ICS 139W Critical Writing on Information Technology

1. ICS 139WCritical Writing on Information Technology Lecture 5 Emily Navarro Duplication of course material for any commercial purpose without the explicit written permission of the professor is prohibited Some slides in this lecture adapted from http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/handbook/visuals.html

2. Today’s Lecture • Three Laws of Professional Communication • Typography • Illustration/Data visualization

3. Three Laws of Professional Communication • Doumont, J-L. (2002). The three laws of professional communication. Professional Communication, IEEE Transactions on, 45(4), 291-296

4. Three Laws of Robotics (Asimov)

5. Three Laws of Thermodynamics

6. Three Laws of Professional Communication • Adapt to your audience • Maximize the signal/noise ratio • Use effective redundancy *Three laws apply to both spoke and written communication

7. Premise: Optimize Under Constraints

8. Law 1: Adapt to Your Audience

9. Law 2: Maximize the Signal-to-Noise Ratio

10. “Noise” in Oral Communication • Room noise • Audience • Environment • Slides • Distracting visual aids • Speaker • Distracting behavior

11. “Noise” in Written Communication • Text • Mechanical errors • Page layout • Structure issues • Typography issues • Illustrations • Confusing issues • Inappropriate detail

12. Law 3: Use Effective Redundancy

13. Effective Redundancy for Oral Communication • Preview and review on slides • Same messages are spoken by speaker and illustrated by slides

14. Effective Redundancy for Written Communication • Use of an abstract or executive summary • Use of figures that illustrate textual messages • Section headings • Email subject headings

15. Zeroth Law of Communication

16. Zeroth Law of Communication Have a message!

17. Typography

18. Why learn about typography? • Small differences in readability make large differences in effectiveness • Typographic research has yielded several well-established rules of typography

19. Typography: Basic Principle • Good typography helps the reader distinguish among different • letters • words • lines • paragraphs • sections

20. Typefaces • Use typefaces with • proportional spacing (rather than monospace) • varying stroke widths • serifs Like this • This font is monospace, has uniform stroke widths, and no serifs. Serif Thin stroke Thick stroke

21. WORDS SET IN ALL CAPS USE MORE SPACE THAN TEXT SET IN LOWERCASE. TYPE IS TO READ Type is to read Words set in all caps use more space than words set in lowercase. Avoid large blocks of capital letters

22. PRIMARY CONCERNS - FIELD JOINT - HIGHEST CONCERN • EROSION PENETRATION OF PRIMARY SEAL REQUIRES RELIABLE SECONDARY SEAL FOR PRESSURE INTEGRITY • IGNITION TRANSIENT - (0-600 MS) • (0-170 MS) HIGH PROBABILITY OF RELIABLE SECONDARY SEAL • (170-330 MS) REDUCED PROBABILITY OF RELIABLE SECONDARY SEAL • (330-600 MS) HIGH PROBABILITY OF NO SECONDARY SEAL CAPABILITY • STEADY STATE - (600 MS - 2 MINUTES) • IF EROSION PENETRATES PRIMARY O-RING SEAL - HIGH PROBABILITY OF NO SECONDARY SEAL CAPABILITY • BENCH TESTING SHOWED O-RING NOT CAPABLE OF MAINTAINING CONTACT WITH METAL PARTS GAP OPERATING TO MEOP • BENCH TESTING SHOWED CAPABILITY TO MAINTAIN O-RING CONTACT DURING INITIAL PHASE (0 - 170 MS) OF TRANSIENT Morton-Thiokol Presentation to NASA January 27, 1986

23. Choose a type size that is easy to read 48 point 36 point 24 point 18 point 14 point 12 point 10 point 8 point posters presentation slides titles text footnotes

24. Use white space for association, emphasis, and hierarchy space for headings space for margins space for illustrations

25. Follow the format that is expected or required for the situation

26. Illustration/Data Visualization

27. Pressurizer Date Time Power Level 4/25 1:00 am 3200 MW 4/25 2:00 pm 1600 MW 4/25 11:10 pm 1600 MW 4/26 1:00 am 30 MW 4/26 1:19 am 200 MW 4/26 1:23 am 2,000,000 MW Coolant Loss Reactor Vessel Steam Generator Core Figure 1. Simplified diagram of nuclear reactor [Wolfson, 1991]. Two types of illustrations exist: tables and figures Table 1. Reactor power levels in Chernobyl accident [Wolfson, 1991].

28. Tables can present words as well as numbers Table 2. Sequence of events in the Chernobyl accident [Wolfson, 1991]. Date Time Power Level Event April 25 April 25 April 25 April 26 April 26 April 26 1:00 a.m. 2:00 p.m. 11:10 p.m. 1:00 a.m. 1:19 a.m. 1:23 a.m. 3200 MW 1600 MW 1600 MW 30 MW 200 MW 2,000,000 MW Operators begin power descent Power descent delayed for 9 hours Emergency core-cooling system disconnected Operators switch off automatic control Power descent resumed Power minimum reached Operators pull rods beyond allowable limits Operators start two additional coolant pumps Operators violate coolant flow limits Power surges by factor of 10,000 in 5 seconds

