Technical Communication

What is technical communication?

Technical communication is, at its core, a means of conveying technical information. It’s used primarily to make it easier to share a technical or complicated topic in an accessible way for a specific audience, especially in scientific and engineering fields. In the case of ARC, the topics include the mechanisms the teams design, the approach the teams take to programming the drones, and other engineering decisions made in the process of completing the tasks. The specific audience is the panel of judges (usually from engineering and/or aerospace backgrounds) reviewing the teams’ presentations.

Methods of technical communication

Technical communication can range from users’ manuals to technical papers to patents. For ARC, teams are expected to create and present a presentation that addresses the topics assigned.

Presentation content

When you’re sharing technical information with other people, you generally want to answer a few questions:

  • What are you doing? What are your goals?
  • How are you achieving your goals?
  • Why are you sharing this information?

Note that these questions are usually starting points - there are often other points to address as well! For ARC, the rulebook (in the appendices) includes a list of all the information we expect to see in your slides. The judges will be looking for each of these topics to be addressed, so make sure you check that you talk about everything!

Presentation style best practices

Technical communication isn’t just about what you say - it’s also about how you say it. In fact, how you get your information across is one of the more important parts of technical communication. If you have a lot of good information, but can’t effectively share it with other people, then it’s hard to make that information accessible.

Because ARC requires teams to submit and present a presentation, the following guidelines are best practices for presentations (both for the written component, on the slides, and the spoken component, when teams present to the judges).

Slides:

Here are some general guidelines for the slides that teams will submit as a PDF.

Do:

  • Make sure your words are legible!
  • All text should be large enough to read from a distance. We recommend a minimum font size of 28 points for slide titles and 16 points for all other text.
  • Use a legible font (Arial and Times New Roman are usually good starting points), and use the same font for all text.
  • The text should contrast with the background. We recommend using a white or pale slide background, with black or dark text.
  • Use bullet points, with phrases/sentence fragments that get your point across without being too long.
  • Include pictures! The easiest way to show what you’re explaining is to show it!
    • We recommend taking photos of your drone, mechanism, or any other objects against a plain-colored background (like a white wall, or a black cloth, for example), so the photos aren’t cluttered.
  • Label your pictures clearly.
    • Typed labels are easier to read than handwritten labels, when possible.
    • Make sure the font/arrows are large enough to read, have contrast with the background (like white text against a black background, instead of dark blue text against a black background), and clearly point at whatever you’re labeling.
  • Make sure the presentation slides can stand on their own - that is, make sure someone could pick up a copy of your presentation and understand what you want to say without you needing to explain it. There should be enough information for someone to understand the general points.
  • Submit as a PDF. This is required for ARC but is good for all documents. Formatting can change between different softwares and different computers, and some documents can’t even be opened on different computers (for example, Apple’s Slides can often only be opened on Mac computers, not computers running a Windows system).

Don’t:

  • Use full sentences or paragraphs on the slides. Too many words make slides busy and distracting, and your audience will be trying to read the paragraph instead of listening to what you’re saying, or skim over words and miss important points.
  • Make your slides hard to read. Examples include:
    • Making the font too small to read - both in the body of the text and any labels on the slide.
    • Using a patterned background. We recommend a plain white or pale-colored background, with no patterns or gradients.
    • Labelling too many things on the same photo. It’s okay to use several photos if necessary!

Speaking:

Here are some guidelines to follow when teams are actively speaking and presenting their slides:

Do:

  • Speak clearly.
  • Face the audience, not the slides. This helps avoid reading off the slides and shows confidence in what you’re saying.
  • Point out important things on the slides when they come up.
  • Are you talking about a specific part on your drone that’s in a picture? Great - it helps to point it out so the audience knows exactly what you’re talking about! If the picture is on the opposite side of the slide from where you are (for example, if you’re standing on the left of the slides and the picture is on the right-hand side of the slides), a teammate standing closer can point it out for you.
  • Make sure everyone gets a chance to talk! All of you have worked hard on your drone and your code - this is a chance to show off what you know! Make sure everyone gets about an equal amount of time to talk, and that everyone gets to talk about the technical work, decisions, and processes (instead of making one person do the intro/conclusion and nothing else, for example).

Don’t:

  • Read directly off the slides. It’s okay to use the information on the slides to help structure you want to say, but you should say more than what’s on the slides (aka use the bullet points as a jumping-off point for full sentences/paragraphs). Don’t just read the slides word-for-word.
  • Speak too fast or too quietly.
  • We strongly recommend practicing several times in front of an audience (such as a teacher or friend) and/or recording one of your practices! The audience can help tell you if parts of your presentation are hard to understand, and recording a practice presentation will let you see what you’re doing well and what you’ll want to improve.
  • We know not everyone has a loud speaking voice. If your voice is usually quiet, we recommend practicing a few times at a louder volume than usual to make sure the audience can hear you.
  • Distract from the person speaking if you’re not actively talking. This includes moving around a lot or talking to other teammates. You might be able to help the person speaking by pointing out important parts on the slide (if you’re close to a picture, for example). Ultimately you want to show interest in what your teammates are saying!

All of these best practices come down to the same basic concepts: You want to get across your information as clearly, effectively, efficiently, and professionally as possible. With these guidelines and several practice run-throughs, you should be off to a good start with your presentations!