Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Technical Writing Exercise - Writing an Executive Summary by Bryan S. Adar

Wrting executive summaries is an important aspect of technical writing. This tech writing exercise will get you started on how to create executive summaries.

Technical Writing Exercise - Writing an Executive Summary

The client says, "Tell me what this 30-page report says, and do it in less than a page." Your job: write an executive summary. The exercise is to look at the executive summary below and bring it into line with the description - and to cut it down to between 150 and 200 words at the same time.

Starting in January 2007, a crack team of researchers at the ConDovPro home lab has been working long hours to create a reliable system so everyone who is a member of an event production crew can talk back and forth with the "big guy" - the executive coordinator. They believe the best way to do this is through a satellite link that works any time they need to talk.

After only fourteen months, beginning March 18, 2008, the lab people were ready to put their work to the test. For the first time, an entire crew of fifteen crew members was sent out to four widely separated locations with their shiny, new mobile radios all hooked into the "bird," an ATS-6 satellite.

A truly impressive 91% plus of the 300 transmissions were a clear success. And over 98% of all the transmissions were judged to be a high enough quality that they could live with it. Of course, some transmissions got scrambled. Being in an elevator or around a lot of power equipment messed with the satellite signal. But that only happened 1.7% of the time.

The test was a whopping success. It showed that the basic premise is sound and demonstrated that the prototype design will fly. The guys in the lab think the results call for a significant speed-up in refining the radios. They also recommend that we:

· develop an antenna that can pickup signals even in areas where they didn't get through the first time

· figure out how to configure the satellites so they cover a lot more ground

Exercise - Answer

The task was to bring the executive summary into line with the description in the newsletter and to shorten it by a hundred words or so. As usual, there are a lot of different ways to approach the job, but even allowing for individual styles, your rewrite should come pretty close to this one.

The original is in italics followed by the rewrite.

Starting in January 2007, a crack team of researchers at the ConDovPro home lab has worked long hours to create a reliable system so everyone who is a member of an event production crew can talk back and forth with the "big guy" - the executive coordinator. They believe the best way to do this is through a satellite link that works any time they need to talk.

Starting in January 2007, ConDovPro has been working on a system that allows large numbers of production crew members to communicate directly with the executive coordinator. This is "any time" communication through a satellite link.

After only fourteen months, beginning March 18, 2008, the lab people were ready to put their work to the test. For the first time, an entire crew of fifteen crew members was sent out to four widely separated locations with their shiny, new mobile radios all hooked into the "bird," a ATS-6 satellite.

The week of March 18, 2008, the idea was given it's first test. A ATS-6 satellite was used with fifteen crew members in four locations. Each person was equipped with a prototype mobile radio.

A truly impressive 91% plus of the 300 transmissions were a clear success. And over 98% of all the transmissions were judged to be a high enough quality that they could live with it. Of course, some transmissions got scrambled. Being in an elevator or around a lot of power equipment messed with the satellite signal. But that only happened 1.7% of the time.

Over 91% of 300 transmissions were successful. Over 98% of the transmissions were judged to be of acceptable quality. A major factor limiting the success of the transmissions (1.7% of the all transmissions) was obstructions of the satellite signal in areas with high metallic content such as elevators and concentrations of electrical power equipment.

The test was a whopping success. It showed that the basic premise is sound and demonstrated that the prototype design will fly. The guys in the lab think the results call for a significant speed-up in refining the radios. They recommend that we:

· develop an antenna that can pickup signals even in areas where they didn't get through the first time

· figure out how to configure the satellites so they cover a lot more ground

The test supported the basic premise and demonstrated that the prototype design is sound. Results support accelerated refinement of the radios. Recommendations are:

· develop an antenna designed specifically for use in obstructed areas

· explore the configuration of satellites needed to cover a larger footprint.

Author's Note: Being a tech writer is a great job. Go interesting places, meet really smart people, learn new things and make really good money. Which is why it's such a rapidly growing profession. The down side, though, is that there are people who get into the business without knowing as much about it as they should.

If you want to become a technical writer try out our free weekly exercises. They are easy and fun to do. You'll also learn common tech writing terms and current industry trends. Click the link below to check out these exercises:

http://www.techwritertoolkit.com/exercises.html

About the Author

Bryan S. Adar is a successful technical writer and instructional designer. Bryan has lived in the United States for 8 years. Prior to that he lived in India where he was born and raised.

In these past 8 years he's accomplished a lot. He graduated from school, learned technical writing and worked for companies like Shell, Halliburton, Continental Airlines and British Petroleum. Over these years he's written dozens of technical manuals, reports a

No comments: