Technical Communication - the importance of storytelling

What exactly is technical communication? How and why do we use it? The way I interpret the phrase involves the distribution or presentation of specific information. Documents in technical communication have one similar goal, to inform the audience about a certain subject clearly and professionally. The motivation of this goal can serve different purposes. Sometimes we are motivated to simply inform the audience; other times we seek the audience to carry out a task or make a decision.  In our book, Practical Strategies for Technical Communication by Mike Markel,  we examine the characteristics of a technical document. These characteristics includes addressing a particular audience, helping the audience solve problems, producing the document collaboratively, using words and/or images, and maintaining a readable design that reflects the organizations goals and culture (7). 

In order to increase the effectiveness of a technical document, it is often encouraged to use the process of storytelling to present the information. Storytelling is beneficial for its use of a chronological timeline, emotional appeal, and familiar structure. Many times, when you tell a story, you describe it in an organized timeline that makes it easiest for your audience to understand. This is very useful in technical communication, because information can be understood efficiently with a logical timeline supporting it.  Another aspect in storytelling is its emotional appeal. Telling a story provides a personal experience to the information given and creates an understanding beyond the factual information. While the facts are important, creating emotion behind the facts, or vice versa, can help increase the overall affect the document has on the audience.  Lastly, the process of storytelling is a familiar way of communicating. In almost all human conversations, we approach the information we want to deliver in the organization of storytelling. Presenting technical documents in this familiar structure will help increase how comfortable the audience is when analyzing the document. A more comfortable audience helps ease the interpretation of the subject.

As for the digitally manipulated image of concepts valuable to technical communication shown below, I think there are a few words that identify with my own course work. The first word is improvisation, and it relates to the process I use when initially writing or creating a document. I found that I initially develop my work "on the spot" without much thinking about specific guidelines. I usually like to make a general plan of what I would like to create, but once my plan is complete, I tend to type away freely and get all of my ideas onto the paper. After I do this, I then look back to clean up all the information I wrote by analyzing the work and organizing it appropriately. I think this can be a useful strategy, but I should be careful to remain focused on the task and review my work carefully.

Sources: 
MARKEL, MIKE. PRACTICAL STRATEGIES FOR TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION. 2nd ed., BEDFORD SAINT MARTIN'S, 2018.

Campus Signage Reflection

            In the beginning of this project, the goal was to identify a sign on campus that stood out to me. While I was walking one day from class to my car at the parking garage, I walked through Watson Hall to take a “short cut”. While walking through, I noticed a sign with a map on it, and was instantly intrigued. I am pursuing a certificate in Geographic Information Systems here at NIU and work closely with the development of maps. For this reason, I thought this sign would be an interesting choice for this project.

My first impression of the sign involved curiosity, but a little bit of confusion. It was unclear what the overall message was supposed to be in the sign. It gave information about the different languages throughout the world and then provided a website at the bottom. It was unclear what can be done at the website and how it relates to the map shown. I also noticed that the map was a little difficult to interpret, the red dots representing different living languages were sometimes very faint against the yellow background of the map.

After further analysis of the original map, I also noticed that the overall flow of the sign was not effective. The creator of this sign decided to use center alignment and did not organize the features in an ideal clockwise motion. The caption underneath the title was also a little difficult to read because it was colliding with the map.

My design process began with exploring the listed website to understand what the message to the audience was supposed to be. The homepage had a heading stating, “Explore the World’s Languages”, and I thought that would be a good title for my new sign. Giving a commanding statement to the reader lets them know what the purpose of the sign is directly. The website also had a different map on the homepage that was easier to read and much simpler to understand. I decided to incorporate these two things into my new design. I also used a brief description of what can be done on the website from the homepage, so the readers would have an even more clear message.

Once I established the features I wanted to use in my new sign, I began organizing them in a way that is more appealing using Microsoft Word. I designed the text to invite the reader in the top left to “explore”. I then positioned the map to the right-middle portion of the sign, leading the reader towards the graphic. Below the graphic, I finished the missing sentence of the title saying, “the world’s languages”. Beneath that text, I included the website name. Finally, I included a brief description of what can be done at the website in the left-middle portion of the document. This overall organization completes a clockwise reading direction, which is often ideal for most signs.

During this project, I learned to examine a technical document and determine both good and bad techniques used to create it. I then used good design processes to create a clear, and appealing design. My new design is simple, yet affective, and creates a specific purpose for the reader to understand.