Technical Writing Overview

1. Markel’s Measures of Excellence in Technical Communication include:

• Honesty. The objective of my Technical Report is to help the reader make an informed decision on Social Security, which cannot be accomplished with dishonest information.

• Clarity. My Technical Report attempted to convey a clear problem with Social Security and a certain collection of solutions and recommendations which the reader can easily understand.

• Accuracy. be used in a Technical Report to keep the facts straight make the information objective and not biased.

• Comprehensiveness. A Technical Report must give the reader a complete observation of the information. This is why I included knowledgeable information about the history and problem, and sufficient data to carry out a solution.

• Accessibility. It is applicable to the Technical Report because the reader needs to be able to find certain sections easily, which is why there is a Table of Contents near the beginning of my report.

• Conciseness. In my Technical Report I attempted to eliminate avoidable words and phrases that are not useful.

• Professional Appearance. It is relevant to the Technical Report because the reader forms an opinion before he/she starts reading, and you want to follow correct formats in order to form a favorable opinion.

• Correctness. In technical communication, the reader wants to observe a report that is free from grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. If my report is free from these errors, the reader will more likely accept my recommendations.

2. Five criteria should be examined when evaluating the credibility of the author of an online source, which are:

• Authorship. The Internet site which you are using information from must be reputable, and the author which you are citing in your work needs to have the credentials to back up his/her argument.

• Publishing Body. While retrieving information online, the reader should be able to evaluate if the information as being an opinion or fact. Different sites on the Internet, such as the exercise where the “Church of the Gerbil” was sponsored, proves that anyone can post information.

• Knowledge of the literature. The author must prove that the data which he/she gives is factual and honest. As the saying goes, “Statistics never lie, but Liars use statistics”.

• Accuracy of the Information. The data located on online sources needs to be supported by evidence, and the ideas must be reasonable to be considered as a verifiable source.

• Timeliness. As you are evaluating an online source, you must observe how recent the site is. To be credible, the site should have been updated in the last two years, especially if it contains information on recent events.

3. Different sections in the modular report are designed for different categories of readers. The four sections are:

• Abstract. The abstract is mainly for the reader of the technical document.

• Executive Summary. This is a summary for the manager to use in making decisions.

• Body of the Report. The body of the report is for all the readers who are interested in the topic being discussed, which includes the general audience, technical readers, managers, and experts.

• Appendices. This section is mainly for technicians and mangers.

According to Markel, technical readers can be divided into four different categories:

• The Expert. The expert reads a technical document to gain understanding of the theory being discussed. The expert needs to observe

• The Technician. The Technician is trying to