The first set of resources available to you is titled What is Technical Writing? Included in that list of resources is a link to the Society for Technical Communications (STC) and access to chapter 1 of a textbook, Technical Writing for Business People.
Based on the information in these resources, please answer the following questions:
1.) What writing have you done at work or in your community that you think could be labelled technical writing? Why do you think it can be labelled technical writing? Please describe the writing situation and draw upon the information in either the website from STC or chapter 1 of the textbook to illustrate why it would be technical writing.
2.) Do technical writing tasks have to involve technical subjects? Why or why not?
3.) How is technical writing different from writing an essay?
PART TWO:
Your first writing assignment will be to write three personas. This discussion topic is designed to help you become familiar with what a persona is and what its role is in technical writing.
Please access the following url and listen to the podcast, “Dr. Kirk St. Amant and Dr. Guiseppe Getto on User Personas and Intercultural Communication.”
10-Minute Tech Comm – Dr. Kirk St. Amant and Dr. Guiseppe Getto on User Personas and Intercultural Communication on Stitcher
Please answer the following questions. Your answers can be a couple of sentences or so.
1. What is a persona? What do personas represent?
2. How does a writer make a persona that is accurate, useful, and representative and that does not simply stereotype a population?
3. What is the difference between audience and persona?
4. Why is user behavior important for personas?