Technical Writing Course for Beginners

==🎯 기술 문서의 체계적 작성 가이드==

1. 기술적 글쓰기 개요 ✍️

• 기술적 글쓰기는 전문 기술이나 방법을 설명하는 문서 작성이다.
• 중요한 점은 독자가 이해할 수 있도록 명확하게 정보를 전달하는 것이다.
• 핵심은 ==대상자 중심의 명확한 정보 제공==이다.
• 기술적 글쓰기는 다양한 분야(공학, 의학, 인문학, 상업, 예술)에 적용 가능하다.

1.1. 기술의 유래와 범위 🌱

• '기술(technical)'은 그리스어 'technique'에서 유래하며, 특정 기술·방법·능력을 의미한다.
• 기술은 ==전문 지식과 기술을 요하는 모든 분야==에 적용된다.

1.2. 기술적 글쓰기의 정의 📚

• 대상자(독자)가 부족한 정보를 보완하기 위해 전문가가 작성하며, 이해하기 쉬운 자료를 제공하는 것.
• ==기술적 글쓰기 = 전문가가 비전문가를 위해 쓰는 정보 전달 수단==이다.

2. 기술적 글쓰기의 황금 규칙 ✨

2.1. 언어 수준

• ==쉬운 언어 사용==이 필수적이다.
• 일반인, 심지어 5학년도 이해할 수 있도록 간단하게 표현한다.

2.2. 정보 수준

• 독자의 지식수준에 맞춰 내용과 깊이를 조절한다.
• 예) 사용자 매뉴얼은 일반인 대상, 수리 매뉴얼은 기술자를 위한 것 등.

3. 기술적 글쓰기의 적용 예시와 유형 📖

예시	대상자	내용	설명
사용자 매뉴얼	일반인	기기 작동법, 주의사항	쉬운 설명과 그림 포함
법적 고지	모든 사용자	책임 제한, 위험 경고	법적 요건 충족
보고서	전문가	데이터 분석, 결론	구조적, 공식적작성
제안서	의사결정자	프로젝트 계획, 기대효과	설득력 있게 작성

4. 정의를 명확히 하는 3단계 방법 🔍

4.1. 용어 선정

– 특정 용어(예: ‘강아지’)를 결정한다.

4.2. 분류(class) 지정

==– ‘동물’, ‘애완동물’ 등 큰 집단에 포함시킨다.
– 예) 강아지는 ‘포유류에 속하는 개’임을 명확히.==

4.3. 특징 부여

==– 특징(성질, 외형, 용도)을 상세히 기술한다.
– 예) 모양이 귀여우며 충성심이 높고, 사료가 필요함.==

4.4. 부정적 정의 피하기

• ‘저항하는’ 대신 ‘반대하는’ 등 동일 의미 표현을 사용하며, 무한 반복 방지.

5. 다양한 분류와 용어 선택 방법 💼

5.1. 분류(class) 활용

• ‘도구’, ‘기기’, ‘기계’, ‘장치’ 등 유사 개념 그룹으로 구분.
• 예) ‘온도계’는 ‘측정기기’에 속함.

5.2. 유사어/상반어 활용

• 이해 쉽게 위해 ‘짧은 숨소리’(호흡수) vs ‘긴 호흡’(호흡률).

5.3. 특성 설명

• 외형 설명, 역사를 통한 의미 부여, 구체적 사례 제시.

6. 개체·기구·장치·장비 등의 구체적 기술 방법 🏷️

• 대상의 정의: 목적, 기능 간단 명료 서술.
• 외관 설명: 그림, 라벨로 이해 도움.
• 부품·구성요소: 각 부품의 역할·위치 상세 기술.
• 작동 원리: 빛, 기계적 원리 등 기능 프로세스 상세 설명.

6.1. 예시: 산소측정기(氧氣測定器, Oximeter)

• ==정의==: 혈액 내 산소포화도를 비침습적 방법으로 측정하는 기기.
• ==기능 설명==: 손가락에 부착, 빛 투과·흡수 원리로 산소수치 계산.
• ==구성 부품==: 전원 버튼, 손가락 고리, 측정창, 표시창 등.
• ==작동 원리==: 적외선·레드광을 손가락에 통과시켜 산소포화도 산출.

7. 특수 주의 표기법 및 배치 방법 ⚠️

• 종류: ==노트, 주의, 경고, 위험==.
• 포맷:
  • ==노트==: 도움이 되는 힌트, 파란색 박스.
  • ==주의==: 장비 손상 가능성, 노란색 박스.
  • ==경고==: 부상의 위험, 주황색 박스.
  • ==위험==: 치명적 사고 가능성, 빨간색 박스, 대문자 작성.
• 배치 위치: 관련 수행 단계에 바로 위치시키기.
• 강조 방법: 볼드, 이탤릭, 캡스락 등으로 눈에 띄게.

8. 사용자 설명서 작성 요령 📝

• ==구성요소==:
  • 제품 배경 및 특징
  • 조작·유지보수·설치·수리 방법
  • 안전 주의 사항
  • 제조사/서비스 센터 정보
• ==작성 팁==:
  • 단계별 간단 문장, 번호 매기기.
  • 그림·사진 활용, 이해력을 높임.
  • 제목·소제목 활용, 논리적 흐름 유지.
  • 필요한 곳에 안전경고 삽입.
  • 명령형(Imperative) 사용하여 간결·직접적 지시 제공.

8.1. 명령형(Imperative) 예시

형식	예시
불명확	‘전기를 차단한다’
간결·명령	‘전원을 끈다’
더 나아가	‘전원을 끄고, 플러그를 뽑는다’

9. 실습 예시: 산소측정기(氧氣測定器) 설명서 작성 📝

1. 전체 목차, 제목, 그림 등을 포함한 표지 구성
2. 간단한 배경·목적 설명
3. 단계별 사용법:
   • 전원 켜기/끄기
   • 손가락 부착 위치/방법
   • 측정 유지 시간
   • 결과 읽기 및 주의사항
4. 안전 경고 및 주의사항 강조 표기

이상으로 기술 문서 작성 방법의 기본과 구체적 활용 사례 안내를 마친다. 충분히 연습하여 효과적인 문서 작성 능력을 기르도록 하자.

