1.A.

Key Concepts of Technical Communication Technical communication is a specialised type of business communication, aimed at creating easily-usable information for a specific audience. The information produced by technical communicators can range from heavily technical to heavily business oriented - and anything in between. Technical communicators are also called technical writers. Because writing is now only one aspect of what we do, the term "technical communicator" is now a more appropriate title than technical writer. Technical communicators are also known as technical authors, documentation developers or documentation specialists, and more recently the titles "information designers" and "information architects" have come into common use. The technical communicator needs to be able to demonstrate at least some of the following skills and abilities. Written and oral communication skills write good plain language listen effectively express themselves clearly using the spoken word General work practices demonstrate good organisational skills relating to themselves and their work follow appropriate codes of ethics and good practice show an understanding of business and how it functions Working with others be part of a team exercise effective interviewing skills respect the opinions of others Thinking skills analyse material logically organise and structure information based on its characteristics and the needs of its audience solve problems Using computers to produce printed or online documentation manage their own computer system demonstrate a good level of skill in using word processing, desktop publishing and graphics applications. B. Distinction between Technical Report Writing and Creative Writer The difference between creative writing and technical writing is that creative writing deals with writing from your imagination, with no guidlines or rules, while technical writing deals with writing off a basis of rules that must be thoroughly proofread. Creative writing is written to entertain and educate. We enjoy reading novels and stories, not because they are necessary to read or helpful for us, just because we get a certain pleasure from reading them, the pleasure which cant be got from reading technical writing. Creative writing has so many genres and sub-genres that they deserve a whole section of an article for themselves. It sometimes follows a given set of rules, and sometimes throws caution to the winds and breaks all of them. Either way, talent is somewhat of a necessary ingredient if you want to write creatively. Of course, writing can be improved by practice. But if you dont have the necessary talent, your writing would not give pleasure to anyone. Skills and talent both make up creative writing. Hence, they are its constituents. C.Technical Document Types Technical documentation is very important attachment for every software product. It attracts new customers and helps to raise sales. Successful companies pay a lot of attention to the quality of their technical documents. There are various types of technical documentation that are aimed for different goals.

User guides and manuals explain users for what purposes the product was created and how to use the software in a proper way. These documents can also help new employees of a software company to familiarize themselves with the products they should work with. Such manuals usually stored on a software manufacturers site, but they can also exist in hard copy forms. One more form of technical documentation is administrative materials. This kind of documentation can be used either by the employees of the company or consumers. Policies, procedures, warnings against break of the rules usually refer to administrative materials. Organization manuals, training materials, annual reports are the most widespread examples of this form of technical documentation. Publication materials include article in magazines and newspapers, newsletters, blog posts and technical reports. This documentation deals with urgent information about organization, its products and activities. It can have different purposes and be intended for various audiences. 2. A.Qualities of Good Technical Reports and Technical Writer Technical writing is an important part of everyone's career. Writing well is difficult and time consuming and writing in a technical way about technical subjects even makes it more difficult. People write to propose projects, to document their own actions, to help other understand the research, to analyze and solve problems, to describe procedures and objects. If done well, technical writing is an exciting, fulfilling experience but if done poorly, it is frustrating, even harmful to career development. There are six basic properties of Technical writing: Accuracy Great care should be taken to ensure that the information is presented accurately. Make sure values are transferred correctly into the report and calculations are done properly. Since many people proof read right over their own typographical errors, it is often best to have another person proofread the report. Mistakes may cause the reader to doubt other points of the report and reflect on the professionalism of the author. Objectivity Data must be evaluated honestly and without bias. Conclusions should be drawn solely from the facts presented. Opinions and conjecture should be clearly identified if included at all. Deficiencies in the testing or the results should be noted. Readers should be informed of all assumptions and probable sources of errors if encountered. Clarity The author should work to convey an exact meaning to the reader. The text must be clear and unambiguous, mathematical symbols must be fully defined, and the figures and tables must be easily understood. Clarity must be met from the readers' point of view. Don't assume that readers are familiar with previous work or previous reports. When photographs are included in a report, a scale or some object of standard size should be included in the photograph to help your readers judge the size of the objects shown. Simply stating the magnification of a photograph can cause uncertainty since the size of photographs often change in reproduction. Conciseness Most people are fairly busy and will not want to spend any more time than necessary reading a report. Therefore, technical reports should be concisely written. Include all the details needed to fully document and explain the work but keep it as brief as possible. Conciseness is especially important in the abstract and conclusion sections. Continuity Reports should be organized in a logical manner so that it is easy for the reader to follow. It is often helpful to start with an outline of the paper, making good use of headings. The same three step approach for developing an effective presentation can be used to develop an effective report: 1) Introduce the subject matter (tell readers what they will be reading about) 2) Provide the detailed information (tell them what you want them to know) 3) Summarize the results and conclusions (re-tell them the main points) Make sure that information is included in the appropriate section of the report. For example, don't add new information about the procedure followed in the discussion section. Information about the procedure belongs in the procedure section.

