dense presentation in technical writing

• High-impact business writing
• Effective email writing
• Bid, tender and sales-proposal writing

Technical writing

• Writing for customer service

• Customer-service writing
• Effective report writing

How to fix the 7 most common glitches in technical writing

9 minute read

Most of us are technical writers at some point or other, even if we don’t realise it.

You may be quite happy with the label if you write test reports or standard operating procedures. But you can have a very different role and still sometimes need to write technical things: a design brief, an employee handbook or even guidance on how to use the new office photocopier. If your document is complex, and someone needs to be able to follow and act on it, then it’s technical writing.

The fact that many people don’t realise that what they’re writing is technical may partly explain why so many of these types of documents fall short. Fortunately, those shortcomings tend to fall into just a few categories, and they’re easy to fix. So let’s look at some of the most common difficulties technical writers (and their readers) face – and how to fix them.

1. Messy structure

Many technical documents confuse readers and fail to achieve their aims because they were not planned properly to begin with.

This lack of planning means that documents, especially longer ones, end up structured in an illogical fashion. Things are hard to find in the text, sections don’t follow naturally from each other, cross-references are a mess, and so on. At best, this frustrates readers; at worst, it makes the document virtually unusable.

How to fix it:

Before you begin writing at all, think carefully about the overall layout of the document. Creating a simple outline will help you structure it appropriately and optimally.

And when you’ve written the text, but before you publish it, have it carefully reviewed – preferably by an editor or by a colleague who will read it closely . They may suggest improvements to the document’s structure, especially if you ask them to keep this in mind.

The structure of the finished document should seem logical and intuitive to its intended readers.

2. Too much jargon

Who your readers are will inform the content and style of your text. So it’s important to keep them in mind throughout the writing process.

If you’re writing something for specialist readers, some jargon and technical language is fine; it may even be essential. If you’re writing for a general audience or people who actually specialise in a different area, be careful – what’s familiar and self-evident to you may not be so to them.

One manager who commissioned a technical-writing course from Emphasis described how different specialists may ‘talk different languages’. You need to ensure that nothing gets lost in translation.

Take a few moments to identify and visualise your readers. Then consider what level and type of technicality in the writing will be appropriate for them – and what won’t be.

Those acronyms that roll off your tongue because you use them every day – are they well known elsewhere? Unless you’re sure your readers will know all the technical terms you plan to use, it’s a good idea to include a glossary or a list of abbreviations, or both, at the start of a text.

Another strategy is to explain those items in parentheses or footnotes when they first appear. But if you find yourself doing this a lot, you should probably just add a glossary instead.

3. Poor punctuation

All writers have a passing knowledge of the main set of punctuation marks. Very few, however, outside of professional authors and editors, have a thorough grasp of how each one works.

The use of full stops and question marks is painless enough, but beyond that there is widespread difficulty with getting the details right . When exactly are commas required? Which dashes go where? When should you use hyphens? What’s going on with colons and semicolons?

Find a good, modern guide to punctuation and read it carefully until you have a firm grasp of each mark’s use and misuse. Pay particular attention to any area you have trouble with. If certain mistakes or difficulties crop up repeatedly in your company’s documents, address them in your style guide (see next item below).

4. Inconsistency

Technical writing should convey coherent ideas and trains of thought. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. And that’s especially true when a document is written over a period of time, created by multiple authors, or updated piecemeal without due regard for overall consistency and readability.

These circumstances are common and can result in choppiness in the document’s style, layout, tone, point of view, and so on. For example, the text may address readers as ‘you’ in one paragraph and as ‘designers’ in the next. The tone may switch abruptly from warm and chatty to scientific. This can be disconcerting, if not downright confusing.

If you’re making changes to an existing document, get a sense of the surrounding context – including things like tone and tense. Try to align your changes with these, so that new material is incorporated seamlessly (or, if necessary, signposted appropriately).

Jumps in tone or tense can be overlooked even more easily than typos and grammatical errors. The sense is clear to the writer (or writers), so they don’t notice things that will jar for the reader. These jumps must therefore be looked for specifically.

Create a company style guide and make sure all your writers have easy access to it and are encouraged to consult it. This will do wonders for the consistency of your documents, both internal and external.

Ensure that the guide not only includes vocabulary items but also addresses things like readership, typography, company aims, and brand voice and identity. A style guide is a living document, so put a system in place for proposing and incorporating additions and revisions to it.

5. Too much abstraction

People writing in a formal or semi-formal context often go overboard in an effort to make their prose sound proper and elevated. Their writing, as a result, can end up very abstract and noun-heavy. ‘The achievement of good performance’ may sound fancy, but it’s a mouthful compared to ‘performing well’, and it’s really no more impressive than the plain-language option. It’s also less clear.

Abstractions like this are unnecessary and, as they accumulate, make your prose turgid, verbose, and tiring to read. They can also make it ambiguous: if you describe a system as having ‘enhanced functionality’, do you mean it has more functions or that it works better?

Try to replace abstract, noun-heavy phrases with strong, straightforward verbs. This will make your points more concise and intelligible. ‘The carrying out of tests’ can become ‘carrying out tests’, or, better still, ‘testing’ or ‘tests’.

Watch out for phrases like took place , which often point to gratuitous nouning and buried verbs: ‘Analysis of the figures took place’ really just means ‘The figures were analysed.’ A related issue is redundancy: ‘blue in colour’ means blue, ‘robust in nature’ means ‘robust’, and so on.

6. Unclear antecedents

An antecedent is a word, phrase, or clause referred to by another word, which is usually a pronoun like it , they , or who . For example, in ‘Observe the results and add these to a worksheet’, results is the antecedent of these .

Ambiguity can occur when there is more than one possible antecedent. Take the following: ‘Trainees should mark their schedules in the notebooks provided, then in the group calendars. The manager is responsible for them.’ Whoever wrote this knew what the manager was responsible for, but readers may reasonably wonder if them referred to the trainees, the schedules, the notebooks, or the calendars.

This is a common blind spot for writers, and it shows why we are our own worst editors. When we review the text, we see only what we meant – we miss the potential for uncertainty.

Have someone else look over the text, if possible, because a fresh pair of eyes will be more likely to notice problems like this. It’s better to choose someone who is less familiar with what is being described, since they are less liable to fall into the same trap of overfamiliarity.

7. Dense presentation

Technical writing can be very … technical. Unavoidably so. Applying plain language as much as possible will help, though you still probably won’t win awards for literature.

But even allowing for its stylistic limitations, technical writing can be made much worse through poor presentation. Long, unbroken chunks of text, for example, are visually off-putting and hard to follow. They can make a reader’s brain shut down out of sheer effort and frustration. The prevalence of jargon and complex concepts add further cognitive loads, and it all adds up.

There are several ways to tackle the issue of dense presentation. Short words, sentences, and paragraphs are generally preferable, though they’re no guarantee of lucidity – it’s more important to use the most appropriate words in the best possible manner.

Some passages can be broken up with bullet points, which makes them far easier to digest. Bullets also allow you to simplify the grammar, since they don’t need to be full sentences.

Parallelism can lend grace, polish, and clarity, and is a grammatical device worth attention and practice if you want to improve your writing. It can take various forms, but essentially it means using matching grammatical structures in words, phrases or clauses that should work in parallel.

For example, consider the sentence: For breakfast we like eggs and to grill bacon. Here, eggs is a noun but to grill is a verb. Better to write: For breakfast we like eggs and bacon , or: For breakfast we like to fry eggs and grill bacon.

It’s natural to struggle with technical writing, especially if you only do it from time to time. Producing something that reads effortlessly is a challenge. But thinking about and applying these seven straightforward tips will benefit your writing experience.

Even more importantly, it will make everything a whole lot clearer – and life a lot easier – for your readers.

Interested in improving your technical-writing skills? We can train you (or your team ) in that.

Image credit: ALPA PROD / Shutterstock

Your go-to guide to better writing

Get your own PDF copy of The Write Stuff , the definitive guide for everyone who writes at work.

Stan Carey is a scientist turned editor and writer. He blogs for Emphasis about how to harness the power of plain language in your professional writing. He also gives an Irishman's take on the English language on his blog, Sentence First , and tweets at @StanCarey .

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9.3 Designing Your Presentation

Suzan Last and Robin L. Potter

How you organize the contents of your presentation and how you design your slide deck will help to determine whether or not your message is conveyed in its most powerful form. This chapter will focus on speech structure and on slide design.

Speech Structure

You are by now familiar with the conventions of technical correspondence and report structure: introduction, background, details, conclusion. This structure forms the backbone for most messaging in technical fields. Many presentations are created using this simple structure as well, often melding the introduction and background together to save on time. The key message would constitute the high point of the presentation, followed by information that supports that point. This “triangle-shaped” structure is used commonly.

To determine how your presentation should be constructed, consider your purpose. In technology, the purpose often falls within the following, according to David McMurrey (1997-2017):

• Informative purpose: A presentation can be primarily informative. For example, as a member of a committee involved in a project to relocate the plant, your job might be to give a presentation on the condition of the building and grounds at one of the sites proposed for purchase. Or, you might be required to go before the city council and report on the success of the new city-sponsored recycling project.
• Instructional purpose: A presentation can be primarily instructional. Your task might be to train new employees to use certain equipment or to perform certain routine tasks.
• Persuasive purpose: A presentation can be primarily persuasive. You might want to convince members of local civic organizations to support a city-wide recycling program. You might appear before city council to persuade its members to reserve certain city-owned lands for park areas, softball and baseball parks, or community gardens.

When creating a presentation that has a persuasive message, you have structural options. You can organize your content using the traditional “triangle” method, or you can use the “what is, what can be” comparative method shared by Nancy Duarte in her presentation below  The Secret Structure of Great Talks (2011). In this presentation, which offers a great example of effective persuasive presentation structure and design, Duarte reveals that speeches that have changed society make use of this “what is, what can be” structure, which compares what the current situation is to what the situation can be in its improved form after your great idea is implemented. Keep this structure in your toolbox for times when you want to persuade the reader to implement a new procedure, accept a proposed project, or sell a new product, for example.

Knowledge Check

A Brief Overview of PowerPoint

Even the most dynamic speakers often make use of visual aids to accompany their presentation and help illustrate their ideas. Having well-designed visuals as part of your presentation is one way for presenters to add interest and audience engagement to their talks. Despite much discussion on the pros and cons of this medium, PowerPoint is probably the most common software used to create presentations using visual aids. While many other presentation tools are worthy of your consideration, PowerPoint is a standard, versatile workplace tool, so it would be wise to gain proficiency with it. The key concept to remember is that your visual aids should supplement and illustrate what you want to say to your audience.

When designing a PowerPoint presentation, it is helpful to be familiar with the key terminology used to discuss the various elements.

• Deck :  The deck is the entire presentation (all the slides in the presentation; see Figure 9.2.1) .

