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SCENARIO

With your new engineering degree, you went to work for Southwest Coal Power (SCP), a company that builds coal-burning power plants. In the six months you’ve been with SCP, you’ve learned how new technologies are making the burning of coal cleaner and safer for the environment. SCP has contracted to build a new power plant in Roll, Arizona. Before SCP can build the plant, however, it must file an Environmental Impact Statement that details any environmental problems the plant may cause and ways that such problems would be mitigated. You have been assigned to the team writing the statement. The proposed plant will use a boiler called a “fluidized-bed boiler,” and the head of the team has assigned you the task of explaining the boiler.

In your first attempt, you wrote a highly technical textbook description of the fluidized-bed boiler, and the head of the team didn’t like it at all. “Think of your readers,” he said. “They’re not engineers. They’re bureaucrats and politicians and concerned citizens. They won’t understand most of this, and when people don’t understand something, they get suspicious and hostile. Give me something a non-engineer would understand.”

So now you are putting on paper some thoughts about your readers. They won’t understand engineering terminology. They need some sort of analogy, maybe. You’ve seen the fluidized-bed boiler compared to a giant pressure cooker. That might work. And you have some good drawings that show the boiler in action, pretty easy to visualize, really.

What’s the reader’s point of view? They probably think coal is a dirty fuel and that the new power plant will endanger the environment. You can show them how this new kind of boiler “fluidizes” more than 90 percent of the sulfur and nitrogen pollutants out of coal. You begin to realize that thinking about your readers can be a good way to discover the content you need and even to organize it.

This chapter explains how audience analysis fits into the composing process and identifies the other steps of the process.

Composing

The Basic Parts of the Composing Process

1. Analyzing the Writing Situation2. Choosing/Discovering Content 3. Arranging Content 4. Drafting and Revising 5. Revising 6. Document Design7. Editing

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Planning and Revision Checklists

The Composing Process as it Often Exists in a Workplace Environment

Understanding the Composing Process--Why Bother?

For many writers, the hardest part of having to write is deciding what to say or “getting started.” You may feel that, “once I get started on a writing project, that’s half the battle.” So, what’s an effective way to “get started”? Because technical writing differs from personal essays, you may find that “getting started” is easier and more interesting than trying to begin an essay, such as you wrote in freshman composition or developing essay exam responses in courses such as history, philosophy, or psychology.

The Basic Parts of the Composing Process

Writing effectively begins with your understanding that writing well requires a process. If you understand the process, why it’s important, then you can see the value of using it. The more frequently you use it, the more efficient you will become in using the composing process. The result: a better percentage of the documents you write will achieve their intended goal.

This composing process has several parts:

analyzing the situation which requires a written response, choosing content, arranging content, drafting and revising, and then editing the finished draft.

Writing requires each activity, but most of the time the activities are recursive: that is, you begin with an analysis of a situation which requires you to write; but as you choose and then arrange content, you are probably drafting and doing some revising. Once you are satisfied with your content and your arrangement, you may decide to focus on revision to improve articulation of the content you are presenting. Editing, the final stage, is usually an important “quality check” to ensure that what you have written is correct in content, usage, punctuation, spelling, and sentence structure. Editing allows you to look at your document as a whole, to assess its quality.

Writing becomes extremely difficult if you try to do all the parts at once! Or (equally difficult) you may try to prepare an outline about the subject or topic first and then try to follow the outline in collecting information. Neither method will produce an effective document. Research has shown that good writers usually follow a basic process. What you produce will make your writing tasks easier and the results more effective than if you focused on collecting and outlining information.

1. Analyzing the Writing Situation

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The first step in composing is the most critical to the success of what you write. In this step, you need to know why you are writing, what you are attempting to achieve with your document, what situation or problem has lead to the necessity of your writing this document. Then, you need to consider your readers—those who will/may read your document.

