Harney-Davila 1

MEMORANDUM
From: Isabel Harney-Davila
To: Carolyn Patterson
Subject: Assignment 5: Technical Summary Analysis
Date: December 8, 2017

INTRODUCTION
The assignment was written for the course ENGL 4092 Technical and Scientific Writing to
display my ability to effectively analyze a technical document by critically analyzing particular
elements of a technical document. I will be analyzing W3Schools, an instructional guide on
HTML and CSS coding, and review three of their stylistic elements found on the HTML5 Style
Guide and Coding Conventions page.

PURPOSE
The purpose of the site is to provide intermediate web developers instructions, explanations, and
engaging examples on how to write HTML, CSS, and JavaScript coding material.

AUDIENCE
Given how the instructions are displayed and written, it is evident that the writing was simplified
for a lay audience who may not have the background or the knowledge of the technical terms
used in coding and use visual examples to illustrate to the viewer how to code correctly and
provides user-engaging simulations to practice specific coding to reduce and/or alleviate any
errors the reader may make in their coding program.

STYLISTIC ELEMENTS
Hierarchy of Information
The organization of the page is arranged with a brief mentioning in the HTML Coding
Conventions section of how web developers, specifically those new to HTML/CSS
coding, that it is common for coders to be uncertain about coding style and the syntax in
using HTML. The following heading is a reminder to new-time users to be observant of
their typing as any misspellings and ill-formed close brackets will result in the code not
properly working as desired. The information then begins in the following sequence: how
to create an HTML document, how to close said HTML document, how to create and
close HTML elements, how spacing and the case of the letters should be consistent, how
to add images, the prescribed length of a code line, and notes on what not to do with
blank lines and indentation. With each subsection, a visual example of what the proper
code should look like accompanies the instructions to help the reader see what the code
should and should not look like.
 Harney-Davila 2

Headings
To help further organize and section the material to make it easier for readers, headings
of the topics are provided. Following the hierarchy of information, each heading in large,
bolded letters with explanations, in smaller texts in close proximity to its matching
heading. Any examples provided are done in smaller bolded text and each tag and
bracket is color coded for visual enhancement.

Sentence Structure
The length of each sentence and paragraph is rather brief with each paragraph containing
approximately two to three sentences. If further explanations are required then the
information is broken into bullet points for easy, short reading. Due to the audience being
rookies in web development, the structure of the sentence is less daunting and straight to
the point.

Figure 1 below illustrates the three structural elements found throughout W3Schools and why
they prove helpful in the overall design and format of the page.