document anaysis (technical writing)

Research Report Description Thi s report begins with the documents found for the Document Chart. The next step, to complete this report, you will decide on three significantly different documents and complete a more in -depth analysis of each document concluding with a discussion on these documents written fo r/by individuals within a specific job, major, career field, discourse community. Write up a report that describes the important purposes, audiences, genres, style s, and other specialized aspects of writing in the field you choose. Goals: The purpose of this report is for you to examine in depth important documents produced by/for individuals in yo ur future career field and relay the information to an audie nce outside of that career field. The assignment addresses SLOs 1,2,3. Report: To complete this report, first you will need to decide on three (3) significantly different documents from your Document Chart . For example, a journal article (from a library database or an online jou rna l), a form/report that must be completed, a memo that provides information , a webpage. Please do a careful analysis on webpages. You can download different types of documents from websites. However, just because the content area of a webpage is different, does not make it a different document. These woul d all be considered web pages. Nuts and Bolts : This report will be formatted like a memo report (page 182 -3 for memo headings) and it wi ll have the following parts using headings and subheadings .  Introduction (page 183 -4): o Subject or report topic o Report Purpose o Background or Rational o Report Development  Summary (page 184)  Discussion (page 184) Here is where you will make the areas below a part of the report using heading and subheadings to organize the information. Thinking as a reader, would it be better or organize the information aro und the documents being analyzed or around the topic areas and discussing each document in the topic areas so that the reader can make comparison as they read — without needing to backtrack? o Who is the prim ary audience?  Does the writer use technical jargon?  Does the author assume readers know the terminology?  Does the author write from personal experience or use first person point of view?  Does the author use slang, irony, or humor?  Does the author have a st rong opinion?  What language tells you this? o What is the author’s purpose ?  Explaining a process or concept?  Sharing results of research?  Reporting on a decision or eve nt? Proposing a plan of action?  Trying to sell a product or service?  Summarizing research findings?  Writing documentation for a product?  What language tells you this? o What is the organizational pattern?  Subheadings?  How are these related to purp ose and audience?  What language tells you this? o What kinds of sources, if any, does the author use?  Why?  Relate these points to purpose and audience. o What kinds, if any, visual materials accompany the documents?  If so, describe them.  How do they complement the text?  What is their purpose?  Relate them to purpose and audience?  Conclusion (page 184 -5) o Based on your research and analysis of documents, draw some conclusions about the kinds of writing some professionals produce in your major. Remember that this is a small sample, and yo u cannot make authoritative generalizations about all texts in your field or major. Do not critique the documents; rather, discuss what you learned.  Attachments o Th is will be your APA or Chicago form atted Sources List for the documents used in the re port. Also, you should have a citation for The Essentials as the textbook will be used to support your analysis. Reminder(s) : A major part of technical communication i s providing the reader enough information so the reader can decide on something based on the document. Chapter 4 provides information on achieving a re adable style, which is an expectation of the report. An important area of Chapter 4 is on The Paragraph from pages 57 -60. Appendix A (page 369) provides information on grammar, etc. Appendix B provides information on using sources in a report. Consider these as “reports using multiple sources of information ” (p. 382), so you will need to use either APA or Chicago to document your sources of information. For readability , for in textual citation s in either APA/Chicago, please use the superscript number way of citing (p. 385). Another important area where most beginning tech writers stumble is the need to support what is being discussed in the documents, especially reports. For example, in this Research Repo rt it is not enough to say “The journal article uses specific jargon, where the website uses a more reader friendly language. ” And then go on to the next topic. There should be an example taken from the documents to support the statements you are making. “Examples of these are from the article, when the author says, “Zombies are caused by an extremely virulent mutant virus ”1 and from the website, “Zombies are caused by blue cooties ”.2