UNIT 2

COMPREHENSION OF TECHNICAL MATERIALS

INTRODUCTION

 Reading scientific and technical texts

1. Texts are written documents like scientific texts, instruction manuals and
technical materials.
2. Students of professional courses adopt systematic approach to read and
understand scientific and technical material.
3. Comprehension needs a basic understanding the subject and familiarity with
the material.

How to begin with comprehension

Prepare for reading

1. Prepare your mind to receive the information.

2. Focus on the subject so that he/she can concentrate better.
3. Use appropriate prediction techniques to guess.
4. Should recall related information that he/she already knows.

Two techniques of reading the text-

1. Scanning the text before reading

2. Skim the text.

Reading methods you observe

 ERRQ Reading Technique

Estimate- Estimate what the text will be like.

Read- Read the text carefully and thoroughly.

Respond- Responds to the text.

Question- Question things about the text and analyze responses to it.
  SQ3R Reading Technique
1. Survey- Glancing rapidly to discover its purpose, and identify in
organization.
2. Question- Asking appropriate questions to give a purpose to the reading
3. Read- Reading and making notes at the end of each section.
4. Recall- Recalling checking and amending notes.
5. Revise- Recall and reviewing notes.

The following technical documents are comprehended with the above 2

methods

1. Reading Technical manuals

2. Reading Instructions and technical manuals.
3. Reading and interpreting graphic information
4. Summarizing
5. Note-making
 Reading of technical texts
1. Reading technical materials involves a complex process of obtaining
discipline- specific information and retaining it for future use.
2. Lack of effective reading skills leads to lack of concentration, slow reading
speed and poor comprehension.
3. Reading technical text involves the basic understanding of the subject and
familiarity with the material.

Guidelines for reading technical text

Prepare for reading ==== Scan the text== Skim the text

Review what you have read<===Make notes<=== Read the text thoroughly

1. Prepare for reading- Prepare mind to receive and retain the information.
2. Scan the text- Scanning provides key information about the text.
3. Skim the text- Skimming means reading a text quickly to get a general idea.
4. Read the text thoroughly- Detailed reading of the text.
5. Make notes- While reading a technical text, the reader needs to remember
the information to use it in future.
 6. Review what you have read- After reading the technical text, the reader
should try to recall and remember the content.

Technical reading includes all of the following-

1. Understanding technical vocabulary

2. Understanding and using parts of books to locate information
3. Understanding how a manual is organized
4. Making sense of tables and other graphics
5. Comprehending what you read
6. Applying what you read, including following technical directions.

 Reading and Comprehending instructions

Reading is often thought of as a hierarchy of skills, from processing of individual

letters and their associated sounds to word recognition to text-processing
competencies. Skilled comprehension requires fluid articulation of all these
processes, beginning with the sounding out and recognition of individual words to
the understanding of sentences in paragraphs as part of much longer texts.

The following in order to improve reading comprehension in students:

1. Teach decoding skills

2. Teach vocabulary
3. Word knowledge: Encourage students to build world knowledge through reading
and to relate what they know to what they read (e.g., by asking "Why?" questions
about factual knowledge in text).
4. Active comprehension strategies: Teach students to use a repertoire of active
comprehension strategies, including prediction, analyzing stories with respect to
story grammar elements, question asking, image construction, and summarizing.
5. Monitoring: Encourage students to monitor their comprehension, noting explicitly
whether decoded words make sense and whether the text itself makes sense. When
problems are detected, students should know that they need to reprocess (e.g., by
attempting to sound out problematic words again or rereading).
  Decoding
Perhaps it is a truism, but students cannot understand texts if they cannot read the
words. Before they can read the words, they have to be aware of the letters and the
sounds represented by letters so that sounding out and blending of sounds can
occur to pronounce words (see, e.g., Nicholson, 1991). Once pronounced, the good
reader notices whether the word as recognized makes sense in the sentence and the
text context being read and, if it does not, takes another look at the word to check if
it might have been misread (e.g., Gough, 1983, 1984). Of course, reading educators
have paid enormous attention to the development of children's word-recognition
skills because they recognize that such skills are critical to the development of
skilled comprehenders.

Vocabulary

It is well established that good comprehenders tend to have good vocabularies

(Anderson & Free body, 1991; Nagy, Anderson, & Herman, 1987). This
correlation, however, does not mean that teaching vocabulary will increase readers'
comprehension, for that is a causal conclusion. As it turns out, however, when
reading educators conducted experiments in which vocabulary was either taught to
students or not, comprehension improved as a function of vocabulary instruction.
Perhaps the most widely cited experiment of this type was carried out by Isabel
Beck and her associates, who taught Grade 4 children a corpus of 104 words over a
5-month period (Beck, Perfetti, & McKeown, 1982). The children who received
instruction outperformed non instructed children on subsequent comprehension
tests.

