Writing as Process

As a technical student, you are already familiar with the design process. Whether you’re sketching a prototype or coming up with a pest management plan, most technical disciplines are already familiar with the cyclical nature of problem-solving.

A good example of this is the process used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The image below highlights their process. Does anything stand out to you? 

The process is cyclical! In RCM 200, we contend that technical communication follows a similar repeating pattern. In the context of report writing, there are three stages that must be followed and revisited. These are:

1. Planning Your Message
2. Producing a Draft
3. Polishing the Draft

When looking at NASA’s design process, we can see some similarities to the plan – produce – polish process of report writing. Both processes are iterative, or a process for calculating a desired result by means of a repeated cycle of operations. If you were to use the NASA design process to write a report, it might look something like this:

• Ask: identify a research problem
• Imagine: brainstorm potential solution, research ideas, identify what research has already been done
• Plan: choose the report format, outline report sections, analyze secondary sources
• Create: write the report using the proper format
• Experiment: proofread and edit your report
• Improve: ask for feedback and make changes

We have obviously simplified the steps a bit by using three categories instead of six, but keep in mind that each part is essential to creating a strong report.

If you would like to see another example of a report writing process, look at the planning tool found in the the Assignment Planner from the U of S Library. This website also breaks up the writing process into stages.

Choosing Your Topic

Often, when you are first given a project, or even when you have already identified a topic you wish to research, the problem you are solving is fairly general and open-ended. While you can approach the problem in a variety of ways at this stage, you’ll need to do some work to decide which particular approach you will take. Most projects will require careful consideration of scope.

Who is your audience? What is your purpose? What are the limitations placed on what can be expected or achieved? What are the constraints you have to work within? All of these elements are rhetorical in nature and must be considered as you craft your message.  This will be much easier once we come up with a focused topic.

A focused topic is what it sounds like: a report topic that is specific. You don’t want to your topic to be too broad or general, otherwise you will have a hard time creating your report because there will be too much information to cover.

For example, let’s say you want to do a report about climate change. You could argue that climate change is a specific topic within the environmental science field, but it’s still quite broad. To help you narrow your focus, it is best to spend some time determining what you already know, or what you want to know, about the topic you are considering. In this way, you will be able to figure out where gaps in your knowledge are and places you may need to focus in your research. You will then be able to develop a research question.

The video above highlights Questioning as one of the methods you can use to narrow the focus of your topic. Click on this link to download a copy of the “4-W” brainstorming table mentioned in the above video.

Here are some other topic brainstorming options you can try:

• Free–writing:  write about the topic for 10 minutes straight without stopping or self-editing
• Mind-mapping or Concept-mapping:  create a graphic organizer listing ideas and indicating how they are connected
• Questioning:  who, what, where, when, why, how? What do I already know? What do I need to find out?
• Brainstorming:  list all ideas without censoring or rejecting any, no matter how ridiculous they might seem at first.

Following one of these methods will help you narrow your focus.  Clearly you won’t be able to solve whatever topic or issue you pick in one paper or project. And no reasonable instructor or employer would expect you to. The ultimate aim is to narrow your topic enough to provide a specific question to guide your research and identify key words and terminology related to your topic.

A good research question should be somewhat open ended; that is, the answer should not be a simple “yes” or “no.” The focus of your research question should allow you to provide a comprehensive answer that takes context into careful consideration.

Once you have your focused topic and a research question, you will ready to move on to using rhetoric to craft your message.

But before we do that, though, let’s take a look at the two students mentioned in the previous chapter—Mei (she/her) and Hamid (he/him)— and how they both approach their topics. Remember, Mei is picking a topic for her written formal report and Hamid is picking a topic for his oral persuasive speech.

Hamid – Picking His Topic (Persuasive Speech)

A few months before taking RCM 200, Hamid went hiking with his family in Ontario. After a couple days, he noticed that he was developing a rash on his legs. He didn’t think much of it though since he assumed he had brushed his legs up against something poisonous on the hike. A few days after that, however, he started feeling fatigued. His started having general aches all over his body, and would occasionally get severe headaches. Thinking he might have the flu, Hamid went to see his doctor.

The doctor told him that he did not have the flu: he had Lyme disease. Hamid was surprised because he thought Lyme disease only happened in the United States, not in Canada. The doctor informed him that deer ticks, which carry the disease, had been slowly migrating north to Canada over the years and the disease was becoming more common in Canada. The doctor also told Hamid that if he had not come in for treatment right away, the disease may have affected his central nervous system and potentially killed him.

When it was time to pick the topic for his RCM 200 persuasive speech, Hamid decided to speak about Lyme disease as his general topic. He decides to create a mind-map to help him decide what to speak about.

 

After reviewing his mindmap, Hamid realizes that he wants to learn more about the disease itself, and he also wants to be able to explain to people why they should be concerned about it as well. With both of those things in mind, he comes up with the following research question: Why is Lyme Disease becoming more prevalent in Canada and how what steps should Canadians take to make sure the don’t get it? 

Hamid feels pretty good about the research focus he has come up with. But he also realizes that he may need to make adjustments along the way.

With their focused topics and research questions selected, Mei and Hamid can move on to the next step of the planning process: using rhetorical theory to craft their persuasive messages.

References

National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA]. (2012). Beginning engineering, science and technology educator guides: An educator’s guide to the engineering design process grades 6-8. https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/630754main_NASAsBESTActivityGuide6-8.pdf

Attributions

This chapter is adapted from A Guide to Technical Communications: Strategies & Applications (on ohiostate.pressbooks.pub) by Lynn Hall & Leah Wahlin. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License