Every technical or workplace document is written to respond to a specific situation. Each document has a targeted audience. Writing responds to both--the situation and the readers in that situation. Writing is NOT simply compiling information about a subject.

2. Choosing/Discovering Content

Sources for content may include previous reports prepared by the organization, research material from databases, indexes, and the World Wide Web; interviews, surveys, statistics, technical periodicals, and books. What you need to include should always be guided by why you are writing, what your reader needs, and how your reader perceives the subject.

As you search for information, remember your purpose as what you want your reader to know and do with what you write. In the workplace, writing solves problems and enables the organization to operate.

After you have considered your purpose and begun to research your topic, begin to list ideas that you can use to develop your topic. If you wish to do this activity on your computer, simply list ideas. Then, move/insert/delete ideas. Based on these ideas, ask yourself what additional information will you need to locate. Computers are great for allowing you to list and then turn lists of ideas into larger units. Don’t like what you wrote? Delete it. You may want to begin your document by writing your purpose at the beginning--to help you stay on track.

3. Arranging Content

As you collect and begin summarizing information and data, you will begin to consider how to arrange the material. In what order should you present your content? Most reports begin with an introduction, followed by a summary of the report. Or, the introduction may be combined with a summary of the report. The discussion section, in which you present the supporting information, follows. Most reports follow some version of this plan. You may be able to choose your arrangement, or you may be told how to organize your document. Proposals, for example, often have specific, required sections. Many business organizations have rules on how reports distributed to clients outside the firm should be written. In Part III, you will see various ways to arrange and present material in a variety of technical documents. As we say repeatedly, these are suggested approaches and guidelines that can and should be modified depending on the needs of the topic, readers, and the purpose of the document. Effective writing responds to all three.

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A useful way to arrange content is to place material in “stacks” which can be used as a resource when you begin writing. If you know what arrangement you want/are required to use, sort material so that you can easily find it when you begin drafting specific segments of your document. You can also sort material electronically: create folders of information on each segment of your report. Then, arrange material within each folder before you begin drafting. This method allows you to track material you use and insert appropriate citations when you use material from a specific source.

If you use electronic articles from your library’s database, you can insert these articles into files that can be accessed later, when you begin to draft your document.

4. Drafting and Revising

Drafting is a highly individual activity. Few writers do it exactly alike, but many writers now draft on their computers. Most writers work on a document in a start/stop fashion. When you begin your draft, open your file and save it with the name of your report. Then, begin keyboarding ideas or sections. (You may wish to move/paste material you listed, arranged, and then developed in Step 2.) You may wish to type the names of your main segments, boldface those, and insert information beneath the appropriate segment. This method helps you keep track of the information that you are using to develop your draft. Note that some of the ideas in the list of ideas become headings in Figure 2-1. Some are combined with other ideas. Note that you can arrange, delete, and add ideas as you need to.

To show you how the composing process works when it is applied to a routine business document, read the following situation and track the development of this memorandum.

Situation 1

Bob Johnson, an engineering project manager with a local civil engineering firm, has been named local arrangement chair of the forthcoming construction engineering conference. Two months before the conference, Bob needs to send a memo to everyone in his group to let them know what responsibilities they will have at the conference. While all employees know about the conference, Bob has informed his group via email that each office group will have responsibilities throughout the conference. Bob wants the memo to inform his group specifically about what they will need to do.

Bob uses the planning stage of the memo to decide what topics he wants to present to his group. He will send this memo and as email attachment. As he plans his memo, Bob keyboards the following list of topics:

Location, date, time info of conference

Specific duties of the SE Group

General instructions

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Conference schedule

Other information SE Group needs to know

As he develops the memo, he inserts information beneath each heading and then revises several. His first draft looks like this:

Conference Location, Date, time info Time

CE conference-- October 28-29--Lancaster Center. Our group’s responsibility-- serve as greeters, help prevent glitches. Over 150 engineers have already registered, and the cut-off date is still three weeks away. We need to be sure we are organized. Conference may be larger than last year. We want to do our part to ensure the success of the meeting. Help all attendees have a good conference. Be proactive in anticipating problems with people getting where they need to be:

Please be at the Lancaster Center at the following times:

Oct. 28: noon-end of the day Oct. 29: 7:00-end of the conference. Last session begins at 3:30

Our Responsibilities

Helping visitors locate the section meetings, answer any questions, deal with any hotel reservation glitches, transportation problems, questions about restaurants. Remain available until after the dinner on Oct. 28. Oct. 29: On site throughout the day.

