Blog Post 1

The role of the technical/professional writer, in essence, is to communicate. Whether he or she is trying to inform readers of scientific facts, explain operating instructions, or convince readers of the quality of a product, it is the writer’s job to effectively communicate this information so that it is useful and effective. As a result, the role of the technical writer becomes much more complex. Heather and Roger Graves explore this role in detail in A Strategic Guide to Technical Communication. They write that the technical writer’s job often is to take a very specialized body of information and translate it into a form that a non-specialist user can understand. Therefore, in order to communicate effectively the writer must identify the user audience and must understand their needs and expectations. The writer must take many different user qualities into account. Graves and Graves explain that the writer must be familiar with things such as the context in which the document will be read and used.  In addition, the writer must be aware of the users’ level of familiarity with the information, and must be careful to cater to all types of users—at once giving sufficient information to users who are unfamiliar, while also being careful not to offend or alienate experienced users who already have a basic understanding of the information concerned. Graves and Graves offer several strategies for acquiring such information, including interviewing both users and experts, observing users using the product as well as using the product oneself. In addition, they continue to stress the importance of creating user profiles, classifying users according to things such as interests, demographics, age, sex, race. Once the writer understands the users, he or she then must transcribe the information accordingly, creating a well written document that is purposeful, useful, and interesting.

            Of all my classes, my Chinese language classes have probably best prepared me for technical communication. In these classes, I was in what would be called the user’s position. I was dependent on my teachers to effectively communicate information with which I was totally unfamiliar. I experienced the excitement of understanding difficult concepts as a result of effective communication, the frustration caused by poorly presented information, as well as the annoyance of being given overly simplified information. Furthermore, having a limited vocabulary, I was forced to find a simpler way to communicate in Chinese, making it necessary for me fully understand the message I was trying to communicate. As a result, especially in situations with secondary English speakers, I have found that I better understand how to explain complicated subjects in a clear and concise manner, while also respecting the listener’s intelligence.