Notes on Technical Writing (ENGL-SOCSCI) PDF

ENGL014: TECHNICAL WRITING o During the 20th century, the need skyrocketed, and about entertaining the audience as we are about o Translate information that is sometimes hard to...

ENGL014: TECHNICAL WRITING o During the 20th century, the need skyrocketed, and about entertaining the audience as we are about o Translate information that is sometimes hard to the profession finally became officially recognized. conveying specific information to our readers in comprehend into terms that anyone will be able to WHAT IS TECHNICAL WRITING? The events in World War 1 and 2 led to advances in a concise and precise manner. “ read and follow along with. The Society for Technical Communication – The process medicine, military hardware, computer and o The definite purpose, strict format and use of aerospace technologies. appropriate language in technical writing define the USES OF TECHNICAL WRITING of gathering information from experts and presenting it to an audience in a clear, easily understandable form. o Following World War II, technological advances led differences between technical writing and academic Technical writing is found everywhere. There are a to an increase in consumer goods and standards of writing. variety of different types of writing which use a technical Yourdictionary.com – It is a type of writing where the living. Public services like libraries and universities, style. author is writing about a particular subject that requires as well as transport systems like buses and highways DIFFERENCES OF TECHNICAL AND NON – direction, instruction, or explanation. saw massive growth and the need for writers to TECHNICAL WRITING o For example, instructions of all sorts are a perfect chronicle all these increases. T NON – T example of technical writing. It is a specialized form of exposition: a o The instruction manual for the BINAC computer Content factual, straight imaginative, o When you open an instruction manual, as the reader, written communication used in technical and occupational written by Joseph D. Chaplin in 1949 was the first forward metaphoric, the goal is to be informed about the product so that fields especially in fields with specialized vocabularies computational technical document. symbolic you can use it as efficiently as possible. such as science, engineering, technology, and the health o In 1953, two organizations were founded: The Audience specific general o Lab reports are another example of technical sciences. Society of Technical Writers and The Association of Purpose inform, entertain, writing. The main purpose of a lab report is to It produces written outputs about the three fields of Technical Writers and Editors. Today, they are persuade, provoke, explain the occurrences in a lab so that others will be knowledge: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, and known as the Society for Technical Communication. instruct captivate able to gain information. ENGINEERING. (computer hardware and software, (STC) Style formal, standard, informal, artistic, o Driving directions can be considered a type of engineering, chemistry, aeronautics, robotics, finance, o The 1960s saw the growth of technology particularly academic figurative technical writing as the goal is to clearly and medical, consumer electronics, biotechnology, and in electronics and space industries. Tone objective subjective efficiently provide instructions on how to go from forestry). o 1970s and 1980s were marked by the expansion of Vocabulary specialized general, point a to point b. consumer electronics into people’s lives. evocative o Overall, technical writing is a very useful form of HISTORY o In the 1980s pcs arrived in the workplace, writing that is encountered by everyone almost every Organization sequential, arbitrary, artistic o It has been recognized as a profession since World accompanied by large manuals with names such as systematic day. War II. “guide to operation”. Visual Aids Table, drawings, Words that can SPECIFIC EXAMPLES: o Aristotle’s works’ classical antiquity (384-322 BC) HOW IS TECHNICAL WRITING DIFFERENT charts, graphs, fully narrate or and doctrines of Pythagoras are recognized as the FROM OTHER FORMS AND STYLES OF maps, and others describe what o Business letters earliest forms of technical writing. WRITING? to facilitate the writer’s o Oral reports; kinds of reports o Geoffrey Chaucer’s work “Treatise on the comprehension. wanting to put o Graphic aids Astrolabe” (dated 1326, an instrument used for o The subject matter is more important than the across. o Instruction manuals measuring the distance of stars, planets and for writer's voice. It uses an objective, not a o Policy manuals calculating the position of a ship) is an example of subjective, tone and it is direct and utilitarian, PURPOSE OF TECHNICAL WRITING o Process manuals technical document and the first technical document emphasizing exactness and clarity rather than o User manuals published. elegance or allusiveness. The main purpose of technical writing is to provide sometimes complex information. This is the type of o Reports of analysis o With the invention of printing (15 th Century), o Mike Markel notes in "technical communication," o Instructions for assembling a product document findings became a necessity. Inventors "the biggest difference between technical writing that will: o Memoranda and scientists like Isaac Newton and Leonardo da communication and the other kinds of writing you o Assist a person with understanding more about a o Proposals Vinci chronicled their inventions and findings. have done is that technical communication has different focus on audience and purpose. “ particular item, such as a computer or a new drug or o Brochures o It grew more during the Industrial revolution (new a new piece of technology. o According to Computer Science Professor Raymond o Abstracts manufacturing processes-yr.1760-1840). The period o Explain how an object works or how to complete a o Specifications