TITLE : TECHNICAL WRITING IN THE CORPORATE WORLD.

 
CONTENTS
 
PREFACE
 
SECTION 1
1.0		Understanding Technical Writing							2
1.1		Surveying Your Attitudes Toward Writing					3
1.2		Knowing Your Audience									7
		Case study #1: Analyizing an Audience					11
		Exercise: Evaluating Effective Technical Writing		12
1.3		Understanding the Writing Process						14
		Exercise: Thinking About Your Writing Process			16
1.4		The five C's of Report Writing							17
 
SECTION 2
2.0		Developing the Technical Document						24
2.1		Correspondence											25
		2.1.1	The Memo										25
		2.1.2	The Cover Letter								28
		2.1.3	The Resume										30
2.2		Reports													32
		2.2.1	The Trip Report									32
		2.2.2	The Activities Report							35
2.3		Proposals
		2.3.1	The Brief Proposal								39
		2.3.2	The Extended Proposal							41
2.4		Procedures												50
2.5		Long Documents											52
		Exercise: Collecting Model Technical Documents			59
 
SECTION 3
3.0		Editing the Technical Document							62
3.1		Organization 											63
3.2		Style													64	
3.3		Correctness												66
		Exercise: Identifying the Seven Deadly Errors of
				  Technical Writing								67	
		3.3.1 Pronoun-Reference Agreement Problems				69
		3.3.2 Subject-Verb Agreement Problems					69
		3.3.3 Vague Pronoun Reference							69
		3.3.4 Dangling Modifiers								70	
		3.3.5 Overuse of Passive Voice							70
		3.3.6 Inappropriate Comma Use							70	
		3.3.7 Inappropriate Semicolon Use						71
3.4		A Note on Editing										72
 
SECTION 4
4.0 	Conclusion: The Importance of Technical Writing			74
 
APPENDICES
Appendix A Building a Community of Technical Editors			75
Appendix B Word Processing for the Technical Writer				76
Appendix C Technical Writing and English as a Second Language	77
Appendix D For Further Reading									78