 Lecture 7, As-Salaam-Alaikum. Welcome to the virtual university's course on business and technical communication. In the previous lesson, we looked at defining objectives and appropriateness in business and technical communication. Today, we will talk about accuracy, clarity, conciseness and coherence when writing for technical communication. In this lecture, we will talk about the characteristics of effective technical communication and also learn to recognize and cultivate the qualities of effective technical communication. Good technical communication is accurate, clear, concise, coherent and appropriate. We have talked of appropriateness. Let us now look at the other qualities. In the pros of science and technology, these qualities are sometimes difficult to achieve and not only do science and technology depend heavily on specialized concepts and terminologies, they also make use of numbers and graphics and that is why it sometimes becomes difficult for scientific and technical writing to be concise and clear to a lot of people. Let us consider an example of technical writing where a lot of scientific terminology has been used. The flow of electrical current can induce the migration of impurities or other defects through the bulk of a solid. This process is called electromigration. In simple electromigration, the force on the defect is thought to have two components. The first component is the force created by direct interaction between the effective charge of the defect and the electric field that drives the current. The second component called the wind force is the force caused by the scattering of electrons at the defect. Now, this is a text taken from a scientific journal and it is accurate in two ways. It is stylistically accurate in its precise use of language and it is technically accurate in its use of specialized terms such as electromigration, charge, electric field and scattering whose meanings are based on the context of a technical discipline. Now, both kinds of accuracy, accuracy of phrasing and accuracy of technical concept are very important in technical and scientific and professional writing. This example that we just looked at is also clear because it is written in simple direct sentences. Even though it is heavily technical, the terminology is very technical. It is clear because the sentences are direct and they are simple. Although the technical context is specialized, the word order also is simple. It is restrained. The structure is easy to understand. So, despite the technical realm of the topic, it is easy to understand. Although it is a very technical concept, it is technical terms but still, the example that was written in it, if it is read, it is not that difficult to understand. Part of this clarity is achieved by the rhetorical device of defining a term, electromigration. Now, the majority of clarity that came in this example, the majority of the words that came in this example, it also happened that the term of electromigration was defined. And because of that, in the beginning, the reader got a definition that what is this term? Because of that, it was easy to understand what was read in the future. The example is concise and it is used of a minimum number of words to express the basic idea of electromigration. And also, it is not wordy. It does not digress from the point. There are not many difficult words to be used. Where a word is used, there is only one word used. It is not that instead of one word, there are three or four words used to impress the reader. Because of that, the text gets confusing. The example is also coherent because it develops the subject matter in an easy-to-follow manner. There is a clear line of thinking. The sentences are linked together by words like this process, the first component, the second component. These are links. The first, the second, this process. They are referring other things in the text. And that is why the line of thinking of the reader is not broken. The thought remains in the text and it knows what it is talking about. Because there are clear markers in the text. Finally, the example is also appropriate to its purpose because it is presenting a description of the process of electromigration. So, the way it is written is appropriate because it is obviously meant for a scientific audience. The writer knows that the audience are educated readers of science and they may not be experts in the field of nanotechnology about which this is talking about electromigration. So, the writer has definitely understood that it should be described by the electromigration because he knows that these readers are experts in science and technology but he may not be able to tell them about this concept. But the rest, he used terminology and did not define everything because he knows that his audience will understand it. Now, what is accuracy and why is it important? It is important that you cultivate accuracy in your writing and it is the careful conforming of truth or facts and it has three main aspects. There is document accuracy, there is stylistic accuracy and there is technical accuracy. Now, let us see what these three aspects mean and why is it important? Document accuracy, stylistic accuracy, technical accuracy. What is document accuracy and what is the need for it in a document? It refers to the proper coverage of your topics in appropriate detail. Whatever your document topic is, how much detail is in it, how much you have covered it, there is not much detail, and how accurate is the accuracy in that document. Often an accurate document needs to focus clearly on a problem. Document accuracy is generally cultivated by a clear problem statement and by preliminary outline. Most of the time, document accuracy comes only in a document. When the problem is clear in the document and