Organisation in Technical

communication
 Organisation in Technical
communication
• Technical communication is always organised
and logically structured.
• Organisation is the process of arranging
information logically.
• Whether a person has to write a technical
report or make an oral presentation, write an
email message, he/she has to organise the
information logically.
Seven patterns in organising Technical
Communication – Spatial organisation
1. Spatial organisation- The process of dividing a
subject/topic based on how they are “arranged in
space/place” is called spatial organisation.
• This type of pattern makes a difficult subject easy to
understand by breaking the topic into various parts.
• For example: if a report has to be prepared about the
functioning of a company, it may be organised by simple
divisions of the company: production department,
administrative department, marketing division and so on.
• If a principal of a college is presenting the annual report of
the college, he will be listing out the activities of the
various departments one by one. Example: Civil
department, Mechanical department etc.
 Spatial organisation- advantages and
disadvantages
• Advantages: a) easy to use b) simplifies a
difficult subject c) presents a clear and logical
picture of the topic/subject
• Disadvantages: a) this pattern sometimes creates
boredom and monotony, especially with respect
to longer texts or presentations.
• b) Sometimes this pattern might not provide
proper emphasis i.e. unimportant points might be
given importance, while important points might
be ignored.
 Seven patterns in organising technical
communication
• 2. Chronological organisation refers to the narration of
events in the order in which they occur in time, beginning
with the first event, going on to the next and so on.
• This pattern can be used while writing accident reports or
progress reports.
• Similarly, while preparing the report on college sports day,
this pattern can be used.
• At what time did the sports day commence, when did the
chief guest inaugurate the meet, at what time the events
were conducted, and when did the sports day come to an
end can be written using chronological pattern.
 Advantages & Disadvantages of
Chronological Organisation
• Advantages: a) easy to use b) listeners will not get
confused because the events will be narrated in the
order of time. i.e. what came first, what came next etc.
c) as events are given in the order of time, it will be
easy to check and review mistakes.
• Disadvantages: a) this pattern may create boredom b)
by using this pattern, sometimes we may tend to assign
importance to unimportant events because the
narration is based on “time” i.e. which event came
first, which came next and so on.
 Seven patterns in organising Technical
communication
• 3. General to Specific Organisation: In this pattern, general
information is given first followed by specific information.
• This pattern involves moving from a general statement,
principle or law to specific details.
Egs: The world is full of poisonous substances.
Air pollution has been a major threat not only to the
quality of the environment but also to human health
Gases are high energy states of matter.
• All the above statements are GENERAL as they do not refer to
one particular situation but cover a wide range of situations.
• General statements are different from specific statements,
which are true for specific situations, events.
 General to Specific Organisation
Passage
• “ Fuel cells convert the energy stored in the chemical bonds
of fuel directly into electrical power. In these direct energy
conversion devices, the intermediate steps of conversion of
chemical energy to heat followed by conversion of heat to
mechanical work re completely eliminated. In these
electrochemical devices, the chemical energy of the fuel is
directly converted into low voltage direct current electrical
energy. Because energy conversion can be carried out
isothermally, fuel cell efficiency is not subject to limitations of
Carnot efficiency. Since it is possible to bypass the processes
of conversion of chemical energy to heat, and that of heat to
mechanical energy in a fuel cell, its efficiency is very high.”
 General to Specific organisation
passage
• The first sentence in the preceding paragraph is a general
statement as it conveys about fuel cells, that is, function of
fuel cells.
• On the other hand, the subsequent sentences of the
paragraphs are SPECIFIC and give specific information
about subsequent processes in fuel cells.
• The first sentence(“ Fuel cells convert the energy stored in
the chemical bonds of fuels directly into electrical power”)
is a generalization, while the other sentences in the
paragraph support the first sentence with specific details.
• The paragraph is organised in such a way that it begins with
general information and is followed by specific
information
 Advantages and disadvantages-
General to Specific organisation
• Advantages: a) Generalisations will help the
readers/listeners to understand the “details”
better because general statements are given
first. b) readers/listeners will have clarity because
general statements come first followed by
specific details or examples.
• Disadvantages: a)Retaining the audience
attention will become a problem after some of
point of time. b) Too much of general statements
will make the audience feel bored.
 Specific to General Organisation
• 4. Specific to General Organisation: In this
pattern, specific information is followed by
general information.
• Specific details, examples and illustrations come
first followed by general statements.
• Example: If you push a rubber ball under the
surface of water in a container, you will feel an
upward force against the bottom of the ball
(specific statement). Hence, it is evident that
water exerts pressure upwards(general
statement).
 Advantages and disadvantages-
Specific to General organisation
• Advantages: a) This pattern is more
convincing and scientific (because you give
specific details first) b) examples and
illustrations will help the readers/listeners to
understand the general statements better.
• Disadvantages: a) getting audience attention
in the beginning could be difficult because
they might not be interested in listening to
specific details first.
 Order of increasing importance
• 5. Order of increasing importance: In this
pattern, UNIMPORTANT DETAILS come first,
followed by IMPORTANT DETAILS.
• The writer/speaker begins with unimportant
details to create interest in the reader/listener.
• Novelists and movie directors use this
technique (unimportant to important) to
develop climax in their novels/movies.
 Advantages and Disadvantages- order
of increasing importance
• Advantages: a) Audience will find it easy to follow this
pattern because it has a familiar and logical sequence.
(unimportant to important)
• b) This pattern will hold, build and retain the attention of the
audience because t it will slowly develop the points from
UNIMPORTANT to IMPORTANT
• Disadvantages: a) too time consuming for engineers or
technocrats who are interested only in important points. b)
the audience have to extremely patient to listen to the
important points( because only after unimportant points,
important points will come)
 Order of decreasing importance
• 6. Order of decreasing importance: In this
pattern, IMPORTANT DETAILS are followed by
UNIMPORTANT DETAILS.
• This pattern is more suitable for busy
technocrats or engineers who do not have
either the patience or time to wait till the
important points come at the end.
 Advantages and disadvantages of
order of decreasing importance
• Advantages: a) less time consuming for people who are
interested in important points b) readers/listeners need not
wait for the main ideas and c) easy to follow.
• Disadvantages:
• a) audience interest may gradually decrease as time passes
because all important points are given at the beginning
itself.
• b) This pattern may very soon create boredom among the
audience.
• c) Retaining the audience attention will be difficult
because the audience have already received the
important information and what is left is unimportant,
which they will ignore or tend to ignore.
 Emphatic Organisation
• 7. Emphatic organisation: In this pattern, ideas
are presented in the order of increasing
importance (unimportant details followed by
important details) with a summary in the
beginning.
• In Emphatic organisation, a summary is added in
the beginning of a document that will help the
readers to get the gist of the subject and they
need not wait for the main points to come at the
end.
 Advantages and disadvantages of
Emphatic organisation
• Advantages -
a) A summary at the beginning will help the readers to know what is
the subject.
b) Readers/listeners need not wait for the main ideas.
c) As the summary is given in the beginning itself, it will hold, build
and retain the audience’s attention.
• Disadvantages –
a) This pattern may create boredom
b) For some writers/presenters, this pattern might be
difficult to use
c) For some readers/listeners, this pattern may be confusing
because in the beginning a summary is given and then ideas are
presented in the order of increasing importance (unimportant details
followed by important details)