Proposal for Final Project – Recommendation Report
Markel, M. (2015). Technical communication (11th ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's.
CHAPTER 3
THIS CHAPTER PRESENTS a writing process that focuses on the techniques and tools most useful for technical writers. should you use the process described here? if you don’t already have a process that works for you, yes. But your goal should be to devise a process that enables you to write effective documents (that is, documents that accomplish your purpose) efficiently (without taking more time than necessary). at the end of this chapter, you will find a Writer’s Checklist. after you try implementing some of the techniques described in this chapter, you can start to revise the Writer’s Checklist to reflect the techniques that you find most effective.
The writing process consists of five steps: planning, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. The frustrating part of writing, however, is that these five steps are not linear. That is, you don’t plan the document, then check off a box and go on to drafting. at any step, you might double back to do more planning, drafting, or revising. even when you think you’re almost done—when you’re proofreading—you still might think of something that would improve the document. That means you’ll need to go back and rethink all five steps.
as you backtrack, you will have one eye on the clock, because the deadline is sneaking up on you. That’s the way it is for all writers. a technical writer stops working on a user manual because she has to get it off to the print shop. an engineer stops working on a set of slides for a conference presentation because it’s time to head for the airport. so, when you read about how to write, remember that you are reading about a messy process that goes backward as often as it goes forward and that, most likely, ends only when you run out of time.
remember, too, that many of the documents you produce will never truly be “finished.” Many types of documents that live online are called living documents because they are meant to be revised as new information becomes available or policies change. Benefits manuals, for example, keep changing.
Planning
Planning, which can take more than a third of the total time spent on a writing project, is critically important for every document, from an email message to a book-length manual. Start by thinking about your audience, because you need to understand whom you are writing to before you can figure out what you need to say about your subject.
analyzing youR auDiEnCE
If you are lucky, you can talk with your audience before and during your work on the document. These conversations can help you learn what your readers already know, what they want to know, and how they would like the informa- tion presented. You can test out drafts, making changes as you go.
Even if you cannot consult your audience while writing the document, you still need to learn everything you can about your readers so that you can deter- mine the best scope, organization, and style for your document. Then, for each of your most important readers, try to answer the following three questions:
• Who is your reader? Consider such factors as education, job experience and responsibilities, skill in reading English, cultural characteristics, and personal preferences.
• What are your reader’s attitudes and expectations? Consider the reader’s attitudes toward the topic and your message, as well as the reader’s expectations about the kind of document you will be presenting.
• Why and how will the reader use your document? Think about what readers will do with the document. This includes the physical environment in which they will use it, the techniques they will use in reading it, and the tasks they will carry out after they finish reading it.
analyzing youR PuRPosE
You cannot start to write until you can state the purpose (or purposes) of the document. Ask yourself these two questions:
• After your readers have read your document, what do you want them to know or do?
• What beliefs or attitudes do you want them to hold?
A statement of purpose might be as simple as this: “The purpose of this report is to recommend whether the company should adopt a health- promotion program.” Although the statement of purpose might not appear in this form in the final document, you want to state it clearly now to help you stay on track as you carry out the remaining steps.
Choosing youR WRiting tools
Writers have more tools available to them than ever before. You probably do most of your writing with commercial software such as Microsoft Office or open- source software such as Open Office, and you will likely continue to do much of your writing with these tools. Because of the rapid increase in the number and type of composition tools, however, knowing your options and choosing the one that best meets your needs can help you create a stronger document.
If you travel often or if many people in different locations will collaborate on a given document, you may find it useful to work with a cloud-based tool such as Google Drive. Specialized tools built for professional writers can be particularly useful for long, complicated projects that require heavy research;
Scrivener, for example, lets you gather your research data in a single location and easily reorganize your document at the section or chapter level. Compo- sition programs optimized for tablets, such as WritePad, convert handwriting into text, translate text into a number of languages, and feature cloud-based storage. Before you begin a big project, consider which type of writing tool will best meet your project’s needs.
gEnERating iDEas about youR subjECt
Generating ideas is a way to start mapping out the information you will need to include in the document, deciding where to put it, and identifying addi- tional information that may be required.
First, find out what you already know about the topic by using any of the techniques shown in Table 3.1.
TA b l E 3 . 1 techniques for generating ideas About your topic
tEChniquE
ExPlanation
ExaMPlE
asking the six journalistic questions
Brainstorming
Freewriting
Talking with someone
asking who, what, when, where, why, and how can help you figure out how much more research you need to do. note that you can generate several questions from each of these six words.
spending 15 minutes listing short phrases and questions about your subject helps you think of related ideas. later, when you construct an outline, you will rearrange your list, add new ideas, and toss out some old ones.