in the beginning, the outline of the document is given and then accuracy increases in the document. These writing tools help you focus your writing efforts by reducing your data in a way that solves a theoretical or practical problem. So, because these are basically tools that you have. If you have a problem statement or if you have a preliminary outline, these are tools that will help you as a writer identify your goals better, that will help you as a writer make sure that your document is accurate and they also serve as a kind of a check for you so that you do not digress from your point. If you start discussing other topics then when you look at your problem statement or outline, you will realize that we are moving away from the point. Now, what is stylistic accuracy and why is this important? Stylistic accuracy concerns the careful use of language to express meaning. Accurate language requires the careful use of paragraph and sentence structure and word choice to describe and analyze your topics effectively. Whatever paragraph structure, word choice, sentence structure you are using will affect how effectively you express what you want to say. So, that then is stylistic accuracy. If you structure your paragraph in such a way that you do not want to clear or what you are trying to say does not reach that message but some other message. Then the document's accuracy will decrease because the reader will get some other message and you want to give another message. Just because you have structured your paragraph or used your words creates some misunderstanding. So, obviously where there is misunderstanding your accuracy will decrease. As a writer, you gain command of accuracy by studying the elements of style and by learning to apply these elements to your drafting, revising, editing and proofreading. When you read a document again or when you draft it for the first time and make your points rough revise it once again and edit it again. Whatever changes you have to make and when you proofread it and find some mistakes then your accuracy will increase because of all these points in four steps, revising, editing, drafting, revising, editing and proofreading will increase your accuracy in your document. And stylistic accuracy obviously is also a matter of choosing your words precisely. The words that can be understood are the words used so your accuracy will increase and this also doesn't come with stylistic accuracy. Now, what is technical accuracy? We've looked at document accuracy and stylistic accuracy. What is technical accuracy and why is that important in a document? Technical accuracy requires stylistic accuracy but is not based solely on it. A very important part of technical accuracy is also stylistic accuracy which we talked about. But it doesn't mean that technical accuracy and stylistic accuracy are the same. There are two different things. Stylistic accuracy can be a part of technical accuracy but not the whole part. The effective document in science and technology must be grounded in a technically accurate understanding and representation of the subject. Especially when we give scientific or technological explanations or descriptions, our document shows that the facts we present are correct and correct because what we are talking about can reach anywhere and according to the reader they can understand some wrong things and what you are trying to show you can also show some other things. That is why it is very important that you use technical terms and use technical concepts to explain something that is absolutely clear and correct. Technical accuracy depends on the writer's conceptual mastery of the subject and its vocabulary as well as on his or her ability to analyze and shape data with a minimum of distortion. Obviously if you as a writer are not a master at the concepts that you are presenting if you do not know the concepts that you are presenting then your document will not be technically accurate. That is why it is important that the people who are going to write should know about their subject matter so that the people who write write it correctly. Other than this, use the words so that they are also correct. The information you give has a minimum distortion and a minimum chance of making a mistake. This is why in science and technology there is so much emphasis given on mastering this technical aspect of subject development. Until you develop a subject and write any topic about it it is very important that it is technical accuracy so that there is no indication Now what about clarity? Why is clarity important in technical writing? Clarity which refers to ease of understanding is a special problem in technical and professional writing because a lot of the times people find it very difficult to be clear in what they are saying and they either use too many words or they use very long sentences or the information has not been presented properly and that leads to misunderstanding. Specialized languages mathematically described detailed analysis and complex conceptual schemes can make technical subjects hard to grasp even when prepared by skill writers and read by expert readers because in technical writing there is so much that is difficult to explain and there is so much emphasis on the right language and presenting the concepts in a particular manner if you vary from those it becomes difficult for you as a writer to explain the concepts and for the reader to understand as well because of the complexity of what you might be explaining and you can increase the clarity of your material by either using structural clarity or stylistic clarity and or contextual clarity generally you would be striving for all of these structural stylistic as well as contextual clarity to make your document more clear let's have a look at what these are