Technical Writing 2013 Unit #1

Welcome to the Class! Notes, news, etc. available at Readings in PDF available on course Moodle

Contact Info Office: Ross, 447 Jon Balzotti

Textbooks, etc. 1. Johnson-Sheehan, Richard Technical Communication Today. Indianapolis: New Riders. 2. Readings in PDF from the course Moodle site

What is Content? Content is the combination of information and interactions that comprise the user experience. Content is synonymous with value, comprising what users see and interact with.

Which of these qualify as content? ► A news item on the CNN website ► A movie trailer in Quicktime ► A recipe search tool on Epicurious ► A flash version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on the ABC site ► A threaded discussion about Tech Support for Red Hat Linux ► A blog ’ s syndicated RSS feed

Qualities of web content ► Web content is dynamic ► Web content is linked & distributed ► Web content is customized ► Web content is granular ► Web content is interactive When I say “is,” I allude to users’ expectations

Now: Content is Dynamic What we see on the web, we expect to change soon…or to have changed recently. We talk of “ stale ” or “ stagnant ” pages. Pages that don ’ t recognize us, or recognize what day it is are less easy to trust as sources of information. Note how different this is from the medium of print.

Now: Content is Linked & Distributed Users experience content in a localized way when it shows up on their screens. But we know that it may reside on servers that are remote and widely dispersed. The ability to link content with other content means that, often, the information IS the interface!

Now: Content is Customized As “ the primary location of value ” of a website, the content that is most prized is content that the user experiences as tailored to their individual needs. This creates an interesting dilemma: When should we customize to the point of personalization? Is there a point where delivering value by personalizing yields diminishing returns?

Now: Content is Granular, 1 Content today is far less likely to stay neatly tucked into the boundaries we associate with traditional print genres. As we develop better ways to attach meta-data to content, we increase its granularity. Familiar units from the print world like the page or the paragraph, give way to new ones…

Now: Content is Granular, 2 “ Granularizing ” content simply means identifying and placing boundaries around smaller and smaller chunks of information so it can be referenced, styled, and re-used. Can you think of a situation where we’d want word or character level granularity?

Now: Content is Interactive If we truly accept the idea that content comprises both interactions and information, then web “ content ” can conceivably take the place of applications as we know them. Have a look at Ebay, for example…

The Changing Role of Technical Communication Old school technical communicators operated with a clear mandate defined by the difference between the product and information about the product. The content today effectively erases this distinction. Developer roles merge what used to be clear distinctions.

The Changing Role of Technical Communication, 2 Part of this class aims to explore the new responsibilities information developers, technical communicators, HCI or UCD specialists…and people with a host of other titles…can expect to have. Call it Tech Comm 2.0, or maybe Tech Comm XP…

How will you fit in? How many of you envision a career in which you will be somehow responsible for content, both traditional print and otherwise? How do you see the tasks of managing information, interaction, and value as interrelated?

Our Mission… ► To add to the working definition and list of characteristics presented here ► To deepen our understanding of content production/management ► To further define the role of the content developer in the context of TC ► To think about these things but also to actively experiment and try out techniques – reflection-in-action

About Our Projects… Typical practices a content creator uses ► Know available technologies and how they intersect with your knowledge & skills ► Analyze an organization’s overall content strategy; implement this strategy via content modeling ► Help those around you to better develop and manage content

Turning Your Projects in… Set up your personal Moodle account. Moodle is an LMS (Learning Management System) where you ’ ll post your projects, big and small. Go create your Moodle identity now. create your Moodle identitycreate your Moodle identity

Project 1: Resume and Cover Letter For the first project, we’ll be building a traditional print-based resume and cover letter. The resume will allow me to organize the class into teams and find out more about each team member Individually, your job will be to develop content for the resume & play an editorial role in its production.

Project 1, Continued Information will come from… But we will… Past experience with work, school, and activities Customize the information for the audience and purpose. We will also Test the resume with a simulated rhetorical situation (Arisoph)

Project 1, Continued We will consider four key topics, each of which will be used to asses the quality of the document: ► The overall objective of the document ► The rhetorical audience (who has the power to act?) ► The document genre ► Professionalism We will negotiate issues of design, sequence, real estate, etc. for each of these areas in the resume.

Project 1, Requirements ► A resume and cover letter, suitable for a professional company, is your final deliverable; you will produce all the content for the resume from your previous work experience ► An interview memo, correctly formatted, compiled by each person, responding to the questions on the Arisoph website

This Semester In addition to reviewing key TC concepts & skills, we ’ ll learn other valuable things: ► We ’ ll explore the complexities of managing multiple content-providers, including managing format & content consistency ► You ’ ll learn important content management concepts …and there might be a few twists thrown in along the way…

Next Time… ► We ’ ll talk more about Tech comm. concepts; think about which position you would like on your team (not everyone can be Project Manager) ► Get your Moodle info up ► Order textbook ► Review syllabus