Claudia Gonzalez Daniel Powell ENC 3241 3 February 2013 Evaluating Readability : Critical Analysis As technical writers, a common goal is to develop a style of writing that perfectly expresses ideas in a document; to effectively get a point across while engaging the reader in what you have to say. After reading Jeff Terrace’s Content Conditioning and Distribution for Dynamic Virtual World and Daniel Lynch’s The Art of Digital Publishing: A foundation of combined standards to support the future of publishing, it is clear that the two utilize different methods in order to inform their readers and express their ideas. Though both reports offer plenty of information on their given topics, I found that Lynch was the stronger communicator of the two. For instance, beginning as early as his abstract his points are presented briefly and are clear to the reader. With one sentence, the reader understands what this report will be about: “The art is where we can blend these two bodies… It is in these environments when people can express themselves freely” (Lynch 6). Also with the way the document is designed, Lynch’s abstract looks concise and does not intimidate the reader, therefore inviting him or her to read it. Terrace’s abstract on the other hand, is spread across more than one page, and that makes it seems not as straightforward. The way he his abstract is displayed, with various paragraphs does not seem as brief or as straight to the point. His idea can also be summed up in one sentence: “After a thorough evaluation, our results show that a simple
metric solid angle consistently outperforms all other metrics.” (Terrace iv), but it is not seen by the reader until the very end of the abstract. In regards to design, whereas Terrace utilizes just chapters and heading, Lynch utilizes chapter and headings, as well as subheadings, further simplifying his report for readers, and making it easier for readers to find the specific information that they are looking for. Both Terrace and Lynch use different approaches in terms of syntax and cadence in their documents, and it is a question of the type of reader regarding the text that determines which author expresses themselves the best. Terrace is strictly professional in his approach. Some examples of this are in paragraphs 3 and 4 of his introduction. While describing the Metaverse, and the goal of the Sirikata, he confines himself to denotative definitions and dully promotes his goal it instead of making it appealing to his readers (Terrace 2). Lynch on the other hand draws his reader in with his introduction, claiming that the “new horizons” set by new learning methods will “empower future pioneers of science”, thus encouraging the reader to continue reading the document (Lynch 8). Both authors excel as technical writers. They both present their documents in a way that achieves a readable style, despite how different they do so. Terrace’s block-style writing and use of chapters and heading, as well as his use of shorter sentences and professional cadence make his document straightforward to the reader. His writing is not difficult to understand, and can be read by almost any educated audience, not just someone in his specific field. Lynch on the other hand, through his use of more complicated syntax, and less professional language draws a reader in and makes them want to continue reading. His points are also easy to find within the document and not difficult to understand, though he does so differently from Terrace. If both were to revise
their reports again in the near future, they could learn from each other. Terrace could stray away from strictly professional language and can use more complex syntax to keep his reader’s interest in his document. Lynch’s use of syntax and description gets his point across, but he can also use some shorter sentences and reduce some of his jargon in order to improve readability. I feel that both were strong reports in their own way, and achieved their goal, but found Lynch’s report to be stronger because not only did he manage to get his point across to readers, but he also managed to keep the readers interest.