Chapter 12: Using Visual Forms

The most interesting point in this chapter for me is the relationship of visuals and text in a document. We see this kind of thing everywhere. I saw a road sign in Minnesota "Blind Intersection Ahead" where the color and shape of the sign combine with the text to make meaning for the drivers who are on that road. We see electronic documents like web sites, this blog, and software help documents that could not relay the intended meaning without that combination of visuals and text.

Our task as technical communicators, as Burnett points out in this chapter, is to make those combinations effective, meaningful, and also ethical.

Can you think of some examples where these combinations were or were not effective, meaningful, or ethical?



Look at the example in the photograph I took of my friends' cafe/grill in Prjnavor, Bosnia. The name of the cafe is DEMI, after one of their sons. Treat the front of the restaurant as a visual/verbal combination (images, color, text, shape.) How have they used visuals and text to inform potential customers? Do you think they have done a good job? Relate your comments to Burnett's seven functions in this example of text and visual.

Chapter 21: Preparing Instructions and Manuals

In some ways instructions and manuals are my personal starting point in technical communication. I was always interested in putting things together and making them work. I enjoyed agricultural processes like making hay or raising livestock. In 4-H club I learned to keep records and follow instructions.

Instructions, particularly bilingual or multilingual instructions, interest me. I collect examples for my students to learn from. Burnett has some examples on pp. 784 and 785.

Even when I am on a trip to Itasca, the Mississippi headwaters, I like to take note of and collect instructions (even implied instructions--Don't start fires-- as in the third paragraph on this sign at Preachers Grove.)

Writing instructions has become a large part of our profession now as well, with the rise of the hardware and software industries. Many graduates in technical communication find employment writing online help for software or for web applications.

In Chapter 21 Burnett gives us an overview of this part of technical communication field. If you do get a job as a technical writer, you'll find useful information here.