대본

In this course, you'll begin by exploring the fundamentals of technical writing and understanding its importance in various fields. You'll learn how to frame clear and effective definitions and discover how using class categories can make your definitions more precise. The course will guide you through techniques to make your writing more concrete and practical, especially when describing objects. You'll also find out how to craft special notices and write user instructions that are easy to follow. As you progress, you'll master the art of describing processes and learn the essential components of formal reports, including their types, main body, and prefaratory parts. By the end of this course, you'll have the skills and confidence to communicate complex information clearly and professionally. In this video, I'll be taking up the topic of technical writing. So first I would like to start with the origin of the word technical. Now many of us believe that technical comes from technology. But in fact both these words come from the Greek word technique which refers to specialized techniques or methods of doing something. It can also refer to a certain skill set or the art and craft of doing certain things. So now that we understand the origin of the word technical, let us have a look at the scope of technical. Technical as we understand is a set of specialized skills or techniques. So it can be easily applied to the field of engineering as well as medicine to humanities to commerce and business and even to the arts. In fact, if I put it in a nutshell, technical can refer to any field which requires specialized skills and techniques. So now that we understand the scope of the word technical, let us have a look at the definition of technical writing. Technical writing is an audience- centered means of communication that provides a reader with clear and easy access to information. So again if I boil this down to simple words it means that technical writing is audience centered information. So the next question arises why does the audience need any information? Well because at times the audience is information deficient. For example, if my laptop does not respond and does not start, then mostly I do a Google search to figure out what I can do to fix my laptop on my own. So when we don't have information, where do we go as an information deficient source? We generally end up going to an informationri source like as I said Google or YouTube. But in Google or YouTube, somebody is writing and uploading that information and this somebody is an expert. So if I simplify the definition of technical writing, I can go ahead and say that technical writing is information written by experts for non-experts. So now that we understand the definition of technical writing, I would like to talk about the two golden rules which we should follow when we undertake any kind of technical writing. Now the first rule is about the level of language and how difficult or easy it should be. So if you take my advice, the level of language should always be easy because we need to understand that this information will be read mostly by non-experts. So in fact the level should be so easy that even the fifth standard kid should understand. Rule number two, it talks about the level of information. Now how much and where you should pitch your information depends on the end user. Now, as an expert, if you're writing a user manual, we need to keep in mind that this will be read by lay persons. For example, a homemaker, an office goer, or even a schoolgoing kid. However, if you're writing a repair manual, we need to understand that this will be read by a technician whose ultimate purpose will be to go and repair a piece that is faulty. Lastly, if you're writing a coding manual, you must remember that somebody who is a developer is going to be reading this manual maybe on how to run the hardware. So now that we understand the two golden rules of technical writing, let us take a test. Can a cookbook be called technical writing? Yes, of course, because it talks about skills of cooking and it is written by an expert. And who will read a cookbook? Obviously, people who do not know how to cook. So, that makes it expert writing for non-experts. So, here are a few examples of technical writing. You will often come across user manuals. When you buy a new product like a DSLR camera, you also come across software installation guides. Every time we want to install a new software in a computer, we have assembling instruction that comes maybe with a writing desk that you buy. We also come across legal disclaimers. For example, when we buy into a new insurance policy, we have standard operating procedures which employees in most companies have to follow. Then we have reports of different kinds. We have service level agreements when we sign into a new job. We also have proposals of mergers and acquisitions. There are cataloges that are published and even press releases. These are all examples of different types of technical writing. Now, what will I cover in the videos ahead? I'll be talking about technical writing mostly for engineers and the topics I'll be cover will be first of all about how to frame definitions. I'll be looking at class categories. I'll be talking about how to expand definitions and make them more concrete. Then I'll be moving to the art of describing an object. then writing user instructions, inserting special notices in the user instructions, and lastly about describing a process. In this video on technical writing, I'm going to be talking about how to frame a good definition. A definition has three parts to it. So the first part is the term. In this case, if I want to define a dog, then the word dog is the term. The next part of a definition is the class where we have to assign the term to a certain group that shares similar characteristics. So I can go ahead and expand the definition and say a dog is an animal. Coming to the third part of a definition, it talks about defining characteristics of the dog. So let me just go ahead and complete the definition by saying a dog is an animal that is loving, faithful and grateful. Now this is a fun definition. Let us see if we can apply the same rule to other objects. Here is an example. A Porsche. This is the term that we're going to define is a Germanmade automobile. Now this is the class and please notice that it is further refined by saying that it is specifically a Germanmade car with high performance capabilities, a small aerodynamic body design and a price tag starting at $3 US. Now all these things are the defining characteristics that set the Porsche apart from all other types of cars. Now let us take another example. Here I'm going to define the word hydrometer. So a hydrometer, this is the term is an instrument. We are assigning the hydrometer to the class of instruments. It is used for measuring the specific gravity of liquids. Now this is the defining characteristics of a hydrometer. So now that we understand how to frame basic definitions, we might face a few problems in the initial days. Let us take an example here. A resistor, this is the term is an electronic device that is used in electronic circuits to resist and control current flow. Now there's a problem with this definition as one shouldn't use any form of the term word in the remaining part of the definition. So what can we do to get rid of this problem? We can redefine a resistor and we can avoid using the word resist. Let us see how we can do it. A resistor is an electronic device that is used in electronic circuits to oppose and control current flow. So instead of using the word resist, I have changed it and I have used the word oppose. So now that we understand that we should not be using any variation of the term word, let us try and frame a few definitions for say a calculator. Now you will notice when you try to frame a definition for the calculator, we might be tempted into saying that a calculator is an electronic device that is used to calculate. Now we understand that we cannot use the word calculate in the definition and hence we need to reframe the definition by saying that a calculator is an electronic device that can perform mathematical operations in a very short time. Let us take another example. This is a padlock here and again we'll be facing the same