General Instructions Information

Number expected to register and attend: 200+. Visitors will arrive at the hotel by mid-morning on the 28th. Some will come the

evening before. [Contact Ralph to see if we need to be at the hotel on Oct. 27 after 5:00? Check information folder for sponsor letters.]

Be available no later than noon on 28th. If possible, arrive at the Lancaster Center earlier than that. Dress is business casual.

If those flying in arrive late, contract Jim or Joanna via their cell phones to ensure that registrations are not cancelled. Jim: 228-3459; Joanna: 322-1875.

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Conference Schedule

Oct. 28

Lighte lunch: noon-1:15Opening session: 1:30-3:00Second session: 3:30-5:00 [check sponsors for all sessions. These have to be correct!!!! Check with central planning group.]Dinner: 6:30--Holcomb Room, 2nd floor of the LC

Oct. 29

Breakfast: Room 104 of the LC, 7:00-8:00 [sponsor?]Third session: 8:30-10:00 [session sponsor?]Closing Session: 10:30-noon [sponsor?]Lunch: noon

Displays

Nine vendors will display software all day the 29th in room 106. Consultants will be on hand to discuss compatibility issues. Be available to help vendors set up.

Conference Materials

Will be available at the check-in desk at the front door

Each folder will contain brochures about new products and a schedule. Add a list of restaurants downtown?

Other

Breakout rooms will be available for the second part of the sessions. Phone and faxes are available in Room 110 from 8:00-5:00.Refreshments will be available during break periods. Water in all rooms.

When you prepare a research report or project, as you insert information, indicate the source of all your material. Use parentheses ( ) or brackets [ ] to remind you of the source of the information. This method will help you develop your list of references for your List of Sources or Bibliography and to ensure that you “give credit where credit is due.”

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As you continue to draft, you will revise. But during the drafting stage you should revise only for meaning. Try to avoid worrying about sentences that don’t sound “quite right.” If the sentence you write captures what you want to say, even clumsily, don’t stop to revise. You can “clean up” these sentences later. Word processing programs, like Word, will alert you to problems in sentence structure and spelling. Don’t attempt to correct these mechanical problems, unless you feel you can do so without slowing your ability to transfer your ideas from your mind to the screen. Focus on presenting your material to your reader(s): then you can begin a formal revision process once you believe you have your basic ideas on the screen or page.

5. Revision

During the formal revision process, you will want to revise from different perspectives. You may want to revise several times and focus on different issues:

Logic. Does your presentation make sense? Try reading paragraphs aloud that seem to you to be “scrambled.” Hearing what you have written often tells you if/where problems in logic are occurring. Is the order in which your material is written appropriate for the purpose and for your reader(s)?

Completeness. Is your presentation complete, in terms of the purpose of your document and your readers’ needs and requirements? Is your information correct? Does your document contain all requested information?

Style. Examine each paragraph and each sentence. Are your paragraphs really paragraphs? Do they have topic sentences? Do all the sentences in the paragraph pertain to the meaning you are building in the paragraph? Try to open each paragraph with a topic sentence. Eliminate or recast sentences that provide little support for the topic sentence. Sentences should be concise. Achieving a Readable Style, clear, concise, precise sentences encourage your reader(s) to follow your ideas. Today’s readers usually dislike wordy, dense, opaque sentences. Watch the length of paragraphs. Paragraphs that are too long discourage readers and tend to become incoherent.

