Module 1: What is Technical Writing?

Time Table: 3 hours

Topic Learning Outcomes:

a. define technical writing and its importance in the workplace;
b. identify the characteristics of technical writing; and
c. compare and contrast technical writing to other types of writing

Enabling Activity

Instructions: Read the sample writing excerpts and answer the following questions about each
document:

 What is the subject?

 For whom was the document written?
 How is the document organized?
 How would you describe the writer’s (or writers’) style?
 What is the tone of the document?
Text 1.
Text 2.
Text 3.
 Deepen!

Definition of Technical Writing

Candace, an award-winning saxophonist, began teaching saxophone lessons to sixth

graders. For the first lesson, she drew a diagram of an alto sax and created a step-by-step guide
explaining how to take the instrument apart and reassemble it. When she saw how easily students
could follow her instructions, she was pleased that her words were helping them learn to do
something she enjoyed. Candace might have been surprised to learn that she was using technical
communication. Technical communication is communication done in the workplace. The message
usually involves a technical subject with a specific purpose and audience. The approach is
straightforward. Candace was giving practical information to a specific audience—information that
would enable her audience to take action. When she referred to the diagram and explained the
procedure aloud to her students, she was using technical communication. When she wrote the
instructions to accompany her diagram, she was using technical writing. Technical writing is writing
done in the workplace, although the workplace may be an office, a construction site, or a kitchen
table. The subject is usually technical, written carefully for a specific audience. The organization is
predictable and apparent, the style is concise, and the tone is objective and businesslike. Special
features may include visual elements to enhance the message. Technical documents can range from
a half-page memo announcing the winner of a sales competition to a 500-page research grant
proposal requesting money to test a new drug for treating obesity. The term technical writing
describes documents produced in areas such as business, science, social science, engineering, and
education. Sales catalogs, business letters, financial reports, standard operating procedures,
medical research studies, lab reports—all of these and more are examples of technical writing

Technical Writing Is Essential in the Workplace

Written communication is essential in the workplace for many reasons. It allows readers to
read and study at their convenience, easily pass along information to others, and keep a permanent
record for future reference. Regardless of the career you choose, you will write in the workplace.

According to Paul V. Anderson in Technical Communication: A Reader-Centered Approach,

conservative estimates suggest that you will spend at least 20 percent of your time writing in a
technical or business occupation. Professionals in engineering and technology careers spend as
much as 40 percent of their time writing. In today’s business environment, employees can easily be
overwhelmed by information overload, with information competing for their attention from every
direction—television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, e-mail, the Internet, CD-ROMs, and
DVDs. Because of information overload, you must be able to read documents quickly and efficiently,
understand them the first time you read them, and know that the information is accurate. Up-to-date
information provides companies with a competitive edge, speeding critical decision making and
allowing job specialization.

Technical writers who help companies manage the information overload are vital resources.
They understand that their readers must be able to skim or skip text and find important information
quickly. As a professional in great demand, the technical writer faces a challenging, exciting, and
rewarding future.

Different careers generate different kinds of reports: Nurses chart a patient’s medical
condition so that the next shift’s nurses can continue patient care. Police accident reports record
facts for later use in court. Chemists and engineers document procedures to comply with government
regulations. Accountants prepare annual client reports. Sales representatives write sales proposals.
Professors write grant proposals. Park rangers write safety precautions. Insurance claims adjusters
write incident reports. Travel agents design brochures. Public relations officers write news releases,
letters, and speeches.

When you write, you demonstrate your ability to analyze, solve problems, and understand
technical processes. For example, Matheus Cardoso, personnel director for Osgood Textile
Industries, impresses his supervisor and earns his colleagues’ respect when his proposal for tax-
deferred retirement plans is approved. On the other hand, the drafting crew at Stillman Manufacturing
is frustrated with Jeff Danelli’s instructions for installing wireless computing at the industrial site. The
crew must redraft plans because Jeff’s instructions are vague and incomplete. When writing is not
clear, the thinking behind the writing may not be clear either.

All careers rely on technical communication to get the job done. Technical writing is the great
connector—the written link—connecting technology to user, professional to client, colleague to
colleague, supervisor to employee, and individual to community. No matter what career you choose,
you can expect to read and compose e-mail, send accompanying attachments, give and receive
phone messages, and explain procedures.

In addition to work-related writing, the responsibilities of being a community and family

member require technical communication. The following list shows how Sergeant Thomas Hardy of
the Palmer City Police Department, father of two and concerned citizen, uses technical
communication on the job and at home.