World knowledge
Reading comprehension can be affected by world knowledge, with many
demonstrations that readers who possess rich prior knowledge about the topic of a
reading often understand the reading better than classmates with low prior
knowledge (Anderson & Pearson, 1984). That said, readers do not always relate
their world knowledge to the content of a text, even when they possess knowledge
relevant to the information it presents. Often, they do not make inferences based on
prior knowledge unless the inferences are absolutely demanded to make sense of
the text (McKoon & Ratcliff, 1992).
Active comprehension strategies
Good readers are extremely active as they read, as is apparent whenever excellent
adult readers are asked to think aloud as they go through text (Pressley &
Afflerbach, 1995). Good readers are aware of why they are reading a text, gain an
overview of the text before reading, make predictions about the upcoming text,
read selectively based on their overview, associate ideas in text to what they
already know, note whether their predictions and expectations about text content
are being met, revise their prior knowledge when compelling new ideas conflicting
with prior knowledge are encountered, figure out the meanings of unfamiliar
vocabulary based on context clues, underline and reread and make notes and
paraphrase to remember important points, interpret the text, evaluate its quality,
review important points as they conclude reading, and think about how ideas
encountered in the text might be used in the future.

Monitoring
Good readers know when they need to exert more effort to make sense of a text.
For example, they know when to expend more decoding effort – they are aware
when they have sounded out a word but that word does not really make sense in
the context (Isakson & Miller, 1976). When good readers have that feeling, they
try rereading the word in question. It makes sense to teach young readers to
monitor their reading of words in this way (Baker & Brown, 1984). Contemporary
approaches to word-recognition instruction also include a monitoring approach,
with readers taught to pay attention to whether the decoding makes sense and to try
decoding again when the word as decoded is not in synchrony with other ideas in
the text and pictures (e.g., Iversen & Tunmer, 1993).

 What is a Technical Manual?

A technical manual is an online document comprising how-to articles, guides and

step-by-step instructions on how to install and use a product. It is a self-help
information resource explaining the use case, risks involved, and troubleshooting
tips guiding end-users on the right path when things go wrong.

Technical manuals are built using technical manual software to simplify

complicated concepts and help customers use a product successfully. They are
comprehensive and smartly structured with relevant images and videos
demonstrating how a product works.

Types of Technical Manuals

Technical manuals can be of different types, depending on the unique requirements

of a business. Some of the common types of technical manuals are:

1. User Guide –

User guides are written to explain the process of using a software or hardware.
Besides covering the basic product-related information, user guides also have
detailed articles on common and complex technical issues that arise while using a
product.

2. Product Manuals –

These manuals cover basic details of a product, from what it is and what its
features are to how to install, maintain, and use it. These manuals are not that
detailed and provide surface-level information about a product.

3. Release Notes –

These are documents containing information about new product features, bug
fixes, or any new developments in the product to keep customers updated.

 Technical Text
Technical texts like building instructions and recipes are more likely to
use schematics (technical diagrams), flowcharts, or images showing how pieces fit
together. The purpose of the graphic is to take you step by step through the
process, in order of the steps that need to occur. Technical graphics are typically
linear, following arrows or numbered steps in a chronological order or direction.
It's important to start at the first box or step and work your way through in the
correct order, since each step is dependent on the completion of previous steps.
  Summarizing technical text
A summary is a shortened version of a text. It contains the main points in the text
and is written in your own words. It is a mixture of reducing a long text to a short
text and selecting relevant information. A good summary shows that you have
understood the text.
Summarizing is defined as taking a lot of information and creating a condensed
version that covers the main points. An example of summarizing is writing a three
or four-sentence description that touches upon the main points of a long book.
Why Use Summarizing?
 It acts as a great help for students to learn how to determine essential ideas
and find out different details that can support those ideas and make them
more useful.

 It helps the students to improve their focusing skills so that they can focus
on phrases and keywords from the assigned long text. They focus on parts
that are worth noting or remembering.

 A student learns how to convert a large text into a small text. The short text
has to comprise all the main points that are in the long text for a proper and
concise understanding.

 Note making
Note making is not just about writing down everything you hear or read. It is a
process of reviewing, connecting and synthesizing ideas from your lectures or
reading.

Making notes helps you to:

 stay active and engaged during your lectures, reading and revision
 understand what you are learning and clarify your thinking
 be selective and identify key ideas
 remember the material
 organize your ideas and make connections
 plan and structure written assignments
 Review and revise before exams.

You can also see our note making techniques tutorial, which explores the different
approaches you can take to note making. You will learn the various options for
note making in different contexts and explore the advantages and features of each
approach.

