Chapters 14 and 15

Chapter 14 focuses on genre within the field of Technical Communication.  The chapter considers Genre, loosely speaking, to be “shared textual conventions.”  As a vivid example, the text provides the example of a “class introduction” on the first day of a new semester.  Within the genre of “class introduction,” certain topics are expected to be introduced (your name, major, maybe a brief intro) but others are not (sexuality, political views, religious beliefs, etc).  Knowing the genre within a given situation can help technical communicators best reach their audience in the way that the audience wishes to be reached.  The chapter also touches on the idea of “changing genres,” and how technical communicators need to be up-to-speed with industry trends, such as “scientific research articles” on page 344.  A key benefit of genre is that readers accustomed to that specific style “genre” of writing can more easily find information within a document.  Writers, however, should not use genre as a crutch; like any type of writing, genre-based writing should be tailored to the individual audience, even if that deviates from the broader and more accepted “genre” within that field.

Chapter 15 discusses how technical communicators can write effectively across a variety of different settings.   Although the book has discussed, more broadly, that technical communicators spend most of their day completing tasks other than writing, the skill of writing is what sets technical communicators apart from other professionals.  From this standpoint, I felt that chapter 15 was one of the most relevant chapters to the actual act of writing.  The chapter discussed considerations such as editing, proofreading, and stages, but did not discuss the actual process of writing as much as it probably could have.  Specifically, I felt that its omission of any mention of “typing speed” was significant within the chapter.  Within the broader workplace, a significant performance differentiator is typing speed, and this is surely also true within the field of technical communication – where professionals spend a vital part of their day behind the keyboard.