Memorandum: Unique Forms of Technical Writing in the Pastime of Sewing

To: Future and Practicing Sewers

From: Dejanee Miles
Date: 26 November 2021
Issue: Tactical Professional Communication in Sewing

An Intersection of Art and Professionalism

As it will soon be revealed, this memorandum will serve to elaborate on the extensive amount of
user-created instructional material that is made legible and accessible for both the practicing and
potential new incomers to the artistry and craft of sewing. Toward the end of this piece, there
will be supplemental proposals and calls to action for the audience to create their own
instructional content for others of their caliber to use in a similar fashion.

If an individual were to hear the word “sewing,” they might envision the complex shapes,
patterns, and manuals that are shared in either the online or real-world spaces by the users in that
field. These designs concocted by several people in the profession or pleasurable leisure initially
appear to be intimidating, with the abundance of styles and techniques used coming from a few
pieces of fabric and a single needle. Contrary to this wary preconception about the art of sewing,
the craft can be utilized for a wide array of purposes that range from fun activities to more
fashionable ventures through the power of radical sharing, or the ability to share information at
rapid rates due to the increase in technological advancements that improve the writing process
(Kimball, “Tactical Technical Communication”).

When speaking from a general standpoint, the oftentimes assumedly daunting task of
professionally written documents is not typically associated with the delightful creative exercises
and opportunities that sewing offers. However, this cannot be further from the truth as there are
multiple blogs, articles, tutorials, and social media accounts that are hidden under the guise of the
aesthetically pleasing, personalized, and quite authentic archives that are made available on the
internet. The authors of these records utilized visual representations of their work, such as
images or figures, sewing terminology, condensed pieces of text, and various sections that have
been segmented based on certain topics using a combination of bullet points and colorful
material. In essence, without the integral role that these user-oriented technical and professional
writings have in these types of online instructional pieces, it would be much more difficult for
sewers or all rankings to continue to create their visions and masterpieces.

The Characteristics of Tactical and Technical Texts

For the sake of providing further clarification and lessening any confusion, here is a simple
definition of what is categorized as a technical or professional text. According to the teachings of
Cassandra Race in her online lessons about technical and professional works, technical and
professional writing can be explained as any and all procedures that involve the formation and
collaboration of ideas in written form (Race “Chapter 1: Introduction to Technical Writing”). To
reiterate, professional and technical communication is any document, online or physical, that
houses an assortment of ideas that are concentrated with a particular audience and purpose in
mind. These can be identified as texts that include but are not limited to messages, emails,
weblogs, internet databases, and instructions and are also not exclusive to the stringent
environment of the workplace or a larger enterprise. As a result, every person participates in
technical and professional communication in some way, shape, or form with some being more
overt than others. Another means that can be utilized by the average person to recognize these
varieties of texts would be through the six characteristics assigned to every professional or
technical document.

As Race further explains in her lesson, the common features of these specific types of records are
as follows:

➔ Focused on the audience,

➔ Rhetorical,
➔ Professional,
➔ Design-centered,
➔ Research-oriented, and
➔ Ethical (Race “Chapter 1: Introduction to Technical Writing”).

These facets of the professional communication genre are the key to establishing a niche catalog
that contains enough to one or a small selection of topics and is user-friendly as well.

Tactical forms of communication are a subsection of the broader genre of technical and
professional communication. Whether they be in a field of interest such as a hobby or a corporate
text, tactical writing has been previously and best described by Miles Kimball in his article titled
“The Golden Age of Technical Communication.” Based on his findings, the phrase details
amateur users of a particular artform or practice that make their own distinct sorts of directions,
giving them the advantage of being even more familiarized with their audience and the purpose
for their writing than that of a business (Kimball, “The Golden Age of Technical
Communication”). Essentially, whenever a user decides to make a manual themselves for others
to use in their field of interest, then it is classified as a tactical technical text.

