Technical Writing

Chapter 1
TECHNICAL WRITING
Technical Writing
- it is a communication in any field whose primary aim is to convey a particular
piece of information for a particular purpose to a particular readers.
- it is objective, clear and accurate, concise and unemotional in its presentation of
facts.
- special techniques that often uses are definitions, descriptions of mechanism,
descriptions of processes, classifications and interpretations.

THE NATURE OF TECHNICAL WRITING

Technical Writing Defined
Technical writing may be defined and described in the following manner (Mill &
Walter, 1981):
1. Technical writing is exposition about scientific subjects and about various
technical subjects associated with the sciences.
2. Technical writing is characterized by certain formal elements such as its scientific
and technical vocabulary, its use of graphical aids and its use of conventional report
forms.
3. Technical writing is ideally characterized by the maintenance of an attitude of
impartially and objectivity, by the extreme care to convey information accurately
and concisely, and by the absence of any attempt to arouse emotion.
4. Technical writing is writing in which there is a relatively high concentration of
certain complex and important writing techniques in particular, definition,
description of mechanism, description of a process, classification and interpretation.

Purpose of Technical Writing

Technical writing has three important purposes:
1. It gives information in decision making and task accomplishments.
2. It analyzes events and their implications, the failure of systems.
3. It persuades and influences decision making.
Subject Matter of Technical Writing
All formal aspects of professional areas, data in business, sciences, industries,
technology and engineering are the subject matter of technical writing.

Characteristics of Technical Writing

1. Technical writing information flow easily and clearly.
2. Technical writing emphasizes objective reporting with no room for different
interpretations, sentences structure and paragraph organization, declarative
sentences with third-person pronouns.
3. Technical writing emphasizes factual data, statistics and measurable elements.
Basic Principles of Good Technical Writing
To achieve this, writers should focus their craft on five basic principles of good
technical writing, namely:
1. Writers should always have in mind a specific reader, real or imaginary, when
writing their report and always assume that they are intelligent but uninformed.
2. They should decide on their exact purpose in writing.
3. They should use simple, concrete and familiar language.
4. They should check or review their writing from time to time.
5. They should make the paper as neat and as attractive as possible.