Tech Biz Writing

The problems associated with technical information largely revolve around:

* Accumulation
* Retention
* Accessibility

The human brain alas is not ideally adapted to memorizing complex blocks of data, so technical information should be referenced, and stored appropriately for ease of recall. A client may present information to an author in four ways:

* Printed: requiring referencing and filing.
* Verbally: requiring notetaking or taping.
* Visually: requiring sketching or photography.
* On computer disk: requiring sorting and referencing.

Printed information: writing jobs often fall into two categories - those which deluge the writer with ream after ream of printed matter, and those which grudgingly part with a few meagre sheets in an engineer’s indecipherable script. Naturally, whatever is given is gratefully received and filed accordingly. Printed information may come in the form of:

Manuals written for previous, or similar designs.
Sales documents.
Specifications.
Test schedules.
Parts catalogues.
System diagrams, schematic flow, circuit/layout diagrams, interconnection charts.

An ability to read and interpret such technical diagrams is a part of the background expected of a technical author. If you don’t have this, it’s strongly recommended that you bone up on the subject, or move on to a less detailed side of technical writing, as described in the first lesson of this course. Manuals written for previous or similar models should be looked at mainly as a style sample, taking in such pointers as illustrations, depth of treatment and other policy areas. On the other hand, it may be possible to identify sections which are common to the current manual.

Sales literature must be treated with some caution. It may occasionally prove useful in checking performance standards, and high-definition photographs are often valuable in providing a visual record of the equipment. Bear in mind, though, that at the initial stages of a project, equipment can change radically in a short space of time. Always check visual references against the current model.

Specifications and test schedules are another vital source of information and much data of a somewhat peripheral nature may be extracted from them.

Similarly, parts catalogues or items lists are essential documents in the writing of a maintenance manual. They should present an accurate, indexed list of all the components parts applicable to the system. An illustrated parts catalogue is even more informative in that it depicts the equipment as a series of keyed exploded views with each component fully annotated.

Diagrams, of one sort or another, represent a highly concentrated source of technical information. It is assumed that the initial background of authors will have brought them into contact with many documents of this type and so we won’t dwell on them here. The most primitive, and therefore troublesome, of these is the engineer’s sketch. This is usually hastily scrawled on the nearest laminated object, from the classic back of an envelope to till receipt from Sainsbury’s. Circuit components often appear in a form of short-hand unknown to British Standards, and individual lines meet severally in odd places. This is the pictorial equivalent of the anagram and should appeal to crossword buffs with a low awareness threshold of profit margins.

System and flow diagrams give an overall assessment of a technical situation, revealing the relationships between components or functions in a system.

Circuit diagrams contain a series of graphical symbols drawn to show the sequence of events in a circuit and the component interconnections. It is largely a theoretical arrangement depicting functional information; and some components, such as integrated circuits, may be split up by function, the parts appearing in different areas of the drawing.

Layout diagrams represent the actual constituent components by shape and position in the design. A further extension of the circuit and layout drawings is the interconnection diagram — sometimes called a pianola. This is a tabulated presentation of all the component interconnections within the equipment.

All printed matter should be suitably arranged and filed. In practice, most authors have their own personal system of filing, and manage quite well with it. The only proviso to this is that colleagues, who may need access to it, shouldn’t find the method too hard to crack if the writer is, for any reason, indisposed.

Next: 22. Verbal Information

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Technical Writing, TechBiz Writing, Documentation, Design, Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.