Manuals and processes

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Manuals and processes

• Technical Writing
• Arcadia University

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Purpose

• What is the purpose of my instructions?
• Is there a certain end point that I hope to get
  my user to?
• Or are my instructions intended to
  encyclopedically cover all the possibilities of
  some device or process?

3
What is my readers point of view?

• Different backgrounds?
• Or common background?
• Limited expertise?
• Different metaphor or icon background?

4
How will my reader use these instructions?

• Do I need to build in redundancies?
• Or can I expect my user to read the instructions
  from beginning to end?
• Where will the user start in the document? (table
  of contents, index, flipping, paging from right
  to left). In an airplane during a bad-weather
  emergency? Or seated before a computer at home?

5
What content does my reader really need and want?

• To the extent you can figure this out, it may be
  desirable to weight this and arrange the
  content accordingly.

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Typical instruction components

• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Theory or Principles of Operation
• List of Equipment and Materials Needed
• Description of the Mechanism
• Warnings
• How-To Instructions
• Tips and Troubleshooting Procedures
• Glossary
• Index

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Introductions
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• MEMBERS OF THE JURY, YOU HAVE UNANIMOUSLY FOUND
  THE DEFENDANT ________ GUILTY OF THE OFFENSES
  RELATED TO THE KILLING OF VICTIM AS CHARGED IN
  COUNTS TEN, ELEVEN, AND TWELVE OF THE
  INDICTMENT. YOU MUST NOW CONSIDER FOR COUNTS TEN
  AND ELEVEN WHETHER IMPOSITION OF A SENTENCE OF
  DEATH IS JUSTIFIED OR WHETHER THE DEFENDANT
  SHOULD BE SENTENCED TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT WITHOUT
  THE POSSIBILITY OF RELEASE. FOR COUNT TWELVE, YOU
  MUST DETERMINE WHETHER IMPOSITION OF A SENTENCE
  OF DEATH IS JUSTIFIED, WHETHER THE DEFENDANT
  SHOULD BE SENTENCED TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT WITHOUT
  THE POSSIBILITY OF RELEASE, OR WHETHER THE
  DEFENDANT SHOULD BE SENTENCED TO A LESSER
  SENTENCE TO BE DETERMINED BY THE COURT.

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• This dissertation has three goals. The first
  goal is to demonstrate the utility of applying
  classical Austinian speech act theory to certain
  problems in the litigation of inflammatory speech
  in American law. The second goal is to show
  that the inflammatory speech data of the law
  itself suggests a certain revision of Austins
  speech act theory within contemporary
  linguistics. The third goal is to show that
  certain types of inflammatory speech what the
  law calls fighting words - can be productively
  understood in terms of impoliteness, a
  continuum of behaviors that mirrors politeness
  phenomena, and can be usefully understood by
  applying certain technical notions of cooperation
  and convention from linguistic pragmatics.
  Chapters one and two deal with the first two
  goals the third goal is dealt with in chapter
  three.
• I will show that certain types of inflammatory
  speech behave like the Doppelgänger of
  honorifics, and that impoliteness associated with
  fighting words is just as much a part of the
  common courtesy of native and near-native
  competency in a language as politeness is.
• I now turn to the yeomans duty of chapter one
  which is introducing the dilemmas associated with
  the adjudication of inflammatory speech in
  American law.

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• Constitution article
• http//www.philly.com/mld/philly/4088916.htm
• National Constitution Center
• U.S. Constitution
• http//www.nccs.net/constitution.html

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Tufte ch. 2

• Challenge is to arrange data in a way that cause
  and effect emerges.
• The compared with what criterion of good data
  display (comparing those who died of cholera with
  those who didnt die) on the other hand, Snows
  map fails this criterion - for example, an area
  of the map without deaths may only be a
  reflection of a lack of population in that area.
• Numbers become evidence by being in relation to
  . . .

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Tufte ch. 2

• Information displays should serve the analytic
  purpose at hand - ordering should be done to
  evaluate different possible cause-effect
  relationships
• Typically, another question that data displays
  should address is at what rate?