Planning 42

Writing Technical

ANALYZING YOUR PURPOSE

Documents

ANALYZING YOUR AUDIENCE

CHOOSING YOUR WRITING TOOLS 43

43
43

RESEARCHING ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

ORGANIZING AND OUTLINING YOUR DOCUMENT
■ TECH TIP: How To Use the Outline View

TUTORIAL: Creating Outlines

DEVISING A SCHEDULE AND A BUDGET
46
44
45
46
3
TUTORIAL: Cross-Platform Word Processing with CloudOn, Quip, and More
GENERATING IDEAS ABOUT YOUR SUBJECT

SELECTING AN APPLICATION, A DESIGN, AND A DELIVERY METHOD

47
47

Drafting 48
USING TEMPLATES 48
■ GUIDELINES: Drafting Effectively 48
■ TECH TIP: How To Modify Templates 49
■ DOCUMENT ANALYSIS ACTIVITY: Identifying the Strengths

and Weaknesses of a Commercial Template 50

USING STYLES 51
■ TECH TIP: How To Use the Styles Group 51
TUTORIAL: Creating Styles and Templates

Revising 52
STUDYING THE DRAFT BY YOURSELF 52
SEEKING HELP FROM OTHERS 53
■ ETHICS NOTE: Acknowledging Reviewers Responsibly 54

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 3 Editing 54

Proofreading 54

WRITER’S CHECKLIST 55

EXERCISES 56

LEARNINGCURVE: Understanding the Technical Communication Environment 56 and

CASE 3: Understanding Why Revision Software Cannot
Revise and Edit Your Document 56 and

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.

42

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 Planning 3
43

ANALYZING YOUR AUDIENCE

If you are lucky, you can talk with your audience before and during your work For more about analyzing your
on the document. These conversations can help you learn what your readers audience, see Ch. 5, p. 87.
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 For more about analyzing your
document. Ask yourself these two questions: purpose, see Ch. 5, p. 84.

know or do?

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 To watch a tutorial on
most of your writing with commercial software such as Microsoft Office or open- cross-platform word
source software such as Open Office, and you will likely continue to do much of processing, go to Ch. 3 > Additional
Resources > Tutorials:
your writing with these tools. Because of the rapid increase in the number and macmillanhighered.com
type of composition tools, however, knowing your options and choosing the one /launchpad/techcomm11e.
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;

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 3 WRITING TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS
44
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.

TABLE 3.1 Techniques for Generating Ideas About Your Topic

TECHNIQUE EXPLANATION EXAMPLE
Asking the six Asking who, what, when, where, why, and Who would be able to participate?
journalistic questions how can help you figure out how much Who would administer it?
more research you need to do. Note that What would the program consist of?
you can generate several questions from
each of these six words.

Brainstorming 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.

Freewriting Writing without plans or restrictions, A big trend today in business is sponsored health-
without stopping, can help you promotion programs. Why should we do it?
determine what you do and do not Many reasons, including boosting productivity
understand. And one phrase or sentence and lowering our insurance premiums. But it’s
might spark an important idea. 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? . . .

Talking with someone Discussing your topic can help you find You: One reason we might want to do this is to
out what you already know about it boost productivity.
and generate new ideas. Simply have Bob: What exactly are the statistics on increased
someone ask you questions as you productivity? And who has done the studies? Are
speak. Soon you will find yourself in a they reputable?
conversation that will help you make
new connections from one idea to You: Good point. I’m going to have to show that
another. putting money into a program is going to pay off.
I need to see whether there are unbiased recent
sources that present hard data.

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 Planning 3
45

TABLE 3.1 Techniques for Generating Ideas About Your Topic (continued)
TECHNIQUE EXPLANATION EXAMPLE
Clustering One way to expand on your topic is to
write your main idea or main question study it pilot company
in the middle of the page and then first? program? sponsored?
write second-level and third-level ideas commercial
around it.
program?
When? What?
on-site?
Institute ?

Where? a health- Who? ?

promotion
program? ?
at health
club?
Why? How? advice from
insurance
reduce co.?
illness, reduce retain a
injury premiums consultant?

Branching Another way to help you expand on Institute a health-promotion program?

your topic is to write your main idea or
question at the top of the page and then
write second-level and third-level ideas
below it. Who? How? Where?

? advice from research it on- at

insurance ourselves? site? health
co.? club?
Why?

increase reduce reduce

productivity illness, premiums
injury

RESEARCHING ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Once you have a good idea of what you already know about your topic, For more about conducting research,
you must obtain the rest of the information you will need. You can find see Ch. 6.
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,

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 3 WRITING TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS
46
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.

For more about organizing your ORGANIZING AND OUTLINING YOUR DOCUMENT
information, see Ch. 7.
Although each document has its own requirements, you can use existing
To watch a tutorial on creating organizational patterns or adapt them to your own situation. For instance, the
outlines, go to Ch. 3 >
compare-and-contrast pattern might be an effective way to organize a discus-
Additional Resources > Tutorials:
macmillanhighered.com sion of different health-promotion programs. The cause-and-effect pattern
/launchpad/techcomm11e. 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.