problem when we try to frame a definition. Most noviceses will say that a padlock is a device which is used to lock. Now we know better than to use any variation of the tomb word. So let us try and redefine. A padlock is a mechanical device which is used to secure doors, cupboards and drawers and things like that. In this video on technical writing, I'm going to be talking about how to use a different class categories to frame a definition. First, I will start with the definition of a class. A class means a group, collection, category or set sharing similar characteristics or attributes. So, let us take an example. A tiger belongs to the class of carnivores. A rose belongs to the class of flowers and a bus might belong to the class of vehicles. So now that we have spoken about class categories, first I would like to start with the analogous error and I'll be showing a list of class words often used in the past and they are used in the present too. So starting with the first one, I'm going to be talking about a tool. A tool is a device. It is usually without any kind of moving parts. It is generally handheld and it is used for any kind of manual labor. A good example would be a hammer, a knife and a screwdriver. Please note none of these tools have any moving parts. Next I would like to talk about an instrument. An instrument is a device which contains sensitive material. For example, it can have mercury or alcohol or metal strips which are sensitive to heat. It generally measures or records or it can do both. Most of the time an instrument has calibrations or markings at regular intervals. Sometimes distance related devices are also included under instruments. We can take the example of a telescope or a microscope. These come under the category of instruments as they have lenses which again have focal distances. Similarly, if you're talking about a handset like a telephone or a cell phone, these are also distance related and hence they come under the category of instruments. Lastly, all musical devices are also included under instruments. Let us take a few examples. Here we have the thermometer which is an instrument. We have the microscope and as I said anything with a focal length, anything that relates to distance comes under instruments. We have a scale or a ruler with etchings markings on it. Here is a cell phone which is again distance related. And last of all we have a guitar which is a musical instrument. Moving on to the third category that I'm going to be talking about. This is an apparatus. So an apparatus uh can be a number of devices which are assembled for a purpose. Uh it can be for something like boiling water and condensing it to get distilled water. Mostly apparatus are used in laboratories and uh a single apparatus can also be included under paratus. For example, a test tube or a conical flask. Here are examples. This entire setup is known as an apparatus. But again, a single conical flask will also come under the category of apparatus. Moving on to the next class of machines. A machine is a device which is mechanical in nature. That means it runs on the principles of mechanics. It provides power as output and it is made of interacting components or parts which means that if one part of the machine moves the other parts of the machine also moves in tandem. Machines generally taken one form of energy and it converts it to a more desirable form of energy. Lastly, it is easy to identify a machine. All we have to look for is a gear system within the machine. Here are some examples. We have a sewing machine. We have a windmill which converts the kinetic energy of the air into electrical energy. Then we also have an example in the harvesting machine. Next we are moving on to mechanism. A mechanism is a device. It is a system like arrangement and it is mostly manually operated. It provides force or motion as output and almost all the time mechanisms work on the principles of levers. Here are some examples. The traditional padlock is a mechanism. We operate it manually and it has a lever system inside. The example of a pair of scissors is a little confusing. Many people might put it under the category of tools. But because it has a falcrum in the center, it comes under the class of mechanism. And the same applies for a stapler too. Moving on to the sixth class category of the engine. An engine is a device. It is again mechanical in nature like the machine. It converts heat to mechanical energy most specifically and it provides power to push something. It is a subset of machines which means that all engines are machines but all machines are not engines. Here is an example. We have the locomotive and we also have the engine of a car or a bus or a truck. Next we are moving to appliances. An appliance is a device which is first of all laborsaving in nature. It is mostly used within the four walls of a house or an office. It provides a lot of creature comfort and most importantly it runs on electricity. Here are some examples. We have the air conditioner. The electric bulb also comes under the category of appliances. And we have the microwave oven here. The next one I'm going to be talking about is the gadget. Now the gadget is a device. First of all, it is electronic in nature which means it is chip enabled. Next, it has to be portable and it should have a luxury value. In the past, a television would have been a gadget. But given the size of gadget in today's time, a television or a desktop has stopped being a gadget. So, let us take some examples of gadget. Here is a GoPro camera. We had a MP3 player and here are the smart watches that are prevalent these days. Moving on to the last category in this section is a device. A device is generic term to be used rarely. Only when you cannot find any other word which fits into your definition should you fall back upon the word device. Now this word device only works when used with a qualifier. By a qualifier I mean an adjective which can be say electronic, electric or mechanical. So here is an example. It is difficult to put a calculator into a class. So at times we can refer to the calculator as an electronic device mostly because it is chip enabled. Here is an elevator. An elevator is a machine. But you can also refer to it as a mechanical device. So the word device is just a failsafe possibility only when you do not have any other words that come to your mind. Moving on now I'll be talking about the digital era and here I'll be talking about a list of class words used in the present times. The first one is hardware. It is a physical component which is electronic in nature. It performs analog or logical operations and is directed by software to execute any kind of command. Now here is an example. We have a chip here a microchip which might be a part of the motherboard the internal hardware of your computer. Then here we have a printer which is an output hardware. In here we have a laptop or a keyboard uh which can be considered as input hardware. The next one is a software. Software are set of instructions which are first of all stored in the hardware and then it helps to run the same hardware where it is stored. It transforms inputs into outputs. Here are some examples. We have operating systems and we have programming which comes under software. The next one I'm going to be talking about is an application. An application is also a software that performs a specific task. It is only used by end users and it is a subset of software which means that all applications are software but all software are not necessarily applications. The first one is McAfee, the second one is Autodesk Sketchbook and the third one is Photoshop. Next I'm going to be talking about a virtual platform. Now virtual platform is a system which allows different applications to run on it under the same environment and it allows the users to access these systems through the internet. A very good example would be Zoom and we also have Google classroom. The last one in the digital category that I'll be talking on is a cloud. A cloud is a server or to put it very simply a storage that can be accessed through the internet. It provides IT services such as storage, access to different databases, computing power, etc. I have three examples here. We have Microsoft Azure. Then we have Amazon Web Services and the last one is Google Cloud