Why Are You Writing? A Classic Reminder

Greetings again. I hope you’re doing well.

Recently I saw the movie Hidden Figures. This movie is about African American women mathematicians who worked for NASA (the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration). I then read the book on which the movie is based.

I enjoyed the movie and book. I was impressed with how these women overcame challenges that they faced. And I was excited to learn about their contributions.

Interesting to me, the movie and book contained themes regarding scientific or technical writing. I learned that in the early years, such women were not listed as authors even when they made major contributions.

In the book, I read of a physicist who became technical editor at NASA’s forerunner. And in reading about her online, I found a link to information on NASA scientist Samuel Katzoff, whose guide “Clarity in Technical Reporting” I have long had.

The write-up on Katzoff includes the following quote from the guide:

The purpose of the report is to present information. You will hardly disagree with this statement; yet many authors seem to subordinate this purpose and quite forget the poor reader when preparing a report… Apparently, the presumed purpose to present information is frequently forgotten in the author's desire to show his own brilliance, to impress the boss, to impress the secretary, to demolish the rival, or to get a raise. Worthy as these objectives may be, the basic objective should be to make the report clear and informative; furthermore, if this objective is attained, the secondary objectives will automatically be attained.

Still excellent guidance!

Until the next post—

Barbara