• Gloss :  Gloss is what the speaker says about each slide. The speaker should not simply read what is on the slide. Slides should have minimal text in the form of keywords and short bullet points. It might include key quotations. The speaker should elaborate on what is written or shown on the slide.
• Slide : The slide is one “page” of the presentation ( Figure 9.2.2 shows one slide from the deck above) with the various elements identified. Note the source entry for the image at the bottom of the slide. Even images must be cited!

• Slide Titles : Usually at the top of the slide, the titles acts as “headings” indicating the topic to be discussed in each slide.
• Body Text:   Body text is the written text on the slide, often in the form of bullet points or key terms. This text should be kept to a minimum (keywords/phrases; quotations you want to read out loud). Don’t write your “script” in the slide’s body text.
• Exhibits : Exhibits are illustrative graphics on the slides that are glossed in the presentation. You should discuss graphics and explain what is important about them.
• Decorative visuals : Decorative visuals are slide motifs, themes, and other non-essential images that add visual appeal to the slides, but do not illustrate substantive ideas.
• Sources: Citation notes indicating the sources for images.
• Notes : The section underneath the slide where you can write notes you want to cover in your gloss. The audience will not see the “notes” portion.

You may want to view sample presentations: Click on the presentations listed below or take a look at the PowerPoint decks that accompany this textbook to see detailed examples of effective presentation decks.

PowerPoint Presentation on PRESENTATIONS (.ppt)

Definitions in Technical Writing – Sample student presentation (.pdf) (Created by Isaac Morton)

Designing Slides for Technical Information

You will probably be most familiar with the slide design illustrated above, with each slide containing a title and content consisting of bullet points. You will see this design in most of your professors’ lectures. Though it is the most commonly used slide design, it has also been criticized as being too rigid and resulting in poor long-term information retention. When this traditional slide design was compared to the assertion-evidence slide design discussed below, researchers discovered that using assertion-evidence slide structure resulted in deeper learning and understanding (Garner, et al. 2011).

Assertion-evidence slide structure, pioneered by Michael Alley at Penn State University, consists of a statement, or assertion, usually placed where the slide title would normally be placed. Among other types of content, the body of the slide would then include (excerpted from McMurrey, 1997-2017):

• Drawing or diagram of key objects: If you describe or refer to any objects during your presentation, show visuals of them so that you can point to different components or features.
• Tables, charts, graphs: If you discuss statistical data, present them in some form or table, chart, or graph. Many members of your audience may be less comfortable “hearing” such data as opposed to seeing them.
• Other research data or information: Usually presented in text or charts.

Below is a video by Robert Yale (2013) that reviews conventional PowerPoint disadvantages, studies in information retention, and the assertion-evidence structure. If you want to learn how to create slides using this method and see examples, please view this video as it is a good primer.

Visual Rhetoric

PowerPoint is not the only visual medium you might use. Posters, infographics, and other kinds of displays can also work to effectively convey your message if they are well designed. Considering how to present ideas visually can be as important as determining what to say. Here are some resources to help you design visual information in a rhetorically effective way:

Visual Rhetoric page from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University

Rule of Thirds (Wikipedia)

Psychology of Font Choices (The Daily Egg)

Putting It All Together

As you deepen your knowledge of general slide deck design, check out these two texts, which are considered key primers on the topic of presentation design.

• Garr Reynolds, PresentationZen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery provides a clear, easy-to-read set of tips for cutting through the noise and blather of modern life and reaching an audience through simple, pared-down slides and story-telling:  two techniques that can help you connect with and inspire your audience in an authentic, genuine way.
• Nancy Duarte, Slideology: T he Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations looks to the role of presentation software in the visualization of ideas and information. Its goal is to turn you into a “visual thinker” so you can design presentation graphics that enable your audience to easily and effectively process data—an especially valuable skill for technical presenters who often have to convey complex data in meaningful ways to non-technical audiences.  Review the video below for a video explanation of these principles.

( How to Create Better Visual Presentations , 2014)

____________________________________________________________________

Note: Some of the contents of this chapter have been adapted from David McMurrey (1997-2017), Online Technical Writing: Oral Presentations. https://mcmassociates.io/textbook/oral.html CC by Attribution 4.0

Ally, M. (n.d.). Rethinking presentations in science and engineering . Penn State University Park. https://www.assertion-evidence.com/templates.html

Duarte, N. (2008). Slide:ology: T he art and science of creating great presentations . Duarte.com. https://www.duarte.com/books/slideology/

Duarte, N. (2011, November.) The secret structure of great talks. TEDxEast. https://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Duarte, N. (2014) How to Create Better Presentations [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so9EJoQJc-0&t=2s

Garner, J.K., Alley, M., Sawarynski, L.E., Wolfe, K.L., & Zappe, S.E. (2011). Assertion-evidence slides appear to lead to better comprehension and recall of more complex concepts.  American Society of Engineers. PDF.

Garr, R. (2011). PresentationZen: Simple ideas on presentation design and delivery. Toronto: Pearson. http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780321811981/samplepages/0321811984.pdf

Hunt, Ted. (2013, July 5).  A pro designer shares the psychology of font choices. [Infographic]. The Daily Egg.

Keithonearth, [Bicycle image embedded in slide]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derailleur_gears#/media/File:Derailleur_Bicycle_Drivetrain.svg . CC BY-SA 3.0.

McMurrey, D. (1997-2017). Online technical writing: Oral presentations. https://mcmassociates.io/textbook/oral.html

Online Writing Lab (OWL). Visual rhetoric. University of Purdue. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/visual_rhetoric/visual_rhetoric/index.html

Wikipedia. (2021, February 9 edited). Rule of Thirds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

Yale, R. (2013). The Assertion-evidence structure for PowerPoint slide design. YouTube. https://youtu.be/xNW84FUe0ZA

Technical Writing Essentials Copyright © 2019 by Suzan Last and Robin L. Potter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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2. PROFESSIONAL STYLE

2.2 Communicating with Precision

So far we have discussed the importance of writing with the reader in mind; of striking the right tone for your audience, message, and purpose; of writing constructively; and of writing persuasively. Now we move onto the actual writing itself.  Two key characteristics of professional technical communication are that it is precise and concise. This precision and concision must be evident at all levels, from the overall document, to paragraphing, to sentence structure to word choice, and even to punctuation. Every word or phrase should have a distinct and useful purpose.  If it doesn’t, cut it or revise.

The 7 Cs of Professional Writing

The 7 C’s are simply seven words that begin with C that characterize strong professional style. Applying the 7 C’s of professional communication will result in writing that is

CLEAR writing involves knowing what you want to say before you say it because often a lack of clarity comes from unclear thinking or poor planning; this, unfortunately, leads to confused or annoyed readers. Clear writing conveys the purpose of the document immediately to the reader; it matches vocabulary to the audience, avoiding jargon and unnecessary technical or obscure language while at the same time being precise. In clarifying your ideas, ensure that each sentence conveys one idea, and that each paragraph thoroughly develops one unified concept.

COHERENT writing ensures that the reader can easily follow your ideas and your train of thought. One idea should lead logically into the next through the use of transitional words and phrases, structural markers, planned repetition, sentences with clear subjects, headings that are clear, and effective and parallel lists. Writing that lacks coherence often sounds “choppy” and ideas seem disconnected or incomplete. Coherently connecting ideas is like building bridges between islands of thought so the reader can easily move from one idea to the next.

CONCISE writing uses the least words possible to convey the most meaning while still maintaining clarity. Avoid unnecessary padding, awkward phrasing, overuse of “to be” forms ( is, are, was, were, am, be, being ), long preposition strings, vagueness, unnecessary repetition and redundancy. Use active verbs whenever possible, and take the time to choose a single word rather than a long phrase or cliched expression. Think of your word count like a budget; be cost effective by making sure every word you choose does effective work for you.  Cut a word, save a buck! As William Zinsser asserts, “the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.” [1]

CONCRETE writing involves using specific, precise language to paint a picture for your readers so that they can more easily understand your ideas. If you have to explain an abstract concept or idea, try to use examples, analogies, and precise language to illustrate it. Use measurable descriptors whenever possible; avoid vague terms like “big” or “good.” Try to get your readers to “see” your ideas by using specific terms and descriptions.

CORRECT writing uses standard English punctuation, sentence structure, usage, and grammar. Being correct also means providing accurate information, as well as using the right document type and form for the task.

COMPLETE writing includes all requested information and answers all relevant questions. The more concrete and specific you are, the more likely your document will be complete as well. Review your checklist of specifications before submitting your document to its intended reader.

COURTEOUS writing entails designing a reader-friendly, easy-to-read document; using tactful language and appropriate modes of addressing the audience; and avoiding potentially offensive terminology, usage, and tone. As we have discussed in an early section, without courtesy you cannot be constructive.

In some cases, some of these might come into conflict: what if being too concise results in a tone that sounds terse, or an idea that seems incomplete? Figure 2.2.1 illustrates one method of putting all the 7Cs together.

Be mindful of the tradeoffs, and always give priority to being clear : writing that lacks clarity cannot be understood and therefore cannot achieve its purpose. Writing that adheres to the 7 C’s helps to establish your credibility as a technical professional.

EXERCISE 2.5 Revise for clarity

Remember the librarian’s “garbled memo” from the Case Studies in Chapter 1.4 ? Try revising it so that it adheres to the 7 Cs; make it clear, coherent, concrete and concise, while also being complete, courteous and correct.

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.

Sentence Variety and Length

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. That said, simple does not necessarily mean “simplistic,” short, or lacking in density. Remember that in grammatical terms, simple just means that it has one main clause (one subject and one predicate). You can still convey quite a bit of concrete information in a simple sentence.

The other consideration for precise writing is length. Your sentences should vary in length just as they can vary in type. However, you want to avoid having too many long sentences because they take longer to read and are often more complex. That is appropriate in academic writing but less so in technical writing. 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. If you feel the sentence is too long, break it into two sentences. You do not want your reader to have to read a sentence twice to understand it. If you make compound or complex sentences, ensure that you use appropriate coordinating or subordinating strategies to make the relationship between clauses perfectly clear. See Appendix E to review specific information on simple, compound, and complex sentence structures.

Precise Wording

Technical writing is precise writing. Vague, overly general, hyperbolic or subjective/ambiguous terms are simply not appropriate in this genre. You do not want to choose words and phrasing that could be interpreted in more than one way. For example, if you asked someone to define what makes a “good dog,” you might get responses like “obedient, effective hunter/retriever, well-behaved, affectionate, loyal, therapeutic, goofy” and “all dogs are good!” Choose words that most precisely, concisely, and accurately convey the idea you want to convey. Below are some guidelines and examples to follow for using precise wording.

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 . See examples in the following chart.

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. Write to express , not impress.

3. Avoid clichés.

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.

4. Avoid cluttered constructions.

This category includes redundancies, repetitions, and “there is/are” and “it is” constructions.

5. Use accurate wording.

Sometimes this requires more words instead of fewer, so do not sacrifice clarity for concision. Make sure your words convey the meaning you intend. Avoid using words that have several possible meanings; do not leave room for ambiguity or alternate interpretations of your ideas. Keep in mind that readers of technical writing tend to choose literal meanings, so avoid figurative language that might be confusing (for example, using the word “decent” to describe something you like or think is good). Separate facts from opinions by using phrases like “we recommend,” “we believe,” or “in our opinion.” Use consistent terminology rather than looking for synonyms that may be less precise.

