TO: John Belk, Professor of Technical Writing FROM: Shannon Francis, English Undergraduate Student DATE: 4 February 2014

SUBJECT: Cracked Article Discussion In his article entitled Hobophobia: The 5 Vagrants Who Ruined My Psyche, former Cracked columnist Ian Fortey describes in detail five humorous stories on homeless people who left a lasting, negative impact on his life. While the articles main purpose is to entertain, it also serves as an example of how pieces not considered to be more traditional forms of technical writing (such as manuals) are still able to serve as examples of good technical writing. Below, I will be opening discussion with you on both the articles merits as well as some ways in which it could be rendered even more effective. Scope of Technical Writing Before we begin discussion of the article itself, we must first discuss its place in technical writing. As both you and I are aware, technical writing encompasses any form of writing which utilizes technology. Using this definition, anything that utilizes a computer falls under the category of technical writing, as do pieces of writing posted on the Internet. However, items that fall under technical writing also strongly emphasize the relationship between the writer and the reader. Language and the Relationship with the Reader In order to establish a good relationship with their reader, a writer must be actively aware of what type of language they use in their writing. In a professional setting, a writer must write more conservatively and formally, but in a more informal setting, more colloquial language is often more appropriate. The audience for Mr. Forteys article is mainly comprised of 18-22 year-old young adults, at least a slight majority of who are male. Therefore, while his language is slightly elevated in order to appeal to more mature and most likely more educated audience, his article also has no shortage of colloquialisms, profanity, and direct addresses to the reader. In order to accomplish his purpose of entertaining the reader through establishing a relationship through the language itself, Fortey accomplishes this by creating an environment akin to a comfortable living room and a friend regaling you with his outlandish stories from last weekend. Accessibility of Information and Readability Now that we have established how Mr. Fortey succeeds in expressing his information (in this case a list of humorous stories) through language and tone, we must now look to how this information is presented in a way that is accessible to the reader. Aside from the use of

colloquial language in order to create an easily read document, the list format of the article also increases the articles readability and how accessible the information within is to the reader. While the stories are all related to one another under the general topic of the article, they all are able to function on their own. Therefore, the reader is able to simply skim the titles of the five sections of the list in order to get a basic understanding of the five core stories of the article, and only need to delve further into the section if they want to. So in making the core aspects of the article accessible to the reader without having to dig through paragraphs of information, the article itself becomes more readable and accomplishes its purpose (to convey information to the reader) much more efficiently. Design The design of the article also lends itself to increased readability. The simplistic use of black text against a white background makes the text very easy to read, and the text is regularly broken up by headings and pictures, which makes it easier for a reader to read the text and also skip around to sections that they may find more appealing than others. The use of headings is also important in distinguishing sections of the list from the rest of the article. The headings are written in a larger font, which makes them stand out, and separated with a light grey line. The color of this line is important, because it is noticeable enough to distinguish the header and the sections of the list as separate, but light enough that the relationship between the sections and their connection to the article as a whole is still apparent. Critique While the article does have its merits, there certainly are aspects that could be improved upon. The design of the site itself seems very cluttered, with links to other articles and videos crowding around the article that serve as nothing more than a distraction to the reader. Even excluding advertisements, there are six areas that surround the article. The headers for the list sections also need to be differentiated a bit more from the rest of the text, perhaps by choosing a serif font in order to contrast with the sans-serif font that comprises the rest of the body, or vise-versa in order to render the text of the body a bit more readable. Finally, the pictures should be incorporated more into the article. While it is true that they do help in breaking apart the text into more manageable sections, as they are now, they lie too separate from the text, making too much of a separation between parts of text in the same section of a list. Mr. Fortey should experiment with integrating the pictures more into the text through word-wrapping or at least making the pictures all of uniform size. In conclusion, Mr. Forteys article Hobophobia: The 5 Vagrants Who Ruined My Psyche serves as a good example of a more unconventional type of technical writing done well. Hopefully in analyzing its use of text and design, we may learn both from its merits as well as its mistakes.