MIT Guide to Science and Engineering Communication 2ed - J Paradis (MIT 2002) Episode 12 potx

work they want to do: Headings like ‘‘Writing and Editing Your Report’’ or ‘‘Storing and Retrieving Your Document’’ signal a useful structure. Task analysis is central to preparing helpful information products, and successful documentation is typically the result of extensive task inven- tories (Figure 16.5). Accuracy Effective documentation is accurate. It reflects the realities that the user encounters. As the software is modified, the documentation must be modified, and users must receive updates. For some software and hard- ware products, developers provide documentation on CD-ROM. Infor- mation can be conveniently updated and shipped on a new disk, and the entire volume can be searched electronically. Other developers prov ide their users with acce ss to a Web or intranet site, including the oppor tu- nity to pose technical support questions via e-mail. The Future of Instructions and Procedures Advances in computer technology have made it possible to replace printed instructional material with electronic text. The electronic tech- nical manual can be updated as often as necessary, and it is easy to search. Only one copy exists, and users access it on the Web or intranet, where and when they need it: perhaps at a desktop computer or through a wireless information appliance. Information can be delivered in a vari- ety of media, incorporating video, audio, and virtual reality applica- tions. With handheld or wearable computers, field technicians can carry the equivalent of 6,000-page manuals, accessing exactly the informa- tion required, reading on a computer screen displayed on one lens of eyeglasses. In moving to multimedia, the techn ical skills required to create in- structional material have increased. But the benefits are substantial as readers receive th e information they need, in forms they prefer: viewing a video to see a step being performed, working a simulation to learn an operation, selecting explanatory links to impro ve understanding. 266 Instructions, Procedures, and Computer Documentation 17 Electronic Documents Links vs. Fixed Paths Designing Electronic Documents Provide Navigation Aids Write for the Electronic Page Design for Consistency and Quick Loading Copyright Issues Global Audiences Accommodating Disability Past and Future Applications o Your company has been debating about whether to develop a Web site, and you’ve been asked to study the issue and write a recommendation. It seems to you that it will be great to have a presence on the Web. You can distribute accurate and updated product information and perhaps even publish white papers describing new products. You might be able to eliminate hard-copy documentation and provide your users with cus- tomized multimedia instructions throu gh an intranet. What would it take to produce and maint ain a Web site? How can your site accommo- date the needs of international users? Can you comply with guidelines for making your site accessible to people with disabilities? Rather than being bound and fixed on printed pages, electronic ‘‘books’’ are compound documents composed of text, graphics, video images, and audio. Their sequence and even their style of presentation can be selected by the reader. An electronic document can build itself by extracting in- formation from a database and send itself to designated recipients. In settings where security is an issue, elect ronic documents can conceal con- tents for users with limited clearance. On-line communication solves a variety of problems associated with paper. Electronic documents can be customized: Personal training manuals can be create d for each learner, based on the trainee’s perfor- mance on tests of skill. These documents are easy to update, so they can always be accurate. They are easier to search than books, providing improved access to topics and cross-references. They can be remarkably compact: A laptop with CD-ROM drive can deliver a 10,000-page docu- mentation set that would have occupied a dozen three-ring binders. Links vs. Fixed Paths Traditional communication is linear. Information is laid out in a single path, and readers move from topic to topic in an order determined by the writer. Electronic information is composed of individual chunks of con- tent and computer-supported links among these chunks (Figure 17.1). Readers follow topics in any order they choose, sometimes guided by a map of the networ k, sometimes creating their own paths. Elements in an electronic document are in a perpetual state of reorganization. The user can start anywhere and, by way of electronic links, establish connections between multiple kinds of information: text, audio, and video. A wel l-designed multimedia system organizes data in a complex, nonlinear way and facilitates exploration of large bodies of knowledge. Each unit can be electronically linked to any other unit, and the user can choose which moves to make. At every step, the user of a multimedia system can see an example or a simulation, look up a definition, listen to sounds, or return to a previous link. Rather than a following a fixed order of presentation, each