I have never worked as a technical communicator, so my assessment of elegance in technical writing comes more from a consumer standpoint than that of the creator.
The difference I see between elegance in technical communication and more traditional literary or composition fields stems from the purpose of the work. Technical communicators are tasked to provide information or instruction concisely and clearly in a useful and understandable format for a user or consumer. Their task is utilitarian, for the most part. So elegance for the technical communicator is achieved through their ability to make information easily accessible to the user.
To attain this goal, tcers have a variety of tools available in addition to simple text. Where traditional academic texts use a linear format with standards fonts, point, and formatting, tcers can more easily adjust these design elements to suit the purpose of the text. In addition to creating text that conforms to William's principles, emphasis and balance can be aided through the use of color, different fonts, bullets, and other visual elements. In many documents, tcers are not confined to linear text, so graphics, charts, and tables can be incorporated to emphasize content.
Constrastingly, traditional academic writing in the composition and literature fields have a different emphasis. Although writers still have a purpose to communicate to the reader, I think nuanced writing and metaphor have more of a place here. Where a sentence like William's quotes from Mailer's stream of consciousness on page 176 may be stylistically artistic in prose, I suspect it would be unacceptable in technical writing.
In general, I think that elegance can be found in all types of writing, but the writing's purpose and the audience's needs define what is elegant for that genre.
Hi Deb,
ReplyDeleteYour post is a good discussion about how technical communicators achieve elegance in technical writing through a more direct, concise, and economical style in comparison with how other writers add elegance to traditional academic writing. I agree that the use of graphics not only makes technical documents visual but also helps readers easily and quickly access the important information they need. In other words, using technological tools in the design of documents is another way of making technical documents more elegant.
Xiling
You say, "So elegance for the technical communicator is achieved through their ability to make information easily accessible to the user." I like this concept. However, doesn't this also apply to other forms of writing? If your reader's find your work cumbersome, will they continue to attempt to read it, especially if they cannot extract the information or story from it?
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