The documentation describing a technical project or product frequently takes one of two forms: too little documentation to present the necessary information properly, or too much documentation poorly organized and poorly written. To help overcome this problem, a four-level approach to project documentation is described, with documents assigned to each level according to their intended use. The technical writer can then judge how to construct a given document because the audience for each documentation level is clearly defined.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
WhitesellC. F.Jr., Role and Scope of Technical Writing Activities, in Handbook of Technical Writing Practices, 2, JordanS., (ed.), Wiley-Interscience, New York, pp. 1029–1070, 1971.
2.
WoelfleR. M., Technical Reports, in Handbook of Technical Writing Practices, 1, JordanS., (ed.), Wiley-Interscience, New York, pp. 345–423, especially note Figure 6-1, 1971.
3.
RobbinsJ. C., Writing for the Technical Representative, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 5:4, pp. 311–321, 1974.
4.
LazaroT. R., Effective Communication of Technical Information to a Nontechnical Group, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 7:4, pp. 295–301, 1976.
5.
HallR. C., Lunar Impact: A History of Project Ranger, NASA Special Publication SP-4210, U.S. Government Printing Office, pp. 367–443, 1977.
6.
JaeckelA. R., Industrial Advertising, in Handbook of Technical Writing Practices, 1, JordanS., (ed.), Wiley-Interscience, New York, pp. 687–709, 1971.
7.
Improving Case Reports with the Problem-Solving Model, Medical Communications, 1:3, pp. 83–87, Fall, 1981.
8.
A Problem-Solving Model for Organizing Short Technical Reports, Technical Communication, 29:1, pp. 11–14, First quarter, 1982.
9.
An Editor's View: Ten Common Errors in Technical Writing, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 12: 3, pp. 185–190, 1982.