TECHNICAL AND BUSINESS WRITING

The link for good workplace/professional

communication
By: Aaminah Hassan
Email: aaminah.hassan@nust.ceme.edu.com
Why should you take these classes?

• They (Students) don’t feel ready to write for the work

world

Courses in Technical writing can help you make the

transition from academic writing to workplace writing.

 By studying and producing the kinds of documents used

on the job, you will develop the communication skills
valued by employers.
Background

• Renaissance (14-16 Century) Age of Reason (I8th

century)

• The field of technical communication grew during

the Industrial Revolution(18-mid 19th century)
• This increased the need to instruct people how to use the
more and more complex machines that were being
invented and used
• “Technical” or “Business” writing is very different from
“Academic” writing. Each has its unique purpose and
format to follow.
Technical versus Academic
• Criteria for Evaluation Criteria for Evaluation

 Clear and simple

 Depth, logic, clarity,
organization
unity and grammar
 Visually appealing
and easy to follow.
Technical Writing VS Creative writing
What Technical Writing is Not?
• Technical writing is not :

literature
it’s neither prose which recounts the fictional tales of
characters nor poetry which expresses deeply felt
Technical writing is neither an expressive essay narrating
an occurrence
Technical writing is not journalism, written to report the
news.
Technical writing does not focus on poetic images,
describe personal experiences, or report who won the
basketball game.
What Is Technical Writing?
Instead, technical writing is:

an instructional manual for repairing machinery

a memo listing meeting agendas
a letter from a vendor to a client
 a recommendation report proposing a new computer
system
Technical and Business Writing
 Technical writing deals with science, engineering and technology.
Typical documents include specifications, manuals, data sheets,
research papers, field reports and release notes.

 Technical writing is generally aimed at an audience with a base

knowledge of the technical subject you are writing about, or at least a
desire to understand the subject in depth.

 As a result, technical writing can go deeper into detail and introduce

and use jargon specific to the function you are writing for. You're also
typically aiming to provide a comprehensive reference in the subject
matter.
Technical and Business Writing
• Business writing is just about any other kind of writing people do at
work. It includes reports, emails, proposals, white papers, minutes,
business cases, letters, copywriting, bids and tenders.

• In business writing you assume that you are writing for an audience
who understand the industry or function at a management level but
will be more interested in the broader impact of the topic (strategic,
financial, regulatory, competitive, customer) than the detail of the topic
itself.

• As a result you will generally use much less jargon, choose details
with care and aim to provide clarity on the topic and on why it is
important in a commercial context.
TRAVEL BROCHURE
 Technical writing has unique
characteristics and has specific
audiences.
 Why the Differences?

Time management
Variety of Readers
Reading for different reasons
“Differences”

Business leaders don’t have the time in their day to

sift through many pages, searching for the
information they need to know.
“Differences”

Technical writing will have many different readers, reading different

parts of the work.
- a project manager, financial officer, CEO, and supervisor might
all read parts that pertain to their jobs, then discuss as a team the merits
of the proposal.
 Characteristics of Technical Writing

Clear, Concise and simply organized.

Repetitive in nature.
Highly defined structure/format.

• Examples: Lab reports, memos, business letters,

technical reports, and proposals
7 Principles of Communication
 Compare These Statements:
 Looking into  The sun set in the
the azure blue sky west.
one could see the
golden orb of sun
slip gently beneath
the western sky.
Notice that the technical description is

Clarity
 Conciseness
 Coherence.

These three C’s are trademarks of technical

writing
In class activity: Presentation On stage
• You all must have read a user manual for any Electronic Gadget.
Compare the user manual with a passage from one of your favorite
novels using the following categories:
• Come up on the stage to present your ideas to the class.

• Content, Organization, Layout, Intended Audience, Purpose, Tone.

• You should notice a distinct difference in each of the categories,

leading to how each is distinct in its clarity, coherence, and
conciseness.
Try revising it so that it adheres to the 7 Cs

Present your answers on the stage

• When workloads increase to a level requiring hours in excess of

an employee’s regular duty assignment, and when such work is
estimated to require a full shift of eight (8) hours or more on
two (2) or more consecutive days, even though unscheduled
days intervene, an employee’s tour of duty shall be altered so
as to include the hours when such work must be done, unless
an adverse impact would result from such employee’s absence
from his previously scheduled assignment.
Style in Technical Writing
Technical writing has following considerations.

 Sentence structure
 Word length
 Word choice
 Word order

These are choices we make without being conscious of it.

These decisions shape the way we express ourselves
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
• While variety makes for interesting writing, too much of it
can also reduce clarity and precision

• Technical writing tends to use simple sentence structures

more often than the other types.
• simple does not necessarily mean “simplistic,” short, or
lacking in density.
LENGTH
• The other consideration for precise writing is length.
• Avoid having too many long sentences because they take
longer to read and are often more complex

• The goal is to aim for an average of around 20 to 30

words per sentence.