Platform. Now, I'm sure there are a lot more class words in the digital arena, but these are the only five that I'm going to be touching on. In this video on technical writing, I'm going to be talking about how we can expand definitions and make them more concrete. Now, there are seven ways to more concrete definitions. The first one is by allocating the term to a class. The second way is by describing the form or the look of the term word. The third way is by referring back to the ethmology or the root word of the term. The fourth way is by going from general to specific definition. The fifth way is by adding synonyms. The sixth way is by comparing and contrasting. And the last way is by adding examples. Moving to the first way is allocating the term to a class. A barometer is an instrument. This is where we allocate the barometer to the class for measuring atmospheric pressure used in weather forecasting and in determining elevation. The second way is by describing the form of the term. Try describing a tube light and you will see that the generic definition of a tube light is very similar to that of an electric bulb. Hence, at times it is necessary to refer to the look or the form of the term that is being defined. So, I'll just go ahead and read part of the definition. An electric bulb is a home appliance that emits visible light. It consists of a hollow transparent glass globe. Now this is where we're trying to differentiate the electric bulb from the tube light by referring to the globe shape of the bulb. The next one is by referring back to the root word or the ethmology. Now many of the English words are borrowed from other languages especially scientific words. So let us have a look. Thermometer is derived from the Greek term which means heat and metron meaning measure. An instrument that measures temperature often through the use of a confined substance such as mercury the volume of which changes with a change in temperature. Now because there are a lot of borrowed words in English I have gone ahead and given a list of commonly used root words in the technical arena. You can have a look at it at your leisure. The fourth one is by taking your definition from a generic one to a more specified one. So you can start with the generic definition of a thermometer and then you can segregate it into the different types of thermometers and make it more specific. So I'll just read out two of the basic type of thermometers are clinical thermometer. This is used to determine body temperature. Whereas the electrical thermometer, it's a resistance thermometer which measures temperatures between -200 and 500° centigrade and it's based on the increase in resistance with increase in temperature. The fifth way is by adding synonyms. Sometimes when you talk to a doctor you will realize that they are using terms which might not be understood by lay persons. So instead of using jargon you can replace it with easily understood synonyms. Here is an example. Patients who experience shortness of breath or chest pain. Now this entire thing in yellow is actually referred to as angina in medical terms. At least a month before their first heart attack have an elevated risk of dying from a second heart attack. Moving to the sixth way is by comparing and contrasting. I'm taking the example of a fan. First I will start with the generic definition and then I'll move on to comparison. A fan is an electric appliance used to produce drops of cooling air by the help of horizontal rotating blades attached to a central motor. A ceiling fan is hung from the ceiling of a room. Whereas table fans are portable and can be placed on a table or on the floor. So using the word whereas we are able to compare and contrast the ceiling fan and the table fan. Moving on to the last way of making our definitions more concrete is by adding examples. I will continue with the example of the fan. Now fixed electrical fans like the ceiling fan can only create cooling drops in a fixed direction. Fans with 180° rotating heads like the table fan have better coverage and their positions can also be changed according to the need. So by using the word like we are giving examples of the fixed kind and the ones with rotating heads. In this video on technical writing I'm going to be talking about how to describe an object. So basically we need to follow four simple steps. The first step is to tell the reader what is the object and what is it used for. And this can be done simply by giving the definition of the object. The second part of a description requires us to tell the reader about the look of the particular object and this can be done through a label diagram. The third part needs the technical writer to explain to the reader what are the different components or parts that the object is made of. And the last part of a description tell the reader about how the particular object functions. So in today's video I'm going to be taking up an oxyter as an example to take you through the four steps of describing an object. I'll start with the first part for description which is the definition. So an oximeter is an instrument for measuring the proportion of oxygenated hemoglobin in the blood in a non-invasive way. The second part of a description is to talk about how the object looks. In this case, we will be using a label diagram. Now when you look at the diagram, you will notice the first thing is that each part or component is numbered. Second thing that there is a direction that is followed. In this case, we're going in the anticlockwise direction but you're free to make it in other direction like the clockwise, left to right, right to left, bottom up or top down. The third part of a description is to talk about the different parts or components. So let me start with the onoff button. This button is used to power the device and also switch it off after use. Then moving on to the second component which is the finger opening. This is the opening at the end of the clamp where one places a fingertip or a earlo. The third component is the pulse rate reading. This shows the number of times a heartbeats per minute. The normal range is between 60 to 100 beats per minute. The fourth component is the oxygen saturation reading. Now the oxygen saturation measures the percentage of oxygen bound hemoglobin in the blood. The normal range is between 95 and 100%. The fifth component is the battery indicator. This displays the percentage of electric charge left in the battery. The sixth component and the last component is the battery compartment. This houses the AAA batteries that provide power to the device. Coming to the last part of uh description. In this we're going to talk about how the oxyter functions. Now light is emitted from light sources which goes across the pulse oxyter probe and reaches the light detector which you can see at the bottom. Now two types of light red and infrared lights are used in an oximeter. When you place a finger in between the light source and the light detector, the light passes through the finger and the tissues in it to reach the detector. A part of the light will get absorbed by the finger and part which is not absorbed reaches the light detector. The amount of light that is absorbed by the finger is used by the oxyter to calculate the oxygen saturation level in the blood. This is how a description of an object goes. Hello, welcome to my channel Tal Talks from a short lady. In this video on technical writing, I'm going to be talking about special notices. Now the reason I'm going to talk about special notices before I move to user instructions is because when you write instructions you will require to insert special notices at different places. So let us see what is a special notice. It is an important information readers must know in order to understand and accomplish tasks efficiently. Special notices have two purposes. The first one is it can prevent damage to the equipment and the second purpose is it can prevent damage to self and to others. So how many different notices are there? Basically there are four of them. The first one is a note. The second one is caution. The third one is a warning and the fourth and last one is a danger notice. Now I would like to draw your attention to the formatting and also the color coding. For example, the word danger is written in capital letters and the