Measures of Excellence in Technical Communication
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Transcript Measures of Excellence in Technical Communication
Measures of Excellence in
Technical Communication
Measures of Excellence in
Technical Communication
Although every technical document is
different, eight measures of excellence
characterize all technical communication.
Honesty
Clarity
Accuracy
Comprehensiveness
Accessibility
Conciseness
Professional Appearance
Correctness
Honesty
The most important measure of
excellence
Three reasons to be honest as a
communicator:
1.
2.
3.
It is the right thing to do
Readers can get hurt if you are
dishonest
You and your organization could face
serious legal charges
Clarity
Your goal is to produce a document that
the reader can understand easily.
Technical communication must be clear
for two reasons:
Unclear technical communication can be
dangerous
Unclear technical communication is expensive.
(Reduce the number of calls to customer
service)
Accuracy
The slightly inaccuracy will confuse
and annoy your readers.
A major inaccuracy can be
dangerous and expensive.
Accuracy is also a measure of ethics.
It must be reasonable, fair and
truthful.
Comprehensiveness
Provides all the information readers
need.
Readers who are unfamiliar with the
subject can understand it.
Contains sufficient detail so that
readers can follow the discussion
and carry out any required tasks.
Accessibility
Refers to the ease with which readers can
locate the information they seek.
Readers should not be forced to flip
through the pages to find the appropriate
section.
Example:
A web page should include a site map and a
clear set of navigation links to help readers
understand where they are.
Conciseness
Must be concise to be useful.
A longer document is more difficult
to use because it takes more of the
readers time.
Make the document long enough to
be clear given the audience purpose
and subject but not a word longer.
Professional Appearance
If the document looks neat and
professional, readers will form a
positive impression of both the
content and the authors.
Your document should be well
designed and neatly printed.
Correctness
Good technical communication observes
the conventions of grammar, punctuation,
spelling and usage.
Carelessness and grammar errors make
your readers doubt the accuracy of your
information.
As a result, the document will not achieve
its purpose and readers could judge you
incompetent and unprofessional.
In Conclusion
Technical Communication is meant to
fulfill a mission: to convey information to
a particular audience so that they
understand something or can carry out a
task.
To accomplish these goals it must be
honest, clear, accurate, comprehensive,
accessible, concise, professional in
appearance and correct.