Genres in Technical/Professional Writing

My internship with The Writers’ Slate does not require me to do a lot of writing. The writing that I do regularly in my internship is the corresponding emails between the students being published and The Writers’ Slate. According to Miller the genre of emailing is the “typified rhetorical actions” looking for the approval of the supervisor or coworkers. For this internship emailing is a large factor of communication especially the use of typified rhetorical questions, so that we are able to gain approval for revisions and publishing.

Typified rhetorical actions of emailing are a normal occurrence in my internship because it is how I communicate with my supervisor on a regular bases regarding updates, meeting times, and revisions. One task that I am given to complete before each Issue is submitted for publications is to send out “congratulations letters” in the form of an email to each of the students that submitted  a piece that will be published. One of the previous interns to The Writers’ Slate was very helpful by creating a template for the rest of us to follow. By having this template to work from I am able to show consistency in the work that The Writers’ Slate is associated with. The template helps to have a format to follow along with but having key items that need to be filled in, such as: name of the submitter, title of their submission, Issue they will be published in, and the date to expect their issue to be published. By having this template there is less likely to be errors with student information, because it can be copy and pasted into the template before emailing it.

A genre that is present in the technical/professional writing field is change. Bawarshi and Reiff talk about how, “genres are dynamic because as their conditions change – for example because of changes in material conditions, changes in community membership, changes in technology, changes in disciplinary purposes, and values… -- genres must change along with them or risk becoming obsolete.” To be a technical writer we are constantly being asked to come up with new ideas to reinvent old ideas. In my internship with The Writers’ Slate the writer’s that I work with are constantly changing with each new Issue that is being published. Another change that an intern must be able to work with is working with students from other countries that submitted their work. This requires the intern to show flexibility in their work and to also be able to make the necessary changes to the students work to properly format it in the Americanized English that The Writers’ Slate is published in.

By having this internship with The Writers’ Slate I have been able to learn about all the different writing genres and how they are integrated into the writing professions, such as a technical writer. As Carolyn Miller said, “genres change, evolve, and decay.” With this knowledge and my experience with The Writers’ Slate I feel that I will be prepared for the ever evolving genre that takes place in the technical/professional writing work place.

Bawarshi, Anis, and Mary Jo Reiff. "Rhetorical Genre Studies" and "Genre Research in Workplace and Professional Contexts."

Miller, Carolyn. "Genre as Social Action."

Defining Technical/Professional Writing

Dear Internship Supervisor, 

There has been much controversy and confusion when it comes to properly defining technical writing. Many professionals attempt to define this field only with the small success of constricting its discipline. The following below will help indicate a clearer understanding of what technical writing is and by creating a new position for a technical writer will bring benefits to this company in multiple ways.

The best definition to describe technical writing is better shown through the analogy that David Dobrin explains. He describes the simplicity of this particular art form and how it does not cover itself in beautiful writing but rather recognizes this in an objective standpoint. That is where the science aspect comes in. The art lies in by making writing seem simplistic. He goes on further to say that it carries the "care of a scientist, the humility of a saint, and the clarity of the bugle call."

By interning as a technical writer for a small business, it is true to say that technical writing is certainly the unspoken hero. From the smallest manuals to train employees to the well-designed forms they must follow, its effectiveness is shown when workers use a technical writers work without the struggle of understanding their directions or getting lost in the communicative process. For a small business, making sure an advertisement is worded correctly, social media communicates to its audience clearly, or a business website carries a professional look that is appealing to its customers.

A technical writer adds value to any workplace because of their versatility in knowledge and skill that become highly dependable in the end. To create professional brochures and grants, a technical writer can make sure that whatever the company produces in writing, is presented in a professional manner while communicating its message directly to its employees or customers. This position can wear many hats from the management to the marketing department. For a manager, this is beneficial because cutting down costs and increasing profits is the overall goal and a technical writer makes everything more efficient.

A professional writing degree is a field that can expand in any discpline. It is needed everywhere. In this case, it perfectly fits in the business world. As long as business is growing, so technical writing will parallel that growth. By having a technical writer, they are already trained in how to present the company professionally and can learn the skills of other parts of the company such as management and that will decrease the possibility of having to hire another employee. Hiring a technical writer is a smart investment in the long-run with many benefits the our company. 

Sources:

Elizabeth Tebeauz: Let’s Not Ruin Technical Writing, Too: A Comment on the Essays of Carolyn Miller and Elizabeth Harris. College English, 41(7), 822-825. Miller, C.R. (1979). Carolyn Miller responds. Collge English, 41(7), 825-827.