How To Use the Outline View A plus sign indicates that a heading has subheadings or text
associated with it. A minus sign indicates that it does not.
When organizing your document, you can use the outline
view to examine and revise the structure of your document. Headings are indented to show subordinate levels.
To use this view, you must format your document with Word’s
built-in heading styles or outline levels. + Planning
+ Analyzing Your Audience
+ Analyzing Your Purpose
+ Generating Ideas about Your Subject
+ Researching Additional Information
+ Organizing and Outlining Your Document
+ Selecting an Application, a Design, and a Delivery Method
Print Full Screen Web Outline Draft + Devising a Schedule and a Budget

Layout Reading Layout + Drafting

+ Using Templates
Document Views + Using Styles
+ Revising
+ Studying the Draft by Yourself
To view the structure of your document, select the View tab + Seeking Help from Others
on the Ribbon and then select Outline.
Use the Outlining tab to promote or demote headings or
body text; to move, expand, or collapse sections; and to show
levels.

KEYWORDS: outline view, create a document outline,

outline levels

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 Planning 3
47

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 For more about progress reports, see
help them decide what to do before the new fiscal year begins in two months. Ch. 17, p. 452. For more about project
In addition, your readers might want a progress report submitted halfway management, see Ch. 4, p. 60.
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

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 3 WRITING TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS
48
health-promotion programs. You might need to conduct specialized data-
For more about usability testing, see base searches, create and distribute questionnaires to employees, or conduct
Ch. 13, p. 348. interviews at remote locations. Some projects call for —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-
For more about design, see Ch. 11. 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.

(continued)

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 Drafting 3
49

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.

How To Modify Templates

You can modify an existing document 2. You can start with a Blank Document or with one of the
template to address your specific writing many available templates. First, choose a template, and
situation. You can then save this modified then select Create. If you click on a folder of templates,
document as a template and use it again such as Sample templates, you can select a template
in similar writing situations. and then save it as a document or a template. Select the
format you want (Document or Template), then select
1. To locate an existing template,
Create. If you want to save the changes you make for
select File and then select New. This
future use, be sure to select Template.
will open the Available Templates
window. Within this window, you can 3. After making changes to the design
study templates already installed on of the template, select File and
your computer as well as ones avail- then select Save. Your modified
able for download. template will be stored in a file
you can access later through the
My Templates tab in the Available
Templates window.

KEYWORDS: templates, about templates, modify a template,

installed templates, download templates

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 3 WRITING TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS
50

DOCUMENT ANALYSIS ACTIVITY

Identifying the Strengths and Weaknesses of a Commercial Template
The template from Microsoft
Word shown here presents one
approach to writing a résumé. OBJECTIVE

The questions below ask you to Your Getting the perfect job might be challenging, but a great-looking résumé doesn’t
have to be! We’ve provided a few quick tips to help you get started. To replace any
think about the assumptions
underlying this template.
Name tip text with your own, just click it and start typing.

Need another experience or education entry? You got it. Just click in the sample
1. How well does the explana- > [Job Title]
entries below and then click the plus sign that appears. Looking for a matching
tion of how to use the > [Job Title] cover letter? All you had to do was ask! On the Insert tab, click Cover Page.

template (located under

EXPERIENCE
“Objective”) help you
[Dates From - To]
understand how to write an [Company]

effective résumé? [Position Held]

> Click here to enter text.
2. How well does the template > Click here to enter text
explain how to reformat > Click here to enter text

the elements, such as your

EDUCATION
name?
[Dates From - To]

3. Does the template clearly [School Name, Location]

describe what you should do [Degree]

> Click here to enter text.
if you wish, for instance, to > Click here to enter text
include a list of references,
rather than use the phrase REFERENCES
References are available upon request.
“References are available
upon request”?

[Address 1]
[Address 2]
[City, ST ZIP Code]

[Telephone]
[Email]
[Website]

Source: Microsoft, 2013: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/results.aspx?qu=resumes&av=zwd&queryid=af655fbb

-f275-4e67-8f96-9645588b1bc3#ai:TC102835065. Used with permission from Microsoft.

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 Drafting 3
51

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.
To watch a tutorial on creating
If you decide to modify a style—by italicizing a heading, for instance—
styles and templates in Word,
you need to change it only once; the software automatically changes every go to Ch. 3 > Additional Resources
instance of that style in the document. In collaborative documents, styles > Tutorials: macmillanhighered
make it easier for collaborators to achieve a consistent look. .com/launchpad/techcomm11e.

How To Use the Styles Group

As you draft your document, you can use the Styles group 2. Another way to apply a style is to select the Styles dialog
to apply styles to elements such as headings, lists, and body box launcher and then select the style you wish to use.
text. Using styles helps to ensure consistency and makes it
If you do not see the style options
easy to automatically change every instance of a style in your
you want, select Options to
document when you revise.
display the Style Pane Options
1. To apply a style, select the text you want to format, then dialog box.
select a style from the Quick Styles gallery in the Styles
group on the Home tab.