box is colorcoded in red and you will notice that the text starts immediately after the colon and the text also comes in the second line after the danger word. Please note the other colors of blue, yellow and orange for warning. So let us take each one and see an example. The first one I'm going to be talking about is a note. A note is a helpful hint. Sometimes a tip to help the user work more efficiently. Now, without a note, a user may lose precious time and get frustrated while trying to understand why something is not working. You may ignore a note, but then you will lose a lot of time, but at least nothing more harmful will happen. Moving to the second special notice which is a caution. A caution warns the readers about possible damage to the equipment or to your data. Here is an example. Please note that it is colorcoded in yellow. Moving to the third one. A warning explains about the possibility of minor injury to the user or to others around the user. For example, the warning given here on the right hand side, it has a orange color coding and it talks about the welding area and the possible risk of eye injury or blindness. So, it is telling you not to watch the ark. Moving on to the last one, which is the danger notice. A danger notice warns readers about the possibility of serious or fatal injury to themselves or others. And here is an example on the right side. Please note that it is colorcoded in red. It is written in capital letters and talks about alligators and snakes in the area and it's asking you to stay away from the water and tall grass. Before I come to the end of this video, I'm going to talk about a few formatting instructions that we need to follow while writing special notices. The first one is that we need to place the special notices exactly where needed. For example, if you're learning how to ride a bike and you already send your legs on the hot silencer, there is no point telling you to stay away from it at the end of the instructions in dos and don'ts. So the point is we need to close the stable doors before the horse has voted and therefore the special notices need to be placed exactly where they're beneficial to the reader. The second part is that we need to highlight the special notices by either making it bold or using italics or caps lock to increase the visibility and minimize the chances of the reader missing out on them. And the last thing is that we must use standard color coding for each special notice. As I've already mentioned before, we use blue for note, yellow for caution, orange for warning, and red for danger. In this video on technical writing, I'll be dealing with the topic of how to write good user instructions. Now, user instructions are not written in isolation. they are always written as part of a user manual. So let us look at the different parts of a user manual. The first one is it gives general background of the product and some of its silent features. The second aspect of a user manual is always the instructions whether to operate, maintain, repair, install, assemble etc. The third part of a user manual are generally the special notices like note, caution, warning and danger. And the last aspect of a user manual is the contact information of the manufacturer of the product or a service provider. So next let us look at a few tips to write good instructions. So instructions are to be broken into very very short sentences. They should be arranged in a logical sequence and they should also be numbered. The next thing is that all instructions should be paired with well-labeled images just in case somebody illiterate is trying to go through the manual. They can just understand what to do on the basis of the pictures. The third thing is that one can use good headings and subheadings to guide the user into easy to follow steps. The fourth thing is that we need to insert the special notices wherever necessary while performing a task. And the last thing is that all good instructions should be written in the imperative style. So let us understand what is the imperative style and why is it the style of choice for good instructions. Now there are many ways you can frame a sentence. The first example I'm giving is of the impersonal style. I'm going to read out the casting is removed from the mold by the operator who then. So if you're talking to the reader this seems a very roundabout way of talking to the reader. Let us look at the next example. This is the indirect style which is a slight improvement over the impersonal style. The operator removes the casting from the mold. He then again it is not talking directly to the user. So let us look at a third form which is the direct style. You remove the casting from the mold you then. So you will see that this is much better than the first two styles. However, the pronoun you keeps on repeating in every sentence. Since I'm the reader, I already know that the instructions refer to me. So, we can do away with the U in every sentence. So, the fourth and the best option is the imperative style, which is also known as the command style, where you simply tell people what to do, something like stand up, sit down, close the door. So let me read it out for you. Remove the casting from the mold then place. So I know directly what I have to do. The writer just has to tell me and I will follow the steps. So now that we have a fair idea on how to frame good user instructions, let me walk you through an example. In this case I have taken up the example of an oxyter because this is the product that I've used in the earlier videos. So I'll start with the general product background. The pulse oximeter is used to measure the oxygen level of the blood. An oxyter plays a role only in giving a clue that the patient has a sudden drop in the oxygen level. Next we have the stepbystep instructions. Please note that the instructions are short. They are numbered. They are in the imperative and they are also accompanied by an image. So the first one says sit down and rest for 5 minutes. Step two, switch on the oxyter. Now before we go to step three, there is a little note which says remove any nail polish or false nails because this will interfere with the reading. Then we have step three where it says place the oximeter on your middle or index finger. Step four says keep the oximeter in place for a minute. And again step four is followed by a note which says that the reading takes time to steady and hence the oxyter has to be kept in place for more than a minute. We move to the last step which says record the highest result once the reading is taken and there is a note after it which says that in case your reading is 92% or less please call the emergency number. This is the last video on the topic of technical writing and in this video I'll be taking you through how to describe a process. The description of a process is very similar to writing user instructions. So let us first see what are the steps involved. The first one is to define what is the process all about. Then we need to include a list of materials required to carry out the procedure. The third thing is to have numbered steps which are accompanied by good simple to follow diagrams. The fourth thing is obvious. We need to insert special notices in colored boxes wherever necessary. And the last one is very similar to the user instruction is where we write all the steps in the imperative or the command style. So let us take an example and define a process. In this case I have taken the process of lamination as an example. So lamination is the technique or process of protecting a relatively fragile material or document with a more durable protective coating. It involves layering a hardwearing film over the material or document. Next, we want to list all the materials we will require to carry out lamination. The first one is we need to have the document or the photo which is to be laminated. At number two, we should have the laminating sheets. At three, we need a laminating machine. And the fourth and last thing is we need a document cutter or a pair of scissors to reshape our document after lamination. Next we have the steps we need to follow. Please note that the steps are numbered, they are short, they are in the imperative and they are also accompanied by simple images. So the first step says switch on the laminating machine and