Writing without plans or restrictions, without stopping, can help you determine what you do and do not understand. and one phrase or sentence might spark an important idea.
discussing your topic can help you find out what you already know about it and generate new ideas. simply have someone ask you questions as you speak. soon you will find yourself in a conversation that will help you make new connections from one idea to another.
• Who would be able to participate?
• Who would administer it?
• What would the program consist of?
• Why we need a program
• Lower insurance rates • On-site or at a club?
• Who pays for it?
• What is our liability?
• Increase our productivity
a big trend today in business is sponsored health- promotion programs. Why should we do it? Many reasons, including boosting productivity and lowering our insurance premiums. But it’s complicated. one problem is that we can actually increase our risk if a person gets hurt. another is the need to decide whether to have the program—what exactly is the program? . . .
you: one reason we might want to do this is to boost productivity.
Bob: What exactly are the statistics on increased productivity? and who has done the studies? are they reputable?
you: Good point. i’m going to have to show that putting money into a program is going to pay off. i need to see whether there are unbiased recent sources that present hard data.
REsEaRChing aDDitional infoRMation
Once you have a good idea of what you already know about your topic, you must obtain the rest of the information you will need. You can find and evaluate what other people have already written by reading reference books, scholarly books, articles, websites, and reputable blogs and discus- sion boards. In addition, you might compile new information by interview- ing experts, distributing surveys and questionnaires, making observations, sending inquiries, and conducting experiments. Don’t forget to ask questions and gather opinions from your own network of associates, both inside and outside your organization.
oRganizing anD outlining youR DoCuMEnt
Although each document has its own requirements, you can use existing organizational patterns or adapt them to your own situation. For instance, the compare-and-contrast pattern might be an effective way to organize a discus- sion of different health-promotion programs. The cause-and-effect pattern might work well for a discussion of the effects of implementing such a program.
At this point, your organization is only tentative. When you start to draft, you might find that the pattern you chose isn’t working well or that you need additional information that doesn’t fit into the pattern.
Once you have a tentative plan, write an outline to help you stay on track as you draft. To keep your purpose clearly in mind as you work, you may want to write it at the top of your page before you begin your outline.
sElECting an aPPliCation, a DEsign, anD a DElivERy MEthoD
Once you have a sense of what you want to say, you need to select an appli- cation (the type of document), a design, and a delivery method. You have a number of decisions to make:
• is the application already chosen for me? If you are writing a proposal to submit to the U.S. Department of the Interior, for example, you must follow the department’s specifications for what the proposal is to look like and how it is to be delivered. For most kinds of communication, however, you will likely have to select the appropriate application, such as a set of instructions or a manual. Sometimes, you will deliver an oral presentation or participate in a phone conference or a videoconference.
• What will my readers expect? If your readers expect a written set of instructions, you should present a set of instructions unless some other application, such as a report or a manual, is more appropriate. If they expect to see the instructions presented in a simple black-and-white booklet—and there is no good reason to design something more elaborate than that—your choice is obvious. For instance, instructions for installing and operating a ceiling fan in a house are generally presented in a small, inexpensive booklet with the pages stapled together or on a large, folded sheet of paper. However, for an expensive home-theater system, readers might expect a glossy, full-color manual.
• What delivery method will work best? Related to the question of reader expectations is the question of how you will deliver the document to your readers. For instance, you would likely mail an annual report to your readers and upload it to your company website. You might present industry forecasts on a personal blog or on one sponsored by your employer. You might deliver a user manual for a new type of photo-editing program online rather than in print because the program—and therefore the manual—will change.
It is important to think about these questions during the planning process, because your answers will largely determine the scope, organization, style, and design of the information you will prepare. As early as the planning step, you need to imagine your readers using your information.
DEvising a sChEDulE anD a buDgEt
During the planning stage, you also must decide when you will need to provide the information and how much you can spend on the project. For instance, for the project on health-promotion programs, your readers might need a report to help them decide what to do before the new fiscal year begins in two months. In addition, your readers might want a progress report submitted halfway through the project. Making a schedule is often a collaborative process: you meet with your main readers, who tell you when they need the information, and you estimate how long the different tasks will take.