Implementing the following techniques will allow any user-created document to fall under this
definition:
 ➔ Visible,
➔ User-Created,
➔ Personal, and
➔ Authentic (Kimball, “The Golden Age of Technical Communication”).

Three Archetypes of Tactical Professional Communication

Sewing Blogs and Articles:

Blogs and articles are educational tools that can be found online in a visible space with
the unique ability to cover several topics, even being one of the primary modes of
communication for many tactical technical authors in the sewing community, thus being a
user-created archive. The use of this type of already familiar material allows skilled
practitioners and newcomers in the sewing world to traverse these websites in ease and at
their own pace, as well. This is possibly due to the authentic forms of writing that users
read that have been made personal by these independent creators.
● Crazy Little Project” Blog Site- A majority of the content and patterned sets
housed on this particular blog site pertain to an audience that may either have
children, seek out designs that serve as life-hacks, or some combination of those
two options. Although not explicitly stated on the “Sewing and Crafts” page, the
implied reasoning that Amber, the designer for the blog, seems to give for writing
these individual blog posts is that she herself is a mother and has been fascinated
by the art of sewing for some time according to her mini-autobiography. This
more implicit rhetorical and professional mood is established with the text in
the blogs themselves, which has an informal tone. From a design standpoint, each
article is fairly legible as there are sectioned pieces of writing with a video and a
plethora of pictures spliced in between. The bold and capitalized subheadings also
help accentuate the research-oriented parts of the blog that list supplies and
precise measurements, accompanied by visuals that were taken by Amber herself,
proving to be an ethical source of information (see Figure 1).

(Figure 1, supply list with measurements)

 ● Teach You to Sew- Upon some initial research, this website holds multiple articles
that inform an audience that is interested in learning more about the history of
their fabrics, the evolution of the fashion industry, and the benefits of specialized
sewing machines. As depicted in one of the articles titled “Irina Lakicevic
Fashion Blogger Portable Package Profile” there is a clear rhetorical outline of
the brief biography that readers can use to learn more about the popular
fashionista below an image of her. Since this text focuses on providing an
unbiased view into the chronology of this individual, it has adopted a formal tone
to compliment the professional undertones established. Compared to the other
articles centered around the background of specific fabrics and clothes, this one is
designed to be read in small bits of text with emboldened subheadings and
clickable links to supply the users with research-oriented and ethical pieces of
information that they are free to explore themselves (see Figure 2).

(Figure 2, facts and image of Irina Lakicevic)

Fashion and Craft Sewing Tutorials:

Tutorials are another helpful and personal utensil that many people have used to their
advantage to assist them with skills both new and old. As another popular visible form of
technical communication in the realm of sewing, these greatly resemble blogs and articles
in the personal aesthetic sense of visualizations in conjunction with bullet points or
listicles of procedurals. All three of these modes of authentic communication are short as
well, making it easier to look for specific items or steps for readers and users alike and
more likely for them to be positively affected by radical sharing.
● Melly Sews Online Tutorial- The central audience for the tutorials on this website
mainly revolved around the fashionable methods of sewing clothes or making
alterations to clothes that have already been made, similar to a few of the blogs on
the Crazy Little Projects website. The rhetorical exigence for each of these
tutorials is given below the image of the end result of a particular sewing project,
as depicted in the tutorial “Sew a Robe – Easy Tutorial.” This rationale further
establishes the explicit professional goals of the designer, Melissa. Using the
tutorial previously mentioned as an example, there are clickable links, videos, and
images used throughout the page that make up the design (see Figure 3). This is
also akin to the articles from Teach You to Sew and weblogs from Crazy Little
Projects. These images, include the drawings and charts about size estimations
created by Melissa herself, proving that the research-orientation aspect of the
pictures shown is completely ethical.