Visuals. Do you need visuals—photos, graphs, drawings, pictorial illustrations—to help your reader “see” and remember key ideas? Chapter 11, Creating Tables and Figures, will provide you guidelines on developing visuals that will be effective. Visuals combined with text often provide the best means of communicating with your reader(s).

6. Document Design

When you began drafting, if you used headings or names of report segments to help you organize your draft, you began at that point to design your document. Document design refers to the way information is arranged and displayed on the page. With word processing, you have many choices of font, typeface, and even color. Your choices in these areas, and then your placement of visuals, can encourage or discourage your reader(s) from attempting to skim and then begin digesting what you have to say. The importance of how information looks on the page, cannot be stressed enough. If you

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want what you have written to be read, then you have the responsibility of designing the page so that information is inviting and accessible. Examine the final draft of Bob’s memo, located at the end of this unit: note how the message looks after Bob’s initial revision of his draft:

7. Editing

Editing is a critical writing requirement. In complex reports, you will want to perform several “edits”: one for mechanics—spelling, usage, punctuation, sentence structure. When your word processing program, usually a green line under a sentence or phrase—suggests that there’s a problem with your sentence, stop and check the sentence carefully. In Appendix A, we have included a handbook that covers many common errors.

Another edit focuses on citing sources: Check your documentation to be sure that you give credit or sources of all information you have used. Be sure that when you use graphics and ideas from other sources you give credit to the source.

A third edit focuses on the document as a whole: How does it look? How does it sound? Is the important information easy to locate? Is the document complete?

In short, don’t try to check for every error at once, in one reading. Editing requires care, objective reading, and diligence.

Planning and Revision Checklists

As you pursue the major topics discussed in this book, you will find more detailed planning/revision checklists. However, the following general checklist can be used in developing any document.

Analyzing the Situation

1. What is your subject or topic?

2. What is the purpose of the document you will write?

3. Who are your readers?

4. Why are your writing? Why is this document required? What is the situation that led to the need for this document?

Selecting Content

5. What topics do you need/are required to cover? What do your readers need to know? What do you want your readers to do after they read your document?

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6. What structure do you plan to use? If you have required report sections, what are they?

7. What information resources do you have available? What resources do you need to locate?

8. What types of visuals—graphs, photos, diagrams, etc—are you considering using? How will these improve your content?

Arrangement

9. Based on the information you are collecting and your purpose in writing, in what order should the information be placed? What does your reader need to know first?

10. Have your sorted your material into specific groups?

11. Are you beginning to see a plan for headings that announce the content to your reader?

12. Are all the information groupings (with their headings) relevant to your purpose?

Drafting

13. Have you begun to insert information under the headings noted in step 11?

14. Have you recorded the source of all information you will use so that you can develop correct citations after you have completed your draft.

15. Have you noted where you will use graphics? Have you noted the source of each graphic you use from another source?

Revising

16. Have you stated clearly the purpose of your report?

17. Does your content support your purpose?

18. Will your reader(s) be able to follow your logic?

19. Have you included all required items—report sections and required information?

20. Have your checked all facts and numbers?

21. Could any material be deleted?

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22. Is your document easy to read? Are your paragraphs well organized and of a reasonable length?

23. Can you find someone who can read your draft and suggest improvements?

Editing

21. Have you checked for misspellings and for other mechanical errors, such as commas, semi-colons, colons, and quotation marks?

24. Have you checked all points of the completed draft at which your word processing program suggests that you have errors in either sentence structure, mechanics, or spelling?

25. Have you included all the formal elements that you report needs/is required to

include?

