What is technical
communication?
TECM 4250
Dr. Lam
Manuals and Procedures are…
• Boring!! Aren’t they?
• So, why is there an entire class on them?
• Because, while they may seem boring to write, they
matter deeply to readers
So…
• Manuals and procedures only matter when they
actually matter
• BUT, when they do matter, they can have significant
impact on people’s lives
Close your eyes…
• Think about a time when a procedure or
instructions mattered to you.
• Think about a time when a procedure or
instructions frustrated to you.
The boring, but important
definition
• Communicating about technical or specialized topics, such as
computer applications, medical procedures, or
environmental regulations.
• Communicating by using technology, such as web pages,
help files, or social media sites.
• Providing instructions about how to do something, regardless
of how technical the task is or even if technology is used
to create or distribute that communication.
•
From stc.org
What do technical
communicators create?
•
Software instructions
•
•
Medical instructions
•
•
make it easier for users to find information, increasing user traffic to and satisfaction with those websites.
Technical illustrations
•
•
provide people with new or improved skills, making them more employable and their organizations and products more efficient and
safe.
Well-designed websites
•
•
help one group of technical experts communicate effectively with other technical experts, speeding up development cycles, reducing
rework caused by misunderstandings, and eliminating risks associated with miscommunication.
Training programs
•
•
help patients and care-providers manage a patient’s treatment, improving the health of the patient while reducing costs and risks
associated with incorrect care.
Functional specifications and proposals
•
•
help users be more successful on their own, improving how easily those products gain acceptance into the marketplace and reducing
costs to support them.
clarify steps or identify the parts of a product, letting users focus on getting their task done quickly or more accurately.
Usability studies
•
uncover problems with how products present themselves to users, helping those products become more user friendly.
Who are technical
communicators?
• Everyone, including you.
• Ultimate goal of today is to help you understand
that you (regardless of discipline) are a technical
communicator
• All disciplines require communication skills
Programmer (CS)
•
Provides application software development services or technical
support typically in a defined project
•
Codes, tests, debugs, documents, implements and maintains
software applications
•
Writes technical specifications and other forms of documentation
•
Suggests technical alternatives and improves/streamlines processes
and systems
•
Excellent verbal and written communication skills to technical and
non-technical audiences of various levels in the organization (e.g.,
executive, management, individual contributors)
Audit Coordinator
(accounting/math)
• Must have excellent verbal and written
communication skills in order to present and explain
information to internal and external customers.
• Ability to write letters.
• Must have practical experience with Word, Excel,
Adobe applications. Must have ability to make
independent decisions that are generally guided by
established procedures.
Electrical Engineer
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively both verbally
and in writing.
• Develop written documentation and reports for such items as
designs; specifications; customer plan reviews; electrical
reviews for Development Review Committee items; equipment
selections; standards; procedures; agenda items for the Public
Utilities Board, Planning & Zoning Commission and City
Council; planning studies; special reports; project proposals; or
any other area of department responsibility.
• Identify and provide justifications for projects for inclusion in
the capital improvement plan. Participate in the preparation
and administration of the department’s budget and
implementation of the work plan.
Lab Research Assistant
(biology/chemistry/physics/enginee
ring)
• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• Be an effective, contributing member of the team.
You are a user advocate…
Advocate- (Noun): a person who speaks or writes in support or defense
of a person, cause, etc.
Let’s learn a little about
users…
I found this book very useful. I am a WordPress user and a cut and paste
coder, who is still struggling with understanding CSS. This book starts with
the basics of web design, HTML, and CSS; and ends with wire-framing,
design tips, SEO, and analytics. The author is somehow able to present a wide
variety of information in a clear and precise way, with large graphics and
illustrations that break everything down into digestible sections.
Unlike the Dummy books, which are very simplistic and leave you with just a
vague overview. This book will take a novice and beyond, and fill in the gaps
and make somewhat dry coding information simple and easy to understand.
