Transcript Technical Writing for Industrial Wastewater Operators

Technical Writing for
Industrial Wastewater
Operators
Steve Frank, MC, APR, WEF Fellow
SDF Communications, Inc.
[email protected]
303-957-7459
Wisdom of my 7th grade teacher
If you can’t write it,
you don’t understand it
Four types of writing
 Technical
 News/Other media
 Academic
 Literary
Technical
 Correspondence
 Letters
 Memos – The “old” writing
 E-mail – The “new” writing
 Reports
 Technical
 Narrative
 Proposals
 Job procedures, instructions
News/Other Media
 Newspaper
 Magazine
 Audio/video scripts
Three purposes
To inform
To entertain
To persuade
Your writing strategy
 What do you need
to say?
 Who do you need
to say it to?
 What do you need
them to do after
they read what
you wrote?
Simple communication model
Encode
Source
(You)
Decode
Message
Channel
Receiver
(Audience)
Your audience
 Source: You are the source. You know
something that someone else needs to know
 Analysis: You select the information to
include—and the information to exclude
 Audience: Those who will read what you
write and make decisions based upon it
 Translation decisions: Decisions you make in
adapting your information to the audience
Prose literacy levels in the U.S.*
14% Below basic – Can perform no more than
the most simple and concrete literacy skills
29% Basic – Can perform simple and everyday
literacy actives
44% Intermediate – Can perform moderately
challenging literacy activities
13% Proficient – Can perform complex and
challenging literacy activities
*National Adult Literacy Survey, 2003
Other audience factors
 Age
 Race
 Language
(11 million
adults are non-literate in
English)
 Country of origin
 Education level
 Economic status
 We’re all busy
(Most
people read at 200 wpm)
E-Mail
 In general, e-mail:
 Not as formal as a
letter
 More immediate tone
than a letter
 Generally shorter than
letters
 Can also be made to
sound formal
At the top
Emails are usually formatted as follows:
From:
To:
Cc:
Subject:
 From, To, and Cc help get the email
where it’s going. Subject says what
it’s about
Blank e-mail screen in Outlook
Grab attention with subject
 Use the subject line to grab reader’s
attention
 Squeeze key information into 8 words
 Use caps and lower case
 DON’T use ALL CAPS. IT’S LIKE
SHOUTING
 Example: Report of traffic accident;
nobody hurt
Composing the report
 Example: You were in a traffic accident. You
need to report it to your boss and the safety
office.
 On a clean sheet of paper, jot down all the
facts about the accident that seem relevant.
 Think about how you would say this if you
just said it orally to a friend. What are the
most important facts?
 Ask yourself: who, what, when, where, how,
why.
Content
 Begin with the most important
information first: “I was in a traffic
accident this morning. I am OK and the
truck is drivable but will need some
body repairs.”
 With the information above, a busy
person can decide to read the rest or
close it and move on.
The rest of the story…
On March 27 at about 6 a.m. I was driving truck
no. 172 west on CO 128 about two miles from
where it intersects CO 93. A deer jumped out on
the road from my right side. I jammed on the
brakes. The right front fender and headlight hit
the deer, breaking the headlight.
Nobody was hurt. The deer jumped up and ran
off. The truck can be driven to the repair shop. I
reported the accident to the police. They came
and took a report. No ticket was issued.
Did you…?
 Fill in all the addressees in the TO and CC
line after you wrote, proofed the email?
 Make sure any attachments are attached?
 Make sure pertinent details were included?
 Make sure irrelevant details were
eliminated?
 Make sure your conclusion(s) are supported
by facts?
Relax, review, revise
 Take a breath
 Check to see all needed information
included
 Use and pay attention to spell check, basic
grammar, and punctuation
 Revise and correct errors before you send
your e-mail
 Check readability of your copy using
www.Storytoolz.com
Use spell check in Outlook
Value of brevity
 Who else might the addressees
forward your email to
 Consider your readers’ time. A 600word memo takes 3 minutes to read
 “I didn't have time to write a
short letter, so I wrote a long one
instead.” —Mark Twain
 What to say, Who to, & Why
Questions