Technical Communication - Softcover

Lannon, John M.; Gurak, Laura J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0134118499 ISBN 13: 9780134118499

Publisher: Pearson, 2016

Synopsis

For courses in Technical Communication.

Comprehensive, user-friendly instruction in workplace writing, technical communication, business writing

Today’s employees are tasked with writing documents such as emails, memos, letters, and informal reports, as well as more complex forms of communications such as formal reports, proposals, web pages, and presentations. Technical Communication, Fourteenth Edition builds upon the authority of the previous editions byclearly guiding students to write documents persuasively, effectively, and with an eye towards technological innovations and global communications. It incorporates the interpersonal, logical, ethical, and cultural demands of these different forms of workplace communications and provides students with the necessary skills to navigate these nuisances. Building on research and writing skills and touching on the importance of ethics, the authors prepare students for technical writing in any field. 

 

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About this title

From the Back Cover:

Errata

Lannon's Technical Communication, 14e, Global Edition

Chapter 2

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 59, under section Checklist: Analyzing Audience and Purpose.

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS:

·    Have I identified primary and secondary audiences? (45)

·    Have I identified my relationship to these readers? (45)

·    Have I researched the technical background of my audience? (47)

·    Have I considered the cultural backgrounds of my audience? (52)

·    Have I identified the primary and secondary purposes of the document? (46)

·    Have I considered other audience preferences, including media format? (57)

·    Have I developed an audience and use profile? (56)

Chapter 3

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 85, under section Checklist: Persuasion

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS:

·    Planning and Preparing Your Document

·    Have I identified my precise goal in this situation? (63)

·    Am I accounting for the political realities involved? (64)

·    Can I elicit more than mere audience compliance in this situation? (65)

·    Have I chosen the approach most likely to connect with this audience? (66)

·    Am I constructing a balanced and reasonable argument? (69)

·    Have I spelled out what I want this audience to do or think? (69)

·    Am I seeking an outcome that is achievable in this situation? (69)

·    Have I considered the various constraints in this situation? (70)

·    Do I provide convincing evidence to support my claims? (74)

·    Will my appeals have personal meaning for this audience? (74)

·    Overall, do I argue skillfully without being “argumentative”? (63)

·    Have I anticipated my audience’s reaction? (64)

·    Cultural Considerations*

·    Is the document sensitive to the culture’s customs and values? (77)

·    Have I avoided stereotyping of different cultures and groups of people? (78)

·    Does the document conform to the country’s safety and regulatory standards? (79)

·    Does the document provide the expected level of detail? (51)

·    Does the document avoid possible misinterpretation? (51)

·    Does the document enable everyone to save face? (77)

·    Is the document organized in a way that readers will consider appropriate? (229)

·    Does the document observe accepted interpersonal conventions? (123)

·    Does the tone reflect the appropriate level of formality or casualness? (78)

·    Is the document’s style appropriately direct or indirect? (31)

·    Is the document’s format consistent with the culture’s expectations? (330)

·    Does the document embody universal standards for ethical communication? (95)

·    Should the document be supplemented by a more personal medium? (78)

Chapter 4

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 104, under section Checklist: Ethical Communication.

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS:

·    Accuracy

·    Have I explored all sides of the issue and all possible alternatives? (69)

·    Do I provide enough information and interpretation for recipients to understand the facts as I know them? (35)

·    Do I avoid exaggeration, understatement, sugarcoating, or any distortion or omission that would leave readers at a disadvantage? (92)

·    Do I state the case clearly instead of hiding behind jargon and euphemism? (247)

·    Honesty

·    Do I make a clear distinction between “certainty” and “probability”? (180)

·    Are my information sources valid, reliable, and relatively unbiased? (177)

·    Do I actually believe what I’m saying, instead of being a mouthpiece for groupthink or advancing some hidden agenda? (91)

·    Would I still advocate this position if I were held publicly accountable for it? (90)

·    Do I inform people of all the consequences or risks (as I am able to predict) of what I am advocating? (92)

·    Do I give candid feedback or criticism, if it is warranted? (94)

·    Fairness

·    Am I reasonably sure this document will harm no innocent persons or damage their reputations? (98)

·    Am I respecting all legitimate rights to privacy and confidentiality? (94)

·    Am I distributing copies of this document to every person who has the right to know about it? (95)

·    Do I credit all contributors and sources of ideas and information? (100)

 

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 100, under section Plagiarism and Your Career, paragraph 1, lines  4 and 5

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: For more on documenting sources and on avoiding plagiarism, see A Quick Guide to Documentation, pages 658–91.

