I understand the need for an introduction, body, and conclusion in most documents, especially technical documents. For example, the letter about the O-rings was a perfect situation when points needed to be re-iterated and emphasized several times over. However, in many of my experiences writing memorandums and such documents, the manager reading them has specifically said or implied to ‘cut through the crap and tell me what I need to know so I do not have to read things that are considered fluff’. For this reason, I think some guidelines for when it is best to use these techniques should have been provided in the reading.
It seemed to me that this chapter was kind of a review for me. Most of the information it contained was either common sense or something that I have learned from being out in the field. I did think it was interesting when they discussed how genres can be used to organize documents easily. It never crossed my mind to sit down and figure out what type of document I needed to write and look up a set of criteria for how to write it. Although this process comes easily and naturally to most people, the organization via genres would be a good self-check mechanism.
The section on presentation software was definitely informative and interesting. We have all used powerpoint or some other such software in our educational careers so this section applies directly to us. One of the things about presentation software that is often frustrating is when the speaker just reads of directly what is on the screen instead of using it as a sort of outline. It insults the audience and is basically a waste of time.
In the section about organizing the body of the document, I liked the part where they gave two different options for presenting basically the same information in different lights. Often times in industry, a writer must think of things like this in a sort of psychological profiling of their reader to decide what exactly they should say and how they should say it.
Structuring a Document
I also found the section on genres interesting, and for a very similar reason. As you stated, I also can not recall a time where I've actually sat down and thought about what type of document I was going to write. It was neat to see several genres, along with their general contents, actually outlined in the text though. For the most part, they all seem to follow a very similar, logic based, fashion of presenting information to the reader, in the desired context. I found this section of the reading to be a simple reiteration of information that is mostly common knowledge, but is rarely put into words.
Reply - Fluff
I agree with avoid cluttering a paper with “fluff”. Most of the time if a paper has “fluff” the reader will avoid reading thoroughly while skipping around and possibly missing the whole point of the letter. In most of my work experiences the managers have had their hands full with other problems and they don’t have time to read useless information, “fluff”. Most of my employers wanted to know what the problem was, a description, and to give a solution if I had one. Managers do not want to keep asking questions to get answers, preferably they want to know of a problem and want to get it resolved a quick as possible.
Zebulon Rouse
Hold the Fluff Please
Anytime I am reading a document, especially a technical one, I am usually scanning it for something I am looking for such as a picture, table, chart, phrase, or heading. This comes back to our first reading and how I am a "raider" for information. When I see bulky paragraphs, I tend to shy away from them thinking they are a "fluffy jumble". They probably aren't, but sometimes it happens. Either way I shy away. This is where your fluff point comes in. If the fluff isn't there, I will find what I want to know, and be done. I believe this is even more important in documents such as memorandums and emails. These are usually going out to fellow colleagues who are just as busy as the next person, and they don't need to waste their time reading fluff.