24. Is your system of documentation complete and accurate (if you are following a style sheet)?

26. Are your pages numbered?

27. Are all graphics placed in the appropriate locations within the text?

28. Is the format consistent—font selected, size, placement of headings?

Composing Process as it Often Exists in a Workplace Environment

In a non-academic setting, the above composing process-- neat, structured, orderly--often exists only in a modified form. As an employee, you may be working on several documents at once: status reports, project final reports, a proposal, routine memoranda, agenda for several meetings, and a trip report, for example. Each document will likely be in a different development phase. For routine memoranda, sent as attachments via email, you may have an hour (or less), spread over a work day, to plan, write, and send each document. For collaborative projects which cover several weeks or even months, you may be sending/receiving, revising, re-revising, and editing content. For a proposal, you may be required to develop one part, which you draft and then send to the project director. To develop that one part, you may need to research the topic, visit with the project director about the recipients who are the primary readers of the proposal, and attend one or more planning meetings with the rest of the proposal team. Or, your supervisor may ask you to draft a report about a subject which he/she will complete and send to some individual you do not know. In short, the composing process for many employees develops at a different pace for every document. And, unlike academic writing, you may not have as long as you want or need to do any writing project.

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Particularly when you are working with other employees, progress will depend on priorities: each individual will have his/her own work to do.

In a real situation, you will need to maintain some type of process to ensure that what you write is effective. Most professionals will tell you that planning is the most important part of the writing process--knowing your readers (if that is possible) and the purpose of the document--what you want to happen as a result of what you write. You can assume that documents that do not achieve the result you intend are ineffective: either they were ignored, read and ignored, or read and rejected. These situations, common in business organizations, are frustrating. While you cannot control what happens to what you write, you can use planning to anticipate how your writing will be received. Based on planning, you can choose content and presentation to help you as you decide “what to write.”

Word processing can help with your writing: you can open/name a report file, write notes to yourself about who you think will read your document and what you want to accomplish, use “free writing” to begin the document. Save your message whenever you need to move to another task. You may wish to note what you need to do the next time you open the file. Then, when you reopen the file, you can see exactly what you have done and know what you were thinking when you stopped working on this document.In short, much writing in the workplace is not done in long, uninterrupted periods, but in short time blocks, during which you may need to answer email or deal with telephone messages.

After you finish drafting your message, you should try to save it and then return to it for revising/editing. In many situations, you will need to revise/edit in one operation, which you can do for short documents. But if you try to revise and edit in one activity for longer documents, you risk making major quality errors. A break between writing and revising allows the material to “cool”: you can then return to what you have written with a fresh perspective. Revising can occur only when you can look at your ideas with some degree of objectivity, trying to read the content as your reader will look at it. Editing is critical to eliminate errors in usage, punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure that make you and your organization look incompetent.

Understanding the Composing Process—Why Bother?

You may be asking: if the writing process is not likely practiced in its pristine form, why bother? But the writing process--even in a truncated, condensed, inadequate format--can still occur and will help you develop effective documents that will be a credit to you professionally. Many poorly-written documents come from writers who do not know the writing process or who are approaching writing from a college student’s perspective. The communication course for which you are using this book may be your last opportunity to study the standards of effective communication. As you complete this course, you should clearly understand that good writing is more than correct spelling and correct usage, but these are important and cannot be forgotten!

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Let us use an analogy to explain why understanding and practicing the composing process is important: Few recreational golfers can follow all the guidelines on driving and putting, but their understanding the principles behind the correct grip, stance, and swing still guide their efforts. Thus, they “play golf” better than they would if they knew nothing about how to hold the club, approach the ball, choose the correct club, and “play the hole.” The same analogy extends to tennis: knowing the proper stance, grip, approach, and form are critical to well-placed shots. Knowing strategies for the deep game and the short game prepare you to position yourself and to be ready to attack the ball. Writing is like that: the more you know about it, and the more you write using correct process, the better writer you will become. And, bad habits produce badly written documents bad golf, and bad tennis!

Clearly, some people have a gift for golf, tennis, and writing. But even excellent writers know the importance of the writing process. Understanding the composing process, which will underlie every topic we discuss, will help you develop your assignments and help you with any other writing tasks you undertake both in college and in the workplace.

