Oxford English Dictionary, open to the entry for Heuristics

Heuristics

heuristic is a method of guided discovery which enables students to discover answers for themselves.

In the sense we’re going to use it here, an “invention heuristic” is a series of questions which an author uses as a discovery tool, to determine all aspects of the rhetorical situation for a piece of writing.

The rhetorical situation is the context surrounding a piece of writing, and consists of four elements:

  • Exigence (the pressing need that demands something be written)
  • Audience (who it’s being written for)
  • Purpose – both the author’s purpose (why write this?) and the reader’s purpose (why read it?)
  • Genre or Occasion (the form of writing, how and when it will be presented)

If that doesn’t immediately make sense, don’t worry. The main idea is, it’s very helpful for your writing process if you understand all those issues before you begin writing.

Here are a few heuristics I’ve created, based on notes by Anne Hungerford and the Technical Writing Advanced Workshop course at Simon Fraser University. Let me know if you find them helpful for your writing process!

Heuristic for a Blog Post

For more successful writing, answer these discovery questions before you begin!
I ask myself these questions before posting on this site…

EXIGENCE

  • Where did this idea come from? Who asked for it?
  • What’s the idea in a nutshell? (one simple sentence)

AUDIENCE

  • Who’s my reader? Do I have more than one class of reader?
  • Who’s part of the conversation, and who’s been left out?
  • What’s their prior knowledge? Might they have any pre-conceptions on the topic?
  • What additional context would people need to understand what’s going on?

AUTHOR’S PURPOSE

  • What am I trying to achieve? (explain, persuade, entertain, or tell a story…)
  • What’s my unique insight or angle on this topic?
  • Is there anything specific I want my readers to understand or do?

READER’S PURPOSE

  • Who cares, and why?
  • What would prompt someone to start reading this post? Are they looking for something?
  • What would make someone want to stick with this post to the end, or return to it later?

GENRE AND APPROACH

  • Which format will best tell this story? (e.g. text, video, poster, something else…)
  • What’s an appropriate mood or tone for the piece?
  • What’s an appropriate size and scope? What can I leave out? Would it make sense to break it up into several smaller posts, or link to other information elsewhere…
  • Does this post need images? What value would images add?

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Cartoon of a man with wild eyes and wild hair typing at a computer

Heuristic for a Conference Presentation

For more successful writing, answer these discovery questions before you begin!
I developed this heuristic to help me create a presentation for the TechCommNZ 2019 conference in Tauranga.

EXIGENCE

  • What’s the conference theme or topic?
  • What’s the idea in a nutshell? (one simple sentence)

AUDIENCE

  • Who’s my audience? Who’s coming to this conference?
  • What level am I pitching this to? Is there a range of levels of understanding in the audience?
  • Do I anticipate any audience issues? (e.g. expectations, preconceptions, hostile, disinterested…)
  • If there’s multiple parallel streams at the conference then what would make people choose to attend my talk?

CONTENT

  • What information do I want to impart to my audience? Prioritize the key pieces of info.
  • How does that differ from audience expectations?
  • What do I have to offer that’s new?
  • How much material have I already got that I could recycle?
  • How much new research is required?

GENRE

  • What’s the most appropriate format? (e.g. PowerPoint, video, Prezi, etc.)
  • What info can I pull out of the presentation? (e.g. handouts, web references, etc.)
  • What’s an appropriate tone for the talk? (e.g. inform/persuade, lecture/entertain, etc.)

SANITY CHECK

  • There’s always too many slides and too much text in a presentation.
  • Leave time for questions.
  • Seriously, what possessed me to submit this abstract/proposal?

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Heuristic for Technical Documentation

For more successful writing, answer these discovery questions before you begin!
Use this heuristic when documenting a system or a process.

AUDIENCE

  • Who will read this documentation? Are there multiple classes of users?
  • What’s their level of education and skill? How much do they already know?
  • What’s their attitude towards the system or process?
  • What’s the reading and learning style of your audience?

CONTEXT

  • What exactly have you been asked to deliver? Who asked for this?
  • How much information do you have? From whom? How reliable is your information? Where can you go for more information?
  • What other systems does this interact with?
  • What are the critical parts of the system?

PURPOSE

  • Are there any specific actions you want the reader to take?
  • What’s going to prompt your reader to look for this information?

PRESENTATION

  • Where and how will your readers use this documentation?
  • What’s the best way to present this? Can you use multiple forms or formats?

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Jack Torrence working hard at his writing desk

Heuristic for a Proposal

For more successful writing, answer these discovery questions before you begin!
Use this heuristic when assessing arguments for their persuasive power.

  • In a nutshell, what are you proposing?
  • Who’s your audience?
  • What’s your audience’s prior level of understanding?
  • What’s your line or reasoning or logic? (e.g. this OR those BECAUSE that AND the other…)
  • What facts can you collect to support your argument?
  • Are facts enough? (i.e. are emotions involved?)
  • What are your audience’s assumptions?
  • What are your assumptions as an author?
  • What must be established for your audience to believe you?
  • Who’s the competition? (if this proposal will be ranked against other proposals)
  • If there’s a grading rubric, can you structure your proposal to match the rubric?
  • What are the boundaries or limitations of what you’re proposing?
  • Who are all the stakeholders, who or what else will be affected?
  • How does this proposal impact on other projects or business goals?
  • If it’s based on a prediction, what’s the probability you’re right? What are the consequences if you’re wrong?
  • If it’s a call to action, what specifically do you want people to do? How realistic is that?
  • What would be an appropriate tone or point of view to present the proposal?

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Heuristic for a Press Release

For more successful writing, answer these discovery questions before you begin!
This is based on a heuristic by Michele Matthews

  • What’s newsworthy about this information?
  • What’s your target audience(s)?
  • How is this of specific interest to the audience?
  • What are the key pieces of information to be presented? Prioritize them.
  • Is there a general theme? Can you use any words appropriate to the topic to add interest?
  • Is the information new? If so, what’s new about it?
  • Could this information be presented in a different point of view? Whose?
  • Would the reader have any preconceptions?
  • Is this press release being written specifically to offset readers’ preconceptions?
  • Which stakeholders require consultation or approval before this is released?
  • Can I sum up the information in a 4– to 5–word headline? Or a 10– to 12–word subhead?

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Heuristic for a Business Letter

For more successful writing, answer these discovery questions before you begin!
This heuristic by Michele Matthews

  • Who’s your audience?
  • What is the objective of the letter?
  • What are the key pieces of information to present? Prioritise them.
  • What are the benefits of this information to the reader? How important is this to the reader?
  • Does the reader have any preconceptions about this information?
  • What’s an appropriate level of detail? In-depth information or a synopsis/overview?
  • Will this information cause any concerns? If so, what’s the best way to address that?
  • Is any action required from the reader? If so, what?
  • Should there be some sort of follow-up? By whom?
  • What’s the most appropriate tone for the letter?

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Heuristic for a System Change Recommendation

For more successful writing, answer these discovery questions before you begin!
This is based on a heuristic by Colin Cameron

  • Who currently uses the system?
  • Who is responsible for authorising changes to the system?
  • What’s the problem that you’re trying to solve?
  • What are the components and functions of the existing system?
  • How does the system currently operate?
  • What is the system change that you propose?
  • What are the likely benefits from the proposed system change?
  • What extra equipment is required? How will it be sourced?
  • What extra staff or training is involved?
  • What other costs are involved if implementing this change?
  • What are the risks? What unintended consequences could occur?
  • How will the system change be implemented? What problems must be overcome?

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