The information is presented in a clear, easy to understand format. With the
help of this book, CSS is finally starting to make sense.
This book is not only useful for the beginner, or web publisher that is used to
using WordPress, it also makes a great reference with an easy to use index and
list of CSS properties and HTML elements. This is the exact book I needed.
Another one…
this book is so amazing. everything is broken down to
the smallest detail on almost every syntax for html5
and css3. it makes html and css so understandable and
simple. with all full color pages of graphics and
pictures, you can study html and css anywhere without
a text editor. because the specific topics span two or so
pages, I can study this book in-between clients at work!
I am still learning foundation codes like html and css
and even with all the websites and books, this one book
has been essential to my growth and learning.
And one more…
My last computer course was 14 years ago in college so I am
not brilliant in this area by any means, but I read this book
in 3 days and then used it to create a website for my
wedding. My finance was pretty impressed which was fun.
The book notes that 90% of what you need is covered and
the rest is googleable. I think thats true. That said, I had
tried to pick up some html and css before from online sites
and I found that the excellent presentation and layout of this
book vastly accelerated my learning. This is my first
Amazon review, the first time I was so amazed by a
purchase that I felt the need to leave feed back. As a further
testament, I already preordered this authors book on Jquery
and java script.
Now some bad one’s…
I want to learn HTML, and I believed the introduction to
the book, which says you don't need to know anything about
HTML. I tried Chapter 1's coding exercise in Textedit. What
the book doesn't tell you is that Textedit (and anything else
like it) automatically creates the first half of the code and
then inserts all the stuff you just coded into a paragraph
element. In the browser, the "page" you've just created
simply shows the code you just created. So chapter 1 is a
complete failure of instruction, in my opinion. I did figure
out how to fix it by using a word processor to look at the
page's code and delete the superfluous code. What a waste
of time. I am really annoyed.
A mediocre one…
I have to say, from the get-go, I found this book to be FANTASTIC. Clear explanations,
an informal, conversational styles, and reiteration of points so as to aid the reader's
memory of the multitude of elements and attributes. My HTML and CSS skills have
improved dramatically since beginning this book.
HOWEVER, upon reaching chapter 8, I found myself at a bit of a dead end. Chapter 8
focuses on the use of social networking sites and how to implement their respective like
boxes and 'follow me' buttons into your new website. This excited me as I wanted to
create a site of my own that I could promote through my Facebook page and vice versa.
Unfortunately, the instructions for doing so seem no longer valid. Even the source code
of the example sites didn't work and brought up an error message. This was especially
disappointing, as part of the reason I bought this book was because it was so up to date
and included this particular chapter. I had already put in a lot of hard work in building
up the example website, so was frustrated at not getting this function to work. I have
been on the publisher's forums but there is no mention of how to rectify this problem. I
would have assumed an error on my part had it not been for the author's own markup
(downloaded from the publisher's website) failing to work as well.
So, what do these reviews have
in common?
• Yes, they’re about the book. BUT, they’re really
about themselves.
• Positive reviews highlight personal success
• Negative reviews highlight personal failure
Review 1
I found this book very useful. I am a WordPress user and a cut and paste
coder, who is still struggling with understanding CSS. This book starts with
the basics of web design, HTML, and CSS; and ends with wire-framing,
design tips, SEO, and analytics. The author is somehow able to present a wide
variety of information in a clear and precise way, with large graphics and
illustrations that break everything down into digestible sections.
Unlike the Dummy books, which are very simplistic and leave you with just a
vague overview. This book will take a novice and beyond, and fill in the gaps
and make somewhat dry coding information simple and easy to understand.
The information is presented in a clear, easy to understand format. With the
help of this book, CSS is finally starting to make sense.
This book is not only useful for the beginner, or web publisher that is used to
using WordPress, it also makes a great reference with an easy to use index and
list of CSS properties and HTML elements. This is the exact book I needed.
