Chapter 8 of TCT offers forth one of the single most important guidelines to follow in writing any paper but applies fully, in concept and application, to technical documents. That guideline is, “tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then, tell them what you told them,” (TCT). For instance, in my line of work we deal with white-papers quite often. If you’re unfamiliar with a white-paper, it is simply a technical report that outlines the inner-workings of the subject matter at hand and usually addresses native advantages and disadvantages as well as potential problems and solutions. As you might assume, these ports are usually a bit lengthy and very dry; characteristics that often yield an undesirable and or complicated reading. Since I reference these documents frequently, I feel it is rather imperative that the authors follow the aforementioned guideline and be repetitive in what they write; otherwise, it is very possible and not uncommon for my team and I to miss what we he or she had intended to present.
This article also covers something relatively new to me, that is, document genres. Although I’m familiar with the characteristics of each genre and have used them appropriately in the past, I have not thought of applying a genre-template to a specific style of writing. I believe this premise will prove beneficial in the future as it will ensure consistency in the design, formatting, and structure of the documents I author.
The majority of chapter 8 is dedicated to covering document organization, and for good reason. Too often do I read pieces that appear to possess no apparent organization at all, almost resembling a simple brainstorming session. Authors whom are guilty of this, including myself in the past, should study and incorporate the methods outlined in this chapter and use said techniques in conjunction with those presented in chapter 3. In doing so, the resulting documents will prove not only more readable but extremely more useful and easy to reference for your target audience.
Tell them, tell them, tell them.
I too have heard the common phrase “tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then, tell them what you told them” since I was in grade school. It is a simple and effective tool to use while writing to make sure your document has an introduction, body, and conclusion. Personally, I haven’t dealt with these white-reports that you are writing about but I can imagine how dull they can get and often confusing if things aren’t spelled out quite clearly.
As I was telling another student in one of my comments, while the concept of document genres may seem new to you, I am sure that you have probably used your own organizational criteria in your head when writing a document to decide on a procedure.
Repitition in Technical Documents
This was the first time I'd heard the quote repeating the importance of "telling them" when constructing technical documents, but I think it really does a good job of summarizing one of the most important points in this chapter. That point is simply the importance of repitition in writing, and really working towards driving home whatever point you are trying to make. From the reader's perspective, repitition in technical works can go a long way in stressing the importance of a matter, and, as you mentioned, making sure that the audience actually takes away what you want them to after looking the document over.
Organization
I too am guilty of making my writing somewhat of a brainstorming session in the past. Way back when I first started learning about writing papers, I always used outlines because we were always required to turn in our outlines to prove that we used them. Then came college and that all went out the window. The majority of what I have written in my life has been written in college, and I admit that my organization has been pretty poor at times in the past. I think I just cared about getting done as fast as possible, more so than being organized. After the readings I now realize that I probably could have written most of them faster if I took the time to outline and organize because I wouldn't have sat there trying to figure out what to write next. It seems like common-sense now, but it's something that I never really gave much thought to until now.