Technical Writing in the Digital Age

Technical Writing in the Digital Age represents the dynamic and evolving discipline of creating written materials that convey complex information, instructions, and technical concepts in the context of contemporary digital technologies. Its purview encompasses the creation, dissemination, and management of technical documents and content within an expansive digital landscape.

Major considerations within this domain revolve around adapting traditional principles of rhetoric to digital platforms, ensuring effective communication in an era defined by rapid technological advancements. Key factors include integrating multimedia elements, user-centered design principles, and ethical considerations like accessibility and inclusivity. This discipline also extends to collaborative writing processes and version control systems, acknowledging the necessity of teamwork in producing accurate and up-to-date technical documentation. The use of multi-modality and the interfacing of multiple media platforms and sources also plays a role in digital technical writing. In essence, technical writing in the digital age encapsulates the art and science of conveying technical information in a manner that is comprehensible and accessible to diverse audiences in our digitally-driven society.

Overview

Types of Technical Communication

Common types of technical communication include instructions, user guides, reports, proposals, memos, and procedures.

Historical Context

Technical Writing Profession

Joseph P. Chapline is considered to be one of the first technical writers, having written in 1949 the first ever user manual for the Binary Automatic Computer (BINAC), an early personal computer. In the 1950s, technical writing as a distinct profession began to take shape when technical writers founded formal organizations, academic programs, and conferences dedicated to the art. One of these key writing associations was the Association of Technical Writers and Editors, also formed in the 1950s. Several of these groups eventually merged, forming the Society of Technical Communication in 1960.

Digital Technologies and Technical Writing

With the rise of digital technology, technical writing has had to adapt to the needs of a digital era. However, many aspects of effective technical writing, such as remaining clear, concise, complete, and correct, still need to be applied to technical writing created for digital interfaces.

Personas in Digital Writing

Personas in the context of digital writing refer to semi-fictional characters that encapsulate the characteristics, behaviors, and needs of target audience segments.

Rhetorical Strategies in the Digital Age

Rhetoric is a communication strategy whose primary goal is to persuade an audience. It is grounded in three foundational concepts first defined by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. These concepts are logos, which engages with the reader’s sense of logic or reason; pathos, which appeals to the reader’s emotions; and ethos, which addresses the audience’s values and the writer’s credibility. Within this framework, writers utilize specific techniques or devices to influence and engage readers. Examples include appealing to an audience’s sense of logic by using factual examples to support a point or evoking emotion through descriptive visual language.

In today’s digital age, writers can use digital technologies as rhetorical devices to influence the reader. Electronic images and informational graphics can be incorporated into digital and online documents to illustrate or reinforce points made in the text. Hyperlinks can be used to provide additional information that supports the author's ideas. Nevertheless, the writer's basic task of informing and persuading an audience is the same in digital communication as in other forms of writing.

Rhetorical analysis involves analyzing the demographics and habits of an intended audience. The information gathered allows writers to craft messages that appeal to the target audience. In the digital age, websites and social media platforms convey rhetorical messages.

Online Documentation and User Experience

Digital Documentation

Digital documentation is the conversion of physical documents into digital files, enabling easier access, retrieval, and sharing of information. It includes features like searchability, version control, and security measures to ensure data integrity and confidentiality.

Characteristics of Digital Documents

Accessibility

Website content should be designed in accordance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure that individuals with disabilities are able to access the same information as those without disabilities. It is a legal requirement to include accessibility features in website design. There are four different types of impairment that can affect how a user interacts and perceives digital documents: vision, mobility, auditory, and cognitive. Digital documents will need to be optimized so that information can be accessed by hardware and software tools used by people with disabilities.

Readability

Digital documents rely on the "Seven Cs" of precise writing to be effective and increase readability. Forms of technical writing must have readability. Readability is a term used to determine whether the content has clarity, conciseness and courtesy. The other four Cs are coherent, concrete, correct and complete.

Scannability

A document's scannability is determined by the ease in which it can be scanned to determine meaning. The most effective web content is concise and simple to scan, making it easy for users to find the important information. Breaking up text into interesting, easy-to-read sections helps users quickly find information.

Hyperlinking

Hyperlinking is a quick and efficient method for directing readers to relevant information in digital documents, facilitating seamless navigation between sections, references, and external resources.

Examples of Digital Documents

In technical and professional writing, digital documentation takes various forms. These methods streamline the sharing of technical information, enhance collaboration, and ensure easy accessibility within professional settings, contributing to efficient communication and knowledge dissemination.

Infographics

Infographics, shared as digital documents, typically combine text, graphics, and illustrations to convey complex concepts or data in a concise and visually appealing format. Infographics are often used to simplify information, making it more accessible to a broader audience, and are found in presentations, reports, websites, and educational materials.

