Chapter 7 Kristen and Matt

Chapter 7 discusses the strategies writers use as they explore, plan, and draft documents, presentations, and visuals. Experienced writers recognize the importance of researching their subject as they plan the approach they will take when organizing their project. Skillful communicators begin by asking about the context, the subject, and the document, presentation or the visual itself. Figure 7.1 on page 229 in book gives a good visual to asking yourself questions in your planning of a document. Once you are confident in the approach you would like to use, branch out to give yourself a few more options. Problem-solving processes allow your work to be much easier. Burnett discusses strategies including Brainstorming, 5 W's plus H (who, what, when, where, why, and how), cause-and-effect analysis, and synectics (bringing together diverse people and ideas). Insufficient project planning is one of the major reasons that projects fail to pan out. Because of this, professional often turn to time-and-project management tools. Planning is also usually more productive if it is collaborative. One of the more difficult aspects of planning is making sure it is logical. In order to make a project logical, noticing the problems that accompany it is useful. Using data from authorities, presenting facts without drawing inferences, drawing inferences, and establishing causal relationships are all problems that need to be recognized. One of the most frequent relationships employed in technical documents, oral presentations, or visuals establishes causes and resulting effects. Your audience can be misled by several kinds of poorly drawn causal relationships, including a condition not being sufficient cause, variables not being correlated. One thing to avoid in your communication is density. Sometimes your draft will focus on a single topic and has the appropriate structure, but is difficult to read because you have packed the ideas so tightly that the connections are obscured. Use headings and subheadings to identify key sections and illustrate objects and concepts to aid understanding to avoid density. Information in drafts that follow given-new structures is typically easier to read and remember. In addition, given-new structures make the relationships between ideas clear to the audience.