1 Advanced Technical Writing 2006 Session #11

2 Today In Class ► P1 components evaluated this week ► Show-n-tell your Exercise: Just the FAQ’s, ma’am ► Performing a Content Audit ► “Objects”: what’s the fuss?

3 Here’s what you did… 1. Pick any news release issued by MSU lately… 2. Turn it into a FAQ list 3. Propose a format for future press releases that would allow for easy re-purposing into a FAQ list Refer to the genre analysis categories. They’ll be a good guide.

4 What is a Content Audit? A process of identifying all of the various information types that are important to an organization. The purpose? To determine how content is used, reused and delivered. Often, reuse is done the old fashioned way…

5 Traditional Methods of Reuse 1.Author finds a piece of content they want to reuse, usually in an existing document. 2.Cut and paste old content into a new file or edit an existing file. 3.Rewrite, add/delete material and re- format to fit with current situation.

6 Moving toward systematic reuse…the process of a CA 1.Determine scope of the audit 2.Gather sample materials 3.Analyze Content Top level  identify common pieces of information In-depth  study elements identified as similar in top- level Two important matrices result…

7 Top-Level Analysis Matrix Information ProductsContent Unit Logo Contact Info Course Description Projects Ethics Clause Syllabus Schedule Website

8 Going in-depth Information ProductsContent Unit Logo Contact Info Course Description Projects Ethics Clause Syllabus Schedule Website Are all these “projects” the same?

9 Reuse Map Information ProductsContent Unit Logo Contact Info Course Description Projects Ethics Clause Syllabus Schedule Website IDI II II S/IID I = identical S= source D= derivative

10 Try it! ► Do a quick content audit based on an organization’s web site, seeing the space as a kind of ecological environment ► Document the species (genres) and create a reuse map ► Identify where there might be opportunities for systematic reuse among genres

11 What is an information model? “the ‘catalog’ of all the information products…it outlines the necessary information elements for each, based on a thorough analysis of your audiences and their information needs” Rockley p. 161 Rockley p. 161

12 What role does an IM play in a unified content strategy? “In a unified content strategy, you break content down into objects, and rather than write documents, you write objects that are stored in your repository. Elements [objects] are then compiled into information products from that repository.” Rockley p. 161 Actually, I would say that there is another step… “views”...more later…

13 Information models start with analysis The genre analysis and content audit should give you a sense of what information products are important…what objects these are made of…and what objects are candidates for reuse. The information modeling process is a systematic effort to define the structure of all the reusable objects and information products.

14 Model? Remember the Reuse Map? Information ProductsContent Unit Logo Contact Info Course Description Projects Ethics Clause Syllabus Schedule Website IDI II II SID S Model? Model!

15 Next up: Information Modeling Steps 1.Identify information products and objects for modeling 2.Work out the granularity of the model; consider that word and character-level objects may be attributes 3.Go back through and identify useful “container objects” (e.g. memo header) 4.Define semantic (meaning) and “base” (what I called “logical”) elements