The discussion section should focus on explaining the results, highlighting significant findings, discussing problems with the data and noting possible sources of error, etc. Be sure not to introduce any new information in the conclusion sections. The conclusion section should simple state the conclusion drawn from the work. Writing Style A relatively formal writing style should be used when composing technical reports. The personal style of the writer should be secondary to the clear and objective communication of information. Writers should, however, strive to make their reports interesting and enjoyable to read. Good technical report must also be correct. It. Must be free from grammatical errors, punctuation mistakes, and should have appropriate format standard. If a report contains grammatical errors, the reader will doubt the accuracy of the information in the report. Technical writing is meant to convey information and to persuade the audience. To accomplish these goals it must be clear auccurate, easy to access and must be economical and correct. If you mean to write "the three persons: person 1, person 2 and person 3 attended a session" but you use commas instead of the colon, your readers might think 6 people attended the session, not 3. B.Steps in W riting a Report Planning Planning occurs when a writer determines what reader(s) his text must interact with and what purpose(s) his text must accomplish and then decides accordingly what to say and how to say it. One of the great drawbacks of traditional, productoriented teaching, many writing teachers believe, is that it gives too much attention early in the writing process to the content and organization of a paper and not enough attention to issues of the audience and purpose of a student's text. This is not to say that a paper's content and organization are unimportant. Certainly instructors in all fields want students to write papers that are rich, distinctive, and correct in their substance and coherently and fully developed. But unless students are led to consider specifically issues of audience and purpose, there is a strong possibility that their writing will simply mirror back whatever content they have accrued through reading and research, without cueing a potential reader to what is distinctive or important about the subject at hand and without shaping the content so that its presentation serves any discernible purpose. The central principle underlying planning a paper, therefore, is that audience, purpose, and content are all related: A writer, as part of the process of composing, determines and refines her ideas of whom she is interacting with in her paper and what she is trying to accomplish; these emerging ideas allow her to develop the content-- what she wants to say--and her goals for influencing the readers--how she wants to say it. Planning to write a report: Collecting Data Data collection is any process of preparing and collecting data, for example, as part of a process improvement or similar project. The purpose of data collection is to obtain information to keep on record, to make decisions about important issues, or to pass information on to others. Data are primarily collected to provide information regarding a specific topic. Data collection usually takes place early on in an improvement project, and is often formalised through a data collection plan which often contains the following activity. Pre collection activity agree on goals, target data, definitions, methods Collection data collection Present Findings usually involves some form of sorting analysis and/or presentation. Prior to any data collection, pre-collection activity is one of the most crucial steps in the process. It is often discovered too late that the value of their interview information is discounted as a consequence of poor sampling of both questions and informants and poor elicitation techniques. After pre-collection activity is fully completed, data collection in the field, whether by interviewing or other methods, can be carried out in a structured, systematic and scientific way. A formal data collection process is necessary as it ensures that data gathered are both defined and accurate and that subsequent decisions based on arguments embodied in the findings are valid.The process provides both a baseline from which to measure and in certain cases a target on what to improve.