You also need to create a budget. In addition to the time you will need to do the project, you need to think about expenses you might incur. For example, you might need to travel to visit companies with different kinds of health-promotion programs. You might need to conduct specialized data- base searches, create and distribute questionnaires to employees, or conduct interviews at remote locations. Some projects call for usability testing—evalu- ating the experiences of prospective users as they try out a system or a docu- ment. The cost of this testing needs to be included in your budget.
drafting
When you have at least a preliminary outline, it is time to start drafting. Some writers like to draft within the outline created on their word-processing pro- gram. Others prefer to place a paper copy of their outline on the desk next to their keyboard and begin drafting a new document that follows that outline.
using tEMPlatEs
For your draft, you might consider using an existing template or modify- ing one to meet your needs. Templates are preformatted designs for differ- ent types of documents, such as letters, memos, newsletters, and reports. Templates incorporate the design specifications for the document, including typeface, type size, margins, and spacing. Once you have selected a template, you just type in the information.
Using templates, however, can lead to three problems:
• they do not always reflect the best design principles. For instance, most letter and memo templates default to 10-point type, even though 12-point type is easier to read.
• they bore readers. Readers get tired of seeing the same designs.
• they cannot help you answer the important questions about your document. Although templates can help you format information, they cannot help you figure out how to organize and write a document. Sometimes, templates can even send you the wrong message. For example, résumé templates in word processors present a set of headings that might work better for some job applicants than for others.
In addition, the more you rely on existing templates, the less likely you are to learn how to use the software to make your documents look professional.
Drafting Effectively
Try the following techniques when you begin to draft or when you get stuck in the middle of drafting.
get comfortable. Choose a good chair, set at the right height for the keyboard, and adjust the light so that it doesn’t reflect off the screen.
start with the easiest topics. instead of starting at the beginning of the docu- ment, begin with the section you most want to write.
draft quickly. Try to make your fingers keep up with your brain. Turn the phrases from your outline into paragraphs. you’ll revise later.
don’t stop to get more information or to revise. set a timer, and draft for an hour or two without stopping. When you come to an item that requires more research, skip to the next item. don’t worry about sentence structure or spelling.
try invisible writing. darken the screen or turn off the monitor so that you can look only at your hard-copy outline or the keyboard. That way, you won’t be tempted to stop typing to revise what you have just written.
stop in the middle of a section. When you stop, do so in the middle of a paragraph or even in the middle of a sentence. you will find it easy to conclude the idea you were working on when you begin writing again. This technique will help you avoid writer’s block, the mental paralysis that can set in when you stare at a blank screen.
using stylEs
Styles are like small templates that apply to the design of smaller elements, such as headings. Like templates, styles save you time. For example, as you draft your document, you don’t need to add all the formatting each time you want to designate an item as a first-level heading. You simply highlight the text you want to be a first-level heading and use a pull-down menu or ribbon at the top of your screen to select that style. The text automatically incorpo- rates all the specifications of that style.
If you decide to modify a style—by italicizing a heading, for instance— you need to change it only once; the software automatically changes every instance of that style in the document. In collaborative documents, styles make it easier for collaborators to achieve a consistent look.
revising
Revising is the process of looking again at your draft to see whether it works. After you revise, you will carry out two more steps—editing and proofread- ing—but at this point you want to focus on three large topics:
• Audience. Has your understanding of your audience changed? Will you be addressing people you hadn’t considered before? If so, how will that change what you should say and how you should say it?
• Purpose. Has your understanding of your purpose changed? If so, what changes should you make to the document?
• subject. Has your understanding of the subject changed? Should you change the scope—that is, should you address more or fewer topics? Should you change the organization of the document? Should you present more evidence or different types of evidence?
On the basis of a new look at your audience, purpose, and subject, you might decide that you need to make minor changes, such as adding one or two minor topics. Or you might decide that you need to completely rethink the document.
There are two major ways to revise: by yourself and with the assistance of others. If possible, use both ways.
stuDying thE DRaft by youRsElf
The first step in revising is to read and reread your document, looking for different things each time. For instance, you might read it once just to see whether the information you have presented is appropriate for the various audiences you have identified. You might read it another time to see whether each of your claims is supported by appropriate and sufficient evidence.
Start with the largest, most important problems first; then work on the smaller, less important ones. That way, you don’t waste time on awkward paragraphs you might eventually decide to delete. Begin by reviewing the document as a whole (for organization, development, and content), saving the sentence-level concerns (such as grammar, punctuation, and spelling) for later.
One effective way to review your whole document for coherence is to study the outline view of the document. Figure 3.1 shows how the outline view helps you see how the document is organized.
After you have studied your draft to see if there are problems with its organization, study it to answer six additional questions:
• Have I left out anything in turning my outline into a draft?
• Have I included all the elements my readers expect to see?
• Is the document persuasive?
• Do I come across as reliable, honest, and helpful?
• Have I presented all the elements consistently?