29. Table 2. Blood glucose levels [Carlson, 1982]. Breakfast 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Dinner Lunch Diabetic Blood Glucose Level (mg/dl) Normal (mg/dl*) 100.3 93.6 88.2 100.5 138.6 102.4 93.8 132.3 103.8 93.6 127.8 109.2 Diabetic (mg/dl) 175.8 165.7 159.4 72.1 271.0 224.6 161.8 242.7 219.4 152.6 227.1 221.3 Time (hour) midnight 2:00 4:00 6:00 8:00 10:00 noon 2:00 4:00 6:00 8:00 10:00 Normal 12:00 6:00 am 12:00 6:00 pm 12:00 Hour * decaliters/milligram Figure 11. Blood glucose levels for normal individual and diabetic [Carlson, 1982]. When presenting numerical data, you choose between tables and graphs

30. 2000 1500 1000 500 0 Experiment Simulation 0 2 4 6 8 10 Line graphs are common in engineering and science Temperature (K) Distance From Burner (mm) Figure 3. Computational and experimental temperatures for laminar diffusion flames [Sandia, 1987].

31. Bar graphs compare wholes 30 Normal range 20 7-10 Cells% 10 112–175 211–366 Flight Duration (Days) Figure 4. Response of T-cells in cosmonauts after short-term and long-term flights [Konstantinova, 1991].

32. Task 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 Construction Test and Evaluation Power Production Figure 5. Schedule for the construction, evaluation, and production phases of the Solar One Power Plant. Gantt charts are a type of bar charts

33. Pie graphs compare parts of a whole P o w e r R e a c t o r Medical and research wastes (16%) I n d u s t r i a l M e d i c a l Industrial wastes (28%) G o v e r n m e n t Government wastes (2%) Power reactor wastes (64%) Figure 5. Volume of low-level nuclear wastes from various sources [League, 1985].

34. Natural Sources 85 mrem Medical Sources 70 mrem { Average dose: 160 mrem Fallout: < 3mrem Occupational: < 1mrem Nuclear power: < 1mrem Figure 6. Estimated annual dose of radiation in the United States [GPU Nuclear, 1985]. Graphs come in many forms

35. When presenting images, you choose between photographs, drawings, and diagrams

36. The main advantage of photographs is realism 60 seconds 59.5 seconds 59 seconds Figure 2. Space Shuttle Challenger, from about 59 seconds to 60 seconds into launch (January 28, 1986). On the right rocket, flame first becomes visible and then impinges on tank.

37. Combustor Simulator Turbine Vanes Secondary Flow Dilution Jet Primary Flow Secondary Flow Film-Cooling Holes One advantage of drawings is control of detail

38. The main advantage of a diagram is the ability to show flow of a variable through a system Figure 8. Flow of Information Through the Parts of a von Neumann Machine

39. DSPH RECEIVER TSU TSH FLASH TANK FT T S S G TURBINE DEAR- ATOR HOT WELL HP HTR Figure 5. Schematic of thermalstorage system. Scientists and engineers often use illustrationsthat are too complex for the text The thermal storage system stores heat in a huge, steel- walled tank. Steam from the solar receiver passes through heat exchangers to heat the thermal oil, which is pumped into the tank. The tank then provides energy to run a steam generator to produce electricity. A schematic of this system is shown in Figure 5.

40. 650°F 580°F 530°F 575°F solar receiver Heat Exchanger Thermal Tank Heat Exchanger steam generator 425°F 435°F 425°F 250°F The precision of the illustrationsshould reflect the precision of the text The thermal storage system, shown in Figure 6, stores heat in a huge, steel-walled tank. Steam from the solar receiver heats a thermal oil, which is pumped into the tank. The tank then provides energy to run a steam generator to produce electricity. Figure 6. Schematic of thermal storage system for the solar power plant.

41. For clarity, you should introduce andexplain illustrations in the text ..., as shown in Figure 7…. Figure 7. Title of figure. Some formats allow you extra sentences to explain unusual details.

42. CONTROL TERMINAL PRINTER CAMERA COMPUTER DIGITIZER ELECTRO- MECHANICAL INTERFACE ROCKET Figure 8. Testing hardware. Inconsistencies between text andimages disrupt fluidity The testing hardware of the rocket shown in Figure 8 has five main components: camera, digitizer, computer, I/O interface, and mechanical interface. Commands are generated by the computer, then passed through the I/O interface to the mechanized interface where the keyboard of the ICU is operated. The display of the ICU is read with a television camera and then digitized. This information is then manipulated by the computer to direct the next command.

43. Electro- Mechanical Interface 2 1 Computer Rocket 3 4 Camera Digitizer Illustration is the meshing of words with images Our system for testing the launch controls of the rocket consists of four main parts: computer, electro-mechanical interface, camera, and digitizer. In this system (shown in Figure 9), the computer generates test commands to the rocket through the electro-mechanical interface. The test results are read with a television camera, and then digitized. The computer receives the information from the digitizer, and then directs the next test command. Figure 9. System to test launch controls for rocket.

44. Summary – Three Laws • Adapt to your audience • Maximize the signal/noise ratio • Use effective redundancy

45. Summary – Typography/Illustration • Good typography helps readers distinguish between elements on a page/slide/diagram • Illustration is the meshing of words with images • Graphs • Charts • Tables • Diagrams • Photographs

46. Next Time • Discussion (Wednesday) • Testing of presentation slides • Lecture (Thursday) • Oral proposals of change to decisionmakers