Becca Sorensen, Abdinasir Bashir
English 271
Dr. Tesdell
May 30th
Chapter One Summary
Chapter one is about communicating in the workplace. This chapter defined what technical communication is; the importance of effective communication in the workplace; communication constraints you might encounter; and how to effectively construct meaning. It also discussed the three essential criteria for creating a document, oral presentation, or visual.
Technical Communication is described as rhetorical in the book because it is, “the art and craft of communicating technical information appropriately and persuasively to intended audiences, in complex contents, for particular purposes” (Burnett, Technical Communication, pg. 6). Closely related to technical communication, rhetoric concentrates on the visual aspect of communicating instead of the technical.
Technical Experts and Technical Communicators are the two major categories of professionals who are specially trained for the construction/preparation of technical documents, oral presentation, and visuals of an organization. The Technical Communicators are mainly responsible for the design, development and production of documents, oral presentation, and visuals. While the Technical Experts focus on communicating, and planning and preparing, technical communication. The importance of technical communication in the workplace is crucial for success. Surveys have shown that more than 90% of technical professionals attribute success to writing and speaking skills.
The three factors that influence interpretation are genres, communities, and technology. An important part of technical communication to consider is the genre. “A document, oral presentation, or visual and the rhetorical situation in which it is created and used combine to constitute the genre”. (Burnett, Technical Communication, pg. 9). Genres in technical communication affect each other. Interpretation is influenced by genres because one genre might have a different interpretation of the same information than another genre. Workplace professionals belong to communities that power their activities and understanding. One of the communities is discourse communities, which is a group that shares the same type of language. The other type of communities is called communities of practice, which is groups that join together and work together. One community interprets information differently than another community because of the different types of communities that exits and the way the communities interpret those information. Technology influences interpretation by the way information is written. Electronic information is written in many different ways while printed information is written in the same format, paragraph by paragraph.
Ethics is one important subject that is visited in technical communication. The question of whether to report negative information about a product or to report just the positive information as your employer wants is one example of an ethical decision type of situation. When writing, you should consider what to say and how to say it to your audiences with the consideration of your audiences’ understanding ability. You should also consider three things about the information that you are writing. These three things are the accessibility, comprehensibility, and usability of information. A person’ communication can be useful and timely if he or she considers the quality, quantity, relevance, and the manner of it.
Without using proper writing and speaking skills technical communicators could encounter many limitations. Even when displaying proper skills, constraints are still a major consideration. A large number of constraints to manage when creating documents, oral presentations, or visuals are: time, subject and format, audience, technology, noise, data collection, collaboration. Knowing these constraints should help a person understand and be prepared for the problems that come from these constraints.
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12 comments:
I found it interesting that this chapter not only gave a good overview of technical communication but also discussed discourse communities as did chapter 2. Culture and communication are important aspects of technical communication and also work very well if used together.
I had not been aware of the categories of technical expert and technical communicators and what their responsibilities are...this is useful information for future job prospects.
I agree with the discussion on constraints presented in this chapter. One can use the best of their skills and abilities related to technical communication, but also can be affected by one or more constraints. If we are aware of these possibilities we can better handle them if and when they arise.
Good job. Please check your definition of rhetoric.
Anders Rydholm,
Good summary! It's important to distinguish the differences between technical experts and technical communicators. Good point that technical communication is rhetorical because it has an intended audience and a purpose. Chapter one highlighted that excellent technical communication should be understandable, accessable, and usable.
I felt that this chapter was a very good introduction into the topic of technical communication. We all have somewhat of a level of awareness on the topic but may not have understood how deep its rivers run. The thing that stood out the most to me in this chapter was the fact that genres interpret information differently from other genres. When thinking about it that can be the root of all evil, war, or anything negative in the world. It's not always entirely a disagreement of opinion, but just a little difference of view based on genre.
I really liked this chapter summary especially the explanation on how people who especially successful people in this field contribute it to their ability to their writing and speaking skills. It was a good introduction to the topic of technical communications.
This chapter helped me to better understand what aspects of technical communication are subject to different constraints. I realized that culture had an effect on communication however there is so much more that effects the way information is interpreted. Your summary helps to show these aspects.
This in my opinion was a good introduction of our class in technical communication. It discussed the two main subjects for those in the creation of technical documents, visuals and so on. I wasn’t aware that there were “technical experts” and “technical communicators”. Each is responsible for a different aspect of the creation and preparation of technical communication as a whole. Since everyone’s interpretation can be different it’s important that you consider the genre, communities and technologies. One thing that interested me was the ethics in technical communication. Ethics is something that is faced everywhere, not just in technical communication. Also, I think that the constraints on creating something like a visual, is a major aspect in preparation. You need to consider some things like the audience or noise. Good job summarizing!
I thought chapter 1 was a great introduction to Technical Communication. A lot of the information in this chapter is plain everyday knowledge, however some people just dont know they are using these principles. I especially liked the terms on page 15 (Quality, Quantity, Relevence, Manner), since these terms are the basic guidelines of communication.
Your summary pretty much says it all. The part of this chapter that influenced me to become more enthusiastic about this class is the different way people can interpret a computer-mediated process. A person may want an audience to observe a particular media presentation and see it the way that it was designed but the the audience may see it in a completely different way.
Good summary Becca. I also found it very interesting that "Surveys have shown that more than 90% of technical professionals attribute success to writing and speaking skills." Everyone wants to succeed, so this is our ticket.
I thought this chapter helped define not only what technical communication is but how and when we use it in the workplace. I feel that it is something we all or will all eventually use on a day to day basis and the better we understand how we communicate and how our communication is received the more we can improve it.
This chapter introduces the idea I strongly believe in, which is that it is imperative for the right communication tool to be used in technical communication. I understand more that communicating effectively is important in everyone’s day to day jobs. It is unfortunate those that I work with believe they are both masters as technical experts and technical communicators!
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