of rapid technological and scientific advancement Greenlaw: "writing style in technical writing project. o Press release made a transition from making goods by hand to is more prescriptive than in creative writing. In technical writing, we are not so much concerned o Enable readers to use a technology or understand a using machines in factories. process or concept. SOCSCI032: GLOBALIZATION – AN INTRODUCTION o Hop into your Toyota made in Kentucky. o Euro-Atlantic Phase (1800) – The Euro- War (and bipolarity), spread of nuclear o Listen to Coldplay from England. Atlantic economy developed through weapons, world civil society, world What is globalization? citizenship, and global media system o Grab a Starbuck’s coffee with beans harvested in industrialization and the colonial division of Columbia. labor. consolidation. o Is it the integration of economic, political, and cultural o 20C Phase 1950 – MNC’s and global value 4. Events systems across the globe? Characteristics of Globalization chains emerged throughout the US, Europe, A fourth view is that instead of cycles or great epochs, one o Is globalization a force for economic growth, prosperity, and Japan and the Cold War Ended. can point to much more specific events that can be seen as and democratic freedom? o Connectivity o 21C Phase 2000 – A new geography of trade the origin of globalization. In fact, there are many such o Is it the dominance of developed countries in decision o Borderless Globe encompasses East Asia and the emerging possible points of origin of globalization, some of which making, at the expense of poorer, less powerful nations? o Free Trade economies, with a global rebalancing of are: o Does globalization only benefit the rich or can the poor o Cultural Diversity 1) The Romans and their far-ranging conquests take advantage of it to improve their well-being? power and economic flows o Mobility Other Perspective in the centuries before Christ (Gibbon 1998). Defining Globalization o Information Technology Changes o Germinal Phase – In Europe (early fifteenth 2) The rise and spread of Christianity in the century to mid-eighteenth century). Important centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire. Five Different Ways of Thinking About What Turns Out to o Globalization refers to the increasingly global developments during this period were the sun- 3) The spread of Islam in the seventh century Be a Very Complex Issue – The Origin of Globalization relationships of culture, people and economic activity. centered view of the universe, the beginnings and beyond. o Globalization is the homogenization of people’s tastes and 1. Hardwired – It argues that globalization stems, among of modern geography, and the spread of the 4) The travels of the Vikings from Europe to demand patterns around the world, due to increased access other things, from the basic human urge to seek a better Gregorian calendar. Iceland, Greenland, and briefly to North to international communication of information about and more fulfilling life. This leads him to trace the initial o Incipient Phase (mid-1700s to the 1870s). – America in the ninth through the eleventh products and services as well as increased access to globalization of the human species. Among the key developments in this period centuries as examples of, and landmarks, in transportation of products and people across borders. 2. Cycles – It argues that it is difficult to find a single point were the “crystallization of conceptions of globalization. o “Processes by which goods, services, capital, people, of origin, but the effort is largely irrelevant since there formalized international relations,” a “more 5) Trade in the Middle Ages throughout the information, and ideas flow across national borders.” long have been cycles of globalization and it is those that concrete conception of humankind,” and Mediterranean. (Grewal/Levy) are utmost importance, not particular phase or point of “[s]harp increases in conventions and 6) The activities of the banks of the twelfth o “Trend toward greater economic, cultural, political, and origin. agencies concerned with international and century Italian city-states. technological interdependence among national institutions 3. Phases transnational regulation and communication” 7) The rampage of the armies of Ghengis Khan and economies.” (Wild/Wild/Han) Globalization occurred sequentially each with its own (1990: 26). into Eastern Europe in the thirteenth century o “Globalization is both an active process of corporate point of origin: o Take-Off Phase (1870s to the mid-1920s) – (Economist 2006: January 12). expansion across borders and a structure of cross border o Eurasian Phase (3000BCE) – Agricultural and Among the key developments in this period 8) European traders like Marco Polo and his facilities and economic linkages that has been steadily urban revolutions, migrations, increased trade, were the “[v]ery sharp increase in number and travels later in the thirteenth century along the growing and changing.” —Edward S. Herman and ancient empires grew out of Eurasia. speed of global forms of communication. Rise Silk Road to China. 9) The “discovery of America” by Christopher o Afro-Eurasian Phase (1000 BCE) – of ecumenical movement. Development of Globalization Involving Us All Columbus in 1492. Other important voyages Commercial revolutions commenced in the global competitions – e.g. Olympics, Nobel Prizes. Implementation of World Time and of discovery during this time involved Vasco In 2022, the total value of global trade reached a record $32 Greco-Roman world, West Asia and East near-global adoption of Gregorian calendar. Da Gama rounding the Cape of Good Hope in trillion. This included approximately $25 trillion in trade in Africa. First World war. League of Nations” (1990: 1498 and the circumnavigation of the globe goods and $7 trillion in trade in services. The significant o Oriental Phase I (500 BCE) – The world 27). completed in 1522 by one of Ferdinand increase was driven by strong growth in both sectors, with goods economy emerged alongside the caravan trade Magellan’s ships (Joel Rosenthal 2007). trade growing by 10% and services trade increasing by 15% in the Middle East. o Struggle-For-Hegemony Phase (1920s to the 10) European colonialism, especially in the compared to the previous year (UNCTAD). o Oriental Phase II (1100AD) – The mid-1960s) – This period was characterized nineteenth century. improvements in productivity and technology by war (WW II) and disputes (Cold War) over Your Everyday Life 11) The early twentieth-century global Spanish flu emerged throughout East and South Asia, the still fragile globalization process. The UN pandemic. with increased urbanization and development was formed during this period. o Wake up to a GE alarm clock made in China. 