English 421K, Technical Writing

1. Personally, I could not perform this preflight. It may be simple terminology for someone familiar with the realm of flying, but for me, it was very cryptic. The use of jargon made it very difficult to follow. I found myself skimming very early on because I didn't know what I was reading. But, this all depends on who your audience is. As a novice I could not easily follow these instructions, but someone familiar with these switches etc. would know more what you were talking about.

2. Yes.
3. Not really. There is a LOT of text, and no pictures. This would benefit greatly from some images. For example, part one step three could use pictures to help identify the switches etc. It was easy to keep my place reading straight through, but if I was doing these things as I read along, I imagine it would be much more difficult. The text Is very uniform and close together, which is good for design, but this may make it difficult to use this manual practically.

4. It seems like it goes in a very linear order. I don't know if anything else was confusing because I was pretty confused the whole time

5. Yes! Yes yes yes. Although I may not know the ignition switch if I see it, I can sure as heck look at a picture and find the thing that matches.

6. It may be a little dense, but if that is all the information that the reader needs, then it's fine. I wouldn't recommend leaving things out to make it less wordy. Although, you may want to consider varying fonts, styles, or setup to make the reading less like a novel, and more user friendly.

7. Definitely. Although, if this is a point you want to stress, you may want to add something to your intro. Right now it's a little vague, and seems like filler. If you want to keep that information, I would suggest paring it down to more concise language, and amping up the importance of the walk around.

1.Do you feel you could succesfully perform this preflight? was it simple straightforward?

I think I would be able to preform this preflight if I knew what all of the mentioned components looked like and where (exactly) they were located. The instruction set was otherwise very precise.

2. Do you understand the purpose of the walk around?

Yes. I think that the first paragraph does a pretty good job letting the reader know that it is an important step in flying.

3. Is this list format easy to read? easy to follow along? easy to keep your place?

Yes. I think it is very logical, and easy to follow. I like that you have it set up as if you are walking around the plane counterclockwise. It may be easier to keep your place if it was broken up by some pictures or diagrams.

4. Other then knowing exactly what specific components look like, is anything unclear or confusing?

I think you have made it pretty clear. Pictures or diagrams are the only things that I think will make it more clear.

5. Would component pictures be helpful?

Yes, I think they would be very helpful. 6. Are the instructions to light or too dense?

I think they are just about right. There is enough information for someone who has never done prefight inspection to be able to preform it successfully.

7. Do you get the sense that this is an important step in operating an aircraft?

Yes, I think it gives the reader a sense of importance throughout. Especially with the "so you don't crash" comments!

8. Any other comments?

1. Concise and to the point. If I had this with me, and if I understood the terms, I think I'd know how to perform this.

2. Not entirely. You might want to add a note about safety. I know, most pilots should know this already, but just to be safe (and to CYA) you might add it in.

3. Dense. Could use more pictures. Pictures can really say a lot and save you wordspace. If you can manage pictures within the next couple of days, I think it'd be much better. It does seem a bit "dry" (hate to use that! really do!) as is. However, it's easy to follow along; it's not too wordy, and you explain what should happen at each stage, which is helpful. But as I said, pictures might help someone keep their place or understand where they are if they somehow lose their train of thought while following the list.

4. I would assume your audience knows what you're talking about, so no. It was to-the-point without dumbing it down for what I assume is your intended audience. I hope they know what the parts look like.

5. Yes. Definitely. And it'll break up the monotony.

6. See above comment. Concise, but the format itself makes it seem dry and dense.

7. Yes. The amount of steps alone make it seem that important.

8. Make sure if you use a phrase (like "walk around"), you use it throughout. You interchanged it with "walkthrough" at times, and it threw me off a bit.

By the way, not sure "Acquire an aircraft to fly" is necessarily required, as you're describing a walk around, so I feel it could be eliminated - it's kind of self-explanatory.

Are they supposed to turn off the lights before turning off the battery?

What's a "pitot tube"? Not sure if that's a misspelling, or just a term I don't know.

Good job adding the headings to pages where the instructions went onto the next page.

I think the note about the "Right Wing" section could be added onto the list for the "Left Wing."

I don't like the term "pointy thing." Considering the professional tone of the rest of it, you might consider a better term to describe the part.

Again, is "shimey" a term I'm not familiar with or a misspelling?

Make sure that if you're putting something in parentheses, it goes before the period at the end of the sentence (like this). (not like this.)

First of all, who is your target audience? Is it the "average Joe" or a beginner pilot? The most dificulty I had with this was the lingo and technical terms. It would be helpful if there was a list of key terms or a chart showing pitrues of the parts. While it may seem like overkill for even a beginner pilot, it will ensure that the right parts are being checked. Another way to enforce the importance of a check would be to simply state at the beginning how vital this procedure is. Pictures and graphics will help to breakup the text, add color and design, and clarify technical terms and descriptions. Over all, I might be able to figure out some of the steps for the check, but more info would be appricated.