Technical communicators must collect all information that each document requires. They may collect information through primary (first-hand) researchor secondary research, using information from existing work by other authors. Technical communicators must acknowledge all sources they use to produce their work. To this end, technical communicators typically distinguish quotations, paraphrases, and summaries when taking notes. Drafting/Rough Drafting Put the information you researched into your own words. Write sentences and paragraphs even if they are not perfect. Read what you have written and judge if it says what you mean. Show it to others and ask for suggestions.

Drafting is the process whereby writers simply get something written on paper or computer file so that they can begin to craft their writing. One misconception that some beginning writers have is that the drafting process equals the writing process--that is, they believe that "good writers" simply sit down and write and "get it right" the first time, and "bad writers" similarly must live with whatever they produce as they initially draft. To improve, writers must come to see drafting as simply one activity in the overall process, not the whole thing. On the other hand drafting is not simply one activity, it is an on-going activity as features are added, revisions and corrections made, and formatting improved. For many writers, the move from investigating, planning, and inventing to drafting--actually producing words--is the most difficult moment in the writing process. At some time, nearly every writer has experienced the problem of not being able to get started writing. An instructor who wants to help students get started drafting can emphasize four points about it. First, students can be encouraged to think of their first efforts at drafting a paper as a zero draft an attempt simply to write as much as possible without being concerned about thesis statements, organizational patterns, sentence structure, details of grammar and usage, and so on. This is not to say that the student should expect to produce a completed product in this seemingly haphazard fashion. As the sections to follow on revising and editing will make clear, the zero draft simply provides rough material for the writer to craft into a completed product. But if beginning writers can learn to turn off their internal editors, those nagging voices that force them to be obsessive about correctness from the initial moment of drafting, and get something written, they should eventually produce a draft that they can refine. A second, related point is that students should understand drafting as a process that allows them to try out ideas, passages, and words without feeling definitely committed to them. Only the most expert, gifted writer can know with any certainty how written language is going to look, feel, or sound before she writes it. A beginning writer needs to have the leeway to take some risks, to "live dangerously" in the drafting process, in order to learn how to produce correct, effective, and distinctive prose. A third and again related point is that a writer should understand that some parts of a paper may be easier to draft than others, and if he feels blocked on the difficult section, he should draft a section that seems easier. A writer drafting a scientific research report may find either the introduction or the discussion section difficult to draft, but the methods and materials section might be easier. Thus, if he drafts the methods and materials section, he might develop some fluency that will help him with the more difficult parts. The final point about drafting is that writers need to learn to trust their ears and their brains. Throughout the drafting process, a writer will "hear" ideas, passages, and even phrases and words forming in her mind. She should feel comfortable "capturing" these fleeting thoughts. One strategy some writers use is to annotate the margins of their papers as they are producing a zero draft or immediately after they have finished it. Another tactic to capture these "mental rehearsals" is to keep a pad on the desk while you are drafting and simply jot down ideas, passages, and words separately and consult them for later use. Writing a zero draft is a messy, imprecise process, but it does enable a writer to produce raw material for consulting, revising, and editing. Because the zero draft is such a wonderfully messy product, a beginning writer should be encouraged to "clean up" a zero draft a bit and produce a Working Draft in which the central ideas are relatively clear, the sentences are at least complete, and the usage is standard and correct before consulting with a reader.

