Practical models for technical communication - Shannon Kelley 2021

Conclusion
Technical definitions and descriptions

Throughout this chapter, we’ve used analogies to help you visualize the ways that definitions and descriptions work in technical communication. The parenthetical definition is like a handrail guiding users. The sentence definition is like a cornerstone that brings together two separate ideas and allows you to build upon them. The extended definition is like a bridge that takes the users to a place of understanding. The Known-New Contract underlies all of these concepts. Each sentence is a link in the chain that binds you, the technical communicator, to the user at the other end.

Notes

1. This principle was originally called the “Given-New Contract” in Herbert H. Clark and Susan E. Haviland, “Comprehension and the Given-New Contract,” in Discourse Production and Comprehension, ed. Roy O. Freedle (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1977), 1—40.

2. “Apple iPad Launch: Live Coverage,” The Guardian online, January 27, 2010, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/jan/27/apple-tablet-launch-live-coverage.