Blog Entry: 1
Subject: Technical Communication Documents and Ethics
After I finished reading chapter one which is talking about Technical communication documents and the characteristics of technical document, I realize that I have been writing technical documents ever since my freshman year at this university and probably even before that. Technical writing is a procedure where you prepare, structure and manage information that is to be used when producing a technical documentation. So who can we expect to produce these technical documents? As the book mentioned, “There are two types of people that create technical document, one is Technical Professionals, and the other is Technical Communicators” (Markel, 2007)
Technical professionals include people that have special skill or knowledge in a specific field, for example mechanical. A mechanical engineer will produce many technical documents like letters and reports on a particular project throughout his career for his company. Now technical Communicators are professional writers who design, create, and maintain technical documents. These documents can include user guides, online help manuals, journal articles, etc. People that use this category of writing can include accountants and marketers, who will usually try to advertise, be more creative when addressing a particular audience when promoting their products or goods.
As I mentioned before I have been creating technical documents for a long time now without even realizing that I have been doing so. Since my freshman year I have been enrolled in at least one lab class every semester and all those classes required you to generate a lab report weekly which is a technical document. Along with that I have created other project reports and proposals for my engineering classes. After reading this chapter I feel like I have all the knowledge on what a technical document is. I might not have all the knowledge yet to create a perfect one but I know the characteristics of a good one. I wish that I had taken this course one of my first semesters here at this university because it would help me create better lap reports. A good technical writing always has a particular audience and always addresses and solves a particular problem.
Citation:
Markel, Michael H. Technical Communication. 9th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St Martin's, 2007.