What’s technical about Technical Writing? By David N. Dobrin

Defining Technical and Professional Writing

Technical writing is a very broad term and its definition has been debated for quite some time.  The definitions tend to be imprecise and put limitations on the technical writing field.  However, in general, technical writing is a way to convey information.  Technical writers hope to help readers and users understand and use a product.  Their goal is make complicated information easily understandable.  Technical writers are the ones who create manuals and instructions for a wide variety of things.  They do not always write about technology.  They could write business correspondence, grant proposals, or even cookbooks.  Their writing is meant to be clear and concise.

With my internship with the Southeast Kansas Humane Society of Crawford County, I am writing grant applications.  So, my goal is to gather all of the data and information and present it in a way so that the Humane Society can receive funding for their needs.  I need to be as clear as possible so that the proposal reviewers know exactly what the Humane Society wants to do, why they need the funding, and how the funding will be used.  If I am not successful, then the Humane Society will not receive any funding for all of the projects that they need to be accomplished. 

There is a great potential value in hiring a technical writer.  Technical writers are very efficient because their writing has to be clear and concise.  During their coursework, they learn how to think critically and write professionally.  All of these skills enable them to communicate in professional manner both on paper and in person.  Along with strong writing skills, they also know a thing or two about page layout and design.  They will make any content and information look professional.  They should also have strong computer skills.  Overall, they have a good understanding of communicating in a precise manner. 

A degree in technical and professional writing from the humanities department adds to the value of a technical writer.  Along with the technical writing classes, they are taught to think critically and logically, which helps with the precise writing.  Throughout their coursework, they will learn how to work with others, which is also an important skill to have.  By studying literature, they will learn how to interpret text, which is important when writing clear content.  Most importantly, through the humanities department, they will learn how to write in an organized and clear way.  Technical writers from the humanities department have a broadened skillset and knowledge, which makes them vital to any workplace that produces any type of documents. 

Olivia Hansen

Extricating “Technical” from Technical and Professional Writing

February 8th, 2016 

By: Jordyn Bollinger

The term “technical” has weighed down the field of Technical and Professional Writing for some time now—the reason, it often leaves a sour and rigid taste in people’s mouths. Some think technical writing has to do with writing about technology, where the professional is confined to writing manual after manual. Professionals in the field agree that technical doesn’t give the field a clear and accurate representation of what a person working in the field does. Technical writing to the people in the field is more than writing about technology. For the following hiring position, it’s important to justify and clarify what the field of technical and professional writing has to offer. I will give existential advice from my own experience as well as reference other professional voices that speak to this issue. By the end of this post, I hope to extricate any negative connotations attached to the term. In moving from Technical and Professional Writing to just Professional Writing, the average Joe will have an easier time accepting the profession as a competitive and valuable service.

            When I first heard about the field, I had no inclination of what it meant. Some said, “Oh, it’s just a lot of grant and formal writing.” They were right; however, within those pieces of writing comes skills in formatting, style, and content. According to David Dobrin, a trained Technical Writer, clarifies the definition of technical in technical writing. He proposes the argument that the term is too precise, and therefore limits people’s interpretation of it. While technical writing may be about ‘a subject in the pure sciences, in which the writer informs the reader through an objective presentation of facts,’ it is also about the art and rhetoric of such presentation (3). Technical writers know that writing both for generic audiences and specific audiences is required—therefore, the style and format of the content of their piece must be both clear and persuasive to the audience being addressed. Take Aristotle’s Five Cannon’s of Rhetoric for example. A technical writer must be able to provide invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery in their pieces. Professionals like Carolyn Miller agree:

Being practical suggests a certain attitude or mode of learning that relies on rules proved through use rather than on theory, history, experience, or general appreciation. Practical rhetoric therefore seems to concern the instrumental aspect of discourse—its potential for getting things done…[The Greeks] emphasized that rhetoric was an art (1)

 While Aristotle’s system was designed for public speaking (general audiences), that does not limit specific audiences either. I’ll give an example. In a recent class at Pittsburg State University, I had to construct a letter from Toyota (the company I hypothetically worked for) to a manufacturing company in Japan. The letter needed to persuade the Japanese CEO that they could trust our business. The opening lines were “It is bright and sunny here in Utah. The weather is beautiful and the flowers are blossoming nicely.” To several business persons in the U.S., this sort of opening line would seem frivolous and a waste of time. However, in cultures like Japan, this kind of talk is considered prudent to the beginning stages of the business deal. With this knowledge, I was able to persuade them as a technical writer with style, format, and correct content.