user, depending on needs and interests, can take a distinctive route through complex material. Designing Electronic Documents On-line information needs to be structured for the screen. Displayed pages from printed books will rarely yield effective on-line material. In writing for the computer screen, you must provide for the unique ways users interact with on-line material, facilitating multiple types and levels 268 Electronic Documents of searches. In a good Web document, readers know what is available and can move efficiently from one topic to another (Figure 17.2). Many of the principles that guide the production of printed documents apply to the development of Web pages. But Web documents are layers deep—not pages long—and writers must create linked connections as well as chunks of content, all the while exploiting the advantages of graphics, audio, and video. Provide Navigation Aids People are used to the physical features of books. A certain heft suggests the time it will take to read the text. Page numbers are visible signals of Figure 17.1 In a linear sequence, the order in which readers are expected to learn about a topic is established by the writer. The writer generally assumes that the reader will read the first topic before going on to the second. In electronic text, readers create their own information trails, beginning with a topic and freely pursuing links. Electronic Documents 269 progress. Pages can be marked and dog-eared. Bookmarks can be placed and replaced. Pages are present even when they are not being read. With on-line text, users have different cognitive challenges. For most people, moving through several computer screens is not as easy as look- ing back and forth between pages of a book. On-line inform ation can be confusing. You must structure material to minimize a user’s disorienta- tion, providing ways for readers to tell where they are at all tim es. Organize information in a way that makes sense to users, and provide navigation and escape information on every screen. Write for the Electronic Page Conventions for writing electronic text are evolving, but two relatively uncontroversial techniques for improving on-line text involve concise- Figure 17.2 This home page for the American Physical Society orients users by providing a table of contents. It also establishes design elements that are repeated through the site (hhttp://www.aps.orgi). 270 Electronic Documents ness and clarity. Write concisely, presenting only small chunks of text to read on each screen. Conventional wisdom holds that readers can deal with seven (plus or minus two) pieces of information at one time. On a computer screen, it appears that a standard of five (plus or minus one) works better to minimize confusion. Substitute bulleted lists for para- graphs, and use white space generously. Use clear and simple language so that readers get it right the first time. Most users of on-line documents do not want to relocate and reread anything. Provide a printable version of your content; many readers still prefer to learn from hard copy. Design for Consistency and Quick Loading Designers of electronic documents need to develop style specifications, just as they do for hard copy. A screen has less space than a standard page, and displayed text is almost always less legible than it is when printed. Opinions conflict about which fonts are most legible on screen, which graphic-highlighting devices attract a reader’s attention, and what effects color, blinking, sound, and animation will have on reading com- prehension. Consistency of design and optimizing of graphics for quick- loading time are crucial. Create a visual signature for the site, and design all screens in the same format and typographical style. Use a limited number of fonts, styles, and colors. Select fonts that are particularly legible on-screen, and pr es- ent extended text in 12-point size. Except for headings, use upper- and lowercase letters. Include images that load quickly. Readers of on-line documents expect visuals, but many get impatient waiting for graphics to load, and they move on to other sites. Copyright Issues Though some of what is on the Internet is in the public domain and can be copied at will, a large amount of the informati on on the Internet is protected by copyright. It is best to assume that a work is covered under copyright protection until you have determined otherwise. U.S. courts have decided that developers of a Web site can include on their site links to other Web sites. But many questions of intellectual property in an elec- tronic environment remain unresolved. Electronic Documents 271 Authors of Internet documents can protect their own work by includ- ing a copyright notice in the following format: ( 2003 Garrett Liu. Authors can register their work with the Copyright Office of the U.S. Library of Congress for a $20 filing fee. Registration forms are available from the Copyright Office Web site: hhttp://www.loc.gov/copyrighti. Global Audiences Because the audience for openly-available sites on the World Wide Web is international and multilingual, Web writers do well to think of the ways that their material will be received by speakers