The Thinking Man's Dilemma

The Thinking Man's Dilemma

I wanted to have something more dynamic to say about my process of creating a blog, but the truth is, it was straight-forward with far less complexity than I originally thought there would be. With anxiety, I agonized--in my mind--at the picture choices, colors schemes, font styles, and backgrounds I would choose that best represents my character and shows balance, while also being colorful, lively, and attention grabbing. In actuality, the set-up took the least amount to time. The preset color schemes and whimsical background choices of Blogspot sat before me, waiting for me to choose, and I couldn't help but feel the slightest bit disappointed. I shortly after realized why. I was left to do with my words what I hoped to accomplished through clever visual choices. And it wasn't so much disappointment as it was a paralyzing fear of how I would communicate rhetorically what I hoped to communicate visually. 

The Art of Storytelling:

The framing of a story is almost as important as the story itself. The context, word choices, emphasis and order of the elements within a story are the foundation that draw people to what is being said. Today, we live in what I call an ADD (attention deficit disorder) global society where something or someone is always vying for our attention and stimuli takes the place of imagination. The storyteller today has to fight through waves of white noise to compete for an audience's attention. That is what I think I understood in my initial drive toward creating a visually compelling blog; one that would stand out and command attention. But that is a mere fraction of the entire process.

As I read through the Blogspot welcome post for this course, I took note of some of the visual elements that grabbed me. Words that were bolded and enlarged in comparison to the rest of the text and the inclusion of hyperlinks were distinguishing choices. Overall though, it was the rhetorical flow of the post that captured me. Though the text is situated prose style, which can be bulky and make the eyes glaze over, in the post, it cascades down in silky layers, folding over itself and revealing a passion for both "rhetorical play and invention." Words like concept, method, frame, practice, and philosophy all work together to reinforce the theme of storytelling as a process; a journey that is just as important as the finished product. This post is most successful to me in the way that it communicates with great fluidity the importance of design without editorializing it. It shows rather than tells; a true sign of a great story because the buy-in from the reader is always highest when the captivation is more David Blaine than cheap, crappy parlor trick.

Regarding the C.R.A.P. principles, the ones I see most evidently are repetition and alignment. Again, the blog does an amazing job of using strategically placed synonymous words that emphasize the importance of the design process without me as the reader feeling beat over the head with the idea. The blog is careful to include tangential story lines that pull in the author's life and warms and personalizes the blog's message, which makes it accessible, another telltale sign of a good story. The alignment works well with the blog. Placement of certain words and the interweaving of the technical aspects of the blog with the personal seems consistent throughout the post and honestly, the choice to bold and enlarge some of the words breaks up the monotony of the prose-style block of text. The two remaining principles, contrast and proximity, I do think appear within the text through "compositional practices" in a way where subtly is part of their brilliance. That is to say, it is not that there is no contrast or proximity within the blog post, however, when I read the article about C.R.A.P. principles, they were being applied to visual components. I am not sure how to make them more prominent using only rhetorical devices, but I guess that gives me even more reason to believe this course is for me. 

Technical Writing Defined:

Below are three definitions I found for technical writing from different websites.

Instructionalsolutions.com

Today technical writing encompasses all documentation of complex technical processes. It includes reports, executive summary statements, briefs. Any time technical information is conveyed in writing at work, it is, by definition, technical writing. This can include high-tech manufacturing, engineering, biotech, energy, aerospace, finance, IT, and global supply chain. The format is no longer bound to lengthy user manuals. Technical information must be distilled and presented unambiguously. This can come in the form of technical reports, emails, policy, briefs, and press releases.

Grammar.yourdictionary.com

Technical writing is a type of writing where the author is writing about a particular subject that requires direction, instruction, or explanation. This style of writing has a very different purpose and different characteristics than other writing styles such as creative writing, academic writing or business writing.

       Techwhirl.com

Technical writing is sometimes defined as simplifying the complex.  Inherent in such a concise and deceptively simple definition is a whole range of skills and characteristics that address nearly every field of human endeavor at some level.  A significant subset of the broader field of technical communication, technical writing involves communicating complex information to those who need it to accomplish some task or goal. Technical writing follows a development lifecycle that often parallels the product development lifecycle of an organization:

• Identification of needs, audience(s), and scope
• Planning
• Research & content development
• Testing / review and revision
• Delivery / production
• Evaluation and feedback
• Disposition (revision, archiving, or destruction)

Although the last two definitions hint at the design process inherent in this course's definition of technical writing, all three seem sterile and lacking in the recognition of human experience. This is the definition I had in my mind when I registered for this course. With these definitions above, the journey of creating a technical piece is presented as prudent; the explanation of things occurs in a way that lists them at you instead of unfolding them to you. It feels like you have no personal stake in the process with these definitions. My favorite line of the the welcome post is "Let's say that this 'design by doing' thing is somehow more 'free' from stodgy rules and lessons; such design practices often work, and many designers come to their aesthetics in a variety of intuitive ways." This course, from the onset, has changed the way I see technical writing. The discipline seems open and limitless, not in a lost world, solipsistic sort of way where you are floating untethered, but in an infinite potential sort of way where one can view technical writing as a creative process where the sky is the limit.