Notice in Figure 1. Notice the position of the visual aid, placed at the left margin, and the caption of the visual aid, italicized and in a smaller print size. If there were another visual aid, it would be treated the same way. The key to this strategy is consistency. Consistent treatment of the look helps the reader to grasp your meaning. Technical Communication Is Responsible Earlier sections focused on the audience and the text, but this section focuses on you, the writer.
It is not enough just to help people act and to design your work to that end. Because readers count on you to be their guide, you must do what you can to fulfill their trust that you will tell them what—and all—they need to know. The key principle here is to take responsibility for your writing Mathes. In short, technical communicators must act ethically as they create and present documents. In the text of your documents, then, you must tell the truth and you must do all you can to ensure that your audience understands your message.
To help you with these important concepts, this chapter includes a definition of ethics and strategies to use for ethical presentation. Definition of Ethics Ethics deals with the question, What is the right thing to do? Philosophers since Plato have written extensively on the topic. It is a concern in daily life, in political life, in corporate life. Instances of its importance appear daily in our decisions about how to act and in news stories probing public actions. Ethics is a matter of judging both private and communal action.
Individuals are expected to do the right thing, for their own personal integrity and for the wellbeing of their communities. The issue, of course, is that the answer to the question, What is the right thing to do? It is not always clear what to do or what value to base the decision on. One major thread is that the communicator must be a good person who cares for the audience.
Communicators must tell the full truth as convincingly as possible, because truth will lead to the good of the audience.
A second thread is that communicators must do what is right, regardless of the cost to themselves. A third thread is that communicators must act for the greatest good for the greatest number of people Dombrowski 16—18, 45— Of course, there are many ethical standards and writers on ethics, but it is commonly held that one must act not for self-gain but for the good of the community, or for the stakeholders in the situation.
Ethical Situations The situations in which a person would have to make ethical decisions, and consequences from those decisions, vary dramatically. In these situations, the employee becomes Copyright Cengage Learning. For instance, before the terrible Challenger disaster, one employee had written a very clear report outlining serious problems concerning the O-rings.
This report was subsequently used legally as the smoking gun to prove negligence on the part of those in charge. The writer subsequently lost his job, fought back, and was reinstated under the law, only to leave the company because of difficulties posed by remaining employed Dombrowski — This kind of decision—and action—is incredibly intense, requiring more than just a sense of what is the right thing to do.
It requires courage to accept the negative consequences on self, and family, that losing employment entails. Each person must ask himself or herself how to respond in a situation like this, but the ethical advice is clear—you should blow the whistle. Much more common, however, are the everyday issues of communication. People rely on documents to act. These actions influence their well-being at all levels of their lives, from personal health, to financial indebtedness, to accepting arguments for public policy.
As a result, each document must be designed ethically. Two examples from an ethics survey will give you a sense of the kind of daily decision that can be judged unethical. Your company has no disabled employees.
You ask one of the employees to sit in a wheelchair for one of the photographs. Is this ethical? Your sales have steadily decreased every year for five years. You design a line graph to display your sales figures. You clearly label each year and the corresponding annual sales. In order to de-emphasize the decreasing sales, you reverse the chronology on the horizontal axis, from , , , , to , , , , This way the year with the lowest sales occurs first and the year with the highest sales occurs last.
Thus the data line rises from left to right and gives the viewer a positive initial impression of your company. If technical communication is ethical, how does one find out what is ethical behavior in technical communication situations?
He found out that experienced technical communicators suggest three actions: talk to your colleagues, trust your intuition, and talk to your boss — Ethical considerations are integral parts of every project.
In order to be a responsible member of the community, every communicator must investigate and find the principles—and courage—upon which to act ethically. These codes provide guidelines for ethical action. They include a variety of topics, but several are typically addressed: fundamental honesty, adherence to the law, health and safety practices, avoidance of conflicts of interest, fairness in selling and marketing practices, and protection of the environment Business Roundtable.
