Communicating Is Hard Work
Communicating is difficult. I never performed any scientific research, but my daily observation with human relations is that a significant amount of squabbles and ill feelings could be avoided if people learned to communicate. Instead, most people presume they know what the other person intended.
Tech writing is no different. Trying to convey complicated information requires serious effort.
In the tech writing field, cooking recipes often are touted as an example of concise and clear technical writing. Yet even recipes can be misunderstood when the target audience changes.
Recently I watched an episode of Our Gang, also widely known as The Little Rascals. In this episode, titled Birthday Blues, the kids try to bake a cake. They read the instructions literally rather than from within the context of somebody with nominal cooking experience.
Context is critical. This is not so absurd. Translating information to different languages usually includes understanding cultural differences, which affects the meaning of words. The same problem exists with the English language, which is notorious for words that have multiple meanings.
In the episode the instructions included:
- Whip an egg thoroughly.
- Powder with sugar.
- Roll in flour.
- Set on stove and stir.
- Set in icebox until chilled.
- Separate three eggs and beat them.
Whip an egg thoroughly showed a girl on the floor whipping an egg, still in the shell. Powder with sugar showed a boy on the floor powdering his face with sugar, much like somebody might powder a face with makeup. Roll in flour showed a dog rolling in flour on the floor. Set on stove and stir showed a boy sitting on the stove while stirring cake batter on the nearby table. Set in icebox until chilled showed a boy sitting inside an ice box. Separate three eggs and beat them showed a boy physically moving three eggs on the table, still in the shells, and then beating the egg shells with a hand utensil.
Experienced technical writers know about audience analysis. Yet as this enjoyable skit demonstrated, the target audience is not always known. Skill of the craft presumptions are unknown.
The same thing happens often in daily conversations. People just assume the other person is listening and interpreting words based on the same foundations. Often this is not the case.
Posted: Category: Usability Tagged: Tech Writing
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