4.13: Information structures

Use a logical, natural structure—content and organization

The main parts of a technical-writing course focus on applications—ways technical writing skills are applied in the real world. However, these applications use varying combinations of information infrastructures. An information infrastructure is (1) a type of information content (such as descriptive writing), (2) a way of organizing information (such as a comparison or classification), or (3) both.

The information infrastructures reviewed in this appendix are the ones commonly used in technical writing. Of course, there are other infrastructures—maybe some that scholars of technical writing have not yet pinned a label on, but these are the most common and the most readily visible. And of course some of these infrastructures blend together. The main thing is that by knowing these, you have the intellectual tools for quickly organizing and structuring just about any writing project.

Description

• Discussion
• Examples:
  • Rayovac Workhorse Flashlight
  • Primitive Stone Scraper

Comparisons

• Discussion
• Examples:
  • Nuclear Power Plants
  • Wind Electrical-Power Generators

Classification

• Discussion
• Examples
  • Industrial Robots
  • Types of Solar Water Heaters

Causal Discussion

• Discussion
• Examples
  • Effects of a Nuclear Attack

Definition

• Discussion
• Examples
  • Sickle Cell Anemia
  • Stratospheric Ozone Depletion and HVAC Refrigerants

Process Discussion

• Discussion
• Examples
  • Cardiac cycle
  • Wind Turbine Power Generation

Introductions

• Discussion
• Examples
  • Introductions to Brief Instructions
  • Introductions to Brief Reports
  • Report Introduction from a Report on Nuclear Reactors
  • Report Introduction from a Report on the Ames Municipal Solid Waste Recovery System
  • Section Introduction Occuring in a Report on Wire-Line Logging Technology