In its Statement of Ethical Principles, the STC lists six broad areas of ethical standards: legality, honesty, confidentiality, quality, fairness, and professionalism. Your work for a particular employer will often also be guided by a corporate code of conduct, with which you should familiarize yourself.
Here is the STC code of ethics: As technical communicators, we observe the following ethical principles in our professional activities.
Legality We observe the laws and regulations governing our profession. We meet the terms of contracts we undertake. We ensure that all terms are consistent with laws and regulations locally and globally, as applicable, and with STC ethical principles. Honesty We seek to promote the public good in our activities.
To the best of our ability, we provide truthful and accurate communications. We also dedicate ourselves to conciseness, clarity, coherence, and creativity, striving to meet the needs of those who use our products and services. We alert our clients and employers when we believe that material is ambiguous.
We attribute authorship of material and ideas only to those who make an original and substantive contribution. We do not perform work outside our job scope during hours compensated by clients or employers, except with their permission; nor do we use their facilities, equipment, or supplies without their approval.
When we advertise our services, we do so truthfully. Confidentiality We respect the confidentiality of our clients, employers, and professional organizations. We disclose business-sensitive information only with their consent or when legally required to do so.
We obtain releases from clients and employers before including any business-sensitive Copyright Cengage Learning. Quality We endeavor to produce excellence in our communication products. We negotiate realistic agreements with clients and employers on schedules, budgets, and deliverables during project planning.
Then we strive to fulfill our obligations in a timely, responsible manner. Fairness We respect cultural variety and other aspects of diversity in our clients, employers, development teams, and audiences. We serve the business interests of our clients and employers as long as they are consistent with the public good.
Whenever possible, we avoid conflicts of interest in fulfilling our professional responsibilities and activities. Professionalism We evaluate communication products and services constructively and tactfully, and seek definitive assessments of our own professional performance.
We advance technical communication through our integrity and excellence in performing each task we undertake. Additionally, we assist other persons in our profession through mentoring, networking, and instruction. We also pursue professional self-improvement, especially through courses and conferences.
Use these communication devices responsibly to ensure that your writing tells the audience everything they have a right to know. The audience trusts you because you are an expert.
Be worthy of that trust. As a result, people must now deal with the many languages and cultures throughout the world on a regular basis. Websites, easily accessible to anyone in the world with a network connection, must now be understandable to people who speak many different languages and are members of many different cultures.
The basic strategy for adapting writing and communication to other cultures is localization. According to Hoft, there are two levels to localization: radical and general. Radical Localization Radical localization deals with those areas that affect the way users think, feel, and act Hoft These areas include rules of etiquette; attitudes toward time and distance; the rate and intensity of speech; the role of symbols; and local systems of economics, religion, and society—even the way people go about solving problems 60— Another Point of View.
Your ability to look at the meaning of behavior from a point of view other than your own is crucial to good communication. Failure to appreciate an alternative point of view results in culture bias. This subtext to any message makes communication much more difficult. In order to eliminate culture bias, you need to investigate what is important to the members of the other culture Hoft.
The associations commonly made by one culture about some objects, symbols, words, ideas, and the other areas mentioned earlier are not the same as those made by another culture for the same items—and remember, the differences do not indicate that one group is superior to the other. For example, in China the color red is associated with joy and festivity; in the West red can mean stop, financial loss, or revolution Basics.
In the United States, janitor usually means a person who maintains a building, and is often associated with sweeping floors. But in Australia that same job is called a caretaker—a word that in the United States usually means someone who maintains the health of another person Gatenby and McLaren.
To take another example Hoft 74, 94 , conceptions of authority may differ—the French often prefer to come to conclusions after appeals to authority, but many Scandinavians prefer more individual exploration.
Levels of personal acquaintance differ in business relationships in other cultures. Almost every document has the potential to end up in the hands or on the screen of a person from another country and culture. The risk of miscommunication increases exponentially, and therefore in a technical communication context we face huge demands on our intellect, cultural understanding, and capability of being business-savvy.