Presentations

Presentations created with PowerPoint or Google Slides are vital for professional communication and knowledge sharing. They condense complex information into visually appealing slides for effective presentations by using photos, videos, graphics, charts, and graphs.

User Experience

User experience is how a product works from the perspective of the user. Digital documents can be created with efficient user experiences by focusing on user-centered design and designing the document with the user in mind.

Collaboration and Version Control

Collaboration

One form of collaborative technical writing is a wiki, which is a "Web site developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to add and edit content."

In fact, one of the predominant elements of a wiki is that it is defined by being open source. And as such, it can be modified by anyone.

Version Control

Version control is a characteristic of digital documents that allows for the tracking of edits and revisions to digital documents. In collaborative writing, version control helps maintain the document with accountability and transparency.

Ethical Considerations

Technical communicators have ethical standards to which they must abide. The standards are divided into three primary categories. They are the employer, the public, and the environment.

Obligations to one's employer include competence and diligence, honesty and candor, confidentiality, and loyalty. The technical communicator must adhere to these obligations so that he/she does not harm the reputation or operation of the employer.

Organizations are obligated to treat customers fairly. Technical communicators must convey that the products or services an organization sells are safe and effective.

Technical communicators may occasionally work for an organization with strict privacy policies that prohibit they from using the documents they create outside of the organization. It is important for ethical communicators to follow the privacy policy for their organization because unauthorized release of information could lead to consequences up to an including termination.

Technical communicators have an obligation to the environment. This obligation includes alerting their supervisors, managers, and executive leadership to products or processes that are detrimental to the environment. Disposal of hazardous waste is far more costly than dumping it. Organizations could be tempted to skirt the legal procedures. One would hope that the penalty of 5 years and/or up to $50,000 per day for knowingly disposing of hazardous waste in a way contrary to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regulations would be a sufficient deterrent.[2]

In technical workplaces, resolving ethical dilemmas will be a part of your job. Resources, time, and reputations are at stake, so you will feel pressure to overpromise, underdeliver, bend the rules, cook the numbers, or exaggerate results. Technical fields are also highly competitive, so people sometimes stretch a little further than they should. Ethical dilemmas can force you into situations in which all choices seem unsatisfactory.

The Society for Technical Communication (STC) is the world's oldest professional association dedicated to advancing the field of technical communication. The STC promotes adherence to a list of ethical principles. They are legality, honesty, confidentiality, quality, fairness, and professionalism.

Technical communicators also have to be careful to avoid plagiarism, or taking ideas, thoughts, or words from someone else and passing them off as ones own.

Disinformation

One major ethical concern in all forms of writing, but especially in digital writing, is the creation and spread of disinformation. Disinformation, often referred to as "fake news," is information that is purposefully spread as false or misleading and is a sub-type of misinformation. Modern communication technologies allow for the spread of information to occur at a fast pace. Social media is one area where the spread of disinformation occurs regularly. Some social media sites, such as Facebook, have begun to flag certain articles posted on the site as being questionable in their representation of facts or occurrences. Despite the widespread understanding and use of disinformation available today, digital writers need to be aware of their intent and the audience's needs and wants from their digital communication. Ethical considerations regarding citing sources, cross-referencing information, and using primary sources are good practices for maintaining ethical standing and credibility as a digital writer.

To help mitigate the problem of disinformation, technical writers should utilize gatekeepers. These individuals verify the accuracy of the information before it is distributed to primary readers. This helps protect the author from any ethical and/or legal issues.

Pedagogical Approaches

Barriers to teaching technical communications include the speed at which digital tools evolve and the complexity of software.

Informal writing, such as some emailing, instant messaging, and texting, has crept into academic writing. In a study conducted by the Pew Internet & America Life Project, almost half of the respondents admitted to omitting proper punctuation and capitalization. Others even used emoticons. Colleges and universities now must focus on educating students on the different forms of written communication and when best to employ them.

Future Trends and Challenges

Challenges

Among others, a prominent barrier to technical writers is the dependency on input information accuracy. Outdated, incorrect, or inconsistent data delays the publication, requires more reparative efforts, and decreases productivity. Also, Technical writers often have to contend with complex, outdated or unsuitable tools. This can make their job more difficult and time-consuming, and can lead to frustration and errors.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence programs, utilizing natural language processing, are capable of producing technical writing and have advanced in recent years becoming more adept. One such program is ChatGPT, which uses machine learning to produce texts with human-like style and tone. Another leader in this area, Contentbot, uses a WordPress plugin which gives blog writers ideas to enhance their posts which are shared via email.

References

Bibliography

• Carroll, Brian (2010). Writing for Digital Media. New York: Routledge.
• Barr, Chris (2010). Yahoo! Style Guide. New York: St. Martin's.
• Robbins, Jennifer Niederst (2018). Learning Web Design: A Beginner’s Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics (5th ed.). Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc.