Friday, March 9, 2007
CHAPTER 15
This chapter focuses on technical descriptions. Technical descriptions give information about the physical aspects of an object. This includes appearance such as shape size and color. It also includes characteristics such as weight, density, and texture. Technical descriptions can help convey information, and it can help in persuading an audience. Technical descriptions are used in many fields of business. They can be used to record information during research and testing as well as informing people on how to conduct tasks. Many manuals use technical descriptions to help the reader understand the process that they are conducting. They can also be used in proposals to describe certain equipment or geographical areas. Visuals can be very helpful in a technical description because it helps the reader understand the text better. Technical description should also address who the audience is, and then be sure to use the proper diction when giving information. Also, it is important to seperate your information into groups that the audience will understand. This will differ from audience to audience. When selecting a proper diction for the audience take into account word usage and make sure that the terms you use are accurate and user friendly. In addition, the proper use of visuals is important in technical descriptions. It gives another way for the audience to see what you are giving information on. Finally, it is important to organize your information into specific parts so that it is easy for the reader to follow. Be sure to include background information if the audience is unfamiliar with the subject.
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When writing a paper it is very important to make sure you know what kind of audience you are presenting or writing it to. This is always made sure of in our intensive writing classes and even papers for classes. You want the reader to understand what they are reading otherwise they wont be interested and wont finish it. In one of my classes, a person was presenting it on a topic that I was unsure of and they used a lot of technical language that I didnt know. I lost interest because I didnt know what they were presenting on anymore. When people do presentations for class or job, I agree with the summary and that it is easier for the audience to follow along with the presentation if they have charts, pictures, graphs to look at so it can put a mental picture in their heads. I am more of a visual person so I think this helps me out a lot if people include that.
Technical descriptions, especially in place of visuals, are very important. After reading and summarizing the chapter on technical visuals, I know how much they can add to a presentation or document. So, if visuals are unavailable, it is a good idea to be as descriptive as possible so that your audience can create their own mental visual and so that everyone is on the same page. It is not just enough to say “a black car” – you need to describe other elements and characteristics of the car so that your audience is fully aware of what you are talking about. Being very descriptive is key.
I felt deja vu reading this chapter for some reason. Feels like we have already read something very similar to this a few weeks ago. Maybe it's just me, but these chapters seem to be meshing together towards the end here. Technical descriptions are important however, in making information results easier to understand. The chapter had a table showing various signs in infants in relation to heart heart and reflexes. It gave a much easier understanding to something that may have been complicated to understand.
Technical description is very important to have in any document or presentation, no matter if it's for your job or class it's very vital in avoiding being very vague to the audience. Not being descriptive in a presentation or a document can easily throw your audience into confusion and lost of interest. So, This chapter in my opinion gave very good example and tips on how to prepare good technical discriptions. It always good to be very careful with choosing the right words when your trying be descriptive on explaining somthing to someone who doesn't have a mental image of the subject in the first place. Discriptons also help summarizes phisical characteristics and answering question you expect the readers to have about the style and look of anything.
Technical description can be a thing that can benefit your topic or it can be something to hurt it. When giving technical descriptions you need to be able to describe the information in a way your audience will understand yet be informative and not too simple. I have seen it many times in my class where a person talks on a level where not many people in the audience can understand. In retrospect I have seen a person not give a good description and people just loose interest because they are bored and they are not able to understand with such little description.
If you use a technical description you have to be careful about who is listening to your description. They may not understand it, and you need to be sure that they can understand it or it won't benefit anybody. I like the way technical specifications are laid out for things such as computers or laptop because they are easily laid out. I think that is important to get the point across also. If I were to use a technical description, I would be sure it was necessary and the audience would be able to understand it. Whether or not it's necessary I think depends on the level of description that’s required.
I think this article was very well written. I have always thought that the chapter this blog covered was very important. It is very important for us as people to be able to decode symbols and messages that are trying to get portrayed to us. It is important for us to learn how to decipher these messages so that we are not left in the dark. I believe a main purpose of technical communications is to teach us how to create, and breakdown these symbols to communicate with one another without using words. With all the new technology that we are hit with, it is important we have a good grasp on how to handle these descriptions.
Technical descriptions are a very important part of your presentations/ documents. It gives your audience a better and easier understanding of what the overall text is talking about. The use of visual descriptions can add so much to your presentation/ document and they can make your gathering of information much easier. Take for example if you are trying to put together a computer but you have no idea what each part of the computer is, having visual descriptions showing each part of the computer would be much easier for the person putting the computer together.
In the summary of chapter fifteen I was glad they recognized technical description. Technical description can help enhance any type of presentation. You need to be descriptive while approaching an audience in a presentation. This helps you relay key points, and gets your point across to individuals. I thought they recognized all the key points in this chapter, and were able to relay them in a good written form. You need to be able to make sure the audience can understand descriptive information. As a speaker you need to break the descriptive information down so the audience can relate to it.
