Description of Mechanism

A mechanism is generally defined as any object or system that has a working part or parts. Most often the term suggests tools, instruments, and machines. But other examples of mechanisms could be the human body and systems like the universe or a city, which is composed of parts that work together like parts of a machine. A technical man constantly works with mechanisms and always needs to understand them; what they do, what they look like, what parts they have, and how these parts work together.

This document describes how to write a mechanism description (also called an object description). A mechanism description is a short report designed to convey to the reader a technical understanding of the function, appearance, and operation of a particular object. In one or two sentences, give the reader a quick overview of these three elements, before you lauch into the details.

A mechanism description analyzes (that is, subdivides into components for futher scrutiny) an object in space. Among the rhetorical patterns you might employ are definition, partition, classification, and comparison/contrast. When nothing else seems appropriate, you can always fall back on the more-important-to-less-important strategy.

Don’t sell the object.
A technical writer is not required to persuade the reader that the object is wonderful, or valuable, or scary. But do mention the details. While you shouldn’t say an object is “adorably cute,” you could mention that it “resembles a cartoon cow wearing a pink ruffled skirt,” and let your readers make the value judgment for themselves.
Just describe it.
Provide whatever level of detail your reader requires. Know your audience. A child safety organization may require an extremely detailed description of a simple toy (along with a separate process description for the manufacture of each component), while a military recruitment office might require only a few paragraphs about a complex nuclear submarine.
Introduction

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