Individual Post #3- Response to Interviews/Collaborative Posts

Emma Border’s Interview:

I completely agree with the point made about the importance of being able to concisely describe experiments and results. This comes up in a lot of my classes and is a big part of scientific research in general, and as I have experience with writing a good number of reports, one thing I am always told is to be able to write-up an experiment so that someone can perform the same thing without confusion. Also, a lot of times results are very difficult to understand in reports, so making them clear is also a very important part of the report write-ups. With that being said, it is obvious that I agree the best way to earn laboratory technique is through taking labs in your previous education.

Jack Johnston’s Interview:

I think that the patient/doctor communication is irrefutably the most important aspect of communication in the field of medicine. Also, even though it was a surprise to me, the part about not much technical writing in the field seems to be very true, as I have found the same answers in my interviews with doctors. Another important point is the fact that doctor’s communication with their patients is technical, whereas most communication between people isn’t. I think that it is important to note that it is technical because of the importance of identifying the precise problem that the patient is having. Since "technical" involves facts, precise points, etc. this makes the communication very technical.

Collaborative Post by David Floyd:

I agree that the purpose of technical writing is to portray the technology and/or process involved with the format being comprehensible by others. I also agree that this is best done with pictures, because a picture is worth 1000 words, and reading 1000 words can get confusing! The point he made about knowing the audience is also very important, because not everyone interprets data the same way. I did like the point that he brought up about quickly making the point and being specific, avoiding the “burdensome language.” Somebody’s ears can turn off pretty quickly when the language starts to get confusing.