AI in Technical Communication & Writing

Think of the genAI as your intern. It is great for introductory work or overviews, brainstorming, initial research, and feedback. Just like an intern, the more structure and instructions you provide, the better the model can perform.

Remember, the models are built on a “best fit” approach, so the more parameters you provide in the prompt the better it can fit your response.  

AI outputs are a great way to get our brains thinking about a topic and angles of research. As we read the output, we can start to think, “What about this? What about that? Oh, I can research this.”  You might use it as a starting point for your work, but it is often too surface-level (not sub-topic specific) and too empty (generalized) to stand up as the thing you submit. You need to edit, expand, add details from your experience and knowledge, and refine the output to fit what you aim to say.

This approach allows you to maintain your unique writing "voice" while getting powerful suggestions for improvement. Of course, if you feed your intern samples of your writing with highly detailed prompts (think paragraphs of instructions), the output will require less editing. Either way, you need to do a lot of writing yourself to get the highest quality and most aligned content for your goals.

Remember to disclose your use of AI according to the assignment, publication, and professional association’s code of conduct.

Tip: The International Association of Business Communicators indicates that “The AI resources that I use should be human-led to create positive and transparent experiences that bring respect and instill trust in the communication profession. I must remain current on the professional opportunities and risks that AI tools present.” as a guiding ethical principle to follow.

They remind us that AI tools may be subject to errors and other technical issues, so all writers are responsible for the content and must independently fact-check and verify the outputs.

Crafting Better Prompts: The CAMP Framework

To get helpful feedback, you need to write a good prompt. A weak prompt gives more variability to the output since the model can "fit" more potential responses into the parameters. You should write at least one paragraph (~4 detailed sentences) as your prompt to improve the initial outputs and align with your expectations.

Use the CAMP framework to give the AI all the information it needs to be a useful partner.

• C - Context: Provide the background. What fields and types of perspectives should the output draw information? What is the assignment goals and objectives? What are your goals as the writer?
  • Think of an internship. What information would you need to know if your boss gave you a task? The more context you provide, the better fit the output will become.
• A - Audience: Describe your target audience for the output. What are goals will the reader want to complete with the information? What qualities can you use to describe them?
  • The audience information is more important when you are trying to draft communication for others. Knowing what the audience expects is part of creating useful and enjoyable content.
• M - Message: List the key words, topics, and style for the output that you expect the AI to include. What is the main point you want to communicate? What is the desired tone (e.g., "informative and neutral," "encouraging," "cautious")? What type of response are you looking for in the output?
  • The message information might include specific headings you need to cover. You can also add your purpose statement or topic sentences into your prompt to provide more structure to the response.
• P - Product: Explain what the output should look like or models it needs to follow. What are you creating? How do you want the output formatted?
  • Most models are trained on enough writing genres to follow the structure you name. For example, you can state you need a "Memo" or a "Proposal" and the output will typically align with the basic standards of that genre. If you don't specify a genre, the model typically defaults to an essay-like structure.

Example Prompts

Prompt for a study partner: Focusing on sources from technical communication, intercultural communication, and global communication, especially translation and localization contexts, answer each of these questions in this study guide from an upper-division college course on intercultural communication with bullet points to help me check my notes and expand my thinking with new examples and simple explanations of the answers

Prompt for brainstorming and early creativity: Give me a few title ideas for a research proposal that will explore how the intellectual dark web, traditional academic, and journalists contribute to a fractured public understanding of GenAI. The design is mixed method study with content analysis, surveys, and semi-structured interviews with the content creators.

Prompt for a decision-making task: You are a productivity and ergonomic workflow consultant helping a client furnish their new office space. The work is in a creative field so video editing, graphic design, and content creation are top tasks in addition to standard project management responsibilities. The first choice is to decide between a Mac and a PC systems. Provide an analysis to help me make a decision. It is between the Alienware 16 Gaming Laptop with Nvidia TX5060 and the Macbook Pro M4.

Prompt for a productivity and project management task: Create a scope with a loose script and creative brief for a video project with the [Stakeholder 1] and [Stakeholder 2] that will interview [Subjects] about projects within the [Organization's] missions. The video will be approximately 3 minutes in length with interview style footage of the [Person 1] and [Person 2] answer questions about the mission of their areas. The B-Roll should walk through the space to show students studying, checking out materials, and the construction areas. The key collaborators are [Name] for production, [Name] as Executive Producer, and [Name] as Project Lead in the Office of the Provost. The timeline is to have filming complete by October 1 and the rough cut of the video by October 7. Reference these pitch details: "The Pitch: A 3-minute video featuring interviews with [Name], [Name], and maybe a student or professor discussing the importance of [The Organization] will serve the community. Footage can showcase the updated furniture, spaces, and services that reflect and serve campus. It will also explain more about the construction and goals."

Prompt for social media and cross-media content: Take this video transcript and turn it into a 800 word blog post/article about my new position to post on LinkedIn. Maintain the voice and style from the transcript's writing. Focus the blog post on the career update with only subtle references to the YouTube channel. The audience and message is career professionals in my network.

Prompt for coding support and design: You are a coding assistant that specializes in HTML inline codes. Do not every use CSS-tied components within the outputs because we need all elements to appear across environments. For example, instead of a button class, we need to use an inline code such as <a href="#" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 10px 20px; background-color: #FCB84A; color: Black; font-weight: bold; font-size: large; border: none; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; text-align: center"> Watch on YouTube </a> Also, the colors of my organization fall into these codes: Gold #cfb87c. Dark Grey #565a5c. Light Grey HEX #a2a4a3. When I ask for a "gold" box, I want the code to include that correct hex.

Prompt for Research Help: What is the current discourse and feeling towards podcasting, YouTube, and other social media content within tenure and promotion paradigms for professors? How does it seems to be valued and what is the movement to include these works as legitimate forms of scholarly production. How as the concept of Intellectual Dark Web and public forums been applied to discussion about GenAI diffusion in US culture?

Try it yourself!

Use these prompt scenarios to write a detailed prompt that includes the Context, Audience, Message, and Product. 

1. For Editing Support: Act as a [CONTEXT] using the attached style guide. Assess the draft of my introduction to [MESSAGE] for clarity and readability to a [AUDIENCE]. Provide the feedback as [PRODUCT].
2. For Technical Concepts: Using frameworks for [CONTEXT], explain the [MESSAGE AND PRODUCT] of this concept description intended for [AUDIENCE]. Here is my attempt: [Paste your text here].
3. For Audience Appropriateness: Assess my language choices in this section on [CONTEXT] for an [AUDIENCE]. Where might word choice be improved for this specific audience? Provide [MESSAGE AND PRODUCT] in your assessment.