ENGR2120 – TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS
ASSIGNMENT 2
Examine the document below and analyze its effectiveness based on the elements of technical
communications.
Technical communications play a major role in how the audience is informed on what they asked
for. This is more frequent in making user manuals or user guides. A user manual is a document
provided to a user that helps in using a particular system, product, or service seamlessly. Such
documents cover detailed information around operations, standards & guidelines,
troubleshooting guides, functionalities & more. In this assessment, a user’s guide will be
analyzed on its effectiveness based on the elements of technical communication.
The key elements of technical communication that were used in the user’s guide are:

Project preparation and purpose

Structure

Audience

Graphics and Visuals

Communication of Knowledge
Project preparation and purpose
The purpose of the user guide is to assist users of the HP Personal Media Drive in solving and
preventing issues when it may arise. It also includes what is product is and how to use it. The
project preparation is unclear as it wasn’t mentioned; but it wouldn’t be needed in a user’s guide.
Structure
The flow of information in the guide was spot on. Giving it was only one page, it was able to
maximize giving information by splitting the page in two hold the brief introduction, safe
handling information and care and handling. However, since it is a user guide it still lacked other
important details that were needed, such as a definition of terminologies, technical description of
the product, possible warranties, a section for frequently asked questions
Audience
The targeted audience is customers and users of the HP Personal Media Drive. Although the
structure lacked important elements of a user guide, the information shared was clear and should
be understood by the reader.
Graphics and Visuals
The graphic used in the guide was effective in showing how the product looks. There was
unfortunately no other graphics to show to ideally use and step up the product. Fonts on the other
hand were perfectly used to distinguish the headers from the information. Bullet points was the
right visual method used to list out the precautions of the guide. The line space was used
correctly to separate the bullet points, paragraphs, graphics, and headers.
Communication of Knowledge
The communication of knowledge was satisfactory for the most part. It was clear in descibring
the product and how to use it and giving warnings. However, as previously stated, more
information could have been given by defining company terminologies used in the product and
more in-depth details of the product components like size, shape, capacity, etc.