The product is continually in "draft" form until ready for the final submission. Each time it is revised a new draft is created. Thus from this point forward the processof "drafting" is somewhat continuous. Revising and editing Once the initial draft is laid out, editing and revising can be done to fine-tune the draft into a final copy. Four tasks transform the early draft into its final form, Revising gives you the chance to preview your work on behalf of the eventual reader. Revision is much more than proofreading, though in the final editing stage it involves some checking of details. Good revision and editing can transform a mediocre first draft into an excellent final paper. It's more work, but leads to real satisfaction when you find you've said what you wanted. Here are some steps to follow on your own. Writing centres can give you further guidance. Start Large, End Small Revision may mean changing the shape and reasoning in your paper. It often means adding or deleting sentences and paragraphs, shifting them around, and reshaping them as you go. Before dealing with details of style and language (editing), be sure you have presented ideas that are clear and forceful. Make notes as you go through these questions, and stop after each section to make the desired revisions. First check whether you have fulfilled the intention of the assignment. Look again at the instruction sheet, and revise your work to be sure you can say yes to these questions: Have you performed the kind of thinking the assignment sheet asked for (e.g., analyse, argue, compare, explore) Have you written the genre of document called for (e.g., book review, critique, personal response, field notes, research report, lab report, essay)? Have you used concepts and methods of reasoning discussed in the course? Don't be shy of using theoretical terms from the course. Also beware of just retelling stories or listing information. Looking at your topic sentences in sequence will show what kinds of ideas you have emphasized. (See our handout on Developing Coherent Paragraphs.) Have you given adequate evidence for your argument or interpretation? Be sure that the reader knows why and how your ideas are important. A quick way of checking is to note where your paragraphs go after their topic sentences. Watch out for repetitions of general ideas-look for progression into detailed reasoning, usually including source referencing. Then look at overall organization. It's worthwhile to print out everything so that you can view the entire document. Then consider these questions, and revise to get the answers you want: Does your introduction make clear where the rest of the paper is headed? If the paper is argument-based, you will likely use a thesis statement. Research papers often start with a statement of the research question. (Ask a clear-headed roommate or other friend to give you a prediction of what he or she expects after reading only the first few paragraphs of your paper. Don't accept a vague answer.) Is each section in the right place to fulfil your purpose? (It might help to make a reverse outline: take the key idea from each paragraph or section and set it down in a list so you can see the logical structure of what you've written. Does it hang together? Is it all necessary? What's missing? Revise to fill in gaps and take out irrelevant material.) Have you drawn connections between the sections? (Look again at your topic sentences to see if they link back to what has just been said as well as looking forward to the next point. Find ways to draw ideas together explicitly. Use logical statements, not just a sprinkling of connecting words.) Would a person reading your conclusion know what question you had asked and how you had arrived at your answer? (Again, ask for a real paraphrase.)

Now polish and edit your style by moving to smaller matters such as word choice, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. You may already have passages that you know need further work. This is where you can use computer programs (with care) and reference material such as handbooks and handouts. Here are some tips Read passages aloud to see if you have achieved the emphasis you want. Look for places to use short sentences to draw attention to key ideas, questions, or argumentative statements. If you can't read a sentence all the way through with expression, try cutting it into two or more.Be sure to use spell check. It will help you catch most typos and many wrongly spelled words. But don't let it replace anything automatically, or you'll end up with nonsense words. You will still have to read through your piece and use a print dictionary or writer's handbook to look up words that you suspect are not right.Don't depend on a thesaurus. It will supply you with lists of words in the same general category as the one you have tried-but most of them won't make sense. Use plain clear words instead. Use a print dictionary and look up synonyms given as part of definitions. Always look at the samples of usage too. Don't depend on a grammar checker. The best ones still miss many errors, and they give a lot of bad advice. If you know that you overuse slang or the passive voice, you may find some of the "hits" useful, but be sure to make your own choice of replacement phrases. A few of the explanations may be useful. But nothing can substitute for your own judgement.

Technological Institute of the Philippines

#938 Aurora boulevard Cubao Quezon City

ASSIGNMENT

ENGL 413A

TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION

Submitted by: Aisen S. Dela Cruz AR41FB1 Submitted to:Mrs.Lorna Dimatatac 02/26/13