• Is the emphasis appropriate throughout the document?
sEEking hElP fRoM othERs
For technical documents, it is best to turn to two kinds of people for help. Subject-matter experts (SMEs) can help you determine whether your facts and explanations are accurate and appropriate. If, for instance, you are writing about fuel-cell automobiles, you could ask an automotive expert to review your document. Important documents are routinely reviewed by tech- nical experts before being released to the public.
The second category of reviewers includes both actual users of your exist- ing document and prospective users of the next version of the document. These people can help you see problems you or other knowledgeable read- ers don’t notice. For instance, a prospective user of a document on fuel-cell technologies might point out that she doesn’t understand what a fuel cell is because you haven’t defined the term.
How do you learn from SMEs and from users and prospective users? Here are a few techniques:
• surveying, interviewing, or observing readers as they use the existing document
• interviewing SMEs about a draft of the document
• conducting focus groups to learn users’ or prospective users’ opinions about an existing or proposed document
• uploading the document to an online writing space, such as Microsoft SharePoint or Google Drive, and authorizing people to revise it
It is important to revise all drafts, but it is especially important to revise drafts of documents that will be read and used by people from other cultures. If your readers come from another culture, try to have your draft reviewed by someone from that culture. That reviewer can help you see whether you have made correct assumptions about how readers will react to your ideas and whether you have chosen appropriate kinds of evidence and design elements. As discussed in Chapters 11 and 12, people from other cultures might be sur- prised by some design elements used in reports, such as marginal comments.
ETHICS NOTE
aCknoWlEDging REviEWERs REsPonsibly
When you write on the job, take advantage of the expertise of others. it is completely ethical to ask subject-matter experts and people who are similar to the intended audience of your document to critique a draft of it. if your reviewer offers detailed comments and suggestions on the draft or sends you a multipage review—and you use some or many of the ideas—you are ethically bound to acknowledge that person’s contributions. This acknowledgment can take the form of a one- or two-sentence statement of appreciation in the introduction of the document or in a transmittal letter. or you could write a letter or memo of appreciation to the reviewer; he or she can then file it and use it for a future performance evaluation.
editing
Having revised your draft and made changes to its content and organiza- tion, it’s time for you to edit. Editing is the process of checking the draft to improve its grammar, punctuation, style, usage, diction (word choice), and mechanics (such as use of numbers and abbreviations). You will do most of the editing by yourself, but you might also ask others for assistance, espe- cially writers and editors in your organization. One technology that enables people at different locations to work together is a wiki, a website that lets authorized readers edit a document (also referred to as a wiki) and archives all the previous versions of the document.
The resources devoted to editing will vary depending on the importance of the document. An annual report, which is perhaps the single most important document that people will read about your organization, will be edited rigor- ously because the company wants it to look perfect. A biweekly employee newsletter also will be edited, but not as rigorously as an annual report. What about the routine emails you write every day? Edit them, too. It’s rude not to.
Proofreading
Proofreading is the process of checking to make sure you have typed what you meant to type. The following sentence contains three errors that you should catch in proofreading:
There are for major reasons we should implementing health-promotion program.
Here they are:
1. “For” is the wrong word. It should be “four.”
2. “Implementing” is the wrong verb form. It should be “implement.” This mistake is probably left over from an earlier version of the sentence.
3. The article “a” is missing before the phrase “health-promotion program.” This is probably just a result of carelessness.
By the way, a spell-checker and grammar-checker didn’t flag any of these errors. Although some writers can proofread effectively on the screen, othersprefer to print a copy of the text. These writers say that because the text looks different on the page than it does on the screen, they are more likely to approach it with fresh eyes, as their eventual readers will, and therefore more likely to see errors.
Regardless of whether you proofread on screen or on paper, the process is no fun. You’re exhausted, you’re thoroughly sick of the document, and proofreading is not the most exciting thing you have ever done. But it is vital to producing a clear, well-written document that reflects your high standards and underscores your credibility as a professional. Don’t insult yourself and your readers by skipping this step. Reread your draft carefully and slowly, perhaps out loud, and get a friend to help. You’ll be surprised at how many errors you’ll find.
Writer’s CheCklist
In planning the document, did you analyze your audience? (p. 43)
analyze your purpose? (p. 43)
generate ideas about your subject? (p. 44)
research additional information? (p. 45)
organize and outline your document? (p. 46)
select an application, a design, and a delivery method?
(p. 47) devise a schedule and a budget? (p. 47)
In drafting the document, did you use templates, if appropriate? (p. 48) use styles? (p. 51)
In revising the draft, did you study the draft by yourself? (p. 52) seek help from others? (p. 53)
Did you edit the document carefully? (p. 54) Did you proofread the document carefully? (p. 54)
