Definition and Nature of Technical Writing What is Technical Writing?

According to Mills and Walter, technical writing is defined as follows: A. Technical Writing is about scientific subjects and about various technical subjects associated with the sciences. B. Technical Writing is characterized by certain formal elements, such as its scientific and technical vocabulary use of gra hic aids, and its use old conventional re ort forms. !. Technical Writing is ideally characterized by the maintenance of an attitude of im artiality and objectivity, by e"treme care to convey information accurately and concisely, and by the absence of any attem t to arouse emotion. #. Technical Writing is writing in which there is relatively high concentration of certain com le" and im ortant writing techni$ues, in articular descri tion of mechanisms, descri tion of rocess, definition, classification, and inter retation. Properties of Technical Writing %. &ubject Matter is an essential element in technical re ort writing. 'rocesses, theories, or olicies are just some of the usual subject matter in technical writing. (. Audience is a ro erty which ertains to a articular reader of a technical literature. ). *" ression refers to writing and reading which convey the modes of e" ression of a technical wor+. ,. &tyle shows how the material is written. A technical writer uses clear, s ecific oint of view, objective, im artial, and unemotional style in writing. -. Arrangement of Materials de icts how the ideas should be organized in chronological, s atial or logical order, from general to s ecific or s ecific to general, and use illustrations to resent the information. Basic Prinicples of Technical Writing %. Always have in mind a s ecific reader, real or imaginary, when you are writing a re ort, and always assume that he is intelligent, but uninformed. (. Before you start to write, always decide what the e"act ur ose of your re ort is, and ma+e sure that every aragra h, every sentence, every word, ma+es a clear contribution to that ur ose. ). .se language that is sim le, concrete and familiar.

,. At the beginning and end of every section of your re ort, chec+ your writing according to this rinci le: /First you tell the reader what youre going to tell him and then you tell him what youve told him -. Ma+e your re ort attractive.

Styles of Technical Writing Be direct and forceful. Simplicity The hrase 0" can be considered to be a y0 is best re laced by 0" is li+e a y.0 The construction 0it is the " that frobs the y0 should be written as 0the " frobs the y.0 1n the same vein, 0we refer to " as frobbing y0 should be 0we say that " frobs y.0 Strengthening Abstract nouns and gerundives are wea+er than gerunds2 artici les, which are in turn wea+er than verbs. Try to strengthen wea+ constructs. 3or e"am le, 04ohn saw the eating of the izza0 should be written as 04ohn saw them eat the izza.0 0Association with igs leads to filth0 should be 01f you lie down with igs, you get u filthy.0 Weak adjectives and adver s Many adjectives and adverbs add little to the sense of a sentence. 1t is often wise to remove the adjectives 0mere,0 0basic,0 0essential,0 0major0 and 0fundamental,0 as well as their adverbial forms. &ome adjectives are advertisements without substance. .nless you e" lain what you mean, don5t use words li+e 0advanced,0 0 owerful,0 0so histicated,0 0fle"ible,0 or 0s ecial.0 Weak ver s !ertain verbs, notably 0ma+e,0 0do,0 0is,0 0can,0 and 0 erform,0 are often used in situations where a much better verb can be found. 3or e"am le, 0The riest did a chec+ after the enitent made his confession0 is best recast as 0The riest chec+ed after the enitent confessed.0 6i+ewise, 01 can5t ma+e a determination on the basis of one sym tom0 should be written as 01 can5t base a determination on one sym tom,0 or, even better, 01 can5t determine it from one sym tom.0 1f you find that most of your meaning is in your nouns, and very little is in your verbs, you should be using stronger verbs. A sym tom is e"cessive use of 0is0 and 0are.0 &imilarly, if an action ha ens, don5t say 0A can erform B07 instead, say 0A erforms B0. Dou le negatives

8emove double negatives. 8e lace 0not dissimilar to0 with 0similar to0. 8e lace 0no different from0 with 0similar to0 or 0the same as0. 1t is sometimes better to re lace 0not less than0 with 0greater than or e$ual to0, even though the re lacement is wordier. !egister #on5t be too informal. Avoid terms li+e 0lots of0 or 0groovy0. 9ou should be more recise and more formal. Self"heckling #on5t contradict yourself within the same sentence in which you ma+e a ositive statement. Wait until a later sentence. Be clear. Tense# mood# and voice Tense: .se the resent tense unless there is overwhelming need to use something else. 1f necessary, you can use the erfect tense: 0others have shown0. #on5t use sim le ast: 0others showed0. Mood: .se indicative instead of im erative :0"0 or 0we see "0 instead of 0note that "0 or 0recall that "0;, which forces the reader to ta+e some action. 0"0 actually turns out to be stronger in most cases. Also, avoid 0would07 0is0 is usually better. <oice: Try to avoid the assive voice. Active is clearer and more direct. $atin a reviations

