4 Articles in Review

All four articles discussed the same subject, but from a different aspect. They all define what communication is and how it is used today. From the first article, “What is Communication?,” the author(s) define the history of communication and goes on to describe the success and failure of communication. The second article from the department of labor, entitled “Writers and Editors,” describes all the aspects of jobs in the communication field. These aspects include: different types of jobs, working conditions, employment opportunities, training, job outlook, and earnings. The third article, “Technical Communications,” tackles the usefulness and duties of a communicator. Finally, the last article describes the technical writing field and the efficiency of this field. After reading all four articles, I discovered they centrally described the same subject, technical writing. Although, through these articles, I now see the diversity of the technical writing used in the working world.

As for technical writing with respect to my career, civil engineering, I have taken many ideas from these four articles. From STC, I find that communication is a very valuable skill. It must be done efficiently to get the response desired. Also, the article talks about process communication, which we can see is definitely true in society today. Communication is changing day to day. Ten years ago communicating through e-mail was non-existent. However, after reading many classmates' interviews, most people in the business world in 2005 rely on e-mails as their primary source of communication. Next, the department of labor opened my eyes to several options as a technical writer. First, I learned that to be a technical writer, it is important to have a solid background in one’s field. For example, to write instructions on how to build a toy, the writer must know the toy inside, outside, and upside down to be able to describe it in detail to someone who has no knowledge of the subject (toy). Second, I learned of the opportunities available for technical writers. Finally, I learned of the training and working conditions. The third article taught me that technical writers often assist engineers. Therefore, having a background in technical writing will help me to communicate more effectively with this assistant. The power point presentation shows how to have an efficient technical report. This is similar to the first article and says to watch for jargon misinterpretations, giving to much unneeded information, and biases. When writing a technical report, one should design reports short and to the point, with as little technical slang as possible to avoid confusion, and to write with an open mind to eliminate prejudices.