Reference no: EM133725926

Assignment: Technical Definition and Description

Technical professionals are often required to define and describe a product or process to someone who has little knowledge or experience with the subject at hand. For example, an engineering firm might write a proposal to develop training helicopters for the Defense Department. One section of the proposal would be a detailed description of the product the company proposes to develop. Or the Registrar's Office might write a description of how the class registration process works at Penn State. This description would be aimed at incoming students and their parents.

Technical descriptions are used before products and processes are developed, as a part of proposals and planning documents; during development, in progress reports, for instance; and afterwards, as a part of marketing and promotional literature and technical support documents.

This assignment asks you to select a product or process and write a description of it. It's a good idea to select something with which you are already familiar, so you can focus on learning how to write the description rather than focusing on both learning how to write the description and learning about the product or process itself.

The objectives for this assignment include learning how to write definitions, compose information using appropriate organizational patterns, integrate verbal and visual information, and understand genre conventions.

There are two different kinds of technical descriptions to consider. Choose whichever one is appropriate to your topic.

A product description explains the features of a specific device, like a scientific instrument or computer program. Possible topics include devices that are specific to your field or that you use in everyday life