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Creating Visuals Post

      In a progress memo or data review, posting length paragraphs detailing the results collected does not make for an easily readable article for a professional environment. Integrating and creating visuals allows for technical writers to convey large amounts of important and pertinent statistical data or data relevant to a report or study within the corporate environment. Oliu et al express as much, relaying the same rules as it pertains to the other important concepts within technical and professional writing: know your purpose and know your reader. When applied to creating relevant visuals, the options drastically expand to include non-numeric visual representations of data (i.e., photographs, drawings, maps/geographical charts, symbols, flow charts) as well as strictly graphical and statistical representations as well. One must make sure to clarify why the visual is being used, that it is uncluttered and focused, that the information is accurate, and that it has an ...
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Methods/Front Matter and End Matter

       After a more comprehensive introduction on how to do projects and how to propose one, Miner & Miner kick off the first reading of this post with possibly the most pertinent question a proposal can answer: "How will this project get done?" Along with justifying why your methodological approach was selected over several others, the section describing a projects' methods must also lay out in detail the process and personnel associated with the methods, instruments, activities and plans, and project timelines. The personnel associated are typically divided into three categories: staff, test subjects, and collaborators. Staff should have a small biosketch in the appendices, and the methodology for selecting test subjects must be described to the grant reviewers; is the project geared towards a certain demographic or is there a broader approach at work? For collaborators, it is a tenuous and painstaking process which involves all parties knowing what resources t...
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Lannon, Miner & Miner: Memos and Problem Statements

    Lannon's section continues with the trend of usability and quality in the workplace with the introduction of the most common form of information exchange in the workplace: the memorandum. The memo has the advantage over more long-form reports in that there is no extensive research process, and are written in a way that it communicates the important information clearly and in a very concise way. The ideal memo should be very easy to scan and very easy to obtain by all employees in the workplace. Memos are published to address questions such as "what are we doing and how can we improve upon it"; the approach one takes in the memo in regards to criticisms or changing rules must remain reasonable in order to avoid hostility. Over complaining and overcriticizing, as well as not shipping out the memo to everybody, is a surefire way to create a hostile work environment. One could organize the memo as directly addressing your main point followed by the details or data support...
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Graves: Testing and Reporting Document Usability

       For someone who has spent the better part of a decade being taught to edit and revise projects before submission, the corporate world still needs to catch up to this concept. Graves outlines why Usability Testing is so important to do, and so important to do early. Consumers who purchase a product and are able to decipher the instructions/navigate a website and obtain the requisite information with ease are likely to continue doing business with that company, and unlikely to do so if the instructions or website is completely incomprehensible. Usability testing is one method in which companies can avoid the black hole of bad documentation; by organizing the information, blocking it out to distinguish the separate sections, structure the sections with titles and graphics and headings, and outline the information of the prospective users are ways in which documents can be made more usable. The usability test can be given anonymously and the results collected, one...
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Mizrahi: Social Media and Text Messages

 In this chapter, Mizrahi explains the careful and meticulous process behind writing companies' social media outreach programs and other types of social media. This expansion in the usage of social media by large companies and corporations stems from a desire from most online users to have their opinions acknowledged. Gone are the days of passively accepting a companies message or product, the audiences on social media wish to engage with corporations and vice versa. As such, many corporations use the techniques Mizrahi elaborates upon in this chapter to "build brand loyalty" with entire sections of a company devoted to PR and social media management. As far as the typical consumer, a social media division may create several "personas", or consumer archetypes in which they wish to craft their targeted messages and media around. Companies also use an internal social media method to share information amongst employees, such as company events or simply just to conn...
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Darics Readings on Digital Writing and Professional Communication

      Darics readings introduces us to the concept of digital writing in an age in which new media creates a professional environment that necessitates instantaneous response to messages and updates, but is comparatively lethargic in learning and adapting to the nuances inherent in the language of well-structured communications through digital media. The book introduces these overlooked concepts to go over further, an employee's punctuation and word choice, level of formality in a message, and even the extraneous details afforded by new media such as e-mail. The second of Darics readings dives straight into the complexities of communication within a business or office setting, and how even in a simple conversation, employees are trying to accomplish several tasks while communicating; creating or learning the workplace culture, identifying and expressing solidarity with the workplace community, expressing friendliness, showing one's position through use of language specifi...
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Basics of Document Design Reading (9/21/20)

 Mizrahi: The Basics of Document Design     On from the document used to acquire a job, now comes the lesson on how to design written documents for the job you just got. Mizrahi explains conventions on reading documents to better understand why document design must adhere to certain rules. Each page must be laid out to attract and keep the attention of the reader, through things like placing images and the most important lines within their line of sight, as well as making those lines easy to scan and read. Readability is one of the aspects of document design that Mizrahi stresses the most in this chapter; take for example type justification, we often take for granted that left justified is the norm because that is how our minds have been trained to read. The ease with which we return from the ragged right side of the page text to the neat beginning of a sentence or continuation thereof on the left side is one reason why it is very nearly the only justification style used ...
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