Strategies for Technical

1
Strategies for Technical Professional
CommunicationWinter 2005

• Amanda Goldrick-Jones
• Centre for Academic Writing
• Fri. Jan. 14, 2005

2
The rhetorical situation. . .

• My goal for this weeks lecture is to suggest
  strategies for developing and revising your
  Abstract as well as future assignments.
• To get the most out of this presentation, you
  should read our text Tech. Comm., Chpts. 3 and 4
  first.

3
The rhetorical situation. . .

• As Burnett McKee note on p. 49, developing a
  document requires you to consider purpose and a
  variety of reader needs. In addition, you also
  need to think about context, genre/form, and
  medium. This entire combination of factors is
  called the rhetorical situation.

4
The rhetorical situation. . .

• Purposes for technical/prof communication
• to transfer knowledge from a person who knows it
  to a person who needs to know it (adapted from
  Saul Carliner, Information Designers Toolkit)
• To convince readers--through content, clarity,
  appropriateness of presentation--to do something
  with this knowledge (TC, p. 49). Yes. . .
  Technical communication is inherently persuasive.

5
The rhetorical situation. . .

• Purpose-Questions (see p. 49) most relevant for
  the Abstract
• What do I want readers to learn? (Answer only
  the MAIN POINTS or highlights of the article.)
• Why do I want readers to learn this? (Answer
  readers need only the MAIN POINTS to decide
  whether or not its useful to read the whole
  article.)

6
The rhetorical situation. . .

• Whats the purpose of an abstract?
• To provide a short overview of a long document
  (TC p. 88)
• To give readers a condensed and accurate
  representation of the main content, tone, and
  intent of a long document (also see p. 88)

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The rhetorical situation. . .

• Who is most likely to read an abstract, and why?
  Consider several possibilities
• An expert, to get a quick sense of the main
  documents content
• A decision-maker, who may or not be an expert in
  the field or area
• A student or researcher seeking relevant info
• A general reader, usually seeking practical info
• (See the handy chart in TC p. 53)

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The rhetorical situation. . .

• Readership considerations most relevant for this
  Abstract assignment
• Start with figuring out Katherine Duracks
  readership. If you havent yet done so, you need
  to download and read her article (youll find it
  under Week 2 on the Coursework Schedule page).

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The rhetorical situation. . .

• Katherine Duracks readership
• Consider that her article is published in the
  journal Technical Communication
• Initial reader(s) journal editors and
  reviewers, deciding whether or not to publish the
  manuscript
• Primary reader(s) TechComm subscribers (browse
  the STC homepage to get a sense of where these
  primary readers would fit on the p. 53 chart)
• You likely see yourself as a secondary or as an
  external reader. Which one, and why?

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The rhetorical situation. . .

• Whos your readership for this Abstract?
• Lets start with
• Carla, your TA. Youre getting a sense of her
  expectations! Think of her as a secondary
  reader, whose role is to advise you on improving
  clarity, content, and expression so the abstract
  meets the expectations of the primary reader.

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The rhetorical situation. . .

• Whos your readership for this Abstract?
• Lets continue with
• Your fellow students, other secondary readers,
  wholl be making comments on your draft. They,
  like you, are not technical communication
  experts, but they will recognize and encourage
  clear, well-organized MAIN POINTS.

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The rhetorical situation. . .

• Whos your readership for this Abstract?
• And finally
• Amanda, your instructor. I am the primary reader
  for the Abstract assignment the document is not
  going to any other reader after me. Also, I must
  make a decision about grading based on the
  documents quality.

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The rhetorical situation. . .

• I hope Ive made two important points clear so
  far
• You need to be aware of the Purpose of this
  abstract, aside from its a required
  assignment and
• You need to be aware of the expectations of your
  secondary and primary Readership for this
  abstract.
• So lets move on! ---gt

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The rhetorical situation. . .

• Whats the Context (or exigency/need) for writing
  an Abstract?
• An Abstract is a standard, very useful, and often
  required technical communication genre (see TC
  p. 88 and p. 537)
• Composing an Abstract also hones your abilities
  as a reader of technical information requiring
  you to identify the overall meaning, structure,
  and main points of a document (see TC p. 87)
• I will define genre in a moment.

15
The rhetorical situation. . .

• What features should you consider for an
  Abstract?
• An abstract, like other technical communication
  documents, has recognizable, even standard
  features that distinguish it as a specific type
  or genre of technical communication.

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The rhetorical situation. . .

• What features should you consider for an
  Abstract?
• Well use genre to mean particular expectations
  and habits of communication (Bazerman) that many
  people and groups have come to recognize, share,
  institutionalize, and value (or simply take for
  granted).
• Genre expectations are as much about social
  dynamics as the mechanics of form (also see the
  Grading Criteria document for this course).
• As a writer, always ask yourself what are the
  genre expectations of a given document?

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The rhetorical situation. . .

• What features should you consider for an
  Abstract?
• First, re-read the instructions for this
  assignment (Week 3, Coursework Schedule)
• Stay within length requirements
• Use paragraph divisions (see sample in TC p. 93)
  to highlight different main sections of Duracks
  article
• Make sure your abstract includes only the MAIN
  POINTS of Duracks article. Do not include
  supporting examples or specific details like
  statistics, sources, quotes, dates, or
  explanatory materials.

18
The rhetorical situation. . .

• What features should you consider for an
  Abstract?
• First, re-read the instructions for this
  assignment (Week 3, Coursework Schedule)
• Stay within length requirements
• Use paragraph divisions (see sample in TC p. 93)
  to highlight different main sections of Duracks
  article
• Make sure your abstract includes only the MAIN
  POINTS of Duracks article. Do not include
  supporting examples or specific details like
  statistics, sources, quotes, dates, or
  explanatory materials.

19
The rhetorical situation. . .

• What features should you consider for an
  Abstract?
• Main points only
• No supporting details
• Coherent, non-list-like style
• No biased or opinionated wording
• Visually clean use white space to indicate
  different sub-sections of a long document.
• Click the Abstract Strategies link on this
  WebCT page for more details.

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The rhetorical situation. . .

• Finally, for this particular Abstract, you need
  to go one step further
• Part of reading technical documents is
  understanding the possible implications or impact
  of the knowledge being conveyed.
• So. . .once youve written out the abstract, go
  back over Duracks article and insert 2 - 3
  inferential comments within the abstract (see
  TC Fig. 4.8 to get a sense of what this will look
  like)

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The rhetorical situation. . .

• To see what an inferential comment looks like, go
  back to the Abstract Strategies document I
  referred to earlier.

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The rhetorical situation. . .

• Thats it for now . . . the next lecture will be
  posted on or about Jan. 21. Any questions?
  Email me.