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Juan Perez

Professor Daniel Powell

ENC 3241

3 February 2013

Critical Analysis 1

It is no surprise that technology rules and revolves in everything we do. It is easy for us

to pick up a computer and start writing a paper but how does one explain how the computer

works in order to make this possible? It is simply not easy to explain interfaces, GUIs or even

arrays to someone with no computer science background or knowledge. I had the pleasure to

read and examine two technical reports in which the authors break down a technological concept

and relate them to the general public. Both of these authors incorporate daily routines which the

public does, such as learning or streaming videos to familiarize them to their main topic.

Although both authors do a magnificent job explaining their topic, each one of them excels in a

different category such as stronger communicator, better principles and better report overall, to

name a few.

To prove a point, communication is a key; this includes clarity, detail and relationship

with the audience. I believe that Jeff Terrace accurately covered all those points. The sentence

Similar to streaming video services like Netflix and YouTube, which adaptively change bitrate

according to a user's capabilities(Terrace 10) accurately describes the main characteristic of

Sirikata. He relates to the audience by bringing up Netflix and YouTube, he is clear about his

description and gives just the amount of details needed to get his point across by saying that

according to the users computer the bitrate will accommodate. I believe that Daniel Lynchs

report is very in-depth but fails to break it down for non-technical people as Jeff Terrace did.

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When it comes to illustrating the concept Lynch did a very well job by showing graphs

and examples such as Imagine if middle school students were introduced to calculus concepts

through interactive dimensions that provide an instantaneous understanding of a derivative or

integral(Lynch 8) and later providing a visual of what an integral and derivative look like. Such

illustrations and examples endorse design principles drastically. Even though Terrace also uses

illustrations and charts, I believe they work better for Lynchs situation. He also uses historical

examples to organize his principles Using text and images dates back to our primates who

painted on caves(Lynch 12) and this exactly what he does throughout his report. Although

Terrace relates and breaks down the report very well, he does not have very good design

principles as I had to jump back and forth to finally realize what Sirikata is.

Although structure-wise Lynchs report does a much better job portraying illustration

than Terraces, I believe Terraces syntax and cadence outshines Lynchs report. A technical

writer should have a fully understanding that not everyone understands technical terms or is a

very good reader. Terrace uses very simple, yet clear, words. He also breaks down a 3D concept

into very small, yet thorough, paragraphs. We can also see this by Lynchs lack of syntax and

typos, which would definitely be a recommendation for future revisions.

Both of these reports excel in their own characteristics and did a magnificent writing

these reports. Terrace excels in communication, syntax, and cadence and as a technical writer. In

the other hand Lynch illustrates his concept way better by clearly explaining his charts and

illustrations. In my opinion Content Conditioning and Distribution for Dynamic Virtual Worlds

is the stronger technical report out of the two. I really enjoyed reading because Terrace builds up

towards a new topic and keeps on keeping the audience hooked on what this open source

platform for virtual worlds is capable of. I believed that this report was so strong that I went

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ahead and downloaded Sirikata to explore the possibilities that could be done with it and I was

astonished as how well developed this software was.