Technical descriptions describe certain objects or things so that they are able to be identified or distinguished from other objects or information. In my job I talk about certain things inside of a house. I have to describe them in a certain way as to tell the professionals what kind they are. Whether it is dealing with a washer, dryer, light fixture, carpet, or any part of the house I need to know certain things (technical descriptions)of the part of the house. I need to know the model number, color, and other things.
When I am using something for the first time I find it helpful for it to be writen in a technical description. And visuals have always helped me to learn and do tasks. I have seen technical descriptions with equipment that always help. For example, when I got my digatal camera the instructions and pictures really helped me to understand how to operate the camera. Also it is very important to make sure that the documents you are creating fit the audience it is intended for. You wouldn't write the same instructions for a 5th grader as you would for a college graduate.
No matter what type of document you are focusing on, technical decription must always be considered and used properly. One thing that is always important is to consider the audience, the description will change depending on this. Visuals help make the document more clear, therefore the audience will respond better to it. Organization is key in every document. Without organization the audience may become confused and then lose interest completely. A good way to organize is to seperate the information into different groups, starting with background information in case the audience is uneducated in the area. The overall appearance and content of a technical description in the end, can persuade an audience.
I think this is a good summary of the chapter. It shows just how important technical descriptions are. Without them it would be very difficult if not impossible to effectivly communicate through documents. It also shows how it is important to know your audience and write at there skill level so that they understand what you are trying to get across in the document.
it really does feel like the chapters arent really discussing anything new now. we've pretty much already gone over a majority of this information. anyways, its very important to make sure that you are speaking the readers launguage, if your using too techincal of terms people wont be able to understand what your point is or what your talking about, its good to use down to earth like terms, and not huge words that only engineers or doctors would know, using common knowledge action words or common knowledge examples
This chapter summary relates to the last few chapters we have discussed. Once again, assuring oneself that the audience will follow the topic is crucial. Technical descriptions can especially be of help in this area. If visuals such as graphs, tables, or pictures are unavailable, depicting the subject at hand can help in a big way. If the audience is unaware of the background or other important details on a subject, it is not hard to lose their interest at any point. Technical descriptions can aid in any type of presentation or document. Directions for assembling something floats to the front of my mind when considering techincal descriptions. Describing what a part of a whole looks like could be very beneficial, for example.
Technical description are very important to avoid confusion. When giving directions I think it is the most important part. If your being told how to put something together you need to be desriptive of the objects, you can not just say connect the two wires together here, you need to explain the color of the wires or another feature. It is so easy to develop an idea in your head of what something may look like thats why an image along with a description makes it better.
Technical documents are documents that many people have difficulty reading and understanding. This would include such as assembly directions. Many times people just give up on the directions and end up making mistakes or getting frustrated after not being able to complete the task, myself included. The reason for this isn’t so much that the documents are poorly written but more so that it is difficult for many people to utilize specialized tools to produce something of which they have no previous experience.
This chapter is about providing the audience the organized and specific details about any topic or subject. This process is named technical description. It includes all the fact about the things being discussed like the physical structures, the way of conveying messages and in many other ways relates to the field of business too. Technical description is designed to meet the audience’s needs by answering their questions. It separates the subject into structural and functional parts and work with it. Using appropriate visuals is next of its properties. Using appropriate visual to relate and give the exact idea of what the topic is and using it to make audience better understand things is technical description.
The review of this chapter was very well written. The chapter explained how if you are going to have technical descriptions than visuals are a good way to back up and show what you are talking about because the material can be difficult to understand sometimes. When people in class are giving presentations with the power point programs and their topic is something along the more difficult side it helps to see pictures that illustrate what they are talking about and trying to explain. That is how I see this chapter being used in my everyday life.
Technical descriptions are used a lot in my field of study. There are many objects, materials, and procedures that must be described. A technical description must describe the objects features, visual appearance, composition, and most of all purpose. Some other information that can be put in a technical description is how the object is made, how it is used, and who might use it. Visuals are very helpful when used with technical descriptions. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. They help the reader understand the words being used by the author. This information must be organized efficiently to allow the reader to understand the descriptions.
In chapter 15 technical descriptions we now understand that technical descriptions can be used to organize specific details about object, substances, mechanisms, organisms, systems, and locations for an identified audience. Use technical descriptions in observation notes, manuals and training materials, proposals, and reports, marketing and promotional materials, and public information and education. Also we learned how to summarize physical characteristics, answering questions you expect your readers to have about appearance, acceptability and impact. Diction should be precise there are three ways to achieve this: choose the most specific terms appropriate for your audience, choose technically accurate terms, and consider the value of metaphor to convey descriptions.
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