Qualify statements that need qualifying, especially if there is possibility for misinterpretation. Do not overstate through the use of absolutes and intensifiers.  Avoid overusing intensifiers like “extremely,” and avoid absolutes like “never, always, all, none” as these are almost never accurate. Remember Obiwan Kenobi’s warning:

“Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” [3]

We tend to overuse qualifiers and intensifiers, so below are some that you should be aware of and consider whether you are using them effectively.

For a comprehensive list of words and phrases that should be used with caution, see Kim Blank’s “ Wordiness, Wordiness, Wordiness List .”  [4]

6. Prefer the active voice.

The active voice emphasizes the person/thing doing the action in a sentence. For example, The outfielder throws the ball . The subject, “outfielder” actively performs the action of the verb “throw.” The passive voice emphasizes the recipient of the action. In other words, something is being done to something by somebody: The ball was thrown (by the outfielder). Passive constructions are generally wordier and often leave out the person/thing doing the action.

While the passive voice has a place—particularly if you want to emphasize the receiver of an action as the subject of the sentence, or the action itself, or you want to avoid using first person—its overuse results in writing that is wordy, vague, and stuffy. When possible, use the active voice to convey who or what performs the action of the verb.

Precise writing encapsulates many of the 7 C’s; it is clear, concise, concrete, and correct. But it is also accurate and active. To write precisely and apply the 7 C’s, it is important to look critically at your sentences, perhaps in a way you may not have done before. You need to consider the design of those sentences, from the words to the phrases to the clauses, to ensure that you are communicating your message effectively.

Image descriptions

Figure 2.2.1 image description:

A priority list of the 7 Cs.

• Clear: Plan ahead! Know your purpose and convey your ideas in a unified manner.
• Coherent: Organize your thoughts in a logical, structured progression.
• Concise: Budget your words wisely; ensure your writing contains only what’s necessary.
• Concrete: Use specific and precise language, use measurable descriptors and avoid vague language.
• Correct: Adhere to proper grammar, punctuation, and document structure.
• Complete: Give all the important information and answer all relevant questions.
• Courteous: Format so that the document is easy to read. Use appropriate and tactful language.

[Return to Figure 2.2.1]

• W. Zinsser, “Simplicity,” [Online]. Available: http://www.geo.umass.edu/faculty/wclement/Writing/zinsser.html ↵
• Figure 2.2.1 created by Alyssa Zicari and Jenna Hildemann; used with permission ↵
• Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005). [Film]. Directed by G. Lucas ↵
• K. G. Blank, “Wordiness list,” Department of English, University of Victoria [Online]. Available: http://web.uvic.ca/~gkblank/wordiness.html ↵

Technical Writing Essentials Copyright © 2019 by Suzan Last is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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8. ORAL AND VISUAL PRESENTATIONS

Suzan Last and Monika Smith

Like any kind of advanced communication skill, the art of giving effective presentations is not in-born; it requires deliberate practice — that is, systematic practice that requires focused attention on improving, and making use of feedback from others to help you do so. An excellent way to learn more about delivering effective presentations is to follow a systematic process:

• Observe others
• Study their strategies and reflect on their effectiveness
• Select and practice strategies that will work for you; reflect and get feedback from others.

Step 1: Observation

You can learn a lot simply by observing how successful public speakers “work the room” and engage their audience. Observe what they do. How do they use their voice as a tool of communication? How do they deploy tone, pausing, pacing, and projection? What do they do with their hands? How do they make use of the physical space around them? Take note of how speakers physically operate, either in person or on media: identify what they do, make note of what you think works well and what doesn’t, then put what you’ve learned into practice.

As a student, you might start by observing your professors. Aim to identify what makes one professor a great lecturer and another less engaging. Compare what they do with their voice, their hands, their gestures, their movements. Pay attention to how they pace their talk to draw you in and create emphasis. Reflect on what they do to convey a sense of enthusiasm for what they’re talking about—or fail to do so. You want to know what kinds of things to avoid—a dull monotonous tone, for example—as well as what kinds of things to adopt to ensure your voice comes across as a powerful tool for communicating your ideas clearly and emphatically.

EXERCISE 8.1: Observation in action

Whether observing your favourite professor give a lecture; watching your favourite podcaster, TV or YouTube presenter; or viewing the videos linked below, turn your observations into an active learning experience: create a list of what the speakers do well as speakers , and then use them as role models. The goal is to create a toolkit of practical tips, approaches, and ideas for building confidence, developing your own “spark” as public speaker, and engaging your audience. In short, watch, observe, and learn.

Here are some public speakers on film that you may enjoy watching and learning from:

• Really achieving your childhood dreams by Randy Pausch, [1] computer scientist (Carnegie Mellon). As you watch the video, make note not simply of what he says, but how he says it.
• “The Wisdom of a Third Grade Dropout” by Rick Rigsby [2]
• “The Joy of Stats” by Hans Rosling [3] offers an engaging and inspiring description of 250,000 data points from over 200 years for 200 countries—in 4 minutes flat!

Step 2: Study and Reflect

Learning from experts who lay out a set of simple techniques is a confidence builder because it shows that great speakers are made, not born. With deliberate practice, anyone can do this. There are no mysteries, just specific, applicable strategies that anyone can adopt to establish rapport with an audience and make a meaningful impact.

Here are some more great online resources to help you develop further:

• Advanced Public Speaking Institute (Tips )
• Toastmasters 5 tips for public speaking (YouTube)
• 10 Most Common Rookie Mistakes in Public Speaking – Terry Gault (Prezi Blog)
• The Power of your Hands – Allan Pease (TED)
• How to Sound Smart in your TED Talk − Will Stephen (TED)
• How I Overcame my Fear of Public Speaking − Danish Dhamani (TED)

EXERCISE 8.2

Take notes from the sources while you study them.  Making written notes about points you want to remember can be an effective way to promote deep learning. As you watch each of the videos, identify 2-3 key tips. If you are doing this activity in class, share your “top two” tips with classmates and make note of their “top two” tips in turn.

Then consider the value of the tips and strategies you’ve compiled. What makes them seem to work so well and, equally important, how could you feasibly incorporate them into your presentations to make them your own?

Step 3: Select, Practice and Assess your Progress

Now that you have identified strategies that you find effective and think might work for you, try putting them into practice.  See if they add some extra “oomph” to your presentation style. Afterwards, either by engaging in self-reflection, or by asking for feedback, consider how well these strategies worked for you and whether you need to further hone, adapt, or change the way you used them.

Videos are helpful because they not only provide information, but visually demonstrate the ideas (both showing and telling); however, you can also learn from many books on the subject. Here are four classic books by public speaking experts designed to help you develop your own strong presentation skills. By focusing on aspects such as“voice,” or by getting you to create effective slideshows, they offer a range of practical, “tried and tested” approaches designed to help you build confidence, speak fluently, and hold an audience’s attention with relevant, well designed visuals.

• Lilyan Wilder, 7 Steps to Fearless Speaking offers a lively, straightforward “how to” approach to public speaking, paying special attention to what to do before you even get on stage to deliver your talk. In short, according to Lilyan Wilder, it’s all about preparation. Wilder’s seven steps have been used by many successful public figures, including George H.W. Bush, Oprah Winfrey, Fortune 500 CEO’s, as well as network anchors at CNN, CBS, and more!
• Lee LeFever, The Art of Explanation: Making your Ideas, Products, and Services Easier to Understand invites you to become an “explanation specialist” by using simple elements to motivate your audience and inspire them to say “yes!” to your designs and ideas.
• Garr Reynolds, PresentationZen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery provides a clear, easy-to-read set of tips for cutting through the noise and blather of modern life and reaching an audience through simple, pared-down slides and story-telling:  two techniques that can help you connect with and inspire your audience in an authentic, genuine way.
• Nancy Duarte, Slide:ology: T he Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations looks to the role of presentation software in the visualization of ideas and information. Its goal is to turn you into a “visual thinker” so you can design presentation graphics that enable your audience to easily and effectively process data—an especially valuable skill for technical presenters who often have to convey complex data in meaningful ways to non-technical audiences.

EXERCISE 8.3 Build your repertoire

Visual Aids – PowerPoint Basics

Even the most dynamic speakers often make use of visual aids to accompany their presentation and help illustrate their ideas. Having well designed visuals as part of your presentation is one way for beginners and those honing their skills can add interest and audience engagement to their talks. PowerPoint is probably the most common form of visual aid used in presentations, so much discussion has been focused on the pros and cons of this medium. Indeed, a Google search of “death by PowerPoint” brings up over 90 million results!

While there are many other presentation tools out there that you should explore (and perhaps present to your classmates or colleagues in your own presentation!), PowerPoint is a standard workplace tool, so it would be wise to gain proficiency with it. The key concept to remember is that your visual aids should supplement and illustrate what you want to say to your audience. YOU are the presenter; your slides illustrate and amplify what you want to say.

PowerPoint Terminology

When designing a PowerPoint presentation, it is helpful to be familiar with key terminology used to discuss the various elements. Here are a few terms to get started:

• Deck :  the entire presentation (all the slides in the presentation; see Figure 8.2.1) .
• Gloss :  what the speaker says about each slide. The speaker should not simply read what is on the slide. Slides should have minimal text in the form of key words and short bullet points. They might include key quotations. Speakers should elaborate on what is written or shown on the slide in their gloss.
• Slide :  one “page” of the presentation ( Figure 8.2.2 shows one slide from the deck above) with the various elements identified.
• Slide Titles :  usually at the top of the slide, the title acts as a “heading” indicating the topic to be discussed in each slide.
• Body Text:   written text on the slide, often in the form of bullet points or key terms. This text should be kept to a minimum (key words/phrases; quotations you want to read out loud). Don’t write your “script” in the slide’s body text.
• Exhibits :  illustrative graphics on the slides that are glossed in the presentation. You should discuss graphics and explain what is important about them.
• Decorative Graphics : Slide motifs, themes, and other non-essential images that add visual appeal to the slides, but do not illustrate substantive ideas.
• Notes : The section underneath the slide where you can write notes you want to cover in your gloss. The audience will not see the “notes” portion.

Click on the Sample PowerPoint Presentations listed below to see detailed examples of PowerPoint decks.