Chapter 5

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 111, under section GUIDELINES for Managing a Collaborative Project, bullet point 2

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: Compose an audience and purpose statement (page 46) that spells out the project’s goal and the plan for achieving the goal.

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 111, under section GUIDELINES for Managing a Collaborative Project, bullet point 5

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: Gantt and PERT charts (see pages 286–88) help the team visualize the whole project as well as each part, along with start-up and completion dates for each phase.

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 119, under section Figure 5.2.

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: Compare this edited draft with the final version in Chapter 20 (page 507).

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 121, under section GUIDELINES for Peer Reviewing and Editing, bullet point 3

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: See pages 100–101, 122.

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 126-127, under section Checklist: Teamwork and Global Considerations.

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS:

·    Teamwork

·    Have we appointed a team manager? (109)

·    Does the team agree on the type of document required? (110)

·    Do we have a plan for how to divide the tasks? (110)

·    Have we established a timetable and decided on a meeting schedule? (110)

·    Do we have an agenda for our first meeting? (114)

·    Do we have a clear understanding of how we will share drafts of the document and how we will name the files? (110)

·    Have we decided what technology to use (track changes, Google docs, other)? (119)

·    Are we using the Project Planning Form? (110)

·    Running a Meeting

·    Has the team manager created an agenda and circulated it in advance? (114)

·    Do members understand their individual roles on the team so they can be prepared for the meeting? (110)

·    Has someone been appointed to take meeting minutes? (114)

·    Are all members given the opportunity to speak? (114)

·    Does the team manager keep discussion focused on agenda items? (118)

·    Does the meeting end on schedule? (114)

·    Active Listening

·    Are team members receptive to each other’s viewpoints? (117)

·    Does everyone communicate with courtesy and respect? (117)

·    In face-to-face settings, are all team members allowed to speak freely? (114)

·    Are people able to listen to all ideas with an open mind? (117)

·    Are interruptions discouraged? (117)

·    On email, do people take time to reflect on ideas before responding? (339)

·    Do people observe the 90/10 rule (listen 90 percent of the time; speak 10 percent of the time)? (118)

·    Peer Review and Editing

·    Have I read the entire document twice before I make comments? (122)

·    Have I focused on content, style, and logical flow of ideas before looking at grammar, spelling, and punctuation? (122)

·    Do I know what level of review and editing is expected of me (focus only on the content, or focus on style, layout, and other factors)? (122)

·    Am I being honest but polite and diplomatic in my response? (122)

·    Do I explain exactly why something doesn’t work? (122)

·    Do I make specific recommendations for improvements? (122)

·    Global Considerations

·    Do I understand the communication customs of the international audience for my document? (116)

·    Is my document clear and direct, so that it is easy to translate? (126)

·    Have I avoided humor, idioms, and slang? (125)

·    Have I avoided stereotyping of different cultures and groups of people? (124)

·    Does my document avoid cultural references (such as TV shows and sports), which may not make sense to a global audience? (116)

Chapter 11

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 231, under section Editing for Clarity

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: See page 695 for more on pronoun references, and page 256 for avoiding sexist bias in pronoun use.

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 232, under section Avoid Ambiguous Modifiers

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: See page 695 for more on modifiers.

·    PAGE LOCATION:  p. 261-262, under section Checklist: Style.

