ExperimentalResearch inthe Effectiveness of TechnicalWriting
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This article suggests anexperimental methodforde- riving objective evidence oftheeffect (ifany)ofgiven elements inthecontent, organization, orpresentation ofawritten technical message upontheeffectiveness ofthatmessage. Theresults of threeexperiments, inwhichapproximately 2300subjects were tested, indicate thatthedesired discriminations canbemadeand thatthemethodprovides areliable predictive instrument. HEN YOU write something andyoursupervisor oreditor suggests achange tomakeit"better" or "moreeffective" howcaneither ofyouprove that yourversion isbetter or,forthat matter, that there isany real difference atall intheeffectiveness ofthetwo?Gener- ally, youcan't. Handbooks, dictionaries, andtexts areavailable to guide usonmanymatters ofmechanics, usage, spelling, andgrammar. Localandmoregeneral conventions pro- vide varying degrees ofpreference orauthority onformat, layout, symbols, abbreviations, andsometimes onorgani- zation andgeneral content. Readability formulas maybe usedastouchstones toindicate thelevel ofgeneral educa- tion necessary toreadapassage easily-though just how they canorshould beapplied intechnical writing issome- thing ofaquestion. Butwhenwelook forobjective evi- dence that oneselection ofinformation, onesequence of presentation, oronewayofphrasing afact oranidea is moreeffective thananother inagiven situation, wecan notfind it. Andthat isjust whatmostarguments between authors, editors, andsupervisors areabout. Whenanengineer lays outacircuit ordesigns adevice tofit agiven application, hecanusually predict with rea- sonable confidence howitwill perform under varying con- ditions. Parts andsubassemblies aredesigned andbuilt to fill their individual functions. Whenassembled they work together toaccomplish theoverall function. Andifthey do notquite perform asintended, theengineer cangenerally modify themsothat they will. Thatiswhatmakes himan engineer, andthat iswhatheispaid todo. Uniformstandards, Maxwell's equations, conversion tables, material data, Kirchoff's Laws, andother tested and proven information guide theengineer inhisdesign; even whenheisworking onrelatively uncharted ground heis abletopredict theeffect ofa given current, calculate