wait for it to heat up. In step two, it says clean the surface of your document or photo with a soft cloth to remove dust particles and moisture. This will help your document to be bubble-free after lamination. And here we have a yellow coded caution which says use a soft and clean cloth to avoid scratching the surface of your document or photo. In step three, it says select the correct size of laminating sheets to match the size of your document. Then we have step four which says insert the document carefully in between the laminating sheets and align it in the center keeping equal distance from all four sides. Keep the attached end of the laminating sheets at the head position. And then we have a orange colorcoded warning. Now this warning is required before we move to step five. And the warning says, keep your fingers away from the heated rollers to avoid singing your fingers. So now that we know that the rollers are hot, let us see what we need to do in step five. Carefully feed the attached end of the laminating sheets containing the document in between the heated rollers of the machine. Again we have a caution which says do not pull out the sheets forcibly to avoid improper heat sealing of the sheets. Now this caution is required before we go to step six because in step six it says wait for the laminating sheets to be ejected completely from the other side of the rollers. Then we have the last step which says use a pair of scissors to reshape your document and round the corners. In this video I'm going to be talking about how to write a formal report. Now this topic is very exhaustive. So I have divided into four different videos. In this video, I'm going to be talking about the different types of reports or the classification of reports. I would like to start by talking about what does reporting mean? Well, it comes from the Latin word reporter which if you break it up re means back and p means to carry which means carry back. So your next question is carry back what exactly? Well information that only you have. So whom do you bring back this information to? You bring it back to someone who does not have this information. So if I try to summarize this, if you take information off the internet, compile it and submit it in the form of a report, it really cannot be called a report because the information that you have access to is also available to your reader on the internet. So such an activity cannot be termed as reporting. So now let us see a few examples of reports. We deal with reports almost every day of our lives. Starting with our school days, we had school report cards that the school would send to our parents so that they know how we have been fairing in school. In college, the teachers maintain attendance sheets so that they can send it to the different boards and universities to give them an idea about the percentage of attendance of each and every individual student. Next we have mark sheets and transcripts which are given by different boards and universities for other boards and universities so that they can refer to it for admission of any applicant. We also have medical reports which are given to patients which again in turn are meant for the doctors and in today's time we also need to produce some reports for different authorities to show them that we are free of covid. Lastly we also have bank statements which are given by the bank to us individually so that we have a fair idea of how much we have been spending and how much we have been earning. So now that we have seen a few examples, let us see how we classify different kinds of reports. Now reports can be classified on various parameters. I would like to start with the first one which is by subject matter. Well, reports can be prepared on any subject be it accounting, finance, engineering, medicine, you name any of the other fields and basically you can have a report. Next, we classify reports on the basis of the time interval which means how often is a report written. Now, periodic reports are written at regular time intervals. Good example would be report cards that are prepared every semester, monthly bank statements that are sent every month or a budget report which is maybe issued once a year. The next category is a special reports which are written as a one-time assignment and they are not repeated a second time. Examples would be the final year project report written by engineering students or maybe a COVID related update that is issued by the government. Next we move to the most important classification category which is by function and this is perhaps the most important one because it decides the texture and the approach of a particular report. Now I'm going to be using the example of a pizza delivery company to explain the three different kinds of reports possible on the basis of function. Now the first one is called anformational report where you present facts on a particular subject. For example, you're working for a pizza delivery company and your boss tells you to go and find out the total number of pizza delivery houses that are there in a particular location, say A. Now, if you go there physically, count the number of pizza delivery houses that are there and you come back and report it, this becomes anformational report. In anformational report, you're simply presenting facts without going any deeper into the facts or analyzing them. Next kind of report is the examinational report which takes theformational report one step further because here you're not only presenting the facts that you have collected but you're also analyzing the facts and giving some kind of interpretation or coming to some kind of a conclusion. So basically you tell your boss that there are already five companies which are there in location A and these companies are barely managing to survive which means there are no profit no loss they are just breaking even. So this is known as an examinational report. Moving on to the third kind of report which is the analytical report which is again one step ahead of the examinational report. In an analytical report, you not only present the facts, you analyze, you come to a conclusion and on the basis of your conclusion, you give some kind of recommendation. So if you tell your boss that already there are five companies and they are not making a lot of profit. So it does not make sense to open a new pizza delivery house in location A. Instead, you should move to location B where there are no pizza delivery houses. That way you can target exclusive clients. So these are the three different kinds of reports for our students. I'm looking at an examinational report or you can also aim for an analytical report. We will not look atformational reports because really there's not a lot of skill required in collecting data and just putting it together. Next we are moving to the fourth classification of reports which is by formality. Now reports can be very formal example a project report that you prepare for your manager or it can be informal reporting for example an update to the college general secretary on the number of sponsorships that you have accumulated throughout the day. The fifth way of classifying reports is by the physical factors by which I mean how long or short the report is. The first way of writing a report would be through a memorandum format. Please refer to the image next to it. Next we have a traditional letter format. Then we have a short report which might run to maybe four or five pages. And lastly we have the long report which is also known as the book format report. Now this can run to anything between 20 pages, 100 pages or 150 pages. Now for our purpose this semester we are going to be dealing with the long report. The last category of classification of reports is by the reader writer relationship. By which I mean who is preparing the report and who is reading the report. The first kind is the administrative reports which are written by people for other people within the same organization. An example would be a project report that is prepared by you for your team manager. The next kind is the professional reports which are written by specialists who come from outside an organization. A very good example would be a knack accreditation team which visits different college to report on the quality of their education. The last kind is