            The movement to extricate and potentially free technical from Technical and Professional Writing stems from the harsh misconceptions it has received over the years. The title Professional Writing will encompass everything it means to be a writer—yes, we write manuals about specific content, and yes, our “presentation of facts” are objective. However, Professional Writing is an art that encompasses rhetoric at its core.  Whatever content, subject, or audience we write for, we do so with intricate precision and acknowledgement of rhetoric. Without such, we wouldn’t be Professional Writers.

References

Dobrin, David N. "What's Technical about Technical Writing?" New Essays in Technical and Scientific Communication: Research, Theory, Practice (1983): 107-23. Web. Jan.-Feb. 2016.

Miller, Carolyn R. "A Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing." College English 40.6 (1979): 610. Web. 6 Feb. 2016. "What's Practical about Technical Writing" p. 61-70

Defining T/P Writing

A Technical Writer is someone who has the ability to fulfill the many needs of a company through a single person entity. David Dobrin says it best that, “technical writing is writing about a subject in the pure sciences or the applied science in which the writer informs the reader through an objective presentation of facts.” Technical writers are objective in their writing styles and use a more concrete structured way of presenting the material.  Some materials that technical writers are known for writing, formatting and editing are manuals, warning labels/signs, and handouts/pamphlets.

During my internship with The Writers’ Slate I will be asked to contribute in the editing and administrative side of the writing process. Some of the administrative items I am helping with is the selection of the submission that will be published in the upcoming issues. I also am the one that emails the writers that we will be publishing. The emails are a congratulations letter but some of them are also ideas for revisions that might bring their writing to the next level. My technical writing class experience helps me with some of this administrative work because we learn how to properly format emails, cover letters, and memos. It helps to give a professional consistency to any correspondence between the writers and the Writers’ Slate staff.

One benefit to having a full time technical writer on The Writers’ Slate staff would be the consistency that the individual could bring to the job. Right now for every three issues there is a new person working on the formatting and editing. There are templets that are supposed to be followed and an overall concept to stick with, however by having one person do the job there would be no consistency errors unless there was a purposeful change made. Another benefit of hiring someone full time would help with the communication of writers to editors. There are times when a writer from a previous issue finds an error and would like it fixed. This is not something difficult to do but it can be time consuming if the person fixing the error is not the original editor of the issue itself. By having a full time technical writer they would be able to recognize the person with the error and hopefully locate it quickly to change.

Some companies shy away from hiring someone with a humanities degree, however they should look into the benefits if they did hire someone with a humanities degree. An individual in this degree background would have the understanding of grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure that might be a huge benefit towards their job. Another skill they have is the ability to research and review materials given to them while working on an assignment. These difference abilities set a person with a technical writing degree apart from all the rest.  

David Dobrin, “What’s Technical about Technical Writing?”

Training for the Future

Being a student at Pittsburg State University has provided me with various opportunities to enhance my skill as a technical writer. Specifically as a technical writing student, I have been equipped with a variety of skills and learned a great deal about the technical aspects of technical/professional writing, such as language usage. However, my internship has awarded me an experience that is much more applicable to a real world setting. As Sherry Southard mentions in “Interacting Successfully in Corporate Culture”, “students need skills that will enable them to participate successfully and to make decisions even more than they need such skills to work successfully within older organizations.” My internship has provided me with just that. Through my game design internship under the Tech Writing director, I have had hands-on experience in managing an entire editing and production process. Unfortunately, as Johndan Johnson-Eilola details in his work, “Relocating the Value of Work: Technical Communication in a Post-Industrial Age,” technical communicators aren’t always seen as managers of the entire process, but rather “as something to be added on to a primary product…added at the end of the project (with too little time or too few staff members), or perhaps omitted entirely.” Luckily, with my internship, I have had experience as more than just support. This will undoubtedly increase my value when I go on to pursue a career.

One of the three jobs that I was interested in is an Editorial Assistant at Prufrock Press in Austin, Texas. They are looking for someone to assist with their books and classroom materials editors. Candidates for this job must possess strong editing and communication skills, be able to meet deadlines, and be comfortable with learning APA style. My internship, in conjunction with my education at Pitt State, have prepared me well for this, but I could prepare for this position by studying the APA style guide. I have had to learn to use multiple style guides in various classes, so this should not be difficult. To do so, I would likely by looking at the Purdue OWL website and buying an APA style guide. Additionally, I have learned and exercised my editing skills through my classes and my internship. In my internship, I was tasked with editing all of the text-based elements of the game, checking for consistency and correctness. Furthermore, my experience with the Cow Creek Review will also enhance my skills for this job. By working as an editor for a literary magazine, I will not only have editing experience, but publishing experience as well.

