Customer-focused documents:- Engineers´ use of visuals to support product descriptions

Engineers find obvious self-expression or any hint of emotive language in writing for design documentation anathema. They strive for objective-like expression, and are particularly vigilant about usage that might convey personal stance or partiality. However, such attitudes hold little sway in engineers´ choice of visuals to accompany their writing, especially in documentation intended for external audiences, mainly product data sheets and proposals. Five thematic categories for making judgments about visuals for customer-focused documents are suggested: cultural and ideological; functional; political; discoursal-attitudinal; and narrative.