PowerPoint Presentation on PRESENTATIONS (.ppt)

Tuckman’s Model of Team Formation – Sample student presentation (.ppt)

Definitions in Technical Writing – Sample student presentation (.pdf) (Created by Isaac Morton)

Visual Rhetoric

PowerPoint is not the only visual medium you might use. Pamphlets, posters, billboards, and other kinds of displays can also work to effectively convey your message if they are well designed. Considering how to present ideas visually can be as important as determining what to say. Here are some resources to help you design visual information in a rhetorically effective way:

Visual Rhetoric page from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University

Rule of Thirds (Wikipedia)

Color theory (Tiger Color)

Psychology of Font Choices (The Daily Egg)

• R. Pausch, “Really achieving your childhood dreams, Sept. 18, 2007 Youtube [Online]: Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo ↵
• R. Rigsby, “The wisdom of a third grade dropout will change your life,” Oct. 2017, Youtube [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg_Q7KYWG1g ↵
• H. Rosling, “The joy of stats,” Nov. 26, 2010, YouTube [Online]. Available: https://youtu.be/jbkSRLYSojo ↵
• Keithonearth, [Bicycle image embedded in slide]. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derailleur_gears#/media/File:Derailleur_Bicycle_Drivetrain.svg . CC BY-SA 3.0 . ↵

Technical Writing Essentials Copyright © by Suzan Last and Monika Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• Writing Tips

A Guide to Technical Writing (With Examples)

4-minute read

• 5th May 2023

You can find technical writing in lots of places, including in your home, at your job, in many industries, and in businesses of all sizes. If you need help with business writing specifically, check out how we can assist you .

In today’s post, we’ll break down what technical writing is and how to do it effectively. We’ll also provide some handy examples.

What Is Technical Writing?

Technical writing doesn’t always look very technical! It can be anything that describes how to do a task or how to operate a machine or system. Or it can cover a specialized topic. Technical writing includes recipes in your favorite cookbook, board game instructions, operator manuals, health and safety regulations, legal documents, and financial reports.

Instructions for Carrying Out a Task

This type of technical writing can be a recipe for a cake, the instructions for a board game, tips on how to walk your dog to heel, or the script for a social media video on how to cut your own hair.

Operating Manuals for Machinery, Appliances, or Systems

Technical writing can also be the user guide for a dishwasher, for a factory machine that makes cardboard boxes, a “how to” guide for spreadsheets, or instructions for changing the oil in your motorcycle.

Specialized Topics

The list here could be very, very long! Technical writing on specialized topics includes a company’s business reports, a medical consultant’s letter to a patient, health and safety regulations, employment policies, and legal documents.

So How Do I Produce a Great Piece of Technical Writing?

Let’s take it in three stages: Who? What? How?

Who Is It For?

In any type of writing, knowing your audience is important. This is particularly true of technical writing. Here are some examples of who might read technical writing:

·  A renter of an apartment that needs details on their lease

·  An electrical engineer who needs to know how the wiring is laid out in the apartment block

·  The janitor of that same building who needs to know the location of the emergency lights

·  The occupant of apartment 61, who needs to know how to use the oven in their kitchen

They all need information presented to them, but what information do they need?

What Do They Need?

The renter needs a legal document that leaves no room for doubt about their legal rights and obligations and those of their landlord. The document will be very detailed, containing terms that need careful explanation.

The electrical engineer needs accurate, clear information about the wiring, as they could get hurt or cause harm to someone else if the diagram is inaccurate.

The janitor needs clear directions and a map of where the emergency lights are.

The occupant of apartment 61 needs instructions that are written in plain English so they can use their oven safely.

How Should Technical Writing Be Composed?

Follow these steps when writing a technical document:

·  Research and know your subject thoroughly.

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·  Decide on the appropriate writing style. Just because it’s technical, doesn’t mean it has to contain lots of jargon . Be concise, be direct, and be straightforward.

·  Consider whether you need to include diagrams, maps, images, charts, and/or tables.

·  If writing instructions, take it one step at a time, write objectively , and make sure the instructions work!

Examples of Technical Writing

Let’s look at some examples:

The first version contains unnecessary words, but the warnings are not specific enough. The instructions should be concise and clear. In the second version, the danger is stated right away, and the critical warnings are concise and specific.

In these examples, the first version is unnecessarily wordy. It provides a lot of detail for minor tasks but gives vague instructions for bigger tasks. The second version is much clearer. The instructions are easier to follow, and they include each necessary step.

Good technical writing needs the following attributes:

1. Relevance

2. Accuracy

4. Accessibility

5. Simplicity

Really good technical writing will include these attributes every time.

Is technical writing difficult?

Technical writing does not have to be difficult if you follow our guide and do your research beforehand.

Are there professional bodies for technical writers?

There are several professional organizations for technical writing. This list from UTA Libraries is very useful.

What can I do if I’m not sure that my technical writing style is appropriate to my subject?

We have experts in many fields who can check your writing and advise on style .

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10 Technical Writing Style Guides You Can Use

Published on May 27, 2021 in writing by Nicolas Bohorquez 8 minute read

Great US soccer player Mia Hamm famously said, “It is more difficult to stay on top than to get there,” which suggests that consistency is a highly desirable trait. In the field of technical writing, consistency is crucial because it provides the sense of confidence and continuity that every tech product needs to engage a user base. Also, consistency creates opportunities to build communities around technical documentation.

How do you make your technical documentation more consistent? One of the first steps is to adhere to a technical writing style guide. Itself a piece of documentation, a style guide defines communication standards for any tech document that your business produces, and all of your writers can follow it. It usually covers the voice, structure, and technical conventions (such as the format of the text, audio, and images) used in the documentation.

Since style guides cover so much ground, they can be a chore to create from scratch. Fortunately, many companies make their own technical writing style guides available publicly, so you can analyze their strengths as you create your own style.

Draft.dev Style Guide

Draft.dev Technical Blogging Style Guide is a good place to start. It’s used by several technical writers who cover a variety of topics, mainly because it sets down the basics of style decoupled from any context that’s too specific. This guide breaks style into the following four sections:

• Voice: It recommends using the second person ( you, yours ) to engage the reader and establish a clear point of view.
• Content: The guide recommends a certain structure for blog posts and demonstrates how to support claims with evidence while avoiding plagiarism.
• Conventions: This section sets standards for formatting, such as using Markdown and how to add images to a post. Communication: In this section, Draft.dev emphasizes the importance of keeping in communication with the editor or publisher you’re working with and letting them know of any roadblocks as you write.

As you can see, it’s a technical blog post about how to write a technical blog post, a nice meta style guide.

A List Apart

A List Apart Style Guide is an example of a valuable, reader-centric, but more informal style guide. It offers advice about text formatting, assets like images and author bios, and some notes about how to refine the content itself.

One of the more unique features of this style guide is its discussion of the use of metaphors. A List Apart advocates clarity first. Finally, it suggests following the Chicago Manual of Style and Fowler’s Modern English Usage as principal references for proper language usage.

DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean’s Technical Writing Guidelines is a three-section tutorial about how to write compelling technical articles for their Write for Donations program .

While this guide focuses on clarity and quality, there’s also a companion technical best practices tutorial, which offers standards for how writers should discuss the tech they’re writing about (ie, how to write about installation, how to offer troubleshooting tips, and what to do with long scripts).

The four sections of the guide are:

• Style: This is further split into four sections that cover clarity, level of detail, completeness, and tone. It encourages you to write for all technical levels by avoiding assumptions of previous knowledge, giving context for code, and writing “friendly but formal” pieces that show respect for cultural differences.
• Structure: DigitalOcean’s guide is very specific about desired structure for their articles. This section includes examples for various article types and includes some ready-to-use templates.
• Formatting: This section outlines how writers are expected to format their work, which is an extended version of Markdown. It provides examples of supported extensions.
• Terminology: DigitalOcean has established some conventions for writing examples, such as a standard default username, default hostnames and domains, and how exactly to indicate to readers where they should alter text with their own input.

The DigitalOcean technical writing style guide is easy to read and very focused on system administrators and software engineers. The terminology section and linked guides for best practices and code of conduct go a long way toward guaranteeing a high level of quality in the writing.

SUSE Documentation Style Guide

SUSE Documentation Style Guide is a comprehensive and detailed guide to updating documentation for well-established software products like SUSE’s. It starts with simple but powerful advice: define your audience. This sets the level of expertise assumed for the reader and the context in which the documentation will make the most sense.

The guide provides the three following key points about the content itself:

• Avoid promising future features, which are not relevant to the current stable product.
• Include warnings on features scheduled for deprecation.
• Clarify the status of unsupported features before documenting them.

The guide includes more useful details, such as conventions for terminology used in examples (similar to DigitalOcean’s Terminology section) and how to format various content types, like manuals, books, and articles. The defined format is GeekoDoc/DocBook markup language, and the guide includes an extended description of its tags.

The IET Guide to Technical Report Writing

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), an organization that’s over 150 years old, provides a concise guide covering many important aspects of technical writing. Its first section provides 10 laws of good report writing, which you should definitely keep close when you write. Spoiler alert: The first and last laws are the same—write for your readers.

The guide’s next sections complement those ten rules, with discussions about:

• Objectives: determining why you are writing and who you are writing for
• Format: how to structure your writing and reference citations
• Writing: the nitty-gritty of writing, including sentence structure, what a paragraphs does, and striking the proper tone
• Diagrams: determining proper placement and facilitating ease of understanding
• Finishing the report: polishing the piece with summaries, tables of content, and proofreading

In the Writing section, the example about the use of commas is worth noticing for how precise the guide can get:

The engines, which were in perfect running order, had been tested previously. (all engines were in perfect running order and had been tested) The engines which were in perfect running order had been tested previously. (only the engines in perfect running order had been tested)

Finally, the guide suggests some references such as the Oxford Guide to Plain English and Writing for Engineers (Macmillan Study Skills) .

Apple Style Guide

The Apple Style Guide contains valuable information you can use across many contexts, including instructional materials, technical documentation, reference information, training programs, and user interfaces. It also references the Chicago Manual of Style , The American Heritage Dictionary , and Words into Type .

The guide covers a wide variety of editing minutiae, including units of measure, technical notation, a large glossary of terms for proper usage, and links to related resources. The “International style: Overview” section includes tips on writing for non-native English readers, something that’s important to consider especially in technical writing.

GitLab Documentation Style Guide

GitLab uses the same guide for the members of the GitLab team and its community contributors. The GitLab Documentation Style Guide is a living project with constant evolution, which prevents information silos .

The style guide is managed like a software project, with source code. It includes a set of tests that cover:

• The writing and structure of each article
• Links in the content
• Assets in the content

GitLab’s guide references other technical content guides (Google and Microsoft, also covered in this article) and emphasizes the documentation-first methodology approach of the company. This implies that the technical documentation is the single point of truth for the implementation, usage, and troubleshooting of the product.

You can find the specifics of GitLab’s writing style in the Communication section of their team handbook , which defines thirty-seven rules covering a variety of topics, including the use of active voice and how to properly capitalize GitLab.

Google Developer Documentation Style Guide

The Google Developer Documentation Style Guide provides a full set of solid practices for producing technical documents. The guide also acknowledges that many projects under Google’s umbrella might have their own specifics, and it establishes a reference hierarchy that prioritizes the project’s own standards over the common guide.

