Prototypes in Technical Writing: What are They?

A prototype is, generally speaking, a preliminary model of a larger, more detailed object. In technical writing, a prototype might be a full table of contents (with summaries for each major section) and one or two complete chapters. If conducting a survey is an important part of your project, your prototype might be a complete survey of a small number of subjects, designed to iron out the kinks in the questions you want to ask. A good prototype will help you identify flaws (such as incomplete research or mistaken assumptions) before you have multiplied their harmful effects by investing additional effort in them. A sculptor makes a scale model in clay -- a prototype -- before chiseling away at a full-sized chunk of marble. It it much easier to fix major mistakes in clay than it is to throw away a ruined chunk of marble and start over again.

Jerz, Dennis G. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (2000). Articles>Writing>Online>Technical Writing

Writing Effective E-Mail: Top 10 Tips

This document offers 10 tips to help you write effective professional e-mails. The informal e-mails you exchange with your friends don't have to meet any particular standards, of course, but if you want to be taken seriously by people who use e-mail frequently, you should know e-mail etiquette.

Bauer, Jessica. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (2001). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email

Writing for the Web: Why is the Advice so Scant?

Be careful when you go online searching for advice about writing for the Internet. The literature and composition teachers of the world -- the traditional arbiters of 'good' writing -- have been slow to adapt to the special requirements of electronic text. Turning the pages of a book is still (and will probably always be) the best way to read a novel; after all, the novel was designed for the book -- which was then a 'novel' device. But the Internet has spawned new writing genres (email, instant messages, FAQ pages, annotated lists of links, weblogs, personal home pages) which demand a different writing mode.

Jerz, Dennis G. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (2000). Articles>Web Design>Writing