of other languages. Many large Web sites are available in multiple language formats, and translation software is widely used. If you write clearly and simply, you can increase the likelihood that your text will be translated accurately. However, Web writers need to think beyond translation to the larger problem of localization. When you localize an information product, you adapt it to fit the complex cultural realities of another country. Visual elements do not predictably transfer across cultures. Users whose written languages are read right to left won’t be helped with directional arrows placed at the bottom right of the page and arrows pointing right for the next page. Icons that are widely recognized in one country may appear unclear or even offensive in another. Presentation of dates, times, and orders of magnitude can vary greatly, and you can avoid misunderstandings by mentioning the system of measurement you are using. Accommodating Disability Audiences for Web sites are large and diverse and include people with physical limitations such as vision or hearing problems. Most U.S. fed- eral agencies have been required to redesign their W eb sites to comply with guidelines that will make the pages more accessible to people with disabilities. Specialized software allows visually impaired users to hear text-based messages and explanations of images. Transcripts or written descriptions of audio clips assist users with hearing problems. The Web site for the accessibility initiative mounted by the World Wide Web Con- 272 Electronic Documents sortium is a good source for announcements of technical advances aimed at providing universal access to the Web: hhttp://www.w3.org/WAIi. Past and Future Applications Multimedia has been with us at least since 1978, when the Architecture Machine Group at MIT developed the Aspen Movie Map. This was a surrogate travel application that allowed the user to take a simulated drive through the city of Aspen. A set of videodisks contained photo- graphs of all the streets in the city and some of the buildings. Users could stop in front of many buildings and go inside! The Aspen Movie Map even had a time-of-year knob, giving the user a choice of the autumn or the winter version. The Architecture Machine Group also created a prototype Movie Manual, suitable for both novice and expert auto mechanics. Among the features of the Movie Manual was this one: Each time a tool was men- tioned, the mechanic could link to a picture of the tool and a narrative about how it is used or to a video of an experienced mechanic using that tool. By the en d of the twentieth century, we had already witnessed a dra- matic transition from paper to on-line documents. Why provide each of 600 employees with a 500-page manual that needs updates at least twice a year? Accurate and updated information can be delivered on replace- able CD-ROMs, on a proprietary intranet, or on a handheld information appliance connected to the wireless Web. Enthusiasts are convinced that multimedia applications will be the basis of a new literacy. Software will diagnose a user’s abilities and learn- ing needs, and the multimedia book will reconfigure to best suit each reader. Learning will be effective and powerful because, in this view, non- linear systems model the associative style of human idea processing. Information will always be timely, because electronic updates are cheap and convenient. Skeptics wonder about a future in whic h all texts are unstable and can be read in any order, perhaps revised by many readers. Which, if any, versions of a document will be authoritative? What factors of electronic text will substitute for the social signals that distinguish a high-quality Electronic Documents 273 printed book from a carelessly prepared handout? What do people need to learn so that they can browse profitably in immen se multimedia data- bases? What will be the long-term effects of nonlinear, multimedia read- ing? What is the meaning of intellectual property in easily reproduced electronic documents? What is the longevity of digital information? Will electronic documents become obsolete when hardware and software change? Adult readers are usually more familiar with paper-based than on-line formats, and they do not always know how to learn from electronic documents. Electronic text is less legible, slower, and more tiring to read. Multimedia documents are more time consuming and expensive to pro- duce. But the potential advantages of electronic documents include vast storage capacity, easy search and retrieval, and accuracy . 274 Electronic Documents 18 CVs, Re´sume´s, and Job Correspondence Re´sume´ or Curriculum Vitae? The Formal Professional Biography Build Cont ent from Component Parts Edit for Clarity and Focus Design for Hard Copy and Electronic Delivery Streamline and Update Job-Related Correspondence Cover Letters List of References Follow-Up Letters CVs and Re´sume´s in Transition o Late on a Friday, looking forward to the weekend, you check your e-mail and find an alarming message. You discover that your plans will have to change. The new department manager wants to interview all mid-level staff, and she wants an up-to-date curriculum vitae (CV) by Monday morni ng. Unfortunately for you, your CV is seven years out of date. You aren’t afraid of losing your job, but to be ready for Mon- day, you will need not only to revise your copy, listing what you’ve done for the past seven years, but also to update your page design. You’ve discovered what scientists and engineers know and often ignore: that a current and attractive CV is a crucial document for professional advancement. [...]