Discussion Question 1
What writing have you done at work or in your community that you think could be labelled technical writing? Why do you think it can be labelled technical writing? Please describe the writing situation and draw upon the information in either the website from STC or chapter 1 of the textbook to illustrate why it would be technical writing.
Do technical writing tasks have to involve technical subjects? Why or why not?
How is technical writing different from writing an essay?
Peer Post 1:
Over the last two decades I have had the opportunity to write several items that I would consider technical writings. Thus far, I have written several lesson plans required to adhere to Maryland Police Training Commission standards. This includes courses covering Honor Guard, Victim’s Rights, and Deal With Subjects with Mental Disorders. I have written department policies and memorandums of understanding for the position of School Resource Officer and departmental guidelines for Honor Guard Functions and Line of Duty Deaths. I have also written several instructional papers to include instructions for the upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11.
I would consider most, if not all, of these to be technical writings because they have each offered procedural instruction for specific tasks, are written for a target audience, and are designed to ensure understanding and compliance from the target audience.
Based on the list provided above, technical writings do not have to involve technical subjects because technical writing is designed to provide instruction or understanding of a task or objective.
Technical writing differs from essay writing in many ways. Technical writing usually is concise and provides direction whereas essay writing can offer opinion and usually contains “fluff” to enhance descriptions. Technical writing is designed to be simplified to ensure that the target audience understands it and can offer more than one option to accomplish a task. Essays often contain opinion and are written from the author’s point of view where technical writing is free of opinion that isn’t factually supported and is usually written from a more sterile point of view.
Discussion Question 2
Please answer the following questions. Your answers can be a couple of sentences or so.
What is a persona? What do personas represent?
How does a writer make a persona that is accurate, useful, and representative and that does not simply stereotype a population?
What is the difference between audience and persona?
Why is user behavior important for personas?
Peer Post 2:
A persona is an archetype or “tool for creating a detailed description of the people we’re writing for” (Hart, 2016). Personas represent the “who” of what writing/ detailing about. Personas also represent the different user types that may use a service or product.
A writer makes a persona that is accurate, useful, and representative and that does not simply stereotype a population by offering details that makes up narrative (collection of ideas/ details).
The difference between an audience and a persona is the focus. An audience is a targeted focus group for a service/ product. A persona is a targeted description for the target audience.
User behavior is important for personas because it helps you to design your product to meet the needs of your audience.
Response needed for above Peer Posts. Thank you.