2.1 Gathering Background Information Designing Test Plans Performing Experiments Reporting Results. | unit 2 performing technical studies

Technical Writing

Module – 2

Performing Technical Studies: Types of Technical Studies,

General Methodology, Proposing a Project

2.1 Gathering Background Information, Designing Test Plans, Performing Experiments, Reporting Results.

Gathering Background Information- Background information identifies and describes the history and nature of a well-defined research problem with reference to the existing literature. The background information should indicate the root of the problem being studied, appropriate context of the problem in relation to theory, research, and/or practice, its scope, and the extent to which previous studies have successfully investigated the problem, noting, in particular, where gaps exist that your study attempts to address.

Designing Test Plans- is a detailed document that describes the test strategy, objectives, schedule, estimation and deliverables and resources required for testing. Test Plan helps us determine the effort needed to validate the quality. The test plan serves as a blueprint to conduct testing for activities to perform as a defined process.

The main goal, of course, is to discover errors, loopholes and any other gap that might cause the study to fail.

Performing Experiments- An experiment is a procedure carried out to support, refute, or validate a hypothesis. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a particular factor is manipulated. Experiments vary greatly in goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results.

Careful planning and foresight when designing your experiment will pay off. The exact steps needed for performing an experiment vary greatly depending on your experimental procedure as well as the studies being made.

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Reporting Results- When reporting qualitative results, the researcher will highlight and comment on the themes that emerge from the analysis. These comments will often be illustrated with excerpts from the raw data. In text based studies, this may comprise quotations from primary sources. In quantitative studies, the results section is likely to consist of tables and figures, and writers comment on the significant data shown in these. This often takes the form of the location or summary statement, which identifies the table or figure and indicates its content.

2.2 Writing Strategy: Analysis of Readers, Scope of Writing, Purpose and Objective. Document Options: Document Hierarchy, Report Types and Selection.

Writing Strategy: Analysis of Readers-

Scope of Writing- creative writing has a lot of scope. One can become a journalist, a short story writer, a novelist, a playwright, a copywriter -- the possibilities are endless.

If you have got skills and creativity than this field will provide you with lots of opportunities. The scope and opportunities for professional writers are huge both in print and e-media. The best part is a person can even work as a freelancer. The professional writers are generally hired by media companies, big MNC’s, online article publishing portals.

Purpose and Objective- Writers choose specific writing forms to

Communicate their intended meaning. To choose effectively, they target their purpose and audience before and while they write. Purpose should be to either inform or entertain and sometimes even to express.

Document Hierarchy- Document hierarchy defines the structure of the documents that you are processing and the order in which the document needs to be in process. The document hierarchy describes the structure of the documents that your application is designed to process.

Report Types and Selection-Types of reports include memos, meeting minutes, expense reports, audit reports, closure reports, progress reports, justification reports, compliance reports, annual reports, and feasibility reports. You can classify reports in different categories in various ways such as action, formality, and length, and some of them may overlap the classification structure.

2.3 Criteria for Good Technical Writing: Technical Content, Presentation, Language Skills.

Technical Content- Technical content may have persuasive objectives; for example, describing the additional features available in a more expensive product edition and thereby encouraging people to upgrade. But the informational angle is more important than the persuasive function. Persuasive content is marketing content, where the primary goal is to convince the reader to buy a product or service.

Presentation- To create a good presentation, it is needed to demonstrate

design skills, technical literacy, and a sense of personal style.

Informal presentation

oAd hoc- few words summarizing the work

o Probably no need for slides

• Formal Presentation

o A project proposal to supervisors

o A sales presentation to a prospective client

o Oral summary of a report for a client

oWill likely include visual aids such a slides, videos, posters.

Language Skills- by ‘language skills’ we understand the ability to create coherent text with correct grammar, style, punctuation. This does sound like a very important skill for a tech writer. And, if we take a look at the most common educational backgrounds of technical writers, we will notice that a lot of them are connected with languages - linguistics, journalism, translation, etc.

2.4 Writing Style: Elements of Style, Examples of Writing Styles, Recommended Style, Learn to Prepare Effective Illustrations.

Elements of Style- There are two key elements in an effective writing style. One is readability, meaning the use of words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs in such a way as to communicate facts and ideas clearly. The other is elegance, meaning the use of appropriate and interesting words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs to produce graceful, unobtrusive prose that will keep a reader's attention and interest.

Good style communicates information effectively. It moves the reader along easily from word to word, sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph, and one section of the paper to the next. Bad style is boring and often confusing.

Examples of Writing Styles-

Narrative- The narrative style of writing tells a story. Its hallmark is a plot with a beginning, middle, and end.

Examples:

Novels, Creative nonfiction, Screenplays, Biographies

Mythology.

Expository- Expository writing is long on facts and short on storytelling and literary flourishes. It can inform or instruct readers about a subject, but in its purest form, it’s not out to change anyone’s mind.

Examples:

News articles, Nonfiction books, Textbooks, Scientific and medical research, Instruction manuals.

Descriptive- Descriptive writing is, well, just that. It may be actual poetry, or simply poetic, often using metaphors, as well as adjectives, adverbs, and language that activates the reader’s senses.

Examples:

Poetry, Diary entries, Nature writing

Persuasive- As the name implies, this writing style sets out to win its audience over to a certain point of view. It builds an argument by presenting evidence and justifications to back up an opinion. This may lead to a call to action

Examples:

Academic papers, Opinion and editorial writing, Advertising copy, Product reviews, Cover letters and letters of recommendation

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Recommended Style- as a writer, one has to find their place in the writing world and develop a writing style that suits them!

There’s not a recommended style for everybody, everyone has their own style. Here a four ways that you can find and develop your own writing style.

Read a lot

Be honest to who you are

Write what comes with ease

Express yourself naturally

Once you have found your style the only other thing you can do is write, write, and keep writing.

Learn to Prepare Effective Illustrations- Illustrations provide visual impact and are often the best way to communicate the main findings of a study. They are traditionally used to display trends and group results, but can also be used to communicate processes or to display detailed data in a simple yet effective manner. Graphs are a common type of illustration that are often used in scientific papers to present information clearly and effectively, as well as to demonstrate relationships between variables in the data.

Reference books

1. “A Guide to Technical Writing”, T. A. Rickard, Franklin Classics.

2. “Technical Writing”, S. Jayprakash, Himalaya Publishing House Pvt. Ltd.

3. “Technical Writing”, O. N. Pandey.

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