the independent reports which are written for an indefinite public. Anybody who is interested can read these reports. An example would be a report from Astroena on the latest vaccines available for co. Now anybody who is interested in knowing about it can read such a report and hence it is known as an independent report. This is the third video on how to write a formal report. And in this video, I'm going to be talking about the main body of a long formal report. In this case, I'm using an examinational report and specifically a survey based report. So, what does the long report look like? I've already spoken about the preparatory part. It has the core part and the pendant part. Today I'm going to be looking at the core part in this video. So what to include in the main body? The main body starts with the introductory chapter. It moves on to specific chapters and specific titles depending on your report topic. It also has a chapter on survey findings as it is a survey based report. And the last chapter always is the summary and conclusion. So starting with the introduction. The first chapter is labeled as introduction for all reports. You do not have any freedom to label it as anything else. Now the subsections of the introduction is very formal. That means again you have to keep to the specific titles. You cannot get creative here. Neither can you skip on any of the subsections. Please note that you have to use the third person indirect. Try and keep it brief. So I will go ahead and read out the sample that I've given here taken from one of the reports prepared by my students last year. The heading as I said has to be introduction. Please note that it is chapter one. This chapter establishes the purpose, premises and background of the survey report. The first subsection is always called the origin of the report. Here you talk about the reason why you embarked upon preparing this report. This survey report was prepared as a part of the third-year engineering syllabus for the subject of business communication and ethics by the students of the computer department of Tadumal Chani Engineering College affiliated to the University of Mumbai. So now that you've given the reason why you prepared the report, the next is to state the purpose of the report. Please start the sentence with the words. The purpose of this survey report was to look into the attitude of the Indian people towards the idea of men wearing makeup and cross-dressing in public. The next subsection is the scope of the report which talks about the coverage of the report. The scope of the survey is restricted only to the subcontinent of India. Now the thousand people who were surveyed were all from India and hence the scope is limited only to India. The next subsection I've called it the research question and hypothesis. This subsection is not a part of a report but I encourage my students to get into the spirit of research and I request them to treat the report as a research project. Hence I encourage them to use a research question in hypothesis. The research question are the Indian people tolerant and accepting towards the idea of men dressing unconventionally and wearing makeup in public. This is the question they posed. Now if you answer the research question, you get your hypothesis. I'm reading the hypothesis. Due to a closed mindset and strict adherence to conventional practices, Indians are not very accepting of men dressing unconventionally and wearing makeup in cup. Now, this is the claim that my students have made with the help of the statistical data. They will either be able to prove their hypothesis as right or wrong. You must add one or two lines before you go to any subsection. And here you will notice that before I jump to 1.1, I have inserted a sentence here which talks about what is one. I have highlighted in red the fourth subsection. This is not mandatory for a report but it would be a good idea for practice for all the students. Continuing with the introduction, the fifth component or subp part of the introduction are the limitations that were faced while preparing this report. I'll read out for you. The following limitations were faced while preparing the survey report. The sample size is too small. In fact, thousand is no number at all. Only people who can read English and are computer savvy could be included in the survey because it was done through a Google form. The number of questions in the survey had to be limited to hold the attention span of these subjects. So not a very in-depth study could be done. The truth value of the answers given by the subjects could not be checked. And the last limitations that my students faced were that the time that could be devoted to the research was less as there were other subjects to to focus on. The next subsection is the background of the report. Here you post a short one paragraph or maybe two paragraphs to establish a little bit of a background on the topic. I will not read the subsection. I will skip to the next subsection which is the sources and methods of data collection. Now since it is an examinational report almost 90% of the data collected was primary. So the primary source and method of data collection. The people of India were the primary source of firstirhand data. A like a scale-based survey questionnaire was used to collect data through online circulation. This is the method. Now the students also had to use a little bit of secondary data and the method of collection is direct reference. So I'll just go ahead and read it. The background information for chapter 2 was taken from various websites, books, magazines and newspapers. The direct method of referencing was used to access the secondary data. Moving on to chapter two. From here you start giving specific title to your chapters depending on the topic that you have. In this case the students have labeled it as tracing the origin of men's fashion. You need to follow the same sequence of headings and subheadings as mentioned in the table of contents and use the funneling technique which is you move from general information to specific information. So let me just go ahead and read out from the sample. This chapter looks at the concept of men's fashion and goes on to trace the changing face of men's fashion through the ages right up to the current day. The last part of this chapter funnels down to a closer look at men's fashion taste and standards and specifically they're talking about the Indian men. So the starting 2.1 is a generic definition of fashion then 2.2 2 talks about you know men's fashion around the world. So it has subdivided into the middle ages maybe then uh the modern age and then the current age. Uh I will not go more into details. Now the third chapter in this case is the survey findings because one chapter was enough to cover the background on this topic. So the second chapter was devoted to the background and my students could move to the third chapter which will be the survey findings. Now use a matrix to provide the description of the survey. And here I'm going to be reading out. Also before I read out I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the table has to be labeled on top unlike the charts and figures which are labeled at the bottom. So reading out from this sample this chapter presents the core findings of the survey. First it talks about the survey design and then it moves to the actual statistical graphs derived from the collected data. Now this chapter has two subsections. 