The Diagnosis-Resolution Structure in Troubleshooting Procedures, by David K. Farkas, on the WritersUA website.
In this paper, I define troubleshooting procedures and briefly sketch out how they are developed. Then I analyze the genre’s underlying architectural structure of diagnosis and resolution, showing both simple and complex configurations of symptoms and solution methods. These configurations are in part constrained by the nature of the technical problem; but they are also the consequence of design decisions. Understanding structure enables us to meaningfully classify the very diverse instances of this genre, reveals key design issues, and is apt to contribute to experimental research insofar as structure is central to many of the most useful research questions we can ask.
A reader wrote:
I have a quick question for you about numbered heads in documents.
In general, numbered section heads use the chapter number as the first digit – but that’s only if you have multiple chapters in a book (1.1, 2.1, 3.1…).
What if you have only one chapter in a book? Do the sections become 1, 2, 3…?
I haven’t been able to find anything discussing this, so if you know of any reference material to back this up, I’d be much obliged!
Technical editors are people who edit technical information. They work in many fields, including engineering, computer hardware and software, science, medicine, law, banking, and website development for any business or activity.
Technical editors’ primary job is to ensure documents are suitable for their target audience, thus technical editing is really a quality control job.
This website is a place for technical editors to:
- Share knowledge, experiences and resources
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Non-editors are welcome too! Much of the information you’ll find here is applicable to writers, managers, and people working in other roles, and many editors have other job titles or multiple roles.
January 2007 – for nearly a year now I’ve rarely used Microsoft Windows. I’ve moved to Ubuntu Linux and found replacements for all my old Windows programs. During this time, I have neglected this website, so some parts of it are woefully out of date. I’d like to say that situation will change, but I suspect it won’t — at least not soon.
I’ve resurrected a blog I started some time ago (and then neglected for 19 months), and I might find time to talk about some of my interests and activities, including (at times) technical editing. You’re welcome to join me there.
This newsletter is no longer being published. Back issues are archived on this website.
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The newsletter is intended for editors who are, or need to be, working electronically. Much of the material will be relevant to electronic editors in any field. Some of the material will be most relevant to editors in technical fields such as computing and engineering.
What’s the newsletter all about?
This newsletter is a place for me to share some of the tips, techniques and resources that I’ve collected. It’s also a place for you, the reader, to share your knowledge with me and with the other readers.
I try to include a mixture of practical tips and discussions of major issues.
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