English-study scholars talk about the Englishes of the world as a response to the combination of English and culture. Sometimes English is a common second language: a so-called lingua franca, a shared language used by two parties who each has a second language as his or her native language.
Today, the most obvious examples of lingua franca English are found in international business, science, technology, and aviation. The multiple uses of English mean that the challenges of writing in English are huge. In addition the varieties of English each express a culture, such as Irish or Indian. English used for one culture might make little sense when read by readers of another English culture. As companies are becoming international or partnering with multinational organizations, technical communicators need to become culturally informed.
To use inappropriate language and be misunderstood may have enormous negative consequences. Likewise, lack of cultural adeptness may be interpreted as arrogance, elitism, or plain ignorance.
Spotting an iceberg in the sea, one sees only one-eighth of the ice; the main bulk is invisible under sea level. The visible parts of culture are what we say and what we do. That is the top one-eighth.
The invisible parts are our norms and beliefs, assumptions, and values, as shown in Figure 1. The English of one culture is built on a different iceberg from the English of another culture. The bottom of the Irish iceberg is different than the bottom of the Indian. In other words, not understanding the context and the deeper layer of knowledge and situation would make us fail to dive below sea level and decode the embedded cultural information Swan.
Communicators within the same cultural circle need to understand context or the bottom of the iceberg , too, but they need to express that context less explicitly. They know more about the layers underneath, and from the way people say, articulate, or gesticulate something or their body language in general, they know the codes for interpreting the sub—sea layers.
But the field research, by learning through actively participating, by listening, by asking is just as paramount to Copyright Cengage Learning. Understanding Cultural Differences. Intercultural Press, Yarmouth. Developing a good cultural sensibility is not only good business, but it is the ethical thing to do. The ethics of understanding other cultures, however, must always take its starting point in the understanding of the culture where a person or a company is based. Only then can a person start realizing, observing, and understanding other cultures.
During the s and s the idea developed that cultures globally would soon be unified and that all national and regional differences could be ignored.
Coca-Cola followed this trend at first, but in , it realized the fallacy of this as expressed by Coca-Cola CEO Donald Daft Levitt The world was demanding greater flexibility, responsiveness and local sensitivity, while we were further centralising decision-making and standardising our practices, moving further away from our traditional multi-local approach.
Expanding awareness of the words and images used is the key to expressing yourself so that readers, irrespective of cultural assumptions and beliefs, will understand you. The best method for gaining familiarity with another culture is to interact with members of that culture, whether those interactions occur in person or online. In order to communicate effectively, you must spend some time considering cultural differences and make changes in your documents accordingly.
Thinking Patterns. Much of U. These thinking patterns become part of the way people structure sentences. Role of the Individual. The individual is often perceived differently in a group dominated by web thinking, and web and group ideas can greatly affect the tone and form of communication. In the United States, long influenced by a tradition of individualism, many people feel that if they can just get their message through to the right person, action will follow.
In other cultures, representatives of a group do not expect that same kind of personal autonomy or ease of identification from their readers. Role of Direct and Indirect Messages. In the United States we teach that the direct method is best: State the main point right away and then support it with facts. In some other cultures, that approach is unusual, even shocking. Much of the literature that contains advice for writing in a global context deals with these concerns.
Expert writers change these details when preparing documents for another country. These concerns fall into two broad areas: culture-specific references and style. Culture-Specific References. Culture-specific items are those that we use every day to orient ourselves. Depending on the common configuration, these numbers could mean January 3, ; March 1, ; or even March 12, Weights and measurements.
The United States is one of the few countries that does not use the metric system. Most of the world travels in kilometers, measures in grams and liters, and is hot or cold in degrees Celsius.
While it is easy to interpret those weights and measurements you are familiar with, if you are not, the numbers can be very difficult to translate into common experience. Change miles to kilometers, Fahrenheit to Celsius. Americans know it takes about an hour to go 60 miles, but in Europe it would be better to say 96 kilometers. Switching between systems is difficult, and you can help readers by performing the switch for them.
