18 June 2013

Freeze frame violence

My first degree (back when I could afford to study out of interest) was Theology and Religious Studies. I’d told people I was studying this subject because I wanted to be a diplomat, but a big part of it was the traces that previous iterations of civilisation have left scratched, carved and drawn in the world. Look at many temples, or even cave paintings, and the depiction you find is often of violence. It might be a Hanuman carving of a battle against demonic forces (Thailand), a beheading (the Sistine Chapel, Rome) or arrows being launched at galloping animals (cave paintings, France). These artistic portrayals of violence are reminiscent of the rapid cuts and flashes seen in the fight scenes of Raging Bull where the freeze frame is chosen as the most dramatic and telling part of the whole physical sequence.

This was particularly fascinating to me as I’ve always studied some form of martial art. First it was Karate, then fencing at university (I even won a medal for that one), then Mongolian wrestling in China, Taikwondo with the air force in Oman, and most recently boxing. All of these come with books of some description that in many ways mirror their artistic counterparts in that they freeze the action at the most telling moment. An example from an early Aikido manual is given here. In this picture the combatant on the right is defending himself against an armed aggressor. The scene is frozen at the moment of impact. Artistically this is all well and good, but what else can we see from this image that is of use for technical authors?

Capture the moment of impact
I’m reminded of a style guide I recently encountered that stated “When accompanying an instruction with a screenshot, the mouse pointer should be displayed carrying out the task.” In this case the mouse pointer is the right hand as it strikes below the chin.
Decide on sensible minimalism
The defender has stepped in with his left leg and lowered his centre of gravity to make himself more difficult to engage with a long bladed weapon. This is shown without any real need for explanation as any martial artist will tell you, footwork eventually becomes reflex. In the same way there are things that we don’t bother to screenshot or explain in great detail as we assume that if the end user cannot turn their PC on, they’d hardly be reading the manual for a complex system.
Establish documentary conventions for important details
In this drawing, our defender has a single finger hooked at the waist of his attacker to off-balance and drag the swordsman forward onto his strike. This is artistic emphasis: the actual move requires a handful of belt, clothing and man to be grabbed in a fist and bodily hauled towards the defender, but when drawn this would look too much like a second fist striking the target and so the single hooked finger is drawn to emphasis the pulling action. This and other stylistic elements are found again and again in hand drawn martial arts manuals. They are not dissimilar to the refined vocabulary used to describe on-screen processes (interestingly the cursor sometimes morphs into a hand with a single extended digit to reflect an action in much the same way).

Revisiting the Sistine Chapel, we see Goliath’s final moment captured. As anyone who’s ever chopped wood or swung a hammer will tell you, the moment to get right is the top of the swing when all the force and balance and energy is about to be released. David is exemplary: his shoulder is cocked, his wrist open and his whole trunk unwound ready to deliver the blow. Goliath is as good as dead, as if the blade had already completed its gore-punctuated descent. As technical authors, we should aim to capture this exemplary and telling moment as well as the final static outcome in what we write and display.

Andrew

17 June 2013

TCUK 2013: A two session preview

We’ve had some good news at Clearly Stated this week. We are both going to be presenting at TCUK in Bristol, which reflects well on our dedication to not only our own development as technical communicators, but the development of technical communication.

For those of you who are interested, we’re offering a slightly more in-depth sneak peak of our sessions at the conference. There is no need for a spoiler alert, but hopefully a bit more insight into the presentations will helps peers reading this blog choose their session at the conference.

When Culture Meets Content (Andrew’s session)
My first role as an author was creating training materials and designing courses for the Royal Air Force of Oman. This presented unique challenges together with the possibility to conduct research. The audience for these materials and courses were entirely male, Omani and Muslim, and I quickly began to notice that the reaction to materials (either my own or commercially published materials) was coloured by the cultural perspective of the students. Through a comparative study, I set out to explore some of the issues documentation and training materials face when being viewed through the middle eastern cultural lens. It is important to note that many of the cultures that are sensitised in some way to the perceived morality of documentation also favour indirect communication and value face. Many of the lessons learnt may help those wishing to position their documentation and services to avoid faux pas.
Managing as a freelance technical communicator (Alison’s session)
‘Managing’ often conjures up images of project plans, performance appraisals and (of course) meetings. Depending on the size of the organisation, one person may fulfil more than one role (as both a project manager and a people manager, for example) but nowhere do the hats pile as high on one head as when running your own small business. Since I started Clearly Stated, I’ve had to manage my workload, my finances (including estimating and quoting), my clients and my employee – and find time to actually do the work I’m being paid to do! The intention is for you to learn from my mistakes, helping you to work smarter, not harder.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Andrew and Alison