what is structural clarity and why is it important at the level of the whole document you can promote structural clarity making it easy for the reader to get the large picture so this is from the large part of the document we are looking at the whole document and seeing how we can use structural clarity to make the general image of the whole document more easily accessible to the reader you should use abstracts and other forecasting strategies such as introductions that state the purpose and scope of the document or table of contents etc and because these add to the structural clarity of the document basically structural clarity means the structure of the document we should improve it to make it easy for the reader the way we have designed the document should be better and we should add elements to make it easy for the reader for example if table of contents it is easy for the reader to see what is written or if it is abstract or introduction we get tools for the reader now how can you promote as I said table of contents problem statements even strategic repetition promote structural clarity many times we repeat many things in a document it is better not to repeat because your readers get bored but if you are repeating then do it strategically and do it on such points where you feel you have to emphasize what is written and it teaches it graphs and tables if they are effectively designed and effectively placed help focus and they also clarify information they help the reader in focusing on particular information they also help you as a writer in emphasizing particular information so if you want to emphasize the information then put it in tables or graphs descriptive titles and frequent subject headings guide readers and they help them in keeping the larger picture in focus obviously not much but where it is important where titles, headings they help a lot to structure a document obviously if there are a lot of headings and there is very less description then it is not suitable headings should be there where it is suitable and there are a lot of headings now what about stylistic clarity why is that important stylistic clarity is promoted by simple direct language and this simplicity in language is obtained with directly worded sentences the word the sentences should be in direct speech they should be addressed directly to the reader and this simplicity then promotes stylistic clarity the sentences should be simple and they should not be overloaded with information or words so that clarity can be increased word choice is also a factor in fact a very important factor in stylistic clarity you should use simple language wherever possible and try to reduce abstract specialized terms of science and technology especially if you feel that the audience is not going to understand it if you feel that the audience is expert and they can understand the scientific and technical language then use simple words to counteract to balance out the scientific and technical language so having talked about structural clarity and stylistic clarity let's have a look at contextual clarity and what we mean by that contextual clarity in which the importance authorization and implications of your work are made available also contribute to ease of understanding all work has a context and your readers want to understand what the context of your document is as a writer things which contribute to contextual clarity are questions like what is prompting you to write which basically means why are you writing what is your purpose what do you hope to achieve through this writing whose work has preceded your writing and whose work has influenced you was there any work done on this topic or this area before you which has influenced you that is important because then you will need to refer to that or maybe you will assume that your readers know of that work what is the organizational and intellectual context of your problem that you are writing about now you can achieve contextual clarity by answering all these questions in your introductions, problem statements and in your citations and references etc you don't have to allude to them directly all the time but you need to be clear about them and you need to make sure that they are somehow that your introductions and citations etc are somehow answering all these questions in introductions problem statements, citations and other references but this doesn't mean that you need to write about them or you need to answer them directly all the time a lot of the times you will just allude to them or you will just refer to them but you need to be clear yourself what you are referring to so that your purpose what is prompting you to write any work that has influenced you the context of your problem is clear to the reader as well what about conciseness why do we consider that important when we are writing technical documents why is it important to learn the strategies of conciseness why does conciseness have such a special value technical phase writers are often tempted to include everything that could be relevant to the subject or everything that they know in the document including things that are relevant to the communication task at hand so a lot of the times as writers we are tempted that whatever we know we should show our knowledge and we try to include that we forget that whatever we might know is not necessarily important for the communication task right now if we know this document we should fix it somewhere somewhere so that our readers one of them was very eager that our readers would be impressed but we forget that our readers think this is irrelevant and what we are writing there is no need for this this is irrelevant for our reader so instead of being impressed or bad so therefore the concise document is a piece of writing that should