Writing Situations to Consider

1. Your university has established a special committee to deal with parking problems. One recommendation requires increasing parking fees, with the new money helping to pay for a new parking facility which could be planned and built in less than three years. The Parking Office has asked students for their input. Since the parking fee will increase $75/semester under this plan, you decide to write the Director of Parking, whom you know will share your response with the University Parking Council.

Think about your response. Focus on the question 1-7 above. Specifically,

Whose is your audience?

What is your purpose?

What should you say/not say?

How should you sound?

1. Watch one of the weekly television news channels. Plan an email response to one of the news items or feature stories related to your profession or industry. Is the story correct? Fair? Complete? On what information do you base your conclusion? Assume that your response may be shared with the viewing audience. Plan your response by using the four questions above.

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2. Plan a response to an item regarding your profession or industry in the business section of one of the local newspapers or a weekly news magazine. Was the reporting correct? Fair? Complete? Work independently and then meet as a group with other majors in your field. Compare your response with those of other team members. Work together to plan a single response that will be emailed or sent via letter to the appropriate editor at the newspaper.

3. What parts of the composing process do you enjoy or find easy? Which causes you difficult? In a group of four or five students, share your self-evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Exchange ideas and strategies for managing the composing process. Compose a list of suggestions to share with the class in a brief and informal presentation.

4. How long does it take you to write a typical email-message? Memo? Letter? Report? What specific strategies could you adopt to cut that time by at least 20%. Compile a list to share with the class?

Bob’s Final Draft of the Memo

TO: SE Group DATE: October 1, 2004

FROM: Bob Johnson

SUBJECT: Preparations for the Construction Engineering Conference

Conference Location, Date, time info Time

The construction engineering conference is scheduled October 28-29 at the Lancaster Center. Our group will serve as greeters. Over 150 engineers have already registered, and the cut-off date is still three weeks away. We need to be sure we are organized to help visitors as they arrive.

Please be at the Lancaster Center at the following times:

Oct. 28: noon-end of the day

Oct. 29: 7:00-end of the conference. Last session begins at 3:30

SE Group--Specific Duties

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We will be responsible for helping visitors locate the section meetings, answer any questions, deal with any hotel reservation and transportation glitches, and remain available until after the dinner on Oct. 28. Oct. 29--We need to be on site throughout the day and help guests who need to leave promptly at the close of the morning session.

General Information

Number expected to register and attend: 200+ Visitors will arrive at the hotel by mid-morning on the 28th. Some will

come the evening before. Be available no later than noon. If possible, arrive at the Lancaster

Center earlier than that. If those flying in arrive late, contract Jim or Joanna via their cell phones

to ensure that registrations are not cancelled. Jim: 228-3459; Joanna: 322-1875.

Conference Schedule

Oct. 28

Noon-1:15 Lite lunch--Mellon Room (Sponsor: KLM Ltd.)

1:30-3:30 Room 105, Opening session

3:30-5:00 Room 105, Second session (Sponsor: Bickle and Lauren)

6:30 Buffet in Holcomb Room, 2nd floor of the LC

Oct. 29

7:00-8:00 Breakfast: Room 104 of the LC

8:30-10:00 Room 105 , Third session (Sponsor: MERK Inc.)

10:30-noon Room 105 Closing Session (Sponsor: Malcolm, Fisher, & Peabody)

Lunch: noon Mellon Room

Software Displays

Nine vendors will display software all day the 29th in room 106. Consultants will be on hand to discuss compatibility issues. Be available to help vendors with set-up.

Conference Materials

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Available at the check-in desk at the front door

Registration folder with name tags: will contain brochures about new products and a schedule of activities. List of restaurants in town for those who are staying for the weekend.

Other Information

Phone and faxes are available in room 110 from 8:00-5:00.

Refreshments will be available during break periods. Bottled water in all rooms.

Call me on my cell phone if anything comes up that isn’t covered here.

 

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