Q. what your notes should contain?

Ans. All good notes should contain:

1. source information (title, author, date etc)

2. headings to help you identify the key topics

3. key points, examples, names, new ideas

4. Triggers to make your notes more memorable such as mnemonics, color or

drawings.
5. Further reading and ideas to follow up later.

Q. How can summarize help students?

Ans. It helps students to enhance their vocabulary skills, which means they can
easily understand new words spoken or written by others due to the increase in
their knowledge of words. This way, they make progress in writing essays and
other analytical papers required for writing tests like GRE, GMAT etc. Moreover,
summarizing also helps students to improve their comprehension skills as they
read. With the help of summarization students can easily understand what they are
reading and can also retain the information for a longer period of time.
Q. What is the importance of summarizing?

Ans. Summarizing helps students to focus on the main ideas and extract them from
a text. After extracting the main points, it becomes easy for them to write an essay
or any other analytical paper because they would have all the relevant information
at their disposal. In addition, summarizing helps students to improve their
comprehension skills and vocabulary. Moreover, summarizing makes the task of
reading easier & more interesting for students they can also remember the
information for a longer period of time.

Q. What type of texts should be summarized?

Ans. All type of texts can be summarized, but the main focus should be on texts
that are long and complex. In addition, the texts that contain important information
for students should also be summarized. Students should make it a habit to
summarize texts on a daily basis so that they can improve their skills over time
which helps them in their academic and professional pursuits. There is no one-size-
fits all answer to this question because the best way to summarize a text depends
on the type of text, its length and complexity level and the ability of the student to
summarize it.

 Meaning of Technical Documentation

Documentation is a material that provides official information or evidence or that

serves as a record.

Now a days, documentation is more than text – videos, screenshots, charts,

diagrams and other visual elements feature modern manuals technical
documentation is created in various industries, for example, in engineering,
medicine, IT, stock market and so on.

Technical documents are designed by statistician, designers, economist and stock

brokers, etc.
Types of Technical Documents

1. Product Manuals
2. Repair Manuals
3. User Guides
4. API Documentation
5. SDK Documentation
6. Project Plans
7. Business Standards
8. Test Schedules
9. Market Requirements Documentation
10. White Papers
11. Case Studies
12. Proposals

 Documents prepared by Technical writers

1. Description Documents- This document should offer a detailed overview of
the software.
2. Installation- Installation document is meant for system administrator and
how to install software in the system.
3. Configuration- It provides information on how to configure the system or
software.
4. User manual- It provide instructions on how to get started and how to use
various applications.
5. System reference- It provide information on the system facilities and how
to use those facilities.
 Standard
Standard is a repeatable, harmonized, agreed and documented way of doing
something. Standards contain technical specifications or other precise
criteria designed to be used consistently as a rule, guideline, or definition.

Steps for standards

1. Internal consistency- Internal Discussions

2. Gather Requirement- Workshops
3. Design- Format
4. Production- Technical Reviews
5. Signoff- Publishing

 Industry Standards
Industry standards are a set of criteria within an industry relating to the
standard functioning and carrying out of operations in their respective fields
of production. Industry standards facilitate global as well as domestic
competitiveness. It is a crucial tool for developing and meeting industry
goals.
Standards for documentation
1. Clear- Writer uses short words and short sentences.
2. Concise- Writer doesn’t use big words when little ones will do.
3. Correct- Writer observes the conventions of grammar, spelling,
punctuation and usage.
4. Accurate- Writer makes sure that the content is true and that all
procedures actually work as described.
5. Accessible- This refers to the ease with which users can locate the
information they seek.
6. Complete- Writer makes sure that the technical document includes
everything the user needs to be able to apply the information
presented efficiently and effectively.

 Attributes or features of Documentations

1. Content listing
2. Stated purpose
3. Navigation tools
4. Accuracy
5. Accessibility
6. Clarity
7. Coherent
8. Concise
9. Complete and comprehensive
10. Consistent
 Information Collection
1. Own internal self evaluation to think through how they will collect the
data that will help them evidence there impact.
2. Focus on collecting mostly primary data
3. Primary data is a new data collected specifically for a particular study.
4. Secondary data that has already been collected by other people and for
other purposes.
5. Resource provides guidance on developing tools for accurate
information collection.
6. Indeed it is important to get information from a number of different
sources this will allow you to provide strength to your findings.

 Planning information collection

1. Set your aims, objectives, outputs & outcome clearly.
2. Once you have identified outputs and outcomes you will need to set
indicators these are well defined measurable information that will
provide evidence about whether you are achieving your output and
outcomes.

 Selecting information collection methods.

