Creating Visuals—Walter E. Oliu, Charles T. Brusaw, and Gerald J. Alred
Some things to consider when incorporating visuals into documents:
- Plan visuals as you consider the scope of your final work—make sure everything fits and looks good in the rough draft
- Explain why you include each visual—the description will vary based on importance, use your knowledge of the audience to determine how much detail you need
- Make sure the information in your visual is accurate
- Keep it focused—only use necessary elements, eliminate the “riff-raff”
- Symbols, acronyms, and terminology should be consistent throughout the visual
- Specify measurements and distances using useful scales
- Make sure lettering is readable and captions are clear
- **Assign figure and/or table numbers for documents containing over 5—then refer to the figure using its number** (I think this is one of the most important things to remember. It will help with consistency and clarity throughout the document.)
TABLES
- Elements will include: table number, table title, boxhead, stub, body, rules (lines), source line, and footnotes.
GRAPHS
- Can be: Line graphs, bar graphs, pie graphs, picture graphs, dimensional-column graphs
OTHER VISUALS
- Drawings, flow charts, organizational charts, maps, photographs
I thought that this essay was very informative for certain types of business documents. I cannot foresee Natalie’s and my project including too many visuals aside from pictures, but all of these considerations are important. I’m currently taking a Computer Science course that is helping me to get even more familiar with MS PowerPoint and Excel, two programs that I can see being useful. I did not include too much information from this essay however, because the scope of visuals in my particular project is rather small, unlike a technical manual or set of instructions.
Strategies of Persuasion—David W. Ewing
- Knowing how to approach a technical document depends on relationships among the communicator, the reader, the message, and the time-space environment. Any writer should be familiar with such relationships so that they can effectively plan and execute their persuasion. Good writers vary their approaches based on individual situations.
- Ewing proposes some guidelines for persuasive writing:
1. Consider whether your views will make problems for your readers.
o Saying “You are wrong”= new enemy
o Present bad news or conflicting opinions with empathy and tact—be careful!
2. Don’t offer new ideas, directives, or recommendations for change until your readers are prepared for them.
o Consider your audience’s resistance to change
3. Your credibility with readers affects your strategy.
o Given credibility—boss to subordinate, any title you have or accomplishments you’ve achieved.
o Acquired credibility—how you present the message
4. If your audience disagrees with your ideas or is uncertain about them, present both sides of the argument.
o Shows that you’re objective
o Reader is treated as a mature and informed individual
5. Win respect by making your opinion or recommendation clear.
o Don’t leave any question as to what your stance is (if you’re presenting both sides of the argument)
6. Put your strongest points last if the audience is very interested in the argument, first if it is not so interested.
o Primacy-recency issue
7. Don’t count on changing attitudes by offering information alone.
o Did not completely understand the explanation
8. “Testimonials” are most likely to be persuasive if drawn from people with whom readers associate.
9. Be wary of using extreme or “sensational” claims and facts.
o Don’t be flashy—this is business writing, after all
10. Tailor your presentation to the reasons for readers’ attitudes, if you know them.
o Meet the main feelings, prejudices, or reasons or your audience’s beliefs
11. Never mention other people without considering their possible effect on the reader.
I enjoyed this article as well and found it informative. It is yet another take on the “know your audience” rule, but done in an original way re: persuasion.
Proposals—Philip C. Kolin
Guidelines for Writing a Successful Proposal
1. Approach writing a proposal as a problem-solving activity. (Exigence, Context)
2. Regard your audience as skeptical readers. (Audience—it’s not about you, it’s about your client)
3. Research your proposal carefully. (Current Citations, Literature Review)
4. Prove that your proposal is workable. (Project Plan)
5. Be sure that your proposal is financially realistic. (Cost-Benefit Analyisis)
6. Package your proposal attractively.
Since we’ve already written our proposals for our client, I included my class notes based on Dr. Holmevek’s lesson within the given guidelines. Although it’s a different book, most of the same elements exist.
INTERNAL PROPOSALS
- “The primary purpose of an internal proposal…is to offer a realistic and constructive plan to help your company run its business more efficiently and economically” (244).
- Informal—can be a brief memo
- Consider: Your AUDIENCE and office politics
SALES PROPOSALS
- In effect, these are the proposals that most of us are writing in class. The categories are very similar as most proposals follow a typical format.
Writing Proposals with Style—Richard Johnson-Sheehan
Style is very important because it sets the tone for your document. It makes content easier to read and more persuasive, as well as shows the clear head of the writer, his/her emphasis on quality, and projects a willingness to communicate with the writer’s work and readers. In my writing, I take style very seriously. It takes extra work and attention to detail, but it pays off in the end. This essay approaches style with more grammar notes, which I find a little redundant.
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