(Figure 3, clickable links and YouTube video about sewing techniques)

● Sewing Tutorials from A Beautiful Mess- The owners of this site, Emma and
Elsie, are interested in garnering an audience that would like to improve the look
of their house through home decor sewing projects. Based on one of the tutorials
housed on the site titled “Quilted Velvet Pillow Tutorial,” this intent of adding
self-made decorations to a house contributes to the rhetorical and professional
features of the tutorials. Unlike the other helpful material that was mentioned
prior, this rationale is more implied through the multiple reasons why each project
 is important given by the author as a means of further persuading the users. The
informal nature of writing found in the text also adds to the personalized design
corresponding with emboldened words and vibrant, close-up images (see Figure
4). Since these tutorials are focused largely on the creation of household objects
rather than articles of clothing, they have the benefit of providing the exact
dimensions needed for these items. These are also given by the individual authors
in an effort to accurate research-oriented work that is free of any questionably
ethical situations.

(Figure 4, guide for throw-pillow project)

Sewing Side of Social Media:

What is considered to be the most effective visible method of technical and professional
writing that comes at the advantage of increased radical sharing in the modern era is the
use of social media accounts and platforms. This is especially beneficial for several
subsects of niche communities, including the internet sewing groups, that are seeking out
user-created articles of trends to participate in. Due to the fact that a majority of these
personal social media accounts are typically independently run by one person, they can
be categorized as an authentic style of writing.
● Sewing_Techniques Instagram Account- This massive Instagram profile serves to
be one of the best representations of the multitude of social media accounts with
an audience interested in fashion and sewing. The rhetorical approaches vary
from post to post, but a majority of the profile is largely comprised of a series of
photographs or videos in replacement of the text. According to the biography that
can be viewed above the posts, the owner of this account studied fashion design at
a university for some time, lending some credence to the inferred professional
goals. In terms of the design characteristics, the account is quite limited by the
features that Instagram allows it to use, although the owner makes use of the
colorful video and photographic guides they display on their profile. Additionally,
there is an inclusion of various trending hashtags that relate to the focus of that
 particular post (see Figure 5). In the ethical captioned section, each video and
picture is attributed to its original creators, whom the users can choose to explore
to gain further insight into the research-oriented parts of these posts.

(Figure 5, trending hashtags and proper credit on post)

● Mayra Cecilia's Twitter Account- Much like the audience for the Crazy Little
Project website and the online tutorials from Melly Sews, the main demographic
for this Twitter account seems to be beginner and intermediate sewers who enjoy
fashion and life-hack sewing projects. The biography of Mayra Cecilia, the owner
of this profile, indicates the explicit professional objective of sharing free or paid
sources with helpful patterns and knowledge, showing its implied rhetorical
techniques and the ethical means of citing its sources (see Figure 6). These
sources can range from links to external content about online designs to the
personalized guides and tutorials of Mayra herself, permitting a natural origin
point for the research-oriented subject pieces on the account.

(Figure 6, Twitter account and general post)

Tactical Sewing Communication - D.I.Y. Style!

To the person or people reading this, I implore all of you to create your very own
documents that adhere to the regulations that I listed above by Race and Kimball,
especially in regard to the rapid development in technology that permits our writing to be
shared in an instant. Below you will find a few supplementary approaches, some of which
have been applied to the examples listed above, that should help to steer you in the right
direction of making one or all three of the examples I mentioned:

★ Find a Problem & Solve It:

