Chapter 6: An Overview of the Technical Writing Process

• Identify unique aspects of the technical writing process
• Discussions with technical experts
• Analysis of audience is critical
• Complex relationships play an important role
• Colleagues frequently collaborate 
• Workplace documents are carefully reviewed before being released
• Proper format is essential
• Proper distribution is essential
• Appreciate the role of critical thinking during that process
• Critical thinking means testing the strength of ideas or the quality of the information.
• Examine evidence and reasoning
• Critical thinking occurs during each of the four steps:
• Gathering and evaluating ideas/ information
• Planning the document
• Drafting the document
• Revising the document
• Follow one working writer through an everyday writing situation
• Writing an evaluative report
• Report will be read by his boss
• The writer has to be candid without harming/ offending anyone
• He has five days to write the report
• Observe the steps in planning, drafting, and revising a document
• He creates a draft and has that peer reviewed
• The writer then plans the document and anticipates readers' questions
• He lists the topics he touched on and rearranges that list\The writer creates another draft
• This draft is revised and re-written to create a final version
• Understand why proofreading is an important final step
• Proofreading is used to detect these types of errors:
• Sentence: fragments, comma splices, run-ons
• Punctuation: missing apostrophes or excessive commas
• Usage: it's vs. its, lay vs. lie, their vs. there
• Mechanical: misspelled words, inaccurate dates, incorrect abbreviations
• Format: missing page numbers, inconsistent spacing, incorrect form of documentation
• Typographical: repeated/ missing words and letters, missing word endings, left-out quotation marks
• Proofread more than once
• Never rely solely on a computer
• Appreciate the advantages and drawbacks of digital writing tools
• Many digital tools and programs exist
• outlining features
• brainstorming/ storyboarding software
• archiving software
• presentation software
• flowcharting and mapping software
• programs that turn word processing documents into Web pages and PDF documents
• tools that allow collaboration on a single document
• systems that track changes
• email, text messaging, and instant messaging
• These tools are efficient but effective communication should rely on a deliberate process
• We are the ultimate tool for critical thinking decisions that make these tools effective