ENL 266: Technical Communications: U2: Descriptions

Technical description (2-sided information sheet with expanded definition/description)

Glossary of terms that are unique to your field or that have special meaning in your field (20-terms minimum)

Justification memo (2-pages, single-spaced)

Academic/Scholarly Articles:

• Audience: Researchers and scholars of a specific discipline, usually in academic settings.
• Purpose: To inform other researchers and scholars about the latest discoveries within a particular discipline.
• Context: Typically academic journals and conference proceedings.

Codes/Standards:

• Audience: For the general public, but most often used by people working in a specific field.
• Purpose: To provide guidelines and best practices (or in the case of codes, the law of a jurisdiction), for testing or fabricating.
• Context: Various governing bodies, whether with the force of law (code) or a suggested best practice (standard).

Patents:

• Audience: For the general public, most often read by people working in that field.
• Purpose: To inform others about the latest ideas and inventions.
• Context: Various national governments, which regulate those commercial protections in their jurisdictions. 

Technical Literature:

• Audience: Often for members of a specific discipline, but sometimes presented in a format more suitable for the general public.
• Purpose: Presents information about a process, component, or something else in a format accessible to the public without stringent publication requirements. Sometimes used for advertising and marketing.
• Context: Usually in a sort of grey area between popular literature, scholarly literature, and legal literature.

Lab Reports:

• Audience: Internal members of an organization. Rarely for external use.
• Purpose: Either similar to a code or standard as a set of documentation, or as an archival document for future reference.
• Context: To document the results or methods of a test or practice.

Words have meaning, but sometimes that meaning does not mean the same thing to everyone. What does the word "scaffolding" mean to you? Is it a structure? Is it tissue combinations? Is it part of educational psychology? Or in a different context, would you say "truck" or "lorry"?