English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Today’s readings on technical documents were a constant reminder of how much I dread reading technical instructions. I will admit I usually take a stab at a product and if necessary then consult the technical document only to find myself more frustrated. So the idea of learning about these is a little enthralling, a little… Once again we refer back to many of our readings of how important it is to cater to your audience. If you don’t put yourself in their shoes, your document is probably only really catered to you and ultimately sucks like most technical documents.

While starting the Instructions Project, I realized what an important role technical instructions play in our lives. Stop signs, the signs telling you which window to pull up to at the drive through are just a few examples of how we don't even notice most instructions in our lives. However, what if you have never worked a fire extiguisher before and needed to? What if you actually needed to know how to put on the oxygen masks on a plane? These are dramatic examples of how concise, easy to follow instructions are extremely important to us.

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I felt that Chapter 19’s major emphasis was on making sure that when you write a technical description, that you not only make sure that it is relevant to the user but also complete. It was very similar to the first chapters we read that dealt the targeting your audience and understating the context of the document. When writing a technical description the author really stressed planning.

This week’s readings explain the important steps on writing instructions to your audiences. Rather your audience is a novice or experienced you want both reader to feel comfortable while reading and following instructions. You do not want the novice to feel like an idiot from not know terms nor irritating to the experienced. You have to write in terms that are “user centered”.

This week’s readings focused on creating technical information documents, including descriptions and directions. Many descriptions and instructions are poorly written and presented, and give somewhat of a negative connotation for all sets of technical documents. A common problem with creating a set of instructions or descriptions is that they are not user centered, they don’t take into account who will be using it, what there level of expertise is, why, when and where they will be using it, etc. Taking these variables into account is critically important when creating such a document.

In the instructor blog number 4 it is discussed that many instruction manuals treat the reader as if they are an “idiot” and this is definitely an approach to avoid because it is not a user-centered approach that will likely leave the user frustrated and upset with the entire product or process. As the creator of the instructions you do not want to make the user feel like they are not smart enough to tackle the instructions because they will then decide they do not like the product, process, or place that the instructions were made to describe.

     The majority of the information presented in chapter 19 of TCT is fairly new to me, at least from a low level perspective. Although the aspects that are outlined throughout the chapter are common, the ways in which they are utilized to produce clear and effective descriptions for users are relatively new in concept. For example, chapter 19 presents formatting and structure guidelines as well as how to relate the descriptions to users through the use of senses, similes, analogies, metaphors, and graphics.

After reading the assigned articles for this week, they discuss primarily on key components of tailoring your instructions appropriately. The different strategies provided suggested specifying your audience and understanding techniques of technical description.
While tailoring an instruction document, it’s crucial to understand how to carefully craft your content and audience. Who is your audience? What should the instructions include? These are some of the questions that are components of the Five-W strategies embedded in

After reading the material for this week, it sounds like identifying specific audiences for instructions isn’t very easy. Chapter 20 suggests that we consider the 4 types of readers, the skill levels of those readers, and the locations in which they’ll be performing the task at hand. How is it possible to create something for use by so many people? Take computer hardware for example. The reader could be working at a bench in a repair shop, or they could be installing something in their home PC on the living room floor.