In English, the comma divides a number into thousands, then millions, and so on. The decimal point divides the number into tenths or less—1,, But in other countries, the same numbers use different punctuation. In Germany, that number is 1. Telephone numbers and addresses. In the United States, telephone numbers are grouped in threes and fours—, but in other countries they are often grouped by twos—33 0 1 23 34 76 In the United States, it is common practice to address an envelope with the name at the top and list in descending order the street address and city.
In some countries, Russia, for instance, the address list is reversed; the country is placed on the first line and the name of the person on the bottom line. In the United States, the standard paper size is 8. In many other parts of the world, however, the basic size is called A4 8. The difference in size can cause difficulties in copying material. Style items are the subjects of many articles on globalization. The goals of managing style are to make English easier to understand and to make it easier to translate.
Many of the style tips are simply calls for good, clear, unambiguous writing. Here are a few common style items based on Hoft —; Locke; Potsus to consider: Avoid using slang and idioms.
Most of these are simply impossible to translate: He is a brick. She hit a home run with that presentation. Avoid using humor. Humor often just does not work except in very small communities. Good writers generally avoid humor in their writing for other cultures. Avoid puns, metaphors, and similes. Metaphors and similes compare items to indicate worth or appearance. These devices are helpful, but only if the reader gets the point of the comparison.
Puns are plays on words, often used in ads. But puns are virtually untranslatable. Use these devices only if you are sure the reader would understand them. Use glossaries. If you must use jargon or other specialized language, be sure to include a glossary of definitions. Often, they are omitted to save space and to get to the point, but their absence may obscure the exact nature of the phrase. The relative pronouns are who, whom, whose, which, and that.
That is often the problem. Often English speakers string together a series of nouns. Homophones are two or more words that sound alike but have different meanings, and may have different spellings— like damage, which can be a noun or a verb. Use clear modifier strings. Or just the keyboards? If speakers are not familiar with the rhythms of English language speech, they can become lost in the quickness and turns that sentences in English can take.
Use the sentence order that it is likely non-native speakers learned in textbooks. English phrases often expand in translation. Translated text can be as much as 30 percent longer in other languages. Even a simple Canadian highway sign illustrates this. The English text is Chain-up area.
If you have pages designed so that text should fall at a certain spot, leave extra room in your English original so that after the translation and subsequent expansion, the text will still be relatively at the same spot.
Choose a simple font and avoid text effects like boldface, italics, underlining Hoft; Locke. Web Copy When it comes to writing for the Web, there are additional considerations for the technical communicator to address.
Here is a helpful synopsis of many of the points made in this section as they pertain to website design Gillette When designing a site for a professional, international audience, you must follow most of the standard international communication guidelines commonly used for printed documents, online help, and other forms of software design.
Many resources exist to help communicators in the international arena, including many sources easily accessible on the Web. Below are two sources that will be helpful in your intercultural work. Be careful, however. A recent search of Google using the term international communication turned up 57, , sites. Make a list of several communities to which you belong e.
Write a paragraph that explains how you used writing as a member of one of those communities to enable another member or members of the community to act. Specifically explain your word, format, and sequencing which item you put first, which second, etc. Write a paragraph that persuades a specific audience to act.
Give two reasons to enroll in a certain class, to purchase a certain object, to use a certain method to solve a problem, or to accept your solution to a problem. Write a paragraph that gives an audience information that they can use to act. For example, give them information on parking at your institution. Create a visual aid to enable a reader to act. Interview a professional in your field of interest.
Choose an instructor whom you know or a person who does not work on campus. How important is what you write to the successful performance of your job? Is writing important to your promotion? What would be a major fault in a piece of writing in your profession? What are the features of writing clarity, organization, spelling, etc. Write a one-page report in which you present your findings.