• Reserve the short sentences for main points and use

longer sentences for supporting points that clarify or
explain cause and effect relationships
CLARITY
• Technical writing is precise writing. Vague, overly general,
hyperbolic or subjective/ambiguous terms are simply not
appropriate in this genre

• Choose words that most precisely, concisely, and

accurately convey your point.
CLARITY

1. Replace abstract nouns with verbs.

Verbs, more than nouns, help convey ideas concisely, so
where possible, avoid using nouns derived from verbs.
Often these abstract nouns end in –tion and –ment.

2. Prefer short words to long words and phrases.

The goal is to communicate directly and plainly so use

short, direct words whenever possible. In other words, don’t
use long words or phrases when short ones will do
CLARITY
Abstract Noun Verb
acquisition acquire
analysis analyze
recommendation recommend
observation observe
application apply
confirmation confirm
development develop
ability able, can
assessment assess
SHORT EXPRESSIONS
Long Short
cognizant; be cognizant of aware, know
commence; commencement begin, beginning
utilize; utilization use (v), use (n)
inquire; make an inquiry ask
finalize; finalization complete, end
afford an opportunity to permit, allow
at this point in time now, currently
due to the fact that because, due to
has the ability to can
AVOID CLICHES
• Clichés are expressions that you have probably heard
and used hundreds of times. They are over-used
expressions that have largely lost their meaning and
impact.

Clichés Alternatives
as plain as day plainly, obvious, clear
ballpark figure about, approximately
few and far between rare, infrequent
 AVOID OVERUSING INTENSIFIERS
• Avoid overusing intensifiers like “extremely,” and avoid absolutes like
“never, always, all, none” as these are almost never accurate.

Overused Intensifiers
absolutely actually assuredly certainly clearly completely
considerabl fundamenta
definitely effectively extremely drastically
y lly
highly in fact incredibly inevitably indeed interestingly
markedly naturally of course particularly significantly surely
tremendous
totally utterly very really remarkably
ly
Tone- Expression of an underlying
attitude that can be:

Casual Enthusiastic
Objective Serious
Persuasive Authoritative
Formal/Informal Friendly

Always present your material in a positive light.

Never let the negative be presented.
Language Style: FORMALITY/ INFORMALITY
• Informal: I got a brochure.
• Formal: I have received a brochure.

• Informal: See if they can . ..

• Formal: If you have time, would you please call them and ask if they
could . . .

• Informal: Lunch is no problem.

• Formal: They would be pleased to cater a lunch.

• Informal: They haven't gotten back to me.

• Formal: They haven't returned my call.

• Informal: You follow up?

• Formal: Would you be able to contact them and determine what they
need?
Contd.
• Informal (ad): A college degree is a must.
• Formal: A college degree is an essential requirement.

• Informal: (ad) E-mail resume to . . .

• Formal: Please e-mail your resume

• Informal: a buffet lunch would be OK.

• Formal : a buffet lunch would be fine.

• Informal : Any other problems? Let me know.

• Formal : If you have any other problems you would like to discuss, p
lease let me know
Sentence Tips
 Place the main point at the beginning of the sentence

Don’t make the reader work to

find it.

Use parallel structure

UNPARALLEL STRUCTURES

• He likes to eat in restaurants and visiting museums.

• She likes to look but not listening.
• My friends never judge me by my words or what I did.
Conciseness Tips
Avoid the repeated use of pronouns, this confuses
the reader. Only use a pronoun immediately
following the noun it represents. Try to use
specific nouns such as the person’s name, or the
specific piece of equipment, etc.
 Conciseness Tips
Focus on
strong verbs!
• Assess • Develop
• Classify • Eliminate
• Compute • Require
Conciseness Tips
• Shorten wordy phrases
• Replace long words with short
ones
• Leave out clichés
• Cut out extra words that are
redundant
Language Use Tips
• Distinguish facts from opinions

• Include supportive statements when necessary

• Choose your words carefully

• Avoid using words like “always” and “never”—

these box the writer in and create finality. They
make the sweeping statements neglecting all other
possibilities.
 Active Voice
• Active voice—emphasizes the doer or the subject

“Joe delivered the pizza within the specified time frame.”

Almost all technical writing should be done in the active

voice, except lab reports.
EXAMPLE:
• Active example: Jane wrote the technical blog post.
• Active example: The web application includes a new
programming language.

• Passive example: The technical blog post was written by

Jane.
• Passive example: A new programming language was
included in the web application.
Example:
• Depending on the situation, Passive Voice can be
necessary. Diplomacy and neutrality are two effective tips
for using Passive Voice to avoid accusing others in tense
situations.

For example, instead of using this Active Voice sentence:

• “The team members made costly mistakes.”

• The previous sentence can be written in Passive Voice:

• “Costly mistakes were made.”
ACTIVE/ PASSIVE
Active Passive

S →V →O S ←V ←O

Subject → actively does the action Subject ← passively receives the

of the verb → to the object of the action of the verb ← from the
sentence object

Subject ← is acted upon ← by the

Subject → acts → on object
object
Active Voice helps:
• Create less wordy sentences

• Places emphasis on the subject—e.g.

company or person’s name
 Technical Writing
• Provides clear communication in
the workplace

• Has unique formats and a specific

style of writing

• Creates clarity, conciseness and

coherence in writing
IN CLASS ACTIVITY
• Write a technical description of one of the following:

• The course registration process at the university