12) The two world wars in the first half of the of the silk routes. o Uncertainty Phase (1960s to the early 1990s6) o Slip on Adidas sandals made in Indonesia. twentieth century. o Multicentric Phase (1500 AD) – Trade – Many global developments occurred during o Put your American Eagle clothes on from Mexico. expanded across the Atlantic Ocean and into this period including inclusion of the Third o Unplug your iPhone made in the U.S. and Taiwan. the Americas. World in the global system, end of the Cold 5. Broader. More Recent Changes o Greater interdependence o MNCs influence local Why studying globalization is important? The Transformationalists' Camp The fifth view focuses on broader, but still recent, among business policies changes. There is a sense in this view that change occurred partners o Companies incorporate Importance of Studying Globalization in the last half of the twentieth century. Three of these in low tax countries o There is a greater demand in business and industry, health, momentous changes have been identified by scholars as o Pressure to reduce engineering, and technology to have people who can work the point of origin of globalization as it exists today: social benefits. with people of other nations and cultures. o The emergence of the United States as the Impacts on Labor o There is a greater demand of promoting the local business global power in the years following WW II. Positive Negative and industry to other countries and if need be, owners o The emergence of multinational corporations o Increased job o Job displacement travel independently and internationally for a better (MNCs). promotion. On Post-Cold War Order opportunities o Loss of industries or Types of Globalization o Upgraded education economic groups o The contemporary world faces global challenges that will take interdisciplinary groups to solve these challenges. o Is there an order that has developed since the end of the system o Lowered labor A. Economic Globalization – Countries that trade with many o Creating meaningful, harmonious, and workable Cold War? o Increased training standards others and have few trade barriers are economically o Downward wage relationships that link globally is an important aspect of o What are the elements of the contemporary order? globalized. pressure the merits of globalization. o How does globalization affect this order? B. Social Globalization – A measure of how easily o Decreased union power o Knowledge of the merits, demerits and reasons for Typology of Order information and ideas pass between people in their own o Diminished social globalization will enable the students to work as model of country and between different countries (includes access contract collaborative international team in the near future along to internet and social media networks). the areas of business, education, health, science, arts, C. Political Globalization – The amount of political co- Why do we have to globalize, especially in this engineering, hotel industries, etc. and discuss best operation there is between countries. Contemporary World? products in these areas. Causes of Globalization Reasons for Globalization The Globalization Debate o Improved communications o Rapid shrinking of time and distance across the globe. o The Hyperglobalist Thesis o Improved transport One can cross the bridge going to the other side of the Elements of Contemporary Order o The Skeptics Thesis o Free trade agreements marketplace due to advanced tools of technology than o The Transformationalist Thesis o Global banking before. o The growth of the MNC’s o Domestic markets are no longer rich because of many The Hyperglobalists' Camp interlocking factors. Effects of Globalization o Companies and institutions go global to find political and economic stability which is relatively good in other o Changed in food supply countries than the country of origin. o Division of labor o To get technological and managerial know-how of other Conclusion o Less job security countries due to their advancement in science, technology, o Damaged to environment education, health, and other fields of discipline. Globalization has positive and negative effects and thus, a deep o Cultural impact o To reduce high transportation costs if one goes globally approach is needed when delving into the concept. What cannot o Increase in anti-Globalization Protests The Skeptics' Camp be denied is that GLOBALIZATION is here to stay, ergo, it is using the advanced tools of communication and information. better for the countries in the global economy to embrace the Impacts on the Government o To be close to raw materials and to market their finished concept and live with it in this contemporary world. Positive Negative products which are not available in the country of origin. o Increased economic o MNC power increased o The creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) had development o MNCs externalize cost made it possible in stimulating increased cross border o Expanded infrastructure to countries trade. There are other world bodies like the UN and o Transfer of modern o Competition results in several arbitration bodies where countries agree. management techniques too many concessions