○ What have you faced, personally, that has impeded your work or has made
you feel frustrated as a user? Take these factors into consideration as you
write your documents.
○ Interview and discuss with other users or practitioners around you. Doing
so will cause you to gain some more insight into the summon plights that
have negatively impacted the demographic or audience that you are
attempting to appeal to.
○ Differentiate between normal issues that can be solved quite easily and
wicked problems; the major complications that are much more difficult to
resolve without multiple steps (Purdy, “Design Thinking in Technical and
Professional Communication: Four Perspectives”). Knowing the
difference will allow you to decide how to rhetorically approach each
problem, contributing to the research-oriented and professionalism of each
text as well.
★ Make Room for Adjustments:
○ All user-created fields of writing have the advantage of making their own
rules that apply to their unique creations, so I would advise taking
advantage of that.
○ Consider the challenges and problems you faced as a user and practitioner
of a certain hobby or skill. This will permit you to determine what the
most viable options and solutions are for a few of the problems you
present.
★ Use Visuals & Fun Texts:
○ Videos, calming audio, and a series of images have the combined
advantage of utilizing the factors of the auditory and visual senses that are
more likely to appeal to most readers and users and being aesthetically
pleasing enough for any and all style of writing. These are also great
methods for showing a visual aid for how to conduct a certain project,
effectively having it speak for itself and reducing the amount of technical
jargon on each page.
○ Bullet points and lists can be used as another way to shorten the writing to
smaller chunks of text that are easily digestible for a wider audience.
 These can also be used to create a hierarchy of sorts with the ingredients
or materials required to make each item.
○ Various colors, fonts, paragraph sizes, headings and subheadings, and
other edits that can be made to the text are highly encouraged as it is an
effortless means of delineating between different topics without having the
need to add a transition or an awkward break in the text. To an extent,
these are similar to videos in the sense that both can be self-explanatory
based on the titles used or the coloration in the visual texts on screen.
○ Incorporate links to your social media accounts, buttons that permit
sharing onto other social media platforms, or external sources created by
you or someone else. If you want your articles, blogs, posts, or tutorials to
gain some traction online through radical sharing, as Kimball explains,
then the most effective way to do so is with social media. As previously
mentioned, numerous online spaces and communities have benefitted from
the easy accessibility of rapidly sharing content of redirecting your
audience toward other types of content that may appeal to them, growing
the influence you have over them.
 Works Cited

@AtSoSewEasy. “Selvage drawstring bag tutorial - Sewing 4 Free -” Twitter,

https://mobile.twitter.com/AtSoSewEasy/status/1468259098240110596.
Chapman, Emma and Elsie Larson. A Beautiful Mess. https://abeautifulmess.com/.
Denbow, Rachel. “Quilted Velvet Pillow Tutorial.” A Beautiful Mess,
https://abeautifulmess.com/quilted-velvet-pillows-tutorial/.
Joleen. “Irina Lakicevic Fashion Blogger Portable Package Profile.” Teach You to Sew,
https://teachyoutosew.com/irina-lakicevic-fashion-blogger-portable-package-profile/.
Joleen. Teach You to Sew. 2021, https://teachyoutosew.com/.
Kimball, Miles A. “Tactical Technical Communication.” Technical Communication Quarterly,
26:1, 1-7, doi: 10.1080/10572252.2017.1259428
Kimball, Miles A. “The Golden Age of Technical Communication.” Journal of Technical Writing
and Communication, vol. 47, no. 3, July 2017, pp. 330–358,
doi:10.1177/0047281616641927.
Mora, Melissa. “Make this DIY bathrobe as a gift or for yourself.” Melly Sews,
https://mellysews.com/sew-robe-easy-tutorial/.
Mora, Melissa. Melly Sews. 2021, https://mellysews.com/.
Pope-Ruark, Rebecca. "Design Thinking in Technical and Professional Communication: Four
Perspectives." Journal of Business and Technical Communication, vol. 33, no. 4, 2019,
pp. 437-455.
Price, Amber. Crazy Little Projects. 2021, https://crazylittleprojects.com/.
Price, Amber. “Kid’s Messenger Bag Sewing Pattern.” Crazy Little Projects, 4 June 2021,
https://crazylittleprojects.com/reversible-messenger-bag/.
Race, Cassandra. Open Technical Communication. E-book, 2020.
Sewing_Techniques. “Sewing_Techniques.” Instagram,
https://www.instagram.com/sewing_techniques/?utm_medium=copy_link.