Writing to Know: Informative Documents

Informative documents play a crucial role in providing information to those that do not have it and need it. They also establish a place where multiple parties can record their agreement on work being done. Events can be recorded in different ways and from different points of view. The purpose of an informative document is to communicate information that an audience will find to be accurate, complete, significant, and authoritative. Information can be recorded in a way that is accessible to future audiences such that they can understand what has been done and why. Audiences for one's document may have differing interest in and technical understanding of his/her topic. This chapter presents key communication strategies need to be considered when writing the informative documents. It also presents some questions for analyzing existing documents. The chapter describes some typical informative documents: reports and specifications.