Analysis Report on a Poorly Written and Designed Technical Document

QUESTION

Assignment requires you to analyze a poorly written and/or designed technical document, revise it, and explain your changes in a brief memo. The document you choose to revise must warrant significant changes or additions related to content, design, and/or grammatical soundness. Thus, your main deliverables for this project include three components:

Format and Requirements
1. Original document
• Must be a self-contained document with a specific purpose. No websites.
• Must contain identifiable errors, weaknesses, or areas for improvement.
2. Revised Document
• Must contain visible, significant, well-reasoned changes.
• Must reflect a clear understanding and use of design from Chapter 7.
3. Memorandum that explains and outlines poor features of the original document and justifies changes in your revised version.
• Must properly use language of design in Chapter 7.
• Must include standard memo heading and a purpose statement.
• Discussion (Poor Features in Original): Identify/outline where you found the original document, its main function or purpose, why chose it, and major areas necessitating improvement and why. Be specific about each weakness or error.
• Recommendation (Explain and Justify Revision): Identify/outline changes you made and why you made them based on principles of rhetoric, design, and professionalism. Explanations should be thorough and informative.

Paper info:

Redesign the file “Find a replacement remote control for your Samsung TV.pdf”. Make it visual. Please go to the website (https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00079343/) to get the images that need to insert for each step.

ANSWER

Analysis Report on a Poorly Written and Designed Technical Document

Original Document

Revised Document

MEMO

TO

FROM:

DATE

SUBJECT: Analysis Report on a Poorly Written and Designed Technical Document

Purpose Statement

This memorandum is an explanation of the analysis conducted on a poorly written and designed technical document: the ‘Find A Replacement Remote Control for Your Samsung TV’ document. The various errors noted in design and writing and an explanation of the various corrections made on the document are explained herein.

Discussion

The ‘Find A Replacement Remote Control for Your Samsung TV’ document was obtained from Samsung’s official website. The purpose of the document is to inform customers of the various available options for acquiring a replacement TV remote control once they lose their original remote control or if their original remote is no longer functional. The document is provided by the company to enlighten customers on the various ways through which they can continue enjoying their favorite TV shows and programs once they have lost their remote control or misplaced it. While the document does pass the intended message, there are a number of errors that can be identified in its design and the language used.

The original document has numerous grammatical and sentence structure errors. For instance, the first line of the document goes: “Losing your TV’s remote is a pain. Thankfully, there replacements available…”. This shows poor English command. The third sentence begins with ‘or’, which is a misuse of the conjunction. It is also wrong to begin a sentence with ‘no matter’. The alignment of text and the title levels is also wrongly done, as well as the margins on the sides of the document. Other errors in the document include the lack of attractiveness as a result of the use of single font color, the use of a single size font, and the improper arrangement of headings.

Recommendation

In order to attract readers and effectively pass the message, the grammar and language used in the document have to be improved. Erroneous use of conjunctions and the use of informal language needs to be avoided. In addition, attractive design features such as the use of larger fonts for titles, proper page alignment, the use of appropriate font size, and the use of relevant images ensures that readers are fully engaged in the document. Various changes made to the ‘Find A Replacement Remote Control for Your Samsung TV’ document include the use of brightly colored titles, grammatical corrections to the sentences, the use of similar font size and alignment for all level 2 headers, and the use of appropriate images.

The text related to the remote image is placed in close proximity with the image or graphic to signify a relationship. The text size and color of the different headings show the level of importance. The various images used in the document provide readers with an idea of what to expect when they use the website and follow the provided instructions. They eliminate ambiguity and make it easier for readers to follow the guidelines provided. Page numbering was also included in the revised document to make it look professional and to show the readers where the document begins. By including one-inch margins around the pages, the amount of information provided on a page is largely reduced to make the document appear neat and to make it easier to read.

The margins also provide space for any binding and allow the readers to hold the document without covering up the text that they are trying to read. Margins also provide a neat frame around the pages, making the document appear neat. By arranging the text in the document in three columns, the document acquires a pamphlet appearance, which is more attractive than the original ‘letter’ arrangement. The revised document should capture the attention of the readers and pass the intended message in a clearer way.