Technical Communication. Student Outcomes.
Technical communication exists to build a certain informational bridge between its audience and the message sender. Thus, defining the audience and the purpose is crucial for the desired goal to be reached and the correct message to be delivered. The audience definition will provide developer with a clear understanding of whom he\she will be talking to, so the appropriate message and its form can be designed. Depending on the audience the following concepts of the message can be determined: main group preferences, dominating lifestyle position, possible leverage of influence, etc. As the result the developer is able to indicate correct information, which would be fully accepted by the reader, while delivering it in a convenient for the target way. Meanwhile, defining the purpose of technical communication constructs the logical reasoning for what you are about to share and what for this information is valuable to the reader, thus, when creating the message, the developer is able to include more of the persuasion to it.
My audience was students, defined as Nonspecialists, who were simply interested in what I was saying. Farther, I distinguish an opportunity to be messaging to Experts and Executives types of audience.
Clear, Concise, and Comprehensive Communication:
For the message to be recognized and received the clarity factor has to provide different audiences with the understandable language, at the same time the concept of conciseness should form the message to be minimally worded, while the principle of comprehensiveness require all of the necessary information to be provided. The main difficulty for all of the three to be present is concealed in their direct correlation. Usually providing the reader with enough information requires much of wording, while due to the specificity of the information some terms can be confusing and lack the additional explanation.
I have faced this issue of a proper balance when I was working on my resume and the letter of application. I was willing to include so much information; however, I still needed to fit it all within few pages.
Focused, Organized, and Ethical Communication:
Again, speaking of the main purpose of technical communication the process of making your target listen to your message is vital for the success of the campaign. Since the audience of reach (within the technical communication sphere) is numerous, there is always a chance that someone can be offended or displeased. This is the point where one meaning can ruin your reputation and the entire campaign. That is why developing your message in the most possible ethical way makes it easier to avoid undesired consequences.
The following unethical examples of communication are listed: presence of racism, sexism and other discriminations (corresponding words or images); delivery of untruthful information; motivation for immoral actions; advertisement of unhealthy habits; etc.
Engineering Communication Conventions:
The biggest issue of my concerns in terms of English language mechanics is spelling. I am more into speaking, thus, I have not been paying much attention to the way the words should be spelled. The second in that list is punctuation. I am constantly tempted to expand my sentences, while I admit that I may not always put correct comas. Speaking of six aspects of technical communication I truly hope to improve the conciseness and focus. Sometimes I get distracted with another idea and my messages can get to blur in terms of the concrete information. Moreover, as it was already mentioned, I am greedy for big sentences with lots of adjectives and clarifications; as the result the idea perception complications may occur.