convey only the material that is needed at that particular point at the level of the whole document conciseness is helped most by focus the narrowing of document scope to a manageable problem and response if you as a writer can find the focus of your problem what it says about your particular topic you want to write about what is the problem that you want to target and narrow the problem in its scope not talk about the problem in such a large context or large detail that it cannot be managed in one document you need to narrow it down to a particular focus that will help your document in being concise preparing a clear introduction and developing a detailed outline are two strategies that give you control so if you have got a clear outline point by point you have made an outline in your document and you have written a clear in the introduction you have defined your objectives in the clear news introduction so it will be very easy for you to keep your document concise and not move away from the point it will be very easy for you you also need to identify and eliminate material that is not necessary to support your claims if in your document you are giving a clear outline for which you have given additional information to make it clear then it is very important to see that the additional information that you are giving to make it clear how important it is how relevant it is and how detailed it needs many times it happens that people give more explanation they don't need any explanation so that is why you have to remove unnecessary material that is false material from your document also you need to look for sections including appendices which are not essential to your work if you have any sections any chapters, paragraphs you have put some information in appendix which is not necessary to be in your document then it is better to remove it if you feel that we have written this extra then reduce it Graphics are a powerful aid to conciseness because they cut down on words they cut down on the amount of prose that is necessary to describe objects, to develop your arguments to describe processes they also help in summarizing data and in demonstrating relationships so a lot of the time if you want your document to be concise then using graphs, tables, figures it is a very good aid they are very good tools so you can use them to make your document concise and rely less on prose but obviously you cannot use graphs to explain all kind of materials so you have to be selective in where you are using graphs and where you are using prose and also you need to be careful because the graphics that you are using are actually suitable for the information that you are projecting how would you make your document more concise? we have talked about graphs conciseness could also require careful revising once you have written your document you need to revise it you need to go over it once again and you need to then see what changes need to be made and what are some of the aspects maybe there is text that needs to be replaced for graphs you might not have thought of it in the first instance you need to become familiar with the strategies for reducing wordiness look for ways of cutting useless words sentences, sections from the document if you feel that you are using too many words to explain one thing cut that down if you feel that there are too many sections which are irrelevant or if they are sentences cut those down coherence is another factor which is very important in writing technical documents and professional documents coherence is the quality of hanging together of your writing being together being stuck together so that it does not seem as if you are writing about different things and it does not seem choppy or it does not seem that you are taking jumps from one idea to another it's basically providing the reader a unique path to follow writers promote coherence by making the material logically and stylistically consistent the information in your material the logic of it should come together the stylistic components that you are using the style components in your writing should also be the same not that you have one writing style in one paragraph and in another paragraph in the beginning of a paragraph you were very formal and by the end of the paragraph you have become informal so that is not your stylistically coherent paragraph coherence is also achieved by organizing and expressing ideas in specific manner in specific patterns when we talked about earlier we talked about using a dividing and alternating pattern of comparison now if you want the document to be coherent then if you have chosen a dividing pattern then you will stick to a dividing pattern if you have chosen an alternating pattern then you will stick to an alternative pattern for that document it is not possible that you tell in the three points in the alternating pattern and then you come to the dividing pattern the reader will get confused so the coherent document will be consistent throughout your document among the elements of a document strengthen its impact whatever relationships are between different elements between different chapters or in different paragraphs if you make an effort that those relationships are clear then the coherence in your document will increase it also increases the reader's ability to understand your topic because it has increased the flow of what you have written it improves the readability of your material coherence is specially valued in technical communication and writing because of the inherent complexity of the subjects for writing which is written for lay people for people who have no expert knowledge generally the topics are easy but when writing is done for a technical audience the concepts that need to be explained are more complicated and therefore it is