... commas to help the reader sort elements in the sentence 17 Capitalize proper nouns, book and article titles, certain scientific terms, and references to chapters, equations, figures, and tables 18 Use apostrophes to identify possessives, plurals, and contractions 19 Use hyphens to form compound words and compound modifiers, and to divide words 20 Use semicolons to join closely related clauses and to separate... numbers, symbols, and special terminologies to treat subjects that range in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic This quest for accuracy and detail in subjects that can be challenging to represent often leads to the problems in style and usage we associate with foggy, dense writing in the professions Our handbook identifies some of the more common of these problems and A Brief Handbook of Style and Usage... respond to the controls, crashes if it is too close to the ground to recover 290 A Brief Handbook of Style and Usage You can make paragraphs like the two above hold together by means of three organizing principles: (1) Unity Focus on a topic that will unify the content of the paragraph Do not shift to new topics in mid-paragraph All the sentences of the paragraphs above contribute to the two main topics,... you asked, they just ran the piece through a spell checker and added some capitals and commas Your organization’s editorial service takes a week to turn a priority document around As you leave your office, you realize that you’re the only one left to do the job You need a refresher on style and usage Writers in the sciences and applied sciences place a high value on accurate description and detailed analysis... parallel objects, actions, and thoughts into parallel sentence elements 9 Don’t line up long strings of modifiers in front of nouns 10 Place modifiers close to the words they modify 11 Make your pronouns refer clearly to the objects and ideas that they stand for 12 Make words related by number, pronoun reference, and case agree with each other 13 Use definite articles (the) and indefinite articles (a, an) to identify... education and relevant experience (Modified and used with permission, MIT Office of Career Services and Pre-professional Advising.) CVs, Resumes, and Job Correspondence ´ ´ 279 Some resume elements are conventional, but only the first of the fol´ ´ lowing is absolutely required: Name, address, telephone number, e-mail address Objective Educational history Employment history Skills and training... contact each one This job candidate has taken the time to indicate her professional connection with the referees (Used with permission.) CVs, Resumes, and Job Correspondence ´ ´ 285 an updated resume Inform your referees of the outcome of your job ´ ´ search and thank them for the time they have spent on your behalf Follow-Up Letters Many job applicants write thank-you letters to companies where they... your resume will hold up to e-mailing, scanning, downloading, up´ ´ loading, and keyword-searching by sending your resume to colleagues who can then let you know if your document maintains its formatting on their computer systems Streamline and Update How long should a CV or resume be? With hard copy resumes, many ´ ´ ´ ´ organizations are strongly committed to the one-page limit, even for senior professionals... application letters and resumes in addition to the e-mail ´ ´ version When you submit a hard-copy application, consider the envelope in which you enclose your letter and resume Because the envelope is post´ ´ marked and date-stamped, it frequently remains a part of your file You can make the package more attractive by using an envelope large enough to accommodate your documents without folding and by designing... pair of paragraphs with topic and supporting sentences that are linked together by a series of keywords (KW) Wind Shear: Phenomenology of Microbursts and Gust Fronts Downdrafts within storms generate microbursts and gust fronts [Topic sentence] Through a variety of processes, including evaporative cooling and precipitation loading, negatively buoyant air within a storm descends to the ground as a downdraft . are easier to search than books, providing improved access to topics and cross-references. They can be remarkably compact: A laptop with CD-ROM drive can deliver a 10,000-page docu- mentation. provides infor- mation about education and relevant experience. (Modified and used with per- mission, MIT Office of Career Services and Pre-professional Advising.) 278 CVs, Re ´ sume ´ s, and Job Correspondence Some. particularly legible on-screen, and pr es- ent extended text in 1 2- point size. Except for headings, use upper- and lowercase letters. Include images that load quickly. Readers of on-line documents expect