The guide is very dense and has several sections, so I’ll just highlight a few here:

• Accessibility: This covers not only the voice and tone of the documents but also keyboard navigation tips, support for screen readers, inclusive language, and the use of HTML for formatting.
• Language and grammar: This section establishes common rules for writing. There’s some interesting advice to avoid anthropomorphizing software products and how to use specific verb forms in reference documentation.
• Linking: This includes best practices for readable links.
• Computer interfaces: This section pays special attention to Application Programming Interfaces (API) documentation guides.
• Markdown versus HTML: The guide posits that HTML is more expressive than Markdown, even if the second is easier for humans to read.
• Names and naming: This section explains naming conventions for filenames, domains, trademarks, and more.

Microsoft Writing Style Guide

Many other sources reference the Microsoft style guide as a source of answers for technical writing. Some reasons for this include its wide scope (which covers writing content for chatbots and virtual agents), its content and design planning, documentation about scannable content, and how to select words to improve readability and comprehension, among other useful information.

But the heart of the guide is in its definition of voice :

“The Microsoft voice is how we talk to people. It’s the interplay of personality, substance, tone, and style.”

The Microsoft brand voice has three clearly defined attributes:

• warm and relaxed
• crisp and clear
• ready to lend a hand

You should explore the entire guide to check how these attributes are expressed consistently in each section (creating a scripted chatbot ? Writing content for a responsive device ?) and take note of how the tone can vary depending on the context of the documentation. Your own brand voice should be distinctive and tell your readers what to expect of your company.

After reviewing all the referenced style guides, you may have noticed three common elements:

• Know your audience and write for them.
• Set your own voice.
• Keep it simple, short, and clear as possible.

This advice is not enough to create a full-fledged style guide, of course, but rules for details like format, glossaries, and standard structures can evolve with time. A good starting point is to take the best parts of the resources available and build your own from there.

By Nicolas Bohorquez

Nicolas Bohorquez is a data architect at Merqueo, has been part of development teams in a handful of startups, and has founded three companies in the Americas. He is passionate about the modeling of complexity and the use of data science to improve the world.

Build a Blog that Software Developers Will Read

The Technical Content Manager’s Playbook is a collection of resources you can use to manage a high-quality, technical blog:

• A template for creating content briefs
• An Airtable publishing calendar
• A technical blogging style guide

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Unit 13 Types of Presentations

13.1 format overview.

This learning unit includes information on formats, headings, sub headings, markers, chunking, and white space.

Information in reports needs to be formatted in a hierarchical structure. The first heading is the title of the report.

Not every report needs four headings. A report may have two sections, three  sections, or four sections. However, a report cannot have more than four hierarchal sections. If your report needs more than four sections, you need to reorganize the information in the report.

Within each section, markers are used to identify specific points.  Chunking and white space are used to make information more accessible.  Markers can be bullets, numbers, underlining, bold font, italics, etc. Chunking is creating small sections of information, surrounded by white space. White space is empty space that separates sections of text.

When using bullets to mark several items, be sure to chunk items into groups. Lists of items that are continuously bulleted become solid text and the effect of marking information is lost.

See example:

Example – How to Use White Space in Technical Writing on the website eHow.

13.2 General Design Concepts

Designing reader-centered pages and documents.

You build your communications out of  visual  elements: the dark marks of your words, sentences, and paragraphs against the light background of the page, as well as your drawings and graphs and tables. Your readers  see  the visual design of these elements before they read and understand your message. And what they see has a powerful effect on the success of your communications, on its usability and persuasiveness.

Here are ways that good design enhances usability.

• Good design helps readers understand your information.
• Good page design helps readers locate information quickly.
• Good design helps readers notice highly important content.

Here are some ways good design affects readers’ attitudes, thereby increasing a communication’s persuasiveness.

• Good design encourages readers to feel good about the communication itself.
• Good design encourages readers to feel good about the communication’s subject matter.

A Reader-Centered Approach to Design

Because page design can have such a significant impact on your communication’s usability and persuasiveness, you should approach design in the same reader-centered manner that you use when drafting text and graphics. Think continuously about your readers, including who they are, what they want from your communication, and the context in which they will be reading.

Design Elements of a Communication

It is helpful to think about the building blocks of a page design in the way that professional graphic designers do. When they look at a page, they see six basic elements.

• Text.  Paragraphs and sentences.
• Headings and titles.  Labels for sections of your communication.
• Graphics.  Drawings, tables, photographs, and so on — including their captions.
• White space.  Blank areas.
• Headers and footers.  The items, such as page numbers, that occur at the top or bottom of each page in a multipage document.
• Physical features.  These include paper, which may take many shapes and sizes, and bindings, which come in many forms.

CREATING GRAPHICS

• Identify places where graphics will increase your communication’s usability.
• Identify places where graphics will increase your communication’s persuasiveness.

Note: Make sure not to add graphics to areas that will alter the flow of the document/communication. Add graphics in places in between paragraphs or other logical breaks in the document.

• Select the types of graphics that will best support your readers’ tasks.
• Select the types of graphics that will effectively influence your readers’ attitudes.
• Select the types of graphics that will best support your case.
• Design graphics that are easy to understand and use.
• Design them to support your readers’ tasks.
• Design graphics that your readers will find persuasive.
• Keep your graphics simple enough for easy use.
• Label content clearly.
• Provide your graphics with informative titles.
• Address the graphics with a sort summary of results or caption about the graphic.

Using Color

• Use colors to support your message.
• Use color for emphasis, not decoration or too distracting from the body text.
• Choose a color scheme, not just individual colors.
• Provide high contrast between text and background.
• Select colors with appropriate associations.
• Limit the number of colors.

Integrating with the Text

• Introduce each graphic in the text first.
• Tell your readers the conclusions you want them to draw from the graphic.
• Provide all explanations your readers will need in order to understand and use each graphic.
• Locate each graphic near its references.

Addressing an International Audience

• Check your graphics with persons from other nations for clarity when possible.
• Check your graphics with technology for problems when intra-converted between computer systems.

Using Graphics Ethically

• Avoid elements that might mislead your readers.
• Obtain permission from the copyright owner of each image that is not in the public domain.
• Give credit to all involved in the development or research of the graphic.
• Be sure the graphic will benefit the document overall and will not just add unnecessary clutter.

13.3 Brochure

Brochures are small promotional or informative documents ranging from a tri-folded piece of paper to a small collection of pages on a single topic. Typically, they are used to give external audiences information on products or services. Brochures rely on skillful design and use of graphics in addition to quality writing.

Rhetorical Context

Brochures can be written for a range of topics though you can broadly define them as a mix of informative and persuasive content. A brochure on how to use a service at your library might be mostly informative. A brochure about a local cancer support charity might be mostly informative but have persuasive elements to elicit donations. Brochures marketing a new product might be more persuasive but will still need to provide sufficient information to be convincing.

While often used to promote a product or service, brochures can also be used to give information to customers or clients as part of a larger marketing effort. For example, a yoga studio might give new members a brochure detailing basic postures and information on class times.

Given the range of content that can be present in a brochure, you’ll want to carefully analyze your purpose and audience before you start crafting your brochure. Once you have a clear sense of your specific purpose and the basic needs of the audience, consider the following questions to help plan an appropriate level of detail and an effective design:

• How interested is my reader in this material?

How will the material be distributed?

What role does the brochure play?

How will the brochure be read?

Knowing the readers’ interest level can help you to determine appropriate depth when developing your content and can help you select organizational strategies that suit the engagement levels of different audiences. Understanding how the material will be distributed can help you to consider design choices for your brochure.

Much like with websites, there is a lot of variety in design for brochures. Something that may be very helpful for creating your own designs is to look at brochures you consider effective. Analyze and evaluate their purpose, content, and design to determine what is and is not effective. Such evaluations will help you to generate ideas for your own design.

How interested is my reader in this material? 

Brochures are typically written for external audiences, some who are eager for the information, and others who you’ll have to entice to take it and read it.

If your reader is eager for the information, you’ll want to anticipate their likely questions, and make sure you provide all the information they would want. It’s very important to be thorough when you have an eager reader—you don’t want to disappoint their expectations.

If your reader is not eager for the information because they don’t know why they would need it, you may want to aim for less detailed content. A less dense, skimmable page of content reduces the amount of reader work. They’ll feel more open to reading if the document doesn’t appear like a burden of reading. Lots of interesting images can also help keep these less interested readers engaged.

How the brochure will be distributed can have an impact on your design choices.

A brochure that will be placed on display for potential readers to pick up needs to have a large, clear title that makes the purpose of the brochure obvious to readers. This will help interested readers easily find the brochure. A clear and purposeful title may also lure other readers to examine the brochure even though they didn’t seek it out. For these uninterested readers, an eye-catching front page can entice readers to pick up the brochure and read it.

For example, if your brochure is likely to be distributed by hand or displayed on a small stand, potential readers will almost always see the cover of the brochure first. If a brochure is going to be laying flat on a table or in another situation where the material could be flipped over by people passing by, you may want to make both the front and back visually appealing.

Usually a brochure is part of a larger communication or marketing effort and will provide readers with a means of getting more information or access to the product or service being discussed. This might be a website, phone number, or other means of contact. It might even include an address and location hours if the purpose is to entice readers to visit.

There are a variety of designs for brochures to meet the various purposes they serve. Some are multiple pages while others are a single page. Some single page brochures are folded in different ways.

To effectively reach your audience, you should carefully consider how much space you need and how best to break up your content using panels or pages. It may seem old-fashioned, but creating a blank version by folding or stapling some paper can help you visualize how a reader is going to navigate your brochure. Knowing how they are likely to navigate will help you know where to place key information when planning your layout and making design choices.

Also, while interested readers are likely to skim through the whole brochure, your design should draw in less interested readers. For all readers, your design choices need to help draw attention to key information. White space, headings, lines, colors, lists and many other design elements can help emphasize that key information to help readers easily access what’s important and draw them into the document. If the emphasized details engage readers, they’ll be more likely to read the rest of the brochure.

Conventions 

Brochures should make use of design elements and graphics to not only draw reader’s attention but also to make for a quick and easy read. Typically, space is at a premium with a brochure, particularly with ones made from a single folded sheet of paper, so the language needs to be concise and focused on the reader’s needs and interests in relation to the topic. At the same time, you will want to balance use of white space and visuals so the material is not intimidating to readers.

As you produce any brochure, aim for the following features:

• Eye-catching and attractive colors and visuals
• A clear, engaging title
• Design that makes flow of the document clear
• Design that emphasizes key information
• Concentrated content that meets the needs of your reader
• A means for your reader to get more information (e.g. web address or email)
• Clear identification of the organization who produced the brochure

Professional and Technical Writing Copyright © 2020 by Suzie Baker Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Like instructions , descriptive technical writing uses a combination of visuals and text to both “show” and “tell” the reader about the information being conveyed. Like more creative descriptions, technical descriptions sometimes draw on the “five senses” and metaphorical comparisons (analogies) to allow the reader to fully conceptualize what is being described. More often, however, they rely on concrete, measurable descriptors.

