing, and thing only. It
allows businesses to communicate more
effectively to generate more revenue. It’s a
never ending process.
In English 2311, we have learned how to
present ourselves in professional forms
involving different situations. We have
learned how to create memos, resumes,
use different templates, propose ideas,
think creatively, collaborate more
efficiently with others as a group, and now
demonstrate the use of Slidedocs. The
main goal is to effectively communicate
what you are trying to present.
What’s It All About???

4. What?
When?Where?
Who?
How?
Identifying Rhetoric
The use of rhetoric is going to be the foundation
of any problem. What are you trying to
communicate to the audience? What type of
audience are you targeting? What is your main
goal, and how are you going to grab the attention
of others to listen? These are all questions that
need to be addressed first on the drawing board
when brainstorming. This is where you’ll identify
your 5 questions.

5. Identifying Rhetoric cont.
We simply used rhetoric throughout the semester of ENGL 2311. One of the projects that involved
more rhetorical work, was our group project to demonstrate any process. We encountered our main
constraint within the first week of work. Our original project was going to demonstrate how to be
financially prepared to deal with student loan debt after graduation. Consequently, this was too
much information to put together within the time frame allowed while including a large amount of
information to simplify.
Our second constraint was coming up with a project that would be somewhat more simple. This is
when we began to create a “How to apply for Graduate school in Computer Science” plan. We
encountered many issues such as not making the process to complicated and creating a flowchart for
our target audience which was college students looking into going to graduate school in this field. The
flowchart had to be simple, and able to catch the eye of a typical college student. We conducted a
usability test on three different users with the “think out loud” protocol. Each user was told to give us
their honest opinion about the project, and to relax. The feedback allowed me to realize that the main
steps for the flowchart needed to be a bit more clear. So, I broke down the main steps into three
phases so that there was no misunderstanding. This helped me to understand the process of making
things clear, precise, and simple.

6. Collaboration
“Coming TOGETHER is a beginning; keeping TOGETHER is progress; working TOGETHER is
success.” Henry Ford
The process of completing a successful
team project is impossible without
collaboration. Effective collaboration is
extremely important in the real world. It is
important for businesses, teams, and co-
workers to actively communicate. There is
not a business in the world that could
survive without collaboration.
Before we began our final group project, we
took a personality assessment. This test
identified our strengths and weaknesses. It
helped place us into groups of which we would
work well together. Once our group was able to
get together, we discussed our strengths and
weaknesses. Then we discussed our group
project, and assigned roles based upon our
individual strengths. We never ran into an
individual problem of someone not
contributing. Overall, I believe our group
worked very well together. We were progressive
together. Our group was dynamic, consistent,
goal-oriented, and extremely collaborative. Our
success was dependent upon communication.

7. Cultural Considerations
Research
Produce
Research
Produce
We live in a country where diversity is becoming extremely
important. Everyone wants the American dream.
As our country becomes more diverse, it becomes more important to be
culturally diverse in a business. As we can better understand cultural
anthropology, it will allow us communicate more effectively amongst each
other. This is why it is so important to understand people. Treat others as
you want to be treated. How can you treat people with respect if you
don’t understand their definition of respect? It is important for us to
educate ourselves and those around us of the various cultures of what is
normal and abnormal behavior. These types of behaviors can be displayed
in professional documents. For instance, when making a video, you should
be as professional as possible as this is accepted in most cultures.
Language is the most important aspect in a document. If possible, your
document needs to be properly translated into the top three languages
here in the U.S. excluding English. Your goal is to reach as many cultures
as possible. You do this by researching, then producing your work.
It is no doubt that our country is seen as one of the greatest
around the world. Immigration reports show this to be true.

8. Ethics
Ethics is a perception of what is accepted in a culture.
This is typically a subject that can be somewhat broad
depending on how you define ethics. Ethics is a
perception in a culture. Cultures exist everywhere. In
fact, you may be involved in four different cultures
such as your job, school, home, and friends. Every
environment calls upon different norms.
When studying ethics in a classroom setting such as Technical Writing, one of the first
things you learn is plagiarism. It is not “ethical” to steal someone else’s work, and
claim it as your own. This is not accepted among today’s society not only in the U.S.,
but internationally also. We value our time and effort put into our work. It is
customary to respect someone else’s property. Although, that doesn’t always happen.
In Technical writing, we utilized ethical procedures by not taking someone else's
work as a credit to our own. Not only does this apply to plagiarism, but honesty
as well. When creating a resume, it is extremely important to straightforward.
Lying on a resume can be devastating to your career. Group work is another
example to display ethicism. It’s extremely important to not plagiarize, and be
honest with your group members. If you are assigned a specific role in a group,
it is your responsibility to produce honest work.

9. Works Cited
https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-resources/popular-topics/henry-ford-
quotes/
http://www.stc.org/about-stc/the-profession-all-about-technical-communication/defining-tc
http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-
states

10. T h a n k y o u
For more information visit me at: michael.a.soto@ttu.edu