even more important that coherence is present in your writing that your document is coherent and you use all the strategies we talked about to achieve this coherence so that because the text is heavy in terms of the content it has at least if you are writing it in a coherent manner then it serves as a tool for your audience to understand what you have written in the direction of the whole document coherence helps to provide the larger picture in which the connections amongst the parts of a document are made clear to the audience by the writer and it also helps the readers in the sense that it gives them a road map to help them anticipate the content of your work a lot of the times in your writing you refer forward to what you have written or you use the words or the sentences that are written so that the reader gets an idea that the next sentence or the next paragraph will be about this type so you are showing your audience a road map for them so that it is easier to read abstracts, clear titles, introductions, problem statements all promote coherence making various parts of a piece of writing because of all of this abstracts, clear titles or introduction or problem statements clearly stated because of all of this the coherence of your document increases because the different parts of your document make a relationship and provide a link the paragraph with the most powerful instruments of coherence I have already told you all the areas that are important in coherence but the most important thing to emphasise is your paragraph construction because if it is not your coherence or if it is not your tightly knit then in your document no matter how many headings abstracts, problem statements if your paragraphs are not good then your document will not be coherent and by organising material into a topic sentence in a paragraph and then in supporting sentences you are pulling the paragraph material together so it is important to make sure that every paragraph has a topic sentence and those topic sentences are then supported by the supporting sentences and so that the various forms of the concepts are developed properly so it is important that one sentence in your paragraph which is generally the beginning which is called topic sentence it is important because from that topic sentence the reader gets to know what will be discussed in this paragraph and you also get to know what you have to keep in mind in this paragraph in this paragraph your concepts are clarified and then the supporting sentences the other sentences in the paragraph are all related to this topic sentence paragraph development is achieved partly through the specific strategies of exemplification analysis, comparison and contrast definition, enumeration and description the paragraphs most of them follow these 6 patterns or there is an exemplification in a paragraph in which examples are used or analysis is used which is analysed or comparison and contrast is used or something is defined or enumeration is given point by point or general description is given not point by point but the overall process is described all of these furnish distinct approaches to developing ideas now you as a writer can decide which way of developing a paragraph you wish to use for a particular paragraph it is not necessary that in a document all the paragraphs are developed in the same way in fact not all the paragraphs will be developed in different ways and this will affect what you want to show in the paragraph and how you want to express it so all paragraphs may have different patterns of development and that pattern will be determined by the content that goes in the paragraph transitional devices also operate at the paragraph level to provide links between sentences and between paragraphs although it is important for you to be clear in your mind what pattern of organisation you are using for a paragraph it is important that you use transitional devices so that in the sentences within your paragraph there are very definite links and also you need to use transitional devices between different paragraphs so that where one paragraph ends and where the other paragraph starts there is no transition there is no link not that one paragraph ends and when the other one starts the writer who is going to read what is the link from the paragraph so that the transition where you are taking the reader from one idea to another that transition is very important so that the link and flow is coming to you in terms of paragraph development writers use enumeration in paragraphs when they want to itemise a list itemise or list a set of properties or topics or series of some kind enumeration is a powerful way of observing observations and to emphasise each element so there could be distinct elements that you will list and that you will emphasise by enumerating them in a paragraph let's have a look at what we mean when we talk about enumerating in this paragraph that we are going to see now the items are enumerated in a series of itemised recommendations if you have instructions to have your blood cholesterol measured if you have never had it done finger prick tests at health fairs and other public places are generally very accurate especially if they are offered by a hospital or other reputable health groups when you know your number follow these guidelines from the national cholesterol education program now this is an introduction within a paragraph and now comes the enumeration part if your cholesterol is under 200 maintain a healthy lifestyle including eating a low fat diet getting regular exercise, maintaining a health body diet and not smoking and get another test within 5 years if your cholesterol is between 200 and 239 have a second test performed and average the results if that number falls in the same range and if you do have