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: 

·    Clarity

·    Does each pronoun clearly refer to the noun it replaces? (231)

·    Is each modifier close enough to the word or words it defines or explains? (232)

·    Are modifying nouns unstacked? (232)

·    Do most sentences begin with the familiar information and end with new information? (233)

·    Are sentences in active rather than passive voice, unless the agent is immaterial? (233)

·    Does each sentence provide only as much information as readers are able to process easily? (236)

·    Conciseness

·    Is the piece free of wordiness, redundancy, or needless repetition? (237)

·    Is it free of needless sentence openers and prefaces? (238)

·    Have unnecessary weak verbs been converted to verbs that express a definite action? (239)

·    Have excessive prepositions been removed and nominalizations restored to their verb forms? (240)

·    Have negative constructions been converted to positive ones, as needed? (241)

·    Is the piece free of clutter words and needless qualifiers? (242)

·    Fluency

·    Are related ideas subordinated or coordinated and combined appropriately? (243)

·    Are sentences varied in construction and length? (245)

·    Does an idea that should stand alone for emphasis get a sentence of its own? (245)

·    Are short sentences used for special emphasis? (245)

·    Word Choice

·    Is the wording simple, familiar, unambiguous, and free of useless jargon? (246)

·    Is each acronym spelled out upon first use? (248)

·    Is the piece free of triteness, misleading euphemisms, and overstatement? (248)

·    Does the wording precisely convey the intended meaning? (248)

·    Are general or abstract terms clarified by more specific or concrete terms? (250)

·    Are analogies used to clarify and explain? (251)

·    Have I reviewed the spelling, grammar, and word choice to be sure spell check or autocorrect didn’t insert any errors? (251)

·    Tone

·    Is the tone appropriate and consistent for the situation and audience? (251)

·    Is the level of formality what the intended audience would expect? (255)

·    Is the piece free of implied bias, sexist language, or potentially offensive usage? (255)

·    Does the piece display sensitivity to cultural differences? (258)

·    Is the word choice ethically and legally acceptable? (259)

Chapter 12

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 266, under section Why Visuals Matter, Note, lines 3 and 4

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: For more on introducing and interpreting visuals in a document, see page 307.

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 270, under section How to Choose the Right Visuals, Note, line 2

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: For more on cultural considerations in selecting visuals, see page 306.

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 272, under section Tables, paragraph 5, lines 1 and 2

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: For specific information about creating tables, see How to Construct a Table on page 276.

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 277, under section Bar Graphs, paragraph 100 Percent Bar Graph, lines 3 to 5

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: The more data, the harder such graphs are to interpret; consider using a pie chart (page 283) if that would be more readable for your audience.

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 284, under section Pie Charts, Figure 12.14

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (See Table 12.3, page 273, for data.)

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 289, under section GUIDELINES for Creating Charts, bullet point 11

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: Follow the guidelines for bar graphs (page 274).

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 296, under section Videos, paragraph 1, line 11

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: For more advice, see the annotations to Figure 12.32, the guidelines on page 298, and Chapter 19, pages 487–89.

·    PAGE LOCATION: p. 303, under section Don’t Mistake Distortion for Emphasis, paragraph 4, lines 1 and 2

·    TEXT TO BE READ AS: For additional guidance, use the planning sheet in Figure 12.37, and the checklist on p...

About the Author:

John Lannon is Professor Emeritus and former Director of Writing at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where he developed the undergraduate major in professional writing and later co-developed the M.A. program in professional writing. He has also taught at Cape Cod Community College, University of Idaho, Southern Vermont College, and University of Strasbourg. He has authored and coauthored five major textbooks in business communication, rhetoric, and technical communication, book reviews, filmstrips, and environmental documents and instructional software. He is the recipient of an NDEA Fellowship and Fulbright Lectureship. He holds a B.S., M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His initial training and work was in biomedical science and technology with the USAF. He has served as a communications consultant for various companies and government institutions.  He worked seven years in medical laboratories.

 

Laura J. Gurak is professor and founding chair of the Department of Writing Studies at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches courses in technical writing and digital communication. She holds an M.S. in technical communication and a Ph.D. in communication and rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is author of two books from Yale University Press, one of which was the first book-length study of online social actions. Gurak is also co-editor of several edited collections and author on numerous conference presentations and papers. She is a recipient of the Society for Technical Communication’s Outstanding Article award. Gurak has authored and coauthored five textbooks in technical communication published by Pearson. She has worked as a software developer, technical writer, and communications consultant for various companies and organizations.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0134118499
• ISBN 13: 9780134118499
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 736