quality and standards in technical writing

Quality and Standards in

Technical WritingLuca ZampettiLukas Hoffmann Inc. (PHL)©

Introduction

● The Perceived Quality of Technical Documents

● The Role of Standardized Document Formats

● The MLA (Modern Language Association) Format

● Other Formats (APA, Chicago, Turabian)

● The ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English

● Implementation Issues

Introduction ASD-STE100Perceived Quality MLA Format

Introduction Perceived Quality MLA Format ASD-STE100

The Perceived Qualityof Technical Documents



►Dimensions of Perceived Quality of Technical Documents

►Author/Peer vs End-User Perceived Quality

►Typographical Quality vs Semantic Quality

►Paper vs Electronic Documents



Copyright 2012 The Boeing Company. All rights reserved. Reproduced courtesy of The Boeing Company.

Figure 1. The technical documentation for Boeing aircraft model.

From: Technical Documentation Challenges in Aviation Maintenance: A Proceedings Report, Office of Aerospace Medicine, Washington DC 2012, p. 1




The Technical Communication Cycle

http://techwhirl.com/the-new-communications-cycle-part-1-know-your-audience-and-how-they-consume-and-create-content/



Types of Technical Documents

Contracts Online and embedded help Requirements specificationsCust. Svc. scripts Policy documents SimulationsDemonstrations Process flows Training course materialsDesigns Project documents User manualsFAQs Product catalogs Warning labelsHow-to videos Product packaging Web-based TrainingInstructions Proposals WebsitesKB articles Release notes White papersReference guides ...



Ergonomic Objectives of Technical Documents

► http://techwhirl.com/what-is-technical-writing/:Technical writing is sometimes defined as simplifying the complex. Inherent in such a concise and deceptively simple definition is a whole range of skills and characteristics that address nearly every field of human endeavor at some level. A significant subset of the broader field of technical communication, technical writing involves communicating complex information to those who need it to accomplish some task or goal.

► http://www.shufra-consultancy.com/:Compliance Consistency ReadabilityQuality Efficiency Volume reductionShorter time-to-market Cost savings Reduced translation cost



(From: Bentley ProjectWise Product Brochure, p. 7)

Documents in, Documents Out



(From: Bentley ProjectWise Product Brochure, p. 4)

Control of Process and Material Defects in Documents



Dimensions of Perceived Quality of TC

Serenko & Bontis



Defining Technical Communication

Technical communication is a broad field and includes any form of communication that exhibits one or more of the following characteristics:

Communicating about technical or specialized topics, such as computer applications, medical procedures, or environmental regulations.

Communicating by using technology, such as web pages, help files, or social media sites.Providing instructions about how to do something, regardless of how technical the task is or even if technology is used to create or distribute that communication.

The value that technical communicators deliver is twofold: They make information more useable and accessible to those who need that information, and in doing so, they advance the goals of the companies or organizations that employ them. ...

http://stc.org/about-stc/the-profession-all-about-technical-communication/defining-tc



►There is a lack of empirical studies of the perceived quality of technical documents, especially how far they achieve their stated ergonomic objectives►Many studies are concerned with the ranking of publications (or publishers or companies publishing information as a service connected to their product(s) or other service(s)), but they do not research at all how “quality” results


The Role of StandardizedDocument Formats

►Standardization reduces the scope of process and material communication defects

► Standardization contributes to the achievement of the ergonomic objectives of technical documents ► Standardization of typography and layout contributes to the creation of a unique aesthetic look for any publication (hardcopy or electronic)


The MLA Format

►MLA format is a basic style format trained in many US colleges and universities►www.mla.org:- MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th ed., 2009- MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 2009►It is used mainly for literary, historical and arts papers, but it can be used also for technical documents►The training for this course will take place in MLA

http://www.mla.org/


The MLA Format

►Video 1:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Y31UrG2q4&index=1&list=PL4917D9E21FA6EDFF

►Video 2:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaFcJ3f4fJk&list=PL4917D9E21FA6EDFF&index=2


The MLA Format

►Even though not all companies, publications, publishers and authors use the MLA format, it is worth learning it as a starting point

►Every participant in the course is required to write a technical article of at least 10 DIN A4 pages using the MLA format and a precise of a book of at least 15 DIN A4 pages as assignments


The APA, Chicago and other Formats

►APA Style Format:www.apastyle.org

►Chicago Style Format:www.chicagomanualofstyle.org

►Turabian Style Format:http://www.press.uchicago.edu/books/turabian/manual/index.html


The ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English

►The STE specification was introduced at the end of the 1990es by the European Association of Aerospace Industries (AECMA), now named ASD, originally for aircraft and military vehicles.

►STE consists basically of a restricted English Thesaurus to which it assigns one only meaning and of a series of rules for forming sentences. Its main goal is to control ambiguity.



►For example: “Replace the filter.” could mean both:- Put back the filter where it was.- Install a new filter.In order to avoid this, STE assigns only one meaning to every word that is allowed by the standard.

►Product-specific Thesauri are allowed.



►Medical equipment

Original

Control panel

Both the C-arm stand and the monitor cart have a control panel. The two control panels always show the same screen, enabling you to use them for system operation.

Depending on the selected function, other controls (buttons, input boxes, displays, etc.) will appear on the control panel screen.

The Vision Center control panel is designed as a touch screen. For system operation, just press the desired button or option directly on the touch screen.

STE

Control panel

The C-arm stand and the monitor cart each have a control panel screen. These screens show the same control panel. Each panel lets you operate the system. The panels have different controls for different functions.

The control panel is a touch screen. To operate the system, touch the correct button or option.


Implementation Issues►In an electronic publishing world the boundaries among literary genres tend to blur: What is or should be the difference between a KB and an encyclopedia?

►When is a document a document? When must it be used, stored and maintained?

►Which are the boundaries among technical communication, scientific communication and business communication? Who is responsible for what?

quality and standards in technical writing

Business

boeing company

boeing aircraft model

formats apa

control of process

translation cost

complex information

market cost savings

field of human endeavor