Technical descriptions can take many forms, depending on purpose and audience. Descriptions can range from a brief sentence, to a paragraph, a whole section of a report, or an entire manual.  Poorly written technical descriptions can cause confusion, waste time, and even result in catastrophe!  Technical product descriptions are often legally required to ensure safety and compliance.  Attention to detail is critical.

Some general categories of technical descriptions include the following:

• Mechanism Descriptions:   provide a detailed overview the physical aspects of a tool, machine or other mechanical device that has moving parts and is designed to perform a specific function. These could be product descriptions for sales or manufacturing, documentation of design specifications, info-graphics,  etc .  This chapter focuses in detail on this kind of description.
• Process Descriptions:   detail a series of events ( natural/biological/ecological, mechanical, social, or psychological phenomenon ) that happen in particular sequence in order to achieve a specific outcome. These can be categorized into  non-instructional  processes (such as a process analyses of how an internal combustion engine works, or natural processes like photosynthesis) and  instructional process (such as recommended/required procedures and explicit step-by-step instructions to be followed—see section on writing instructions for more information).
• Definitions:   clarify the specific meaning, often related to a specific context, or express the essential nature of the terms being defined. These can range in length from a simple clarifying phrase to an extended document of several pages. Definitions will often include detailed descriptions and visuals to illustrate ideas. Click on the link below to view a student PowerPoint presentation on how to write effective definitions for technical purposes. This presentation is included with express permission of the student. [1]

Writing Technical Descriptions

Before you begin to write a technical description, consider carefully how the audience and the purpose of the document will affect what you write. Your sense of your audience will determine not only how technical your vocabulary should be but also how long your sentences and paragraphs should be.

Another audience-related factor is your use of visuals . Less knowledgeable readers may need simple graphics; they might have trouble understanding complicated schematics or charts. As you consider your audience, think about whether any of your readers are from other cultures and might therefore expect different topics, organization, or writing style in the description.

Consider your purpose : What are you trying to accomplish with this description? If you want your readers to understand how a personal computer works, write a general description that applies to several brands and sizes of computers. If you want your readers to understand how a specific computer works, write a description specific to that computer. Your purpose will determine every aspect of the description, including its length, the amount of detail, and the number and type of graphics.

Drafting Effective Descriptions  

There is no single organization or format used for descriptions. Because descriptions are written for different audiences and different purposes, they can take many shapes and forms. However, the following four suggestions will guide you in most situations:

• Indicate clearly the nature and scope of the description
• Introduce the description clearly
• Provide appropriate detail
• End the description with a brief conclusion

Indicate Clearly the Nature and Scope of the Description

If the description is to be a separate document, give it a title. If the description is to be part of a longer document, give it a section heading. In either case, clearly state the subject and indicate whether the description is general or particular. For instance, a general description of an object might be titled “Description of a Minivan,” and a particular description, “Description of the 2015 Honda Odyssey.” A general description of a process might be called “Description of the Process of Designing a New Production Car,” and a particular description, “Description of the Process of Designing the Chevrolet Malibu.”

Introduce the Description Clearly

Start with a general overview: you want to give readers a broad understanding of the object, mechanism, or process. Consider adding a graphic that introduces the overall concept. For example, in describing a process, you might include a flowchart summarizing the steps in the body of the description; in describing an object, such as a bicycle, you might include a photograph or a drawing showing the major components you will describe in detail in the body.

Provide Appropriate Detail

In the body of the description, treat each major part or step as a separate item. In describing an object or a mechanism, define each part and then, if applicable, describe its function, operating principle, and appearance. In discussing the appearance, include shape, dimensions, material, and physical details such as texture and color (if essential). In describing a process, treat each major step as if it were a separate process.

A description can have not only parts or steps but also subparts or substeps. For example, a description of a computer system will include the keyboard as one of its main parts. The description of the keyboard will include the numeric keypad as one of its subparts, and a description of the numeric keypad will include the arrow keys as one of its subparts. The same principle applies in describing processes: if a step has substeps, you need to describe who or what performs each substep.

Conclude the Description

A typical description has a brief conclusion that provides an overall summary of the item. One  common technique for concluding descriptions of some mechanisms and objects is to state briefly how the parts function together. A professional description usually has a brief paragraph summarizing the principal steps or discussing the importance or implications of the process.

Structuring an Item Description

Ask yourself the following questions as you compose your description to help give it a structure:

• What is the item? You might start with a sentence definition. EXAMPLE : “The electron microscope is a type of microscope that uses electrons to create an image of the target. It has much higher magnification power than normal microscopes.”
• What is the function of the item? If the function is not implicit in the sentence definition, state it. EXAMPLE : “Electron microscopes magnify objects that are smaller than the wavelengths of visible light.”
• What does the item look like? Sometimes an object is best pictured with both graphics and words. Include a photograph or drawing if possible. *If you cannot use a graphic, use an analogy or comparison. EXAMPLE : “The USB drive is a plastic- or metal-covered device, about the size of a pack of gum, with a removable cap that covers the type-A USB connection.” Mention the material, texture, color, and other physical characteristics, if relevant.
• How does the item work? In a few sentences, describe how the item works (sometimes objects do not work ; they merely exist). EXAMPLE : “The USB drive is simply inserted into any available USB port on the computer to allow for file transfers between devices.”
• What are the principal parts of the item? Limit your description to the principal parts. A description of a bicycle, for instance, would not mention the dozens of nuts and bolts that hold the mechanism together; it would focus on the chain, gears, pedals, wheels, and frame. EXAMPLE : “The MIG welder has a power switch, a speed selector, a voltage selector, a pressure regulator, a ground clamp, and a standard trigger handle and tip.”

You may find that some of these elements are not necessary; again, consider what your target audience already knows. Strive to strike a balance between unnecessarily stating the obvious and incorrectly assuming your readers have knowledge that they lack.

Once you have your purpose and audience clearly in focus, draft a technical description that includes the following elements:

• Definition : What is it, and what is its main purpose?
• Overview : Describe the mechanism’s overall appearance (“big picture”).
• Components : Describe the main component parts in labeled sections; consider the order of information carefully here. Create a logical connection between each component described.
• Explanation:  how do the parts work together to fulfill its function? What key principles govern its functioning? Consider how much detail is necessary here for your intended audience.
• Visuals:  include graphics that clearly illustrate the mechanism and/or its parts. Show the device as a whole; consider showing specific details in expanded views, cut-aways, or labeled diagrams. You may even embed or link to videos showing the device in action.
• Conclusion : depending on the purpose, you might review product’s history, availability, manufacturing, costs, warnings,  etc .)
• References : Sources you have used in your description, or additional sources of information available (if relevant).

Revising Technical Descriptions  

In refining the details of your description and its component parts, consider the following:

• Top to bottom (or foundation upward)
• Left to right (or right to left)
• Inside to outside (or outside to inside)
• Most important to least important features
• Central component to peripherals
• Material properties, etc.
• Use correct terminology – define terms as necessary for your audience
• Use analogy to describe an unfamiliar thing in terms of a familiar thing
• Use objective language – no “ad speak” or subjective terms
• Use present tense, active verbs to describe how the device appears and what it does
• Use words that create vivid and specific pictures in the reader’s mind.

Here’s an example of a student’s technical description assignment for explaining GPS.

Additional Resources

• “ Technical Description ” Online Technical Writing
• “ Technical Definition and Description ” Penn State University, Technical Writing, Fall 2013

Technical Writing at LBCC - Maker's Space Edition Copyright © 2020 by Dio Morales is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Technical writing is needed in most aspects of training. Learn how to make your writing concise and audience-focused for better engagement.

The role of technical writing is to break down complex concepts so readers can relate to them and put those concepts into practice. Technical writing is used in most aspects of training to give learners clarity.

Since your goal with technical writing is to help your learners understand a complex concept clearly, your writing should be audience-focused. No field has better success in engaging their audience than marketing – this is where you can take inspiration from. After seeing the levels of engagement marketers garner from using concise writing, it makes sense to employ the same in your training.

With that in mind, here are seven tips for concise technical writing:

• Put the technical concept into a diagram: More visuals and less text usually result in more learning than with text alone. If the technical concept you are trying to communicate can be accurately represented by a diagram, use that. Not only will this help ensure it’s clear for the person providing the content (the SME), but it helps the learner.
• Chunk out content with relevant visuals: While it’s not always realistic to have the perfect visual to accompany technical content, having a related visual and the design chunked out on the page will immediately help the learner grasp each part of the concept. It’s a more effective approach than just explaining the entire concept using mostly in text on the screen. Figures like graphs, tables, charts, etc. should aid the reader in comprehension.
• Cut out filler words: Avoid redundant phrasing as this makes your writing wordy and tiring to read. You can eliminate unnecessary prepositions, such as ‘very’ and ‘too’ that are frequently thrown in for emphasis. Rather, choose singular words that can convey the same meaning and emphasis. Other examples of this include ‘basically’, ‘took place’, ‘red in color’ instead of ‘red’, ‘ask the question’ instead of ‘ask’, See this longer list of filler words and redundant phrasing to avoid.
• Trim long sentences: If your text contains mostly long, convoluted sentences, your learners might find it difficult to understand. Avoid long, run-on sentences. Break them up into shorter sentences when you can or use dashes to create pause.

Training requires technical writing much of the time. The best writing involves audience focus and accessibility. Including images and using other concise writing tips ensures that your learners are fully engaged and have a constructive learning experience.

Danielle Wallace is the chief learning strategist at Beyond the Sky , a provider of custom learning solutions. Previously, as a marketing executive with Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo, she learned strategic marketing principles, which she applies to learning and development to create learning that sticks. Danielle is also a certified training and development professional (CTDP) and her thought leadership, free checklists, and monthly infographics can be found at www.BeyondtheSky.ca

Hey! I also adhere to similar advice, but most often I turn to professionals. When you are looking for a good essay writer , try to go for the ones with a good reputation and references. You can also request samples from essay writers to get a better understanding of what they can do for you. Most experienced essay writers will be more than happy to send you a sample article or a sample essay.

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Home > Learn More About Technical Writing > A Guide To Fundamentals Of Technical Communication Skills

A Guide To Fundamentals Of Technical Communication Skills

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Table of Contents

About flaunting technical communication skills- an introduction

Firstly, communication is transmitting information through words, images, and sounds. While communicating, we knit our words, audio, and visuals to create meaningful information and share it with others. Eventually, how we form the knitting depends on the target audience and the context. Therefore, technical communication skills or technical writing refer to the skilful construction of technical information deliverable to formal and tech-savvy audiences dealing with a target-specific context.

Perspectives of technical communication

Markedly, technical communication creates lucid information for a target-specific audience. Government documents, white papers, journal articles, product descriptions, user manuals, etc., are technical communications.

However, technical communication is the mode of formal interaction in several fields like  Medical, Engineering, Education, Research and Training, Sales, Banking and Insurance, Information Technology, etc. So, no industry doesn’t use or require technical communication skills. Technical communication skills are practised explicitly in technical writings furthermore.

