The Essentials of Technical Communication : Chapter 2

In this Chapter

The second chapter focuses primarily on the readers of business documents and the composition process. First, this chapter discusses what you should know about potential readers before composing a document. The different attributes of the readers which will determine the composition of the document are explained. The position of the writer and purpose of the document are examined in the context of the planning process. The composing Process introduced in Chapter 1 is then explained in detail.

Understanding your Readers

The goals of communication should be to convey information to the audience exactly as intended by the writer, achieve a specific goal (explain, convince, inform, etc.), and maintain goodwill with the audience. To achieve these goals, it is important to understand your audience.  This is especially important and difficult in business writing because the audience may me diverse and unknown to the writer. The writer of a business document should always start my determining as fully as possible who will be reading the document, and what purpose you want the document to serve for these readers. It is also important to understand how the writers’ role in the organization should be reflected in the document. By thinking carefully about who the readers are, the writer can determine the reader’s frame of reference relative to the topic of the document.

One important aspect of all technical writing, regardless of audience, is brevity. Documents are unlikely to be read thoroughly or completely all the time. Therefore, an effective document starts out by telling the reader what it is about, and comes to the important points very quickly. If a document rambles too much, the reader won’t have the patience to dig for the important parts.

Composing the Document

Once you understand the perspectives of your readers, your own position in the organization, and the goal of the document, it is time to plan the content.  After analyzing the situation (readers, goal, context, etc.) the writer should compose and compile the actual content required to accomplish the intended goal. Next, the content should be arranged to accomplish the goal effectively. Content should be logically organized and the important points should be easy to find and read quickly. The organization of content will depend on the type of document and templates established by the organization. Next is drafting. Drafting is an evolutionary process where the document is composed in steps.  With each step, the document should become more complete. Drafting techniques vary widely by individual. Once a draft is complete it should be revised. With each step in this process, the document should become more correct, concise, or fluid. The final step is editing. The editing process should fix any grammatical or spelling errors in the document. Each edit of the document should focus on a specific type of error. For example, the first edit might look for mistakes in grammar and spelling, the next edit might look for formatting errors, and the next might examine documentation of sources.  The final edit should look at the document as a whole to make sure it looks and sounds the way it should.  The document should then be ready for delivery to the readers.