Happy Thanksgiving (Pass the Technical Writing Please)

I never quite thought about how much technical writing was a part of my everyday life until this course. The idea of process, the how-to, DIY, "Google it" or "Youtube it" generation that we have become gives us instant access at our fingertips--with the added bonus of choice to select exactly how much or little detail we want along with our instructions and/or what visual medium we'd prefer in our experience with said instructions. Tom Johnson, in his 2009 blog post "A Microcosm of Technical Writing in the Kitchen while Cooking a Banana Cream Pie," puts back in perspective the importance of technical writers thinking the entire way through the process as well as the consideration needed for formatting their technical writing with a particular audience in mind (or crafting it for universal use).

Johnson's quip-filled post about his journey through making a banana cream pie as a baking novice using instructions from his friend, a cooking virtuoso, plays nicely as an allegory for how technical writing puts documents together making graphic, typographic, and vernacular choices that affect the way readers interpret the text. In one his examples, Johnson asserts,

 For example, try to make sense of this step:

Stir a small quantity of the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks, and immediately add egg yolk mixture to the rest of the hot mixture.

This does not make sense to me. Pour A into B, and B into A? No reason given for this. Just do it. Why not simply pour A into B or B into A, rather than doing a little of both at nearly the same time?

Jane explained that this back-and-forth pouring of the hot custard would bring the egg yolks up to a warmer temperature slowly without causing the eggs to curdle. Oh, I said. Now I see, but that connecting logic was simply assumed in the instructions.

Though humorous and easily dismissive as a proclivity to overthink, Johnson makes a poignant point about the comparison of a recipe (which is in itself technical writing) and the classic dilemma of technical writers. How much is too much? What technical aids will support multiple comprehension styles? What are the knowledge limitations of my audience? It's a slice of pie... humble pie.

Comment with some ambiguous recipes you've seen and try not to eat too much. Happy Thanksgiving all.