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Technically Persuasive

Technically Persuasive. Blending technical writing and research into persuasive descriptions. Origins and Implications. Some of the most effective non-fiction writing occurs when authors are able to blend technical information with narratives

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Technically Persuasive

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  1. Technically Persuasive Blending technical writing and research into persuasive descriptions

  2. Origins and Implications • Some of the most effective non-fiction writing occurs when authors are able to blend technical information with narratives • Narratives make information packageable, relatable, and memorable • Technical description makes narrative credible, informative, and actionable • Older theories of technical writing positioned it as arhetorical • Void of persuasion • Today we understand objectivity as an ideal, not a reality • All technical writing becomes rhetorically driven

  3. Tips and Suggestions • Here are some moves writers can make to bring technical writing into a persuasive description or narrative • Think about how not whether to explain a technical process • Use explanatory strategies • Use analogies and metaphors • Back into explanations rather than beginning with them • Select critical features of a process, and set aside less critical • Use non-examples to guide understanding • Stay attuned to reader beliefs and values

  4. 1. Think about how not whether to explain processes • Your goal as a writer should always be to educate the reader in some way • Avoiding processes explanations for clarity is dodging an important writing responsibility • It may be tempting to ignore complex ideas, but finding ways to explain complex ideas will help persuade the reader in the long run • Readers feel allied to those they learn from • Readers like to feel they have joined an exclusive conversation

  5. 2. Use explanatory strategies • Use active voice verbs • The subject is emphasized as performing an action • (Passive) The fringed orchid population collapsed due to the draining of wetlands • (Active) Human draining of wetlands led to the collapse of the fringed orchid population

  6. Analogies and metaphors • Metaphors package what is difficult to understand by relating to something easier to understand • Global climate change is not a matter of temperature, but a matter of altering a complex global climate system. • Question: what is a complex system readers might understand • Economies? • Sports teams? • Just like we can’t correct economic woes by adding more money to the system, global climate change cannot be addressed by observing historic temperature patterns. • Addressing global climate change only through temperature is like addressing an 0-16 football team by getting rid of the kicker.

  7. Backing into an explanation (explaining before labeling) • Labels are used by experts to conceal processes, and thus expedite complicated discussions • Using labels with readers who don’t know these processes is ineffective • Beginning with process explanations can help alleviate this problem • Caron’s description of bioaccumulation

  8. Select Critical features of a process and be willing to set aside others to avoid overwhelming the reader • Too much off a process can be overwhelming, so select the most important/critical • What’s critical to understanding bioaccumulation? • Pollutant accumulation in fat cells • Pollutant persistence/longevity • Predation cycles and quantities • i.e. A single fish might not contain high quantities, but an Eagle might eat 2-3 fish/day • What’s less critical • Pollutant solubility/polarity • Structure and position of Cl on benzene rings • Chemical explanation of persistence of Cl

  9. 3. Use non-examples • Non-examples can be more helpful than examples • Non-examples can reorient readers from conclusions that might be mislead. • Example: In explaining the concept of groundwater, readers might be attempted to associate this with rivers, lakes, streams, etc. Things that are familiar. • A non-example might challenge this: • While the term groundwater might suggest a large moving body of water, like a lake or a stream below beds of rocks, this view would be an inaccurate one. Instead, groundwater is a slow moving area of cracked and crevassed rocks that is saturated by slowly moving water.

  10. 4. Be aware of read values and beliefs • Think back to project number one • What are the values and beliefs that need to be considered in communicating this idea? • How can my communication fit into the framework of these values and beliefs? • Example: • How can an argument for strong environmental policies fit into the ideology of Rick Santorum? • Ideology = Earth’s resources are made available explicitly for the human. Science and technology help develop ways to exploit these resources.

  11. Example Technical Descriptions • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmo7qd6-0Ag&feature=related • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MKepOipLbM • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g-Qc6MHKSE&feature=related • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXMarwAusY4

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