The Power of technical writing

Undeniably, in this digital era of information technology, technical documents are immensely incorporated into our day-to-day life. Everywhere around us, there are product descriptions and user manuals for gadgets, a never-ending stream of banking and financial reports, Insurance policy documents, medical recommendations, and so on. However, all these documents are easy to understand. So, let’s walk through the way we can prepare these documents to formalize the technical communication.

Indeed technical writing is also one form of writing, like conventional writing, creative writing, and academic writing. When we convey technical information in writing, the particular form of writing is called technical writing. Although, sometimes, the detailed information can be too complex to be understood by non-technical people. Specifically, Jargon or the technical terminology we often refer to in medical and engineering fields can be cryptic to non-technical people.

However, the management team, finance team, and end-users have to understand these complex technical pieces of information apart from the specialized body of an organization. Hence, the technical writers shape the complex jargon-rich data into an easy-to-understand document in layman’s words.

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Therefore, in the era of Information technology, technical writing, under the broader field of technical communication, proves to be one of the booming industries. However, we require learning technical communication skills to explain complex and informative technical processes. Therefore, we’ve discussed a vivid range of skills and salient features for technical writing in this blog.

The Technical communication skills- the fundamentals

The clarity in a language is necessary to convey meaningful information to others. Even technically advanced people can not communicate in a clear language to their audience. Hence, good technical communication skills become necessary in this field. For instance, excellent writing abilities are the key to flaunting any type of writing. Therefore, the fundamentals of technical communication skills are crucial to upskilling your writing abilities. Following are the technical communication skills:

Understanding the Target Audience

Important to realize to whom you are writing. Understanding the target audience is the foremost aspect of the fundamentals of technical communication skills. Hence, it’s your duty as a technical writer to make the audience understand the technical complexity of the document in simple language.

For example, if you are writing a user manual for a mixer grinder, you should start by introducing every part of the product. Then you should present a diagrammatic demonstration of the product’s functions. Next, you can deliver a step-by-step pictorial guide to installing the product. Lastly, you should finish it with a complete picture of the product.

For your convenience, you should be able to write a user-friendly product manual once you step into the consumer’s shoes and transform the technicality into their perspectives.

Understanding Technical Communication Products

Products created in the technical communication domain are limited only to the practitioner’s funding and imagination. However, these products are of two primary categories, i.e., written and audio/visual. Furthermore, they subdivide into one of three following areas:

• Conveying information: books, audio narration,  annual reports, conference presentations, documentaries, interpretive signs for parks or museums, feasibility reports, grant proposals, knowledge base articles, podcasts, proposals, medical studies, technical reports, scientific articles, vector drawings, technical illustrations, vlogs, and white papers.
• Marketing: advertisements, customer service scripts, newsletters, brochures, catalogs, product demonstrations, product packaging, storyboarding, usability testing, and websites.
• Training and Clarifying: animation, comics, e-learning, FAQs, how-to videos, DIY videos, online and embedded help, patient education videos, process flows, release notes, policies and procedures, training manuals and courses, user guides, user experience designs, usability testing, web-based training, and Wikipedia-pages.

Moreover, the written materials follow more discrete lines, while the audio/visuals mingle more between the three areas. This knowledge to categorize the technical communication products is another crucial skill for a technical writer.

Gathering Technical Knowledge

For instance, a doctor, despite his qualification, cannot construct a bridge. Correspondingly, an engineer won’t be able to operate a human body. Therefore, it is necessary to gather technical knowledge according to the intellect of the subject-specific target audience. Hence, basic technical knowledge is one of the crucial technical communication skills for technical writers.

Background Research before writing

It’s crucial to do thorough research beforehand to write technical content. Since good content comes from complete background research, a technical writer should devote more time to researching than writing. Hence, a technical writer will need background knowledge and excellent research skills to write informative technical documents. Therefore, we can say that writing is a continuous process like learning.

Adopting Communication Skills

The strength of a technical writer is good communication skills. Since a technical writer interacts and works along with different teams or individuals, being an attentive listener leads to good communication skills for a technical writer. Therefore, listening carefully, recording the details, and communicating are essential for a technical writer. Hence a technical writer must adopt the communication skills to write flawless technical documents.

The Writing tools

Unlike a few decades back, we have achieved a world beyond pen and paper in this digital era. Nowadays, we have developed many tools to make writing an art. There are tools to check sentences for grammatical construction, tones, voices, plagiarism, etc., thereby verifying the readability of the audience.

However, these tools transform your written content into videos and add diagrams, graphs, and pie charts to your technical documents. Although some of the popular tools are available online for free, some are available with monthly charges. These writing tools are handy assistants to technical writers. Therefore, learning to work with writing tools is one of the crucial technical communication skills.

Technical Writing- Steps to follow

Mastering the step-by-step process of writing a technical document is one of the technical communication skills. It will also aid you in recognizing the consumer and their needs. Following are the steps to follow while writing a technical document:

• Recognize the objective: Firstly, you have to understand the scope of the document to write.  What are the types of information to be conveyed through the document? Should it be a detailed write-up like a user manual or a precise summary instead?
• Understand the topic: Secondly, a thorough understanding of the complex technical topic is vital for a technical writer. Research-based comprehension of the subject in the discussion always levels up the document written. If you do not have adequate knowledge in that area, invest more time researching and studying the topic instead of writing straight away. Keep notes handy to refer to while writing. Moreover, study previous documents, watch tutorials, and go through case studies. Get the data-centric facts and numbers accurate. Similarly, understand the FAQs as customer queries and plan your document addressing those questions to satisfy the target audience.
• Draw an Outline: Thirdly, Create a framework. A simple flow diagram or a listicle outline of the document should be handy for a technical content writer. Therefore, you should draw a framework before writing your technical document to avoid misplacing vital information in the document.
• Prepare the Final Document: Lastly, set the outline as your guide to writing the final document conveying all the details. The document should contain all the factual, statistical, and other fundamental details. Hence, as a technical writer, you must keep all these steps in mind while writing info-rich content.

Upgrading Writing skills

Writing any content can be an inherited skill for some, or people can acquire the habit of writing to become professional writers. Since educational organizations focus on creativity and imagination, even a 7-year-old kid starts writing these days. So, interested people can attend a workshop or read online about the fundamentals of technical communication skills to acquire or polish their skills at their convenience.

Hence, if interested, you can attend a professional course in content writing or technical writing to enhance your technical communication skills. Henry Harvin Education offers one of the best technical writing courses at reasonable fees online and offline. Check out the details further in this blog.

Attending Professional courses

In this digital technology-led era, many educational entities conduct online and regular technical writing courses. However, a technical writing course offers the knowledge to convey research-obtained information through technical and practical work to the target audience.

If you join a technical writing course, you will learn to write various “technical communication products” like articles and reports, statements, and graphs.  A technical writer should be skillful enough to construct written “technical communication products” like laboratory reports, research reports, status reports, design and feasibility reports, marketing reports, financial progress reports, etc.

Considering Technical Writing Courses

There are online technical content writing courses besides offline courses in the market. There are always advantages associated with learning. So, let’s peek through the merits of joining a technical writing course to upskill yourself.

Due to the pandemic, virtual learning became a liability across the globe. Since online sessions are abundant these days, you can choose from a wide range of courses available to attend the classes from the comfort of your home. You’ll get to learn from the faculties from remote areas that otherwise could be impossible to reach physically. In addition, online courses provide extra benefits like recorded video lectures, a wide range of competitions, one-to-one interaction with trainers, a 24×7 helpdesk facility, etc. Although, offline courses are on your doorstep in certain cities for those who prefer face-to-face interaction for learning.

However, wanna-be technical writers will need formal training and govt.-recognized certification to acquire a job in this field. Even experienced writers need to be aware of the latest trends, tools, and skills to keep up to date in their field. So, if you are considering joining a technical writing course to boost your technical communication skills, the following discussion is just for you.

Technical Writing Course by Henry Harvin Education- a roadmap:

Henry Harvin Education is one of the top educational entities in India and abroad. It offers you a 360-degree cutting-edge Technical Writing Course . Now, Henry Harvin has constructed a course module that teaches you to transform technical data and information into technical documentation through research-oriented skillful experimental processes. Therefore, master the art of simplifying complex technical data into clear and well-structured documents with the guidance of Henry Harvin.

About Henry Harvin Education

In summary, Henry Harvin Education is a Global Edtech Company. Moreover, Henry Harvin is the US and India-based institution. Though, it has a customer base in 97+ Countries across the globe. Henry Harvin ranks amongst the Top 100 Edtech companies in India and Top 500 Edtech companies globally. It conducts Public Programs, Corporate Programs, College Programs, Books, Skill Development Programs, Consulting Services & Assessments. Since it is a career & competency development organization, Henry Harvin got the designation of an Online University offering 200+ Programs for Upskilling & Reskilling their learners. Hence, what to rethink before becoming a part of the Elite Writing Academy of Henry Harvin Education while joining the 3,00,000+ Alumni Network Worldwide.

About the Technical Writing Course at Henry Harvin

The Technical Writing Course trains you to adopt the specialized composing abilities crucial to impart data from its complex technicality and transform them into an easy-to-understand format while composing a technical document. You’ll acquire these technical communication skills through a specialized learning process followed by trainer-reviewed test works. However, in this course, you’ll learn to construct distinctive specialized reports like research reports, lab reports, plan and plausibility reports, counselling reports, progress reports, etc. The technical writing course likewise moves toward a few languages, style, design, and content issues as a takeaway for you.

Henry Harvin’s exclusive 9 in 1 Course

• The course includes 36 Hours of one-on-one Live Online Interactive Classroom Sessions.
• This course offers projects in the Documentation Process, Technical Writing Software Tools, and more.
• Internship Assistance in the course provides a practical experience besides learning.
• Since Henry Harvin is a Govt of India recognized & Award-Winning Institute, get Certification of Certified Technical Writing Course from Henry Harvin to get recognized globally. 
• Get 100% Guaranteed Placement Support for 1-Year after completing the course.
• The course provides unlimited E-Learning Access with Abundant Tools and Techniques, assessments, video content, etc.
• You can join Regular Bootcamp Sessions for over 12 Months.
• Get Free Access to #AskHenry Hackathons and Competitions.
• Get a 1-Year Gold Membership of Henry Harvin’s Elite Writing Academy for the Certified Technical Writing Course at your convenience.

Educators to train you at Henry Harvin

Henry Harvin selects the most respected industry experts with 15+ years of working experience to guide you on your learning path and to upskill you with practical industrial experiences. Moreover, Henry Harvin invited these outstanding trainers for 150+ salient sessions for Technical Writing Course. And they have delivered 350+ lectures. The trainers are the domain experts with Henry Harvin Writing Academy as well.

Learning Benefits at Henry Harvin

• You’ll learn ethics in Scientific, Formal, and Technical Communication here.
• This course will make you able to write comprehensive Research Proposals.
• You’ll get to explore and identify various Literature Reviews.
• By completing this course, you will be able to convey the Technical Details to a non-technical audience in layman’s language.
• You’ll acquire the ability to Write Research Papers and Thesis for Technical journals.
• This course expertise your English Language Expressions to write clearly and concisely within a given deadline
• Similarly, this course provides free software access to create perfect Citations within seconds.