Review 2
this book is so amazing. everything is broken down to
the smallest detail on almost every syntax for html5
and css3. it makes html and css so understandable and
simple. with all full color pages of graphics and
pictures, you can study html and css anywhere without
a text editor. because the specific topics span two or so
pages, I can study this book in-between clients at
work! I am still learning foundation codes like html
and css and even with all the websites and books, this
one book has been essential to my growth and
learning.
Review 3
My last computer course was 14 years ago in college so I am
not brilliant in this area by any means, but I read this book
in 3 days and then used it to create a website for my
wedding. My finance was pretty impressed which was fun.
The book notes that 90% of what you need is covered and
the rest is googleable. I think thats true. That said, I had
tried to pick up some html and css before from online sites
and I found that the excellent presentation and layout of this
book vastly accelerated my learning. This is my first
Amazon review, the first time I was so amazed by a
purchase that I felt the need to leave feed back. As a further
testament, I already preordered this authors book on Jquery
and java script.
Review 4
• I want to learn HTML, and I believed the introduction to
the book, which says you don't need to know anything
about HTML. I tried Chapter 1's coding exercise in
Textedit. What the book doesn't tell you is that
Textedit (and anything else like it) automatically
creates the first half of the code and then inserts all the
stuff you just coded into a paragraph element. In the
browser, the "page" you've just created simply shows the
code you just created. So chapter 1 is a complete failure
of instruction, in my opinion. I did figure out how to fix
it by using a word processor to look at the page's code
and delete the superfluous code. What a waste of time. I
am really annoyed.
Review 5
I have to say, from the get-go, I found this book to be FANTASTIC. Clear explanations,
an informal, conversational styles, and reiteration of points so as to aid the reader's
memory of the multitude of elements and attributes. My HTML and CSS skills have
improved dramatically since beginning this book.
HOWEVER, upon reaching chapter 8, I found myself at a bit of a dead end. Chapter 8
focuses on the use of social networking sites and how to implement their respective like
boxes and 'follow me' buttons into your new website. This excited me as I wanted to
create a site of my own that I could promote through my Facebook page and vice versa.
Unfortunately, the instructions for doing so seem no longer valid. Even the source code
of the example sites didn't work and brought up an error message. This was especially
disappointing, as part of the reason I bought this book was because it was so up to date
and included this particular chapter. I had already put in a lot of hard work in building
up the example website, so was frustrated at not getting this function to work. I have
been on the publisher's forums but there is no mention of how to rectify this problem. I
would have assumed an error on my part had it not been for the author's own markup
(downloaded from the publisher's website) failing to work as well
“The threshold of suck”
• Kathy Sierra coined the term “the threshold of
suck”
• Her argument is: once users get passed this
threshold, passion is born
• Users (and she argues all readers) want to feel like
they can succeed at something
• Passion, she argues, is what we want to instill into
our users because passion produces results
Think about people that are
REALLY passionate
• Coffee snobs
• Beer snobs
• Vinyl collectors
• Bikers
• ??
But what is the barrier to
entry?
• Lack of confidence?
• Lack of knowledge?
• Lack of camaraderie or community?
• I would argue, it’s all of these things
So, let’s bring it all back…
Where should we spending
our resources?
Before
After
Back to process vs.
instructions
• How can we tell the difference between the two?
• Rule of thumb: Is there direct human contact by a user?
• Registering for classes (Process):
•
•
•
•
•
Department submits proposal
Committee approves proposal
Course is listed in official ug listing
Time, dates, and instructor are assigned
Students register for class until full
• Registering for classes (Instruction)
• Log onto myunt
• Filter classes
• Click the register button
For each video clip:
Answer the following:
1. Is it a process description or an instruction? How do
you know?
2. Who does the process or instruction matter to?
3. Why is the process or instruction significant or
important to that audience?
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itmv3e7AV40&t
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZMowySFpQc
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTNgV0O_oTg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2QdefpWTQ8
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RSWs44PdkE
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2KDbTx9gVo