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Digesting Technical Information

Sounds boring, doesn’t it? I didn’t choose the course title, but it does reflect the process by which we derive plain language out of complex technical information.

This course involves learning how to break technical information down into
bite-sized pieces and extract its value. We pay particular attention to the communications produced by institutions and organizations, in various genres:

• Government
• Legal
• Judicial
• Military
• Medical
• Scientific
• Pharmaceutical
• Insurance
• Regulatory

Being able to understand institutional communications that involve policies, procedures, laws, regulations, products, and services is critical when you realize how much these genres affect our daily lives.

Indeed, lives can be lost if someone responsible for loading a semi-trailer with logs is unable to understand the regulations regarding cargo securement.

Confusing language in insurance policies may convince a homeowner that protection is in place for natural disasters when no such coverage has been granted.

Indecipherable policies can keep people from obtaining the products and services they need, and to which they are entitled.

Interactions with government agencies are more stressful and fruitless when publications and policies are hard to understand.

Course outline: PWR381YA - 2010 (.doc file)
Link to Resources page

This is the course page for
PWR381 YA - Digesting Technical Information, for students in the Institutional stream of the Professional Writing Program, York University.

Resources

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Course Wiki