If you do not see the style you want in the gallery, you
can access additional styles by using the up and down
arrows.

You can also apply a Quick Style Set to your entire

document by selecting the Change Styles icon.

KEYWORDS: styles, quick style, quick styles gallery, change

styles, apply a style, apply a different style, styles dialog box
launcher, style pane options

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 3 WRITING TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS
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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
For more about revising your topics. Or you might decide that you need to completely rethink the document.
document, see Ch. 13, p. 342. 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:

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 Revising 3
53
The writer has set the outline
view to show the first two levels
of his report.
Using the outline view, it is
easy to identify organization
problems:
Executive Summary
Introduction precede the conclusions and
Methods recommendations section.
Conclusions and Recommendations -
Results ond item—survey—seems
Analysis of Maintenance Costs to be different from the other
Survey two items, both of which
Truck Comparison and Test Drives seem to relate to the topic
Work Cited of the vehicles, not to the
Appendixes methods the writer used.
Appendix A—Survey Results
Appendix B—IntelliChoice Side by Side Comparison should both be second-level
headings.

FIGURE 3.1 Studying the Organization of a Document Using the Outline View

SEEKING HELP FROM OTHERS

For technical documents, it is best to turn to two kinds of people for help. For more about having another
Subject-matter experts (SMEs) can help you determine whether your facts person review your draft, see Ch. 4,
p. 70.
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 For more about these techniques, as
are a few techniques: well as usability testing, see Ch. 13,
p. 347.

document

about an existing or proposed document

SharePoint or Google Drive, and authorizing people to revise it

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 3 WRITING TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS
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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
For more about editing for coherence Having revised your draft and made changes to its content and organiza-
and correctness, see Chs. 9 and 10. tion, it’s time for you to edit. Editing is the process of checking the draft to
For more about correctness, see improve its grammar, punctuation, style, usage, diction (word choice), and
Appendix, Part C.
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.
For a discussion of using wikis to The resources devoted to editing will vary depending on the importance of
create collaborative documents, see the document. An annual report, which is perhaps the single most important
Ch. 4. 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.

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 Proofreading 3
55
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, others
prefer 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 In drafting the document, did you
analyze your audience? (p. 43) use templates, if appropriate? (p. 48)
analyze your purpose? (p. 43) use styles? (p. 51)
generate ideas about your subject? (p. 44)
In revising the draft, did you
research additional information? (p. 45)
study the draft by yourself? (p. 52)
organize and outline your document? (p. 46)
seek help from others? (p. 53)
select an application, a design, and a delivery method?
(p. 47) Did you edit the document carefully? (p. 54)
devise a schedule and a budget? (p. 47) Did you proofread the document carefully? (p. 54)

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 3 WRITING TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS
56

EXERCISES
For more about memos, see Ch. 14, p. 372. 3. Proofread the following paragraph. For information
1. Read your word processor’s online help about using on writing effective sentences, see Chapter 10 and
the outline view. Make a file with five headings, each Appendix, Part C.
of which has a sentence of body text below it. Practice People who have a federal student loan can apply for
using the outline feature to do the following tasks: program from the Department of Education that is
a. change a first-level heading to a second-level heading intended to give relief to former students with moderate
incomes by sketching the payments out over a longer
b. move the first heading in your outline to the end of
period. The program calculates monthly payments on
the document
the basis of income. In addition, the program forgave
c. hide the body text that goes with one of the balances after 25 years (10 years if the the person
headings chooses employment in public service). The monthly-
2. Your word processor probably contains a number of payment calculation, called income-based repayment
templates for such applications as letters, memos, faxes, (IBR), determined by the size of the loan and the persons
and résumés. Evaluate one of these templates. Is it clear income. For some 90 percent of the more than one
and professional looking? Does it present a design that million people who have already enrolled, the IRB works
will be effective for all users or only for some? What out to less then 10 percent if their income. The program
changes would you make to the template to improve also caps the payments at 15 percent of a persons
it? Write a memo to your instructor presenting your income over $16,000 a year (and eliminates payments for
findings, and attach a copy of the template. people who earn than $16,000).

For more practice with the concepts covered in Chapters 1–4,

complete the LearningCurve activity “Understanding the
Technical Communication Environment” under “Additional Resources”
in Ch. 3: macmillanhighered.com/launchpad/techcomm11e.

C ASE 3: Understanding Why Revision Software Cannot Revise and Edit Your Document
You are an engineer who has been asked to write a project report regarding a defect in
a wireless heart-rate monitor for bicyclists. Your supervisor has some concerns about
the quality of the writing in the draft of the report you submitted and has asked you to
rework the introduction. To get started revising the report, go to “Cases” under “Additional
Resources” in Ch. 3: macmillanhighered.com/launchpad/techcomm11e.

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