3.1 talks about the survey description. Given below is the description of the survey in a tabular format. Total number of surveys that were done were thousand. The mode of survey was online questionnaires. Type of questions were closeended questions only. Some were like a scale based, some were bipolar and some were simple MCQs. The total number of questions used in the survey were eight. The time taken was 30 days to collect all the thousand questionnaires. The location was all over India and the software used with Google forms and Microsoft Excel to calculate the collected data. Now the second subsection here is the statistical analysis of the survey data. The data collected was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and converted into various graphical form. Each question has been displayed on a new page starting with the question, the graph and the verbal inferences that were drawn. So I'm going to show you on the next page how they have used a separate question on each page, the graph and then the written analysis. Here is an example of how the students have placed one question then the graph on the basis of the data collected and the written analysis of what they understood from this graph. Here is one more example for you. This is the second question. Please note that each question is placed on a fresh page. This is the graph and the other inferences that they have drawn. The last chapter of the main body is the summary and conclusion. Again like the introduction, the title of this chapter remains summary and conclusion. You cannot get creative with it. The inferences drawn from the graphs in a nutshell is the summary. Now the end summary is different from the executive summary. The executive summary talks about the entire report in a nutshell. It talks about why you did it, how you found the data and what did you find. Whereas the end summary talks about only what did you find through your statistical data. Answering the research question and proving the hypothesis is your conclusion. So it is very easy to write a conclusion. Use bullet points for both summary and conclusion. If possible, it is easier for people to read. So I will just go ahead and read a little bit from the sample. This chapter first summarizes the survey findings and then moves towards drawing valid conclusions based on the statistical calculations given in chapter 3. So here in bullet points they have given their findings and this is the conclusion. I have not given the entire conclusion. You can see how they start by saying in conclusion it can be said that the initial hypothesis that was proposed was proved to be correct to a great extent and I'm not going into further details. This is the second video on how to write a formal report and in this video I'm going to be looking at the prefy part of a long book format report. Now the prefatory part is also known as the front matter. But before I get into more details, first I would like to show the structure of a report and it can be compared to a burger. The front matter is similar to the upper half of the burger bun. The main body of the report can be compared to the patty inside and the back matter can be compared to the bottom half of the bun. Now the front matter is cosmetic in nature. The main body is the heart of the report. The back matter again is cosmetic in nature. By which I mean that even if you skip reading the front matter and the back matter, you can still understand the entire report just by looking at the main body. So what does a long report look like? It has three distinct sections. Starting with the front matter, it is also known as the prefaratory part and should remind you of the word preface. This part prepares the reader and gives them a fair grounding about the coverage of the actual report. In the middle comes the main body. This is the core part of the report and it ends with the back matter which is also known as the appended part. The word appended should remind you of the vestigial organ, the appendix. Whether it is there in the body or it is removed, the body can function well without it. In this session, I'll be looking at only the preparatory part. Starting with the title fly now, the title fly has the title of the report. Here you can get creative. You can use pictures on the title fly if you want to. You can also make it colorful. When you print a hard copy, the title fly is generally printed on thicker quality paper just like the cover of any book or a paperback. The second component of the prefaratory part is the title page. The title page contains the title of the report written in big bold font. It also talks about the people for whom you have prepared the report. Then you need to mention the people who have prepared this report. You need to name the organization and place the logo of the organization of which you are a part of. And lastly, you must also mention the date of submission of the report. Here I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the page numbering of the report starts from this page onwards. The fifth component of the preparatory part is the table of contents. Please mention all the parts of the report starting from page one. You will notice that the table of contents is also a part of the table of contents. Next, mention the page numbers on the right hand side as you can see here in the example. You will note that the front matter gets Roman numbering as you can see here. And the body of the report gets Arabic numbering. You can see an example here. Maintain the numbering classification. For example, if the first chapter is number one, then the subsections in the first chapter should be 1.1, 1.2, 1.3. In case you have sub subsections, for example, here in chapter 2, under 2.2, there are four more subsections. Now, the numbering starts with 2.2.1 2.2.2. In case you have further subsections, do not use any more decimated numbers. You simply use bullet points. Continuing with the table of contents. In case you have subsections, you need to tab it once inside. Here is an example. It is tabbed here. You can see. In case you have sub subsections, you need to double tap it inside. For the list of reference, you need to use the APA style. I'll talk more in details about the APA style in the fourth and last video on this topic. While writing the headings, you must use the title case. By which I mean that the first letter of every word has to be in capitals except for prepositions, conjunctions, and articles. As you can see here, O is in small, T is in small. Lastly, you need to insert the page numbers at the bottom. Do not forget to continue doing that. The sixth component of the preparatory path is the list of illustrations. Now, the list of illustrations comes into picture when you have more than 10 images in your report. So use the title case for all captions. Use the word figure in case you are posting any pictures. You can see an example here. In case you're using any matrix, you have to label it as a table. And if you're using any graphs, then you label it as charts. I have given examples of a table here. And I've also given examples of charts. The numbering of these figures, charts or tables follow a simple logic. For example, you want to label the first picture of chapter 1, then you need to label it as figure 1.1. In case you want to label the third picture of chapter 2, you label it as figure 2.3 and so forth. The last component of the preparatory part is the executive summary. The executive summary is always a single paragraph and you can compose it very simply by answering three questions. Why did you prepare this report? How did you go about preparing it? And what did you find? So I will go ahead and read this sample executive summary. Why the purpose of the survey report was to look into the attitude of the Indian people towards the idea of men wearing makeup and crossdressing in public. The main effort was to find out if the Indians have become more tolerant and accepting towards this rapidly changing scenario of men's fashion in the 21st century. Now you go about telling how you prepared this report. Towards this a like scale-based survey questionnaire was prepared and circulated online to thousand subjects across demographics for all over India. Next you're going to talk about what did you find. Upon statistical analysis of the firsthand data collected, it was found that India is still not very open and accepting towards the idea of men dressing unconventionally and wearing makeup in public. Though the younger generation is slowly warming up to this open expression of individuality and freedom by men, it will take India a few more years perhaps to really accept this as a regular feature of the 21st century. You will notice that no personal pronouns are used and please do not use the words here I have included in red. This is just for reference. The reason it is called an executive summary is because the average manager might be very busy and might have to read through 10 or 15 reports a day. He or she might not find the time to read the entire report. So the executive summary is prepared by keeping these people in mind. The executive summary is actually the entire report in a nutshell.