Document Organization & Style Unit

Dr. Gian Pagnucci

Planning Effective Documents

Good documents are well planned documents. Effective technical writers work to organize information so that readers can find what they need when they need it. Rather than relying on chance or haphazard choices, good technical writers create style sheets and work to develop a consistent look and feel to their documents. These writers carefully plan each document from start to finish. 

Yet, planning how to organize a document effectively is only part of the battle. You also need to think carefully about what visual image you will convey with your document and also what sort of linguistic image you will convey. Even though technical documents tend to be highly informational, their style, both written and visual, impacts how well technical documents deliver that information. Not every technical document has to be dry and boring! In fact, a dull writing style often obstructs a technical writer's message, though an overly cute style can be just as problematic. The key is to pick a style for your document, both written AND visual, that suits your material as well as your audience's needs. These are the issues we'll focus on for this unit.

Document Organization & Style Unit Materials

• Project Organization
  • Practice Task: Document Organization (Movie Orders 2010)
    • Sample Table of Contents: Movie Orders 2010
  • Guidelines: Effective Document Organization
  • TechJournal7: Manual Critique
  • Director 1300 Operator's Handbook Sample
  • Guidelines: Documentation
• Written Style
  • Practice Task: Writing Style Examples
  • Guidelines: Controlling Formality in Written Style
  • Practice Task: Analyzing Language Formality
  • Practice Task: Analyzing Document Readability Using Microsoft Word
  • TechJournal8: The Power of Language
  • Lecture: Using an Inclusive Writing Style
  • Guidelines: Bias-Free Communications (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • Inclusive Writing Style Exercises (Tolerance: Writing for Change Website)
  • Writing Introductions
  • Task: Readability Analysis
  • Guidelines: Writing Style
• Visual Style
  • Sample: Printed Style Sheet
  • Sample: Web Style Sheet
  • Assignment: Technical Writing Project Printed Style Sheet
  • Assignment: Technical Writing Project Web Style Sheet

    Dr. Gian S. Pagnucci -- Web Site Copyright Information

• All information on this individual web page and this entire web site is Copyright © 1996-2008 by Dr. Gian S. Pagnucci. All rights reserved.
  
• Correspondence regarding this web site should be sent to its Director, Dr. Gian S. Pagnucci.
  
• Please see Indiana University of Pennsylvania's disclaimer statement regarding pages that do not officially represent the university.