Your instructor may ask you to read your report to your classmates. Explain a situation in which you would write to a member of a community to enable him or her to act. Identify the community and detail the kind of writing you would do and what the reader would do as a result of your writing. Bring to class a piece of writing that clearly assumes that you or the reader belong to a particular community good sources include newspaper stories on social issues like taxes, editorials, letters that ask for contributions.
Point out the words and design devices that support your analysis. Alternate assignment: For a piece of writing given to you by your instructor, determine the community to which the writer assumed the reader belongs. Choose one of the models at the end of a chapter in this book or a sample of writing you find in your daily life. Write a paragraph that describes how you interact with that piece of writing to gather some meaning. Describe your expectations about the way this kind of writing should look or be organized; what features of the writing led you to the main point; and any reactions to the presentation language, visual aids, or context.
Tell students about at least two types of material in the database abstracts of articles, U. Analyze the following paragraph to decide who the audience is and what their need is; then rewrite it for a different audience with a different need. For instance, you might recount it as a set of instructions or use it to tell a person what objects to buy for this step and why.
The fixing solution removes any unwanted particles that may still be in the paper. He or she will agitate the print occasionally while it is in the fixer.
After two minutes, he or she may turn the room lights on and examine the print. The total fixing time should be no less than 2 minutes and no more than 30 minutes.
After the fixing process is over, the print then needs to be washed. Arrange the following block of information into meaningful chunks. Some chunks may contain only several sentences. You have expressed an interest in the process used to carve detailed feathers on realistic duck decoys. The tools used are the same ones needed to prepare the carving up to this point: flexible-shaft grinder, stone bits, soft rubber sanding disc, pencil, and knife.
My intention is to explain the ease with which mastery of this process can be achieved. There are five steps involved: drawing, outlining, and concaving the feathers, stone carving the quill, and grinding the barbs. The key to drawing the feathers is research.
Good-quality references have been used in getting the carving to this stage and they will prove invaluable here. When comfortable with the basic knowledge of placement and types of feathers, drawing can begin.
As with the actual carving, drawing should be done in a systematic manner. All feathers should be drawn in from front to back and top to bottom. Drawing should be done lightly so that changes can be made if necessary.
All of the other steps are determined by what is done here, so the carver must be satisfied before beginning. Outlining creates a lap effect Copyright Cengage Learning. The carver uses the flexibleshaft grinder and a tapered aluminum-oxide bit to achieve the fish scale effect. The carver starts at the front and works toward the back using the lines that were drawn as guides.
The carver only uses slight sweeping motions with the disc to achieve good results at this phase. Concaving starts at the back outside edge of each feather and proceeds toward the tips. In stone carving the quill, the carver uses the aluminum-oxide bit and flexible-shaft grinder to raise and outline the quill area. As with all of the other steps, none of the procedures should be exaggerated. The goal is to make everything as life-like as possible.
The carver grinds the barbs to match as closely as possible the hair-like structures of the feather using the same stone and grinder that were used in carving the quill. Actual feathers are used to get the exact angles needed for realism. Gentle sweeping motions are used, starting at the quill and moving toward the outside edge.
Using only the tip of the stone creates the desired effects. When finished, the carver uses a loose wire wheel to remove any unwanted hair-like matter on the surface of the carved areas. In groups of three, ask each other if the writing you do as a student or as an employee enables other people to do something.
Use the Magolan report p. Your instructor will assign groups of three or four to read any of the following documents that appear later in this book: Instructions four examples, pp.
After reading it, explain what made it easy or hard to grasp. Consider all the topics mentioned in this chapter. Compare notes with other people. If your instructor so requires, compose a report that explains your results. In groups of three or four, analyze the following sample memo. Explain how the report enables a reader to act, demonstrates its purpose, and uses specific practices to help the reader grasp that purpose.
Your instructor will ask one or two groups to report to the class. I consulted with a company that has already implemented this idea and with our maintenance department. Will maintenance actually use them? Will maintaining them be a problem? Are the bicycles safe? Recommendation Through my investigation, I have found that the company could realize substantial savings by implementing the proposal and still sufficiently satisfy all the criteria. Therefore, I fully recommend it. Would Machine Downtime Be Reduced?
Will Maintenance Actually Use Them? I consulted with the maintenance department and found that all would use the bicycles if it became company policy. The older men felt that biking, instead of walking, would result in their fatiguing more slowly. Will Maintaining Them Be a Problem? The maintenance required is minimal, and parts are very cheap and easy to install.
Are the Bicycles Safe? OSHA has no problem with bicycles in the plant as long as each is equipped with a horn. Perform this exercise individually or in a group, as your instructor requires. Assume that you work for a manufacturer of one of the following items: a electric motors, b industrial cranes, c processors, or d a product typical of the kind of organization that employs you now or that will when you graduate. Assume that you have discovered a flaw in the product.
This flaw will eventually cause the product to malfunction, but probably not before the warranty period has expired. The malfunction is not life threatening. Write a report recommending a course of action. In groups of three or four, react to the memos written for Exercise Do not react to your own memo. If all individuals wrote reports, pick a report from someone not in your group. If groups wrote the reports, pick the report of another group. Prepare a report for one group customers, salespeople, manufacturing division affected by the recommendation.
Explain to them any appropriate background and clarify how the recommendation will affect them. Your instructor will ask for oral reports of your actions. You have just learned that the malfunction discussed in Exercises 16 and 17 is life threatening. Write new memos. Use any site unless your instructor directs you to a certain type e. Write a report or IMRD see Chapter 10 in which you explain your findings to your classmates or coworkers.
Works Cited Allen, Nancy J. Bacah, Walter. The Basics of Color Design. Cupertino, CA: Apple, Beamer, Linda. John E. Guilford, CT: Dushkin, Originally published in Business and Society Review 20 : 33— Collins, Robert C. Letter to Art Muller, packaging concentration coordinator. The Dial Corp. Scottsdale, AZ. Cunningham, Donald. CCC Convention. Daft, D. Dombrowski, Paul. Ethics in Technical Communication. Dragga, Sam.
Gatenby, Beverly, and Margaret C. Gillette, David. Green, Georgia M. Griffin, Jack. John Brockman and Fern Rook. Hall, Dean G. Exercises 16—18 are based on material from this article. Hall, E. Intercultural Press, Yarmouth, ME, Harcourt, Jules. Hartley, Peter. Hofstede, Geert. Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA, Book Review Index Terms—Electronic documentation, electronic research, presentations, technical reports.
It would have been success. The most Manuscript received September 2, ; website development had been revised September 12, Two items worthy of mention in sections, two appendices and Chapter 4 are two Focus sections: the index. Section II: Technical p.
Each provides insight into Writing Techniques has seven problems that may occur with chapters. One area of chapters. Section IV: Professional disappointment was the coverage Communications contains two of ethics, specifically in recognizing chapters. As in the 7th edition, the work of others.
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Be the first to start one ». Goodreads is hiring! If you like books and love to build cool products, we may be looking for you. Learn more ». About Daniel G. Daniel G. Books by Daniel G. Related Articles. New year, new you! Or perhaps the same you, but a 2. The start of a new year is known for resolutions, which, as we all know, Read more Trivia About Technical Report No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now ». Quotes from Technical Report The tools used are the same ones needed to prepare the carving up to this point: flexible-shaft grinder, stone bits, soft rubber sanding disc, pencil, and knife.
My intention is to explain the ease with which mastery of this process can be achieved. There are five steps involved: drawing, outlining, and concaving the feathers, stone carving the quill, and grinding the barbs. The key to drawing the feathers is research. Good-quality references have been used in getting the carving to this stage and they will prove invaluable here.
When comfortable with the basic knowledge of placement and types of feathers, drawing can begin. As with the actual carving, drawing should be done in a systematic manner. All feathers should be drawn in from front to back and top to bottom. Drawing should be done lightly so that changes can be made if necessary. All of the other steps are determined by what is done here, so the carver must be satisfied before beginning.
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