◾ Colleagues: e-mail, collaborative incident reports

◾ Boy Scout den parents: fund-raiser announcements, directions to jamboree

◾ Victims: incident reports, investigative reports

◾ Legislators: letter and e-mail in favor of clean-air regulations

◾ Lawyers, court officials: depositions, testimonies, statements (possibly televised)

◾ State FBI office: letter of application and resume to advance career

◾ Community members: safety presentation at the local high school

◾ Supervisees: employee regulations, letters of reference, training procedures

◾ Local newspaper editor: letter thanking community for its help with jamboree, press release
announcing purchase of state-of-the-art police car
 Question to Ponder On.

Discuss the importance of technical writing in the workplace. How can writing affect your chances
for advancement?

Deepen!

Characteristics of Technical Writing

While technical writing shares some characteristics with other kinds of writing, it is also
significantly different. From the factual treatment of the subject to audience considerations, technical
writing is unique. Subject, audience, organization, style, tone, and special features all contribute to
the description of writing that is appropriate for the workplace.

Subject

The subject of each model at the beginning of this chapter is hearts, but the approach is
different in each document. The personal essay expresses a young person’s disappointment and
frustration at the behavior of a sibling, an experience with which you might be able to identify.

Expressive writing is created to convey personal observations or feelings. It relies on

personal experience for research. Expressive writing is likely to be the type with which you are most
familiar. The purpose of the research paper is not to relate personal experience, but to explain facts
gained from research. Writing to explain or inform is expository writing. Like expressive writing,
your academic career has probably required that you do some research writing. The excerpt from
the research paper at the beginning of the chapter involves the pros and cons of using tissue from
pigs for heart valve replacement in humans. While most academic research papers are factual
papers written on topics that are interesting to the reader, the technical research document is written
to fulfill a need. In technical writing, often the need is to share information or to have someone perform
an action. For example, a person may need to have heart surgery. Therefore, the technical document
fulfills the special needs of a specific reader. The writer of the technical document on page 4 targets
cardiac patients and explains the disease and its diagnosis. Technical writing may require library
research, scientific observation, or field research (research done in the field, especially through
surveys and interviews). Whether to inform or persuade, technical writing relies on data presented
with precision and accuracy.

Audience

The writer of the personal essay expects some understanding from his or her readers as
they share experiences. The writer also expresses his or her point of view. The writer of the research
paper may be interested in the subject and hopes that a reader will read the research paper for its
facts.

The technical writer, however, expects more from a very specific reader—one needing
information about mitral valve replacement and possessing some knowledge of the topic and its
specialized vocabulary. The technical writer not only expects the reader to understand the writing,
but also wants the reader to do something after reading—decide on surgical options. When you want
something specific from a reader, you must work hard as a writer to meet the reader’s needs.

In technical writing, the needs of the reader dictate every decision the writer makes.

Organization

The personal essay and research paper make standard use of a topic sentence and
transitional expressions, but you still need to read far into each document before the main point and
the organization become apparent.

However, the Sample Technical Document Excerpt uses headings to help you perceive the
organization at a single glance. Questions in the headings draw your attention to the information this
document provides even before you read it. Also, headings give you an opportunity to read only what
you want or need to read. When a person who has not been diagnosed wants to learn about
symptoms, the heading “How do I know that I have mitral valve prolapse?” allows his or her eye to
travel quickly to the information needed.

Style

The style of a document, the way an author uses words and sentences, usually gives the
audience an idea of the type of document they are reading.

For example, the personal essay is casual, almost conversational, and predictable for an
essay. The writer uses examples and some description.

The style of the research paper also is predictable for a research paper— formal and more
distant than the personal essay, with a thesis to clarify the purpose of the paper and documentation
to enhance credibility.

The technical document uses a simple, concise, straightforward style that is easily
understood. The long sentences are simply lists. The other sentences are short, and the sentence
order is predictable. There are no surprises for the reader. Jargon, the highly specialized language
of a particular discipline or technical field, is used.

Tone

Tone refers to emotional overtones—the way the words make a person feel.
It describes the emotional character of a document. The tone of a document also hints at the kind
of document the audience is reading. The tone of the personal essay is casual, dejected, and
agonized. The tone of the research paper is generally objective. The tone in technical writing is
best described as objective or businesslike.

The expressive nature of a personal essay can display a range of emotions— sadness,
excitement, irony, humor. The aim of research papers and technical documents is not to convey
emotion. In fact, emotion can get in the way of a technical document.

Readers of technical documents read for information, not for entertainment.

They read to learn something or to take action. Some people say that technical writing is
boring because of its lack of emotion. However, for the person needing or wanting that information,
the targeted audience, the topic is not boring.

Special Features

The Sample Technical Document Excerpt is the only document of the samples on pages
3–5 to use special features. Technical writers use special features such as boldface, italics, capital
letters, columns, underlining, and bulleted lists to draw readers’ attention to certain words and to
help important information stand out. Also, the use of graphics such as tables, graphs, pictures,
and diagrams helps the audience grasp complex information quickly.

