English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Chapter 8 explains how to build and organize a document starting from a chosen topic. This chapter also covers different genres of technical documents and identifies two different types of audiences. There are two main ideas that I feel are very important when writing a document: an outline and writing what you know first.

I found Chapter 8 – Organizing and Drafting to be somewhat of a review. Most of material we have seen since middle or high school, but I guess it’s important to really know it. I did, however, find a few interesting tips/comments on conclusions and genres. I just need to make sure I think about these tips when I’m writing.

“Today, effective “information management” is one of the great challenges to communicating effectively in the technical workplace.” – This quote really conveys the meaning behind why we are reading these chapters and why we are even taking this course. I wanted to mention how important I thought this quote was, as it really gives me reason to appreciate what we are learning throughout this course. I also found it interesting that technical documents should be approached as basically any other document; it should contain an introduction, a body, and an end.

Chapter 8 of “Technical Communication Today” stressed the importance of properly organizing documents. While the main concept of the chapter has been discussed in several of my other Communication and English classes over the years, it did contain some new information. It provided several ways of aiding in doing so as well as several different organizational structures.

Chapter 8 – Organizing and Drafting was nothing that hadn’t been drilled into in middle school, high school and ENGL 106. Have a beginning middle and end, tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em, etc. I would say by now that after having to write papers and reports for almost every class that this is all common sense and even habitual.

I did like the “Smoking Gun” memo. As stated in the reading, it was a very good example of organization. While I stated that organization was common sense, it is always a good idea to look at good examples of other people’s writing.

This reading response focuses closely on my recent experiences when writing my job ad analysis. Tips from Chapter 8 - Organizing and Drafting have aided me with my detection of flaws in my writing. Before writing, I should outline key points that I want to convey. I also am willing to try to writing the body of my text first, and finishing with the introduction.

Chapter 8, Organization and Drafting, begins to identify key points of acceptable elements in technical writing. Generally, technical writing contains the same basic platform you would typically find in any other work with an introduction, body, and conclusion.

Reading this chapter reminded me of when I took a communications course here at Purdue. The instructor for the course said the same thing as this chapter. “Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. Then, tell them what you told them.” I found that this is very helpful for writing speeches and papers. I also think the idea of outlining is good. I have a hard time thinking of what I am going to type. When I make an outline or at least a scattered mess of ideas on a piece of paper it makes it easier for me to start. It also helps me to continue my thoughts as I go.

This week’s reading, Chapter 8 – Organizing and Drafting, doesn’t really present any information that should be new to a college student, but I believe it serves as a good reminder of how our documents, technical or not, should be structured. I feel that the structure of a document can make or break its effectiveness. If you’ve ever come across a document that was all over the place, you could probably agree.

The reading from Chapter 8: Organizing and Drafting provided helpful instructions to crafting an organized technical document. Specifically the details of this chapter include methods on how to organize an introduction, body, and conclusion with a genre for a technical document. At the start of the chapter, the author provided a good example of an excellence form of a document skeleton. The memo from NASA about the erosion around the space shuttle O-rings, demonstrated the reasoning of why it’s essential to properly organize a technical document.