1. 1 Technical & Business Writing (ENG-715) Muhammad Bilal Bashir UIIT, Rawalpindi

2. Outline 1. Introduction to the Course 1. Course Objectives 2. Organization of the Course 2. Understanding Task Orientation 3. Summary 2

3. Introduction to the Course Technical & Business Writing ENG-715 3

4. Course Objectives This course equip the students with such writing skills that are interested in  Finding practical step to help them start and complete project successfully  Exploring ideas behind software documentation as a discipline and as a profession 4

5. Organization of the Course Part-1  provides the concept of task orientation and the forms of Software Documentation such as Tutorials, procedures and references etc. Part-2  Describes the processes of software documentation Part-3  Tools of software documentation 5

6. Understanding Task Orientation Lecture: 1 6

7. Understanding Task Orientation Chapter Objectives  Helps the software documentation writer to achieve the following goals Encourage users to learn the program (proficiency) Encourage users to apply the program to problem in workplace (efficiency) 7

8. Understanding Task Orientation Continue…) Software Documentation:  A form of writing, for both print and online media that supports the efficient and effective use of software in its intended environment 8

9. Understanding Task Orientation Continue…) Task Orientation:  An approach to software documentation that presents information in chronological order based on the user‘s workplace sequences  A design strategy for software documentation that attempts to increase user knowledge of an application program by integrating the software with user’s work environment 9

10. Understanding Task Orientation Continue…) Task Orientation encourages the successful application of software to workplace objectives This approach to documentation is shown in variety of print and online forms:  Tutorials  Getting started booklets  Manuals  Instruction steps  Online help procedures 10

11. Understanding Task Orientation Continue…) Strategies that encourages task orientation  Emphasize problem solving  Provide task oriented organizations  Encourage user control of information  Orient page semantically  Facilitate both routines and complex tasks  Design for users  Facilitate communication tasks  Encourage user communities  Support cognitive processing 11

12. Emphasize Problem Solving The manual should help the users to solve problems in workspace The problems may be kind of:  How can I organize the project  Where can I get the peak intensity of data The introductory paragraphs that preview not only the steps to follow, but the goal and objectives of their software work 12

13. Provide Task Oriented Organization The manual must be organized in way  That matches the kind of tasks a user will perform.  Logical sequence is more important than alphabetical sequence. e.g. is word processing  Task oriented arrangement begins in the table of contents of your manual 13

14. Encourage User Control of Information Feelings among software users, that they decide what the program does for them The manual should show the user that how they make key decisions, supply key information or determine key program output  e.g. specifying what a database program will search for and identifying which data the program will process User need to feel in control of the program 14

15. Encourage User Control of Information (Continue…) Cross reference in manual and hyperlinks in online system can help to maintain the user sense of control over the document  This allow the users to go anywhere for the search of additional information  Chapter 3: Writing to Guide Procedures will discuss this strategy 15

16. Organize Pages Semantically Arrange the elements of the page meaningfully according to the user’s job requirement needs One of the best way to orient pages semantically employs visual and graphics to balance text in complementary way This makes the user to understand and perform the job in better way Chapter 11: Laying out Pages and Screens will describe this strategy 16

17. Facilitate both Routine and Complex Tasks The manual has ability to represent both routine and complex task Routine tasks  Repeated tasks that easily represents the conventional procedures  e.g. save file, open file, delete record etc Complex tasks  These task required user knowledge to apply that comes from experience 17

18. Facilitate both Routine and Complex Tasks (Continue…) Complex Tasks  e.g. using a spreadsheet software to calculate their salaries and identify their performance in annual reports If the manual helps the user to perform complex task, it will be valued more by the user This strategy will be utilized in chapter 5: Analyze your Users 18

19. Design for Users The organization of manual comes from user needs instead of models and templates The user driven manual should allow users to:  Find what they need  Understand what they find  Use what the understand appropriately Chapter 5: Analyzing your users and Chapter 8: Conducting Usability Tests will adopt this strategy 19

20. Facilitate Communication Tasks User of software program required them to communicate about their work These are called communication tasks because they depend on user’s workplace demand.  e.g. print functions, report functions, and data transfer functions etc. supports communications tasks The manual should facilitate the users to learn and apply the communication task Chapter 12: Getting the Language right will uses this strategy 20

21. Encourage User Communities Users often need encouragement to rely on other users of the program, their user groups Task oriented documentations encourages users to identify and get help from others Other users of the program (not experts) can render valuable help because they understand the user’s job demand Chapter 5: Analyze your users and Chapter 6: Planning an Writing your document will use this strategy 21

22. Support Cognitive Processing People use mental model called cognitive schema, that help them learn, process and apply the new information that comes at them at alarmingly faster and faster rate The task oriented manual uses principles of knowledge representation and analogy to convey software features and applications to workplace tasks These techniques are applied by writing the references 22

23. 23 Summary Any Questions?