1t is often better to use 0for e"am le0 and 0that is0 instead of 0e. g.0 and 0i. e.0 . 6i+ewise, 0and so forth0 is better than 0etc.0 . Technical terminology When you have introduced a technical term for some conce t, always use recisely the same term every time you need that conce t. #o not introduce synonyms, with the sole e"ce tion that you may introduce a standard abbreviation. 1t hel s to em olden the term when you define it so the reader can easily find the definition. That and %hich 1 find it useful to distinguish between 0that0 and 0which.0 1f the subordinate clause hel s to define the noun, that is, is essential and could not be removed, then it is a ro riate to use 0that0 and to use no commas to se arate the clause. =ften the word 0that0 serves as the direct object of the subordinate clause. 1n this case, the word 0that0 may often be discarded. 1f the subordinate clause adds e"tra information of a non>defining nature, that is, is arenthetical and could be removed, it is a ro riate to use 0which0 and to se arate the subordinate clause with commas.

Demonstrative adjectives The words 0this0, 0these0, and 0the same0 always re$uire a noun. *"am le: 0This results in the same0 could be written as 0this techni$ue results in great savings.0 &imilarly, 0it0, 0that0, and 0they0 should always have a clear antecedent. Word choice Try to choose the most s ecific word that covers your subject. 3or instance, 0Welshman0 is more s ecific than 0*uro ean0, which is more s ecific than 0 erson0, which is more s ecific than 0mammal.0 &ome s ecific suggestions:

#on5t confuse 0legal0 :in com liance with the law; with 0valid0 :in com liance with some constraint;. #on5t confuse 0its0 : ossessive form of 0it0; with 0it5s0 :contraction for 0it is0;. Write 0because0 instead of 0as0 if you are showing a causal relationshi . #on5t say 0issue0 when you mean 0 roblem0 or 0difficulty0. #on5t say 0as such0 when you mean 0therefore0 or 0so0. Write 0different from0 or even 0different to0 instead of 0different than0, which is unacce table. #on5t use 0while0 or 0meanwhile0, which osition events in a time line, to mean 0but0, 0however0, 0although0, or 0whereas0.

&omparisons #on5t say that something is 0better0, 0faster0, or greater in any fashion unless you e" licitly indicate against what you are com aring it. 3or instance, don5t say 0The synta" of this language ma+es it easier to read.0 Be grammatical. &itations !itations should be considered arenthetical :even though the arentheses may be s$uare brac+ets;, and must be grammatically se arate from the sentence. When you introduce an idea that is based on someone else5s wor+, the reference that you cite should be 0 rimary0: it should re resent the first ublished use of that idea, not a mention of that idea in a secondary source such as Wi+i edia. Plurals

!ertain words derived from ?ree+ and 6atin have irregular lurals: criterion @ criteria7 medium @ media7 datum @ data. The word 0data0 as a singular noun is gaining acce tance. The other lurals should never be used where a singular form is wanted. Punctuation 'unctuation is never receded by s aces, e"ce t for the dash, which should most li+ely be avoided anyhow, and the left arenthesis. 'unctuation is always followed by one s ace, e"ce t for the left arenthesis, which has no s aces, the eriod at the end of a sentence, which has two s aces, and the colon, which sometimes has two s aces. !olons are followed by two s aces and a ca ital letter if what follows is a clause7 they are followed by one s ace and a lower case letter otherwise. A clause is a sentence or fragment that has both subject and verb. 1nde endent clauses within the same sentence are se arated by semicolons. :*"am le: 01 came to my senses7 the dawn had risen.0 ; #e endent clauses :those introduced by conjunctions, li+e 0since,0 0and,0 or 0but0 ; are introduced by commas. #o not se arate the subject and verb of a clause by a comma. 1f $uoted te"t needs to end with unctuation, lace the unctuation inside the $uotes unless the $uoted te"t is a technical term and the unctuation must not be mista+en as art of that term. #o not ut any unctuation at the end of a section heading unless the heading constitutes an entire sentence. T%o"%ord adjectives Two>word adjectives re$uire a hy hen between the two words. An adverb followed by an adjective need not have a hy hen :but be consistent;. Aever lace a hy hen between an adjective and its noun. 'rticles near a reviations

