Five Traits of Technical Wriitng

Five Traits of
Technical
Writing
Presented by:
Casero, Rona Jane
Castroverde, Joan Kyla
Torres, Ninette
According to Gerson (2013), the five
traits of technical writing are:
Clarity Conciseness Accessibility
Audience
Accuracy
recognition
1. Clarity 1. Clarity
~Among the five traits of technical writing, clarity is the most
important. Due to the lack of clarity in technical documents, several
impediments can occur. Certainly, clarity has the utmost importance in
technical writing, but the question now is: How can we achieve clarity
in our technical documents? Gerson (2013) suggested two ways to
attain it. The first one is through the Reporter’s Questions: who, what,
when, where,why, how.
This faulty memo, written by a principal to a newly hired faculty, emphasizes
1. Clarity
the importance of clarity.
If you are the one who has received the memo, most probably, you would ask the
following questions:
• When is the meeting? • Why is this meeting being held?
• Where is the meeting • What does the principal want to be
• Who is the meeting for? conveyed about enrollment
You can revise the previous memo by utilizing the Reporter’s Questions
1. Clarity
Checklist to achieve greater clarity.
1. Clarity
The second way to attain clarity, according to Gerson (2013), is through
specificity. The main target of effective technical writing is to convey
the same thing to multiple readers.When you answer the reporter’s
questions, you could fill a page with words. But remember, all words
are not equal. Words like several, some, few, many, often,
frequently, recently, orsubstantial will take up space on the page
and convey an impression. These words are connotative, meaning,
they will not mean the same thing to everyone.
2. Conciseness
1. Clarity
Successful technical writing should aid the reader in understanding the text,
notpresent hindrances to understanding. Read the paragraph below, taken from
an actualbusiness correspondence:
Do you understand this letter? Do you

recall what you read? Did you even finish
reading it? This paragraph fails to
communicate its message because it is too
wordy. In this example, conciseness
actually would aid clarity.
1. Clarity
Probably, you think that it is the reader’s responsibility to figure it out, but no, it is
the responsibility of the writer. Remember, you are writing a technical document,
which is a job requirement; you are not writing literature. Technical documents must
be concise. In contrast to creative writing, excellent technical writing uses short
words and short sentences.
• Conciseness Achieved through Short Words
As much as possible, avoid using multisyllabic words. Use one and two-syllable
words in your writing.
• Conciseness Achieved through Short Sentences
You can shorten a sentence by avoiding: redundancy, prepositional phrases, and
passive voice.
3. 1. Clarity
Accessibility in terms of the page
Accessibility
layout or the way the text looks
on the page.
Take a look at the following

paragraph:
1. Clarity
You can revise this paragraph by making the content accessible
through the following highlighting techniques:
• varied font type • varied font sizes

• numbered lists • bullets
• boldface text • italics
• underlining • white space,
• headings and subheadings • graphics (table and figures)
1. Clarity These highlighting
techniques can make your
text airy, open, and inviting.
A revised copy of the
information given in the
sample paragraph is shown
beside.
4. Audience1. Clarity
Effective technical writers understand that
Recognition
they can only attain clarity by recognizing
their audiences. Basically, you will write to
either High Tech Peers, Low Tech Peers,
or Lay Readers. Writing effectively to
these three types of audience levels
requires different techniques.
1. Clarity
High Tech Peers
Know just as much about a subject as you do. They have the same
education, same job title, same level of expertise, and the same years of
experience. For example, a university professor writing to another
university professor would be wriing High Tech to High Tech. When you
are writing to a high-tech peer, you can use acronyms and abbreviations,
usually without any definition. Teachers of professional education subjects
are familiar with PBA. But teachers in other fields would assume
that PBA meant Philippine Basketball Association, not Partnership
Building Activity.
1. Tech
Low Clarity
Peers
Who work inside your company know something about the subject. They may
not have the same education, job title, level of expertise, or years of experience. For
example, a university professor writing to a newly hired instructor would be writing
High Tech to Low Tech. Professors in the College of Education do not need their
high-tech peers to define PBL. If these professors write to one of their fellow faculty
in other Colleges, however, this high-tech term must be explained. PBL could be
parenthetically defined as Project-Based Learning, something professors in the
College of Education understand.
1. Clarity
Lay Readers
Are your customers. They are completely out of the loop.
For example, a university professor communicating with a student.
When a professor communicates with a student, he must refrain
from using abbreviations and acronyms. He must also define
important terminologies. Sometimes, lay readers also need follow-up
explanations to avoidconfusion completely.
1. Clarity
5. Accuracy
Successful technical writing must be accurate, whether grammatically,
electronically, etc. Your errors in technical writing can make you and your
school look bad. More importantly, your mistakes can lead not just to
embarrassment and misunderstandings but also to damages, injuries, and
lawsuits; hence you must deeply understand the importance of proofreading.
1. Clarity
You can apply the following proofreading techniques to ascertain the accuracy of
your technical documents.
• Use your computer’s spell check—remember, however, that a spell check will not
catch from if you mean form, too if you mean to, or accept if you mean except.
• Let it sit—for days or weeks. When your
document is icy, you are more objective about your own writing.
• Use peer evaluations—others will see the errors you miss.
• Read it aloud—sometimes, you can hear errors.
• Read it backward—then you read words out of context. You cannot anticipate the
next word
Thank
you for
listening!

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Five Traits of

Clarity Conciseness Accessibility

Do you understand this letter? Do you

Take a look at the following

• varied font type • varied font sizes

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