More than the research paper or personal essay, the technical document relies on special
features. Technical documents require more visual effort if they are to grab and hold the readers’
attention. Writers use some of the following special features to make their documents more
effective for the audience:

◾ Font size and style—what size is readable for the targeted audience? How many styles are
appropriate?

◾ Numbered and/or bulleted lists—what kind of bullets?

◾ Columns—one, two, three, or more?

◾ Color—which colors? how much color?

◾ Graphs and tables—one-, two-, or three-dimensional? Horizontal or vertical? Number of

columns? Color or no color?

◾ Letterhead and logo—size? Location? Middle, upper left or right, or side?

◾ Photos and drawings—subject? Style? Black and white or color?

◾ Sidebars—what information to highlight? Where to place?

◾ Clip art—what purpose? To add humor, to set a tone, or to celebrate a season?

Technical writers face a double challenge. They not only must write with clear, accurate, and
specific words, but also must design the document to look inviting and attractive. Therefore, technical
writers are production artists—writing with precision to locate the best word and sentence structure
for the message and designing pages that combine a professional image with a user-friendly
approach. To do so, technical writers use a tool of their trade: desktop publishing software. The
software allows technical writers to craft documents that meet their readers’ needs.

Deepen!

How Technical Writing Compares to Other Writing

Technical writing has much in common with the academic writing you have experienced in
school. Technical writing also shares aspects of the literature you have read. The differences,
however, set technical writing apart from other writing that is familiar to you.

Technical Writing and Academic Writing

Academic writing (for example, personal essays, research papers, analyses, and arguments) is
the expository and persuasive writing (writing to convince others) done in academic circles. It
must be unified, coherent, and well organized. Technical writing also must be unified, coherent,
and well organized. Style and standard usage (the spoken and written English expected in
business communication) are important in academic and technical writing. Both types of writing rely
on a process of thinking and writing that takes place over a few hours, a few days, or several
weeks. The purpose is often the same—to inform or persuade. The difference between academic
writing and technical writing is in the presentation, audience, and approach. Academic writing
includes paragraphs—usually an introductory paragraph, paragraphs that develop a thesis (a
statement of purpose), and a concluding paragraph. Academic writing is written for an academic
audience—an instructor, classmates, or a group of interested scholars.

The purpose of academic writing is to expand on an idea or make observations about human
experience. For example, Francis Bacon’s essay entitled “On Reading” elaborates on the benefits
of reading. In “Two Views of the Mississippi,” Mark Twain observes that while a close study of the
river is necessary to reveal its dangers, that study also takes away the river’s mystery.

Technical writing also includes paragraphs. It, too, often begins with an introduction and closes
with a conclusion. But technical writing (with its headings, itemized lists, boldfaced type, and
graphics) looks different from academic writing. Technical writing is written for a specific audience.
The subject is generally technical, business-related, or scientifically oriented.
Generally, there is less flexibility in the subject matter, style, and tone. Often the intent is to clarify
and consolidate rather than expand.

Technical Writing and Imaginative Writing

Imaginative writing also adheres to principles of unity, coherence, and standard usage. Imaginative
writers let their ideas emerge and develop over time. However, compared to technical and
academic writing, imaginative writing is less academic and more artistic and creative.

Imaginative writing includes novels, short stories, drama, and poetry whose situations grow out of
fantasy or imagination. Events and people are fictional, although the themes may reveal universal
truths. Imaginative writing is often ambiguous, meaning that more than one interpretation is
possible and describing writing that means different things to different people. Imaginative writing
also requires the reader to draw inferences, which are judgments about the reading that the writer
does not make for the reader.

Technical writing should be unambiguous and direct. A work of literature may be rich because it
means different things to different readers. A reader might ponder the different meanings of the old
man’s voyage in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, but W. Earl Britton says “that the
primary, though not the sole, characteristic of technical and scientific writing lies in the effort of the
author to convey one and only one meaning in what he says” (114).

The meaning of a sentence in technical writing must be clear. “Turn there,” Mr. Ybarra said, and his
daughter turned left when he meant for her to turn right. The word there can have different
meanings to different people. However, “Turn right at Nottingham Road, the next paved road,” has
only one meaning.

Imaginative writing such as Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for

Death—He kindly stopped for me” often requires you to make inferences.

You do not expect to make inferences about technical writing. If the poet’s doctor gave the
following instructions to a nurse, what would happen?

Because I couldn’t remember the name of Ms. Dickinson’s medication, would you kindly call the
pharmacy and ask for the bottle that holds the blue and red pills? Poor Ms. Dickinson. She’d find
more comfort in the words of her poem than in the advice of her doctor.