1f a conce t is abbreviated, for e"am le, A! for 0abbreviated conce t,0 then when A! is used as a noun, it re$uires no article, but when it is used as an adjective, it re$uires an article if one would be needed without A!. 3or e"am le, 0A!0 re$uires no article, but 0the A! method0 does re$uire an article. A heading, such as 0A! structure0, does not re$uire an article. This rule is natural for native s ea+ers of *nglish, but very difficult for some others. (ther hints !oadmaps 9ou don5t need to say that &ection % does ", &ection ( shows y, and so forth. The reader can refer to the table of contents. )n terms of The hrase 0in terms of "0 should only be used if " is an area of discourse that has terms :that is, a s ecial vocabulary; and if the following discussion actually uses those terms. 1 refer to avoid the hrase altogether. *tc.

6ists should not be terminated by 0etc.0 . Most lists start with 0for e"am le,0 so there is no oint in indicating that more e"am les e"ist. +er ing nouns &ome nouns may be used as verbs, li+e 0to icture a scene.0 Ma+ing nouns into verbs can lead to hideous barbarisms, however. 3or e"am le, 0we have no more s ace to office eo le,0 0his resence im acts us severely,0 and 0to dialogue with someone.0 The same discussion a lies to adjectives used as nouns, and more generally, to words being used ina ro riately. &uch misuse is ty ical of the intentional obscurity of bureaucratic jargon. ,endered pronouns ?endered ronouns can be difficult to remove, but the effort is worthwhile. =ften 0his0 or 0her0 can be re laced by 0the0 or 0a ersonal0 or 0an individual.0 .nfortunately, re lacement by 0one0 sounds strange. To say 0s2he0 or to re lace 0man0 by 0 erson0 is still grating to most readers, although this language is becoming more acce table. -etapotamy .changing horses in midstream/ Try not to brea+ arallel structures by deviating from syntactic arallelism. 3or e"am le, don5t write: 01t seems good, it sounds good, and its a earance is retty.0 6i+ewise, don5t switch between active and assive when you can ma+e two halves of a thought corres ond. 3or e"am le, don5t say: 0'ainting houses reserves them, and houses are also beautified by shrubbery.0 1nstead, say: 0'ainting houses reserves them and shrubbery beautifies them.0 Parenthetical remarks Try to avoid arenthetical remar+s. 1f they are worth ma+ing, they are most li+ely worth lacing in regular sentences.

Technical and Non"Technical Writing0 ' &omparison and &ontrast Writing can be grou ed into five basic ty es: technical, creative, e" ressive, e" ository, and ersuasive. To understand technical writing, it may hel to com are it to other ty es. Technical Writing conveys s ecific information about technical subject to a s ecific audience for a s ecific ur ose. &reative Writing is fiction> oetry, short stories, lays, and novels>and is totally different from technical writing. *1pressive Writing is a subjective res onse to a ersonal e" erience>journals and diaries>whereas technical writing might be objective observations of a wor+>related e" erience or research.

*1pository Writing /e" osesB a to ic analytically and objectively, such as news re orts. 6i+e technical writing, the goal of e" ository writing is to e" lain or reveal +nowledge, but e" ository writing does not necessarily e" ect a res onse or action from the reader. Persuasive %riting de ends on emotional a motivate to action. eal. 1ts goal is to change attitudes or

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!ole of a technical %riter What Technical Writers #o Technical writers, also called technical communicators, roduce instruction manuals and other su orting documents to communicate com le" and technical information more easily. They also develo , gather, and disseminate technical information among customers, designers, and manufacturers. Wor+ *nvironment Most technical writers wor+ full time in offices. Although technical writers wor+ in a variety of industries, they are concentrated in the com uter and engineering industries. Cow to Become a Technical Writer A college degree is usually re$uired for a osition as a technical writer. 1n addition, e" erience with a technical subject, such as com uter science, Web design, or engineering, is im ortant.