1. Depth of information required- How much information do you need?
What level of detail is required?
2. Time & skill required- How much time & skill are required to allocate.
3. Credibility- With this you hope to be acceptable to the people who you
will be reporting the data. Information you collect may be questioned via
some tools which are considered quite appropriate are interviews,
questionnaire make sure that your evaluation process is agreed by the
users.
4. Appropriateness to the service- Important to consider which tools are
more appropriate. Use methods that are tried and tested such as valid
questionnaire recognized & used in particular field.
5. User views & rights-
a) Before you collect information from people you should make
sure that they know that you are doing it and how will you use.
 b) Make sure while collecting information that they feel
comfortable about the way you are collecting it & you will treat
the information confidentiality.
6. Reliability- The method which can be applied constantly each time you use
it to different situation and with different people.
7. Validity-
a) Are you measuring what you have intended to measure to what
extend
b) For e.g. you rely on perception rather than cross checking
through number of data collection methods.

 Information and Document Design

1. Documents and information designing is the process of choosing how to
present all of the basic document elements so that your documents
message is clear and effective.
2. When a document is well-designed, readers understand the information
even more quickly and easily.
3. Poor information and document design leads to process inefficiently,
delays, rework and contributes to increase in project cost & time for both
designers and clients.

Factors affecting information & Document Design

1. Last minute changes by the client

2. Overall design time
3. Unstable client’s requirements
4. Delay of client decision
5. Copying from previous work

Other factors

1. Purpose of the document

2. Use and importance of the document
3. The nature of the audience for whom it is designed
4. Complexity of the subject-matter
5. Design budget & time estimates
 6. Availability of staff and resources
7. Expectation of the client in relation to the fees, service & timings etc.
8. Preparation and planning of the document design
9. Organization of information
10. Use of graphics & illustrations
11. Government policies & regulations

 Strategies for organization

1. Vision
2. Goals
3. Plans
4. Action
5. Success

Organizational strategies sum up all of the actions you intend to take in order
to achieve your long-term business goals. It is the strategy that allows one
business to rise above others to become successful. A good & functional
strategy involves long-term planning for the general course of the business
and is also related to the day-to-day operations & activities.

Features of Organizational strategies

1. Organizational strategy guides the organization on the way to achieving

its objectives. The strategy starts with knowing where the organization
stands & where it wants to be.
2. There is a freedom of choice in adopting a particular strategy.
3. Although the goals & objectives of the organization remain same, the
strategies may keep changing with the progress in work & time. They
will have to be revised as per requirement.
4. Generally the results of a strategy show up at least after a year. Therefore,
strategy is planned at least for a year.

Types of organization operations

An organization will have three types of organizational strategies.

1. Corporate strategies
2. Business strategies
3. Functional strategies

 Information Design
In technical communication, information design refers to creating an
information structure for a set of information aimed at specified audiences. It
can be practiced on different scales.
1. On a large scale, it implies choosing relevant content and dividing it into
separate manuals by audience & purpose.
2. On a medium scale, it means organizing the content in each manual and
making sure that overviews, concepts, examples, references and
definitions are included and that topic follow an organizing principle.
3. On a small or detailed scale, it includes logical development of topics,
emphasis on what are important, clear writing, navigational clues and
even page design, choice of font and use of white space.

 Writing for online & print

1. Length
The average amount of time on online reader spends reading anything on
the internet is two minutes. Printed pieces rarely even reach their main
focus in that amount of time. Therefore, online articles tend to be much
shorter than their printed counterparts- and that goes for paragraphs, too.
Instead of long segments of prose, like you would see in a newspaper or
magazine, the paragraphs in online articles should end after a few lines.
2. Reader Attention
Online articles have to fight for a reader’s attention, even though readers
generally go to an article or page intentionally. This is because the
internet is highly interconnected. Most articles are nested among other
links, moving images, flashing ads and other clickable content that is
vying for your reader’s valuable attention. So, in order to maintain their
interest as long as possible, all pertinent information needs to appear as
close to the beginning of the piece as possible otherwise, a reader may
lose patience and navigate away.
3. Links
Print does not have hyperlink. It may seem silly to point out, but when it
comes to citing source materials, print traditionally features a list of
works cited near the end, while most online posts contain links
throughout so readers can easily click for more information & read the
source content. However, that means links can also prevent a reader from
reaching the end of an article, a problem print rarely has unless the
articles is simply poorly written.
4. Search engine optimization
Print does not have to deal with search engines. However, if online
writers want people to find their articles, then they must lace them with
relevant terms that people will use in search engines. When writing for
the web, it remains important to craft a well-written, information piece,
but no one will find it if is not optimized for search engines with key
phrases & associated links.
5. Readability
People read electronic media differently than they do print. They scan
and search for things that stand out, like bullet points and boldface
phrases. Therefore, writers must arrange information so readers can
absorb it quickly. Subheadings throughout an article help, as do shorter
paragraphs, lists & even links.