any form of cardiovascular disease change your diet to improve your cholesterol in addition eliminate any other risk factors you have and get tested again in about 1 year if your cholesterol is 240 or more your physician should order cholesterol analysis and recommend therapy based on the results you should begin a cholesterol improving diet immediately now if you see in this example all these 3 points if your cholesterol is under 200 between 200 and 239 if your cholesterol is 240 or more all these 3 points are listed separately and it makes it very clear to the reader that the writer is talking about 3 different scenarios so instead of just talking about them generally the writer has enumerated them put them as separate points talked about them in specific detail there is a link because they are all talking about cholesterol there is a link to the way they have been written as well if you notice the language is similar the sentence patterns are similar but the scenarios are different obviously because each scenario is talking about a different cholesterol level but instructions are following the same pattern now it's not necessary that enumeration patterns are always in bullet form enumerated paragraphs could also be in a paragraph form you don't have to set them aside as bullets or numbers you could enumerate things by saying firstly, secondly, thirdly for example or in the first place in the second place and that is also enumeration exemplification is used to clarify your topic statement and generally exemplification would be used as examples in the paragraph that you are going to see the topic sentence is supported in examples that illustrate, support and clarify the main point vitamins and minerals can be added to enrich, replace nutrients lost in processing or fortify, add nutrients not normally present foods to improve their nutritional quality bread and cereals are usually enriched with some B vitamins and iron common examples of fortification include the addition of vitamin D to milk, vitamin A to margarine vitamin C to fruit drinks calcium to orange juice and iodine to table salt, iodide to table salt now this if you see the writer has given examples, the writer has clarified terminology like enrich by giving in brackets what he means he has talked about fortify given a very clear direct link to it and then gone on to examples, he is exemplifying all that he is saying by giving you concrete terms, concrete examples that will relate to what he is trying to say and that will support his topic statement that vitamins and minerals enrich and fortify foods to improve their nutritional quality comparison and contrast is used to develop a topic examining its similarities or dissimilarities to another thing similarities or dissimilarities of processes or states etc. comparison emphasizes the similarities and contrast emphasizes the differences a paragraph may use both comparison and contrast let us have a look at an example where two kinds of electrical cable are compared the aim here is to convey the superiority of a type over b type for two categories of performance the heading here is coaxial versus fiber optic cable so obviously the heading is it is clear from the title that there is some kind of a comparison or a contrast being done and then after colon it says comparative cable length performances so here obviously it is even more clear by the use of the word comparative we are comparing the cable length performances for a number of critical performance characteristics fiber optic cable offers considerable advantage over standard coaxial cables the most obvious distinction between the two is the great bandwidth distance capacity of fiber the high frequency capacity of coaxial cables decreases rapidly with increased length but the bandwidth of a commercial fiber optic system will remain constant with length the commercial fiber optic system like that of RTEL remains constant for a bandwidth over a distance of 4000 feet while three different sizes of coaxial cable rapidly drop in less than half the distance now this as you can see is a paragraph where the two different types of cables have been compared to each other by looking at different aspects different elements of the cables themselves the two different types of cables that are present are things like the length the bandwidth etc and these have been compared from cable A to cable B or the coaxial cable to the fiber optic cable the use of transitional words and phrases greatly adds to the coherence of a piece of writing and writers need to use transitional words and phrases to clarify and smooth the movement from idea to idea so this paragraph which has weak transition would be something like reducing drag in an aerospace vehicle is an important design consideration with financial and operational consequences poorly designed rocket fuselage scan triple fuel and launch costs drag increases stress on key joints this proposed project will develop a model to reduce aerodynamic drag on the RX100 now let's have a look at the same paragraph but with better transitional devices and improved version of the same paragraph reducing drag in an aerospace vehicle is an important design consideration for example poorly designed rocket fuselage can triple fuel and launch costs moreover drag increases stress on key joints therefore this proposed project will develop a model to reduce aerodynamic drag on the RX100 now as you see words and phrases like for example moreover and therefore have provided better links between the sentences and these are the transitional devices that have been used by the writer to make the writing more coherent so with this we come to the end of this lecture lecture 7 where you learnt the importance of accuracy clarity, conciseness and coherence until next time Allah Hafiz