Technical documents — and professional documents in a specific field in general — rely on definitions that everyone in that profession agrees on. That might sound obvious, but if you don’t define a term like cybersecurity and still expect everyone to know what you’re talking about, then you risk all kinds of bad things happening.

For this Unit, we’re going to look at definitions that are used in technical writing of all kinds and for all kinds of audiences. We’ll start with sentence definitions and touch on parenthetical ones, but mostly we’ll focus on the extended/expanded definition — one that goes into a bit more depth about the term, its history, and its uses in relation to a variety of audiences.

To do that, we’ll look at the different types of definitions and play around with them a bit. But then you’re going to write a article that would go on the website “How Stuff Works” — because those articles are, in fact, extended definitions.

Here’s the procedure:

Wednesday, 9/13

  • Overview of Unit
  • What kinds of definitions are used in technical writing
  • Playing with the sentence definition
  • Homework:
    • On Perusall: read and annotate 1)Western Technical College – Definitions and 2)Online Technical Writing – Definitions.
    • On Perusall: read and annotate Chapter 3: Definition Communication Goals in the class text
    • In the Google Drive: Write a one sentence definition of a term in your field.
    • If you get the chance, take a look around the “How Stuff Works” website.

Monday, 9/18

  • Analyze the “How Stuff Works” website
  • Make a preliminary choice of your own ‘stuff’ that you’ll write about
  • Homework:
    • On Perusall: read and annotate Chapter 4: Reader-Centered Research in the class text.
    • Finalize your article idea.

Wednesday, 9/20

  • How to write a proposal
  • Begin proposal for your article
  • Homework:
    • In the Google Drive: Upload your proposal to the Extended Definition -> Proposals folder.
    • In the Google Drive: Leave comments on three other people’s proposals
  • How to write the proposal for article on How Stuff Works website:
    • Title/Subject Line: use this to create a headline or name your topic.
    • Paragraph 1: Hook (something to catch the editor’s attention, it can be funny or straightforward). Introduces us to the thing you’ll be explaining in the rest of the article. A good place for at least one sentence definition which may end up being your first sentence for the article itself.
    • Paragraph 2: A brief description of the ‘stuff’ – Describe what you’ll be talking about. You can use bullet points. It should give us the scope of what you’ll be covering.
    • Paragraph 3: Who the audience is, why you chose that audience, what kinds of visuals you think might help you explain your term to this audience.
    • Paragraph 4: Why you’re the best person to write this. Short description of at least two sources you find that will help you explain.

Monday, 9/25 – No class

Wednesday, 9/27

  • Workshop proposals
  • Creating an outline for the article
  • Homework:
    • In the Google Drive: Upload your outline and sample visuals

Monday, 10/2

  • Workshop outlines
  • How to make an article look like an article
  • Begin drafting article
  • Homework:
    • Rough draft of opening of article

Wednesday, 10/4

  • Workshop articles
  • Homework:
    • In the Google Drive: Upload your article due Tuesday 10/10

Monday, 10/9 – No Class

Tuesday, 10/10

  • Share articles