Lannon, Chapter 1

This Chapter stresses the importance of technical writing, as well as what it takes to create an effective piece. Technical writing is "user centered" meaning that the whole point is to help the readers understand. And for them to understand you have to make the work such that it is available to the audience and that it is at their level; for example you would not give a middle schooler a guide to C++ and expect them to be able to program, that is just too much information on a subject they've never been introduced to.

When writing there are some key features for your piece:

1. contains only the information needed so as to be understood 
2. it has flow, and can be easily followed
3. well organized to guide the audience and able to emphasize importance 
4. images that will help visualize 
5.  resources that will help focus the audience on relevant material
6. design the page to help guide the reader like a table of contents or suitable type set

Technical writing can be found any where from blogs to magazines to text books and recipe cards. It is not limited to one source or type of media. Books, papers, podcasts, websites, all of theses utilize the skills of technical writing, even Ikea pictograms. 

Over all technical writing is how to get people to understand and access information easily. It is a form of communication and as such there are some things needed to be taken into account, such as culture: Is this going to be read by an American or a Russian?, or the level of communication needed: Do they need a broad understanding or would they prefer specifics?, even age level: Should there be funny cartoons that help explain or will text be enough?.

EVERYONE, no matter who it is, depends on technical writing; from children playing video games to adults learning to knit. Such are our notes, and such is our ebook.