Monthly activity reports are due the second business day of the following month. Notice that the explanation presents the key features of the monthly activity report as well as its intended audience and deadline. A report you turn in to your boss at the end of the month explaining your activities for the month. An analogy is a comparison that relates an unfamiliar concept to a familiar one and explains what the similarity is. As noted earlier in this book, users best understand new information when you present it in terms of something they already know.
Users easily store and retrieve the new information.
As a result, users are more likely to retain and use the information. The better you understand your users, the more relevant the analogies you can choose. The ground explains how the two concepts are similar. The use of a ground distinguishes analogies in technical communication from those in fiction, which merely state the comparison. As Newby and Stepich also suggest, you should use a visual to reinforce analogies when appropriate.