Another job that I found is a Content Editor for the Blue Monday Review in Kansas City, MO.  They are looking for someone to read, edit, and evaluate work submitted to their literary magazine. This person will read and evaluate 10-20 submissions a week. This position did not call for many qualifications, but, similar to the Prufrock Press position, I would be well-suited for this role because I have had editing experience in my internship and classes. Furthermore, I have worked on a literary magazine, so I understand how the editing and selection process works for a literary magazine. To further prepare for a position such as this, I could spend more time working for the Cow Creek Review. Additionally, I could also apply for a writing consultant position at my university’s Writing Center.

A third job I found is an Assistant Managing Editor at Allen Press, Inc. in Lawrence, KS. This company specializes in scholarly journal and special-interest publication production. Skills for this position include keeping track of manuscripts and reviews, working with Copyediting Coordinators to maintain proper style, assembling publications, and communicating with authors. For this position, my internship has assisted because I have had to essentially manage an entire editing/publication process alongside my internship director and my co-intern. But I would need to gain more experience with managing the editing process. While I am familiar with the editing process, I could gain this experience by serving as the managing editor for the Cow Creek Review or becoming a managing editor for a volunteer publication. 

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. "Relocating the Value of Work: Technical Communication in a Post-Industrial Age."

Soplinsky, Emily. "Survival Skills for Communicators within Organizations."

Southard, Sherry. "Interacting Successfully in Corporate Culture."

Training for the Future

Through my time as student in Tech Writing program and as intern under the Tech Writing director I have learned much more about tech writing than I ever planned. The various professors I have had for my tech writing classes all shared or discussed what tech writing can be like in a job setting. While none of them necessarily gave students a scenario to teach the various nuances of holding a job, especially one in tech writing, like Sherry Southard suggests. They still teach us the technical aspect of tech writing, but the sharing of experience as a professional helps to bring in the less concrete skills that are hard to explicitly teach. The internship experience has really helped to branch out into the “communication” side of technical communication as Johndan Johnson calls the field. The communication side is the less concrete side of the job, but doing the research and reading for this blog has helped to understand professional life.

One job that I found that fits my skills is as a Technical Writer at RPC which is in the financial industry. They are looking for someone that can research, interview, recommend changes, write instructions, maintain writing style, peer edit, document work history, and follow through on projects. My particular internship has set me up well for something like this because I have been able to do this in some form. Creating a game has called for researching various technical writing jobs, recommending changes in game mechanics based in though out reasons, peer edit the work of my co-intern, and work on this project independently. A good way to prepare for this kind of job would to look into journals/manuals in the relevant industry and become somewhat familiar with the conventions. A publication from this list would be good place to start. 

Another job that I found is a Technical Writer at Continuum. They are looking for someone to test new software and creating documentation for that software. This person will also test other tech writer’s work, working with the creators, and making changes. This is of interest to me because it deals somewhat with web programming languages, which is my main field of study. I have also previously worked on a documentation project so I have some experience working with software and testing out the document with testers. A good place to learn web languages is codecademy.com It is a free resource that has basic and advanced tutorials and updates their content on occasion. As for testing various works, a good and fun way to do this is playtesting games. I have been given the opportunity to create and playtest games as an intern and student.

A third job I found is a Technical Writer at Corptax which deals with business process and automation solutions for corporate tax. Skills for this position include Adobe Creative Suite, HTML/XML, editing, single source authoring tool, peer reviewing, and knowledge sharing. Since I am a Graphics Communications major I am familiar with Adobe Creative Suite and HTML. My knowledge of how Content Management systems work would prepare me well for single source authoring methods. As a graphics student I have had the opportunity to ask fellow students about my work and also be able to share new knowledge with them. To keep up with changing technologies I would go to lydna.com for Adobe software and codecademy.com for web programming, but lynda.com also has good resources for the web.

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. "Relocating the Value of Work: Technical Communication in a Post-Industrial Age."

Soplinsky, Emily. "Survival Skills for Communicators within Organizations."

Southard, Sherry. "Interacting Successfully in Corporate Culture."