Technical Writing Tools by Henry Harvin

Career benefits of technical writing course.

Now, you might be wondering about the career goals you can achieve after completing the technical writing course at Henry Harvin. Following are the advantages in your career pathway you’ll get attending the course at Henry Harvin:

• You will be Eligible to Write a Thesis, Research Papers, and Technical Content for professionals With Henry Harvin’s Certification.
• This course Opens doors to immense Job Opportunities in India and Abroad.
• With the skillset and certification, you can get Promoted in your job role with the most in-demand skill.
• This course will upgrade your profile to conquer Job Interviews.
• Earn a globally recognized Certification by completing the ‘Certified Technical Writer’ (CTW) course.
• Upgrade your business card with Hallmarked Global Credential for CTW Professional added next to your name.
• Improve your CV and LinkedIn Profile details with professional development and skillsets.

So far, we’ve informed you about the technical writing course at Henry Harvin you may find helpful as a technical writer. Now, let’s wrap up our discussion on the fundamentals of technical communication skills for technical writing with the career prospects in this particular area of expertise.

Bottom lining with career possibilities in technical writing

So far, we’ve talked about the vivid range of opportunities in the technical writing field and the fundamentals of technical communication skills. Now, you might be wondering about the potential career outcomes of the same. Since a technical writer has a vivid range of choices in the field of technical communications, below are a few of the options listed to make a career out of those diverse possibilities:

• Content writers
• Technical communicators
• Technical communications specialists
• Manual writers
• Policy writers
• Documentation specialists
• Technical illustrators
• Technical writing trainers, etc.

Moreover, good technical writing skills are the most required asset in all sorts of industries in this technology-driven digital era. However, booming commercial enterprises are budding worldwide with the ever-growing demand for technical writers. Previously we have discussed the rudimentary technical communication skills followed by the added advantages of joining the technical writing courses. Lastly, we discussed the career prospects of mastering technical communication skills as a technical writer. So, without any further delay, grab that impressive technical writing course at your convenience and enter the exciting journey in the field of technical communication. Finally, remember that technical writing is not only the mere act of your fingers on the keyboard. Technical writing is living since it simplifies the complexity of technology through your magic words. Hence, be a magician with ‘technical communication skills.’

Recommended reads

• What is Technical Writing: a Complete Guide
• Why and How Technical Writing Different from Creative Writing?
• Top Technical Writing Books
• Best Tips to be an Expert in Technical Writing
• Scope of Technical Writer in India
• Latest Technical Writing Jobs in India

Frequently Asked Questions:

A. Any good technical communication should flaunt accuracy, clarity, coherence, conciseness, and appropriation. These are the five main features of technical communication.

A. As you know, the Tone is the “emotional character” of a write-up. Hence, the Tone of the technical writing should be formal, serious, and factual to deliver technical data to the target audience.

A. Naming a few, technical communication is integral to fields like health education, scientific research, scientific and medical policies, computer software, environmental communications, etc.

A. If you’re a newbie, there’s less possibility for you to get a full-time work-from-home job as a technical writer. Usually, you need experience in the technical writing field to gain the recruiters’ trust in you to let you work remotely. Even so, many employers offer hybrid jobs to highly experienced technical writers to make them work partly from home and partly on-site.

A. As a technical writer or a technical communicator, you should avoid a messy structure, jargon stuffing, inconsistency, poor punctuation, unclear antecedents, too much abstraction, dense presentation, etc., for common mistakes.

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Creative Content Writer and Blogger. Currently Freelancing as a Content Writer at Henry Harvin. Attended Henry Harvin’s CDCW content writing course and the Content Writing Internship at Henry Harvin. Graduated from Visva-Bharati University with Zoology Honors. Believe daydreams do come true in the trails of the scribble dribbles that our creative wings leave behind as we fly high.

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Introducing Technical Writing

Dawn Atkinson and Sarah Raymond

Chapter Overview

This chapter aims to help you understand what technical writing is, what it is used for, and what characteristics and conventions help to define it.

A Definition of Technical Writing

Although you may not yet be fully familiar with the characteristics of technical writing, you have likely experienced technical writing at one time or another in your daily life as a student, employee, or consumer. Technical writing , according to this book’s definition, aims to help individuals perform workplace tasks, carry out a series of operations, understand concepts or research, solve problems, operate technology, or communicate in a professional manner. You may have encountered technical writing in textbooks, operations manuals, company policies, or illustrations in magazine articles. To extend our definition of technical writing, textbook author Last (2019, p. 6) explains that this form of non-fiction writing communicates information for practical and specific purposes, takes document design into account, and is usually intended for particular readers.

The Characteristics of Technical Writing

When we employ technical writing, we strive to keep readers in mind and tailor our communication for a particular purpose. The audience for a piece of technical writing is the individuals who will read the text. Since technical writing may be used in multimedia documents, such as presentations, videos, and podcasts, an audience might also include listeners, viewers, and users. The purpose for a piece of technical writing signifies the reason it has been produced. In general, the purpose for a piece of communication is either to entertain, sell, inform, or persuade; however, documents may also address more than one of these purposes. Technical writing, in comparison, may be produced with more specific purposes in mind, such as to provide or ask for information, record details, or convince readers of something (Last & Neveu, 2019, p. 18). Again, technical documents may also reflect more than one of these purposes.

Seven attributes help to define technical writing and ensure that it adequately addresses audience and purpose. Specifically, technical writing is clear, coherent, concise, concrete, correct, complete, and courteous. The following definitions of these characteristics are adapted from Last (2019, pp. 43-44).

Clear writing communicates a writer’s ideas and purpose in a straightforward manner. It targets a particular audience by being precise and moderating technical words, obscure phrases, and jargon , specialized language or terminology used in a particular field of study or workplace environment. It also foregrounds important information for the benefit of readers and conveys one main idea per paragraph.

Coherent writing builds links between ideas so readers can easily follow them. One idea should lead logically into the next via use of transitional words and phrases, intentional repetition, sentences with clear subjects, specific and informative titles and headings, parallel lists, and consistent document design. When writing is coherent, readers can easily track thoughts and lines of reasoning; incoherent writing, in comparison, is choppy and hard to follow since its ideas appear to be disconnected or incomplete.

Concise writing is efficient: it delivers its message clearly without using extraneous words that slow readers. To produce concise writing, avoid unnecessary padding in sentences, awkward phrasing, overuse of be verbs ( is , are , was , were , am , be , being , been ), long preposition strings, vague language (words like good , bad , and do ), unnecessary repetition, and redundancy. In addition, use active verbs whenever possible, and take the time to select a single, expressive word rather than using a long or clichéd phrase. Think of your word count like a budget; be frugal by making sure every word you choose works hard to communicate meaning.

Concrete writing uses specific, exact language so readers can easily understand points. If you have to explain an abstract concept, use familiar examples, everyday comparisons, and precise language. In addition, use measurable or specific descriptors whenever possible instead of words that encompass a range of interpretations (e.g., big , little , very , extremely , and great ).

Correct writing uses conventional English punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and sentence structures; provides accurate information that is communicated in an ethical way; and employs the right document type for the task.

Complete writing includes all requested information and answers all relevant questions. Carefully read and follow specifications to ensure your documents are complete.

Courteous writing employs an intuitive design that is easy to scan; uses respectful language; addresses readers appropriately; and avoids potentially offensive terms and tone.

Writing that is clear, coherent, concise, concrete, correct, complete, and courteous establishes credibility with readers, demonstrates dedication and care, and communicates messages convincingly.

The Conventions of Technical Writing

Documents typically follow conventions , expectations about key features that affect how they are organized, designed, and written. Conventions help readers recognize and categorize documents into genres , or types of writing; conventions also help writers to produce texts in line with accepted standards.

Certain conventions typify technical writing as a means for communicating information clearly and effectively to people who need it. Table 1 provides an overview of these conventions.

The conventions outlined in Table 1 help make technical writing easy-to-navigate and reader focused.

Activity A: Identify the Audiences for Pieces of Technical Writing

Read the extract.

An extract from the article “Remote Reefs and Seamounts are the Last Refuges for Marine Predators across the Indo-Pacific” (Letessier et al., 2019, “Abstract”)

What can you tell about the intended audience for the text?

Read another example of technical writing.

A set of instructions for a Creative Commons game adapted from Northwest Vista College Library

Figure 2: “ Creative Commons Matching Game ” by AmandaMG is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Information and images about the licenses are from Creative Commons.

What can you tell about the intended audience for this document?

Now read a third example of technical writing in Figure 3. I nfographics combine text, visuals, and numbers to communicate dense information in quick and easy-to-read formats.

An infographic focusing on how overfishing affects coral reefs (NOAA, 2018)

Lastly, read the document in Figure 4.

Comparative Essays

Writing a comparison usually requires that you assess the similarities and differences between two or more theories , procedures , or processes . You explain to your reader what insights can be gained from the comparison, or judge whether one thing is better than another according to established criteria. Helpful tip: When you are asked to write a comparative essay, remember that, unless you are instructed otherwise, you are usually being asked to assess both similarities and differences . Such essays may be called comparative essays , comparison essays , or compare-and-contrast essays .

How to write a comparative essay

• Establish a basis of comparison A basis of comparison represents the main idea , category , or theme you will investigate. You will have to do some preliminary reading , likely using your course materials, to get an idea of what kind of criteria you will use to assess whatever you are comparing. A basis of comparison must apply to all items you are comparing, but the details will be different. For example, if you are asked to “compare neoclassical architecture and gothic architecture,” you could compare the influence of social context on the two styles.
• Gather the details of whatever you are comparing   Once you have decided what theme or idea you are investigating, you will need to gather details of whatever you are comparing, especially in terms of similarities and differences . Doing so allows you to see which criteria you should use in your comparison, if not specified by your professor or instructor.

Helpful tip: Organize your criteria in columns or a Venn diagram ; using visual methods to map your pre-writing work can help you to stay on track and more clearly get a sense of how the essay will be structured.

Based on the information in the above table, you could focus on how ornamentation and design principles reveal prevailing intellectual thought about architecture in the respective eras and societies.

• Develop a thesis statement After brainstorming, try to develop a thesis statement that identifies the results of your comparison. Here is an example of a fairly common thesis statement structure: e.g., Although neoclassical architecture and gothic architecture have [similar characteristics A and B], they reveal profound differences in their interpretation of [C, D, and E].

Helpful tip: Avoid a thesis statement that simply states your obvious purpose. e.g., The aim of this essay is to compare [A and B] with reference to [X, Y, and Z].

• Organize your comparison You have a choice of two basic methods for organizing a comparative essay: the point-by-point method or the block method. The point-by-point method examines one aspect of comparison in each paragraph and usually alternates back and forth between the two objects, texts, or ideas being compared. This method allows you to emphasize points of similarity and of difference as you proceed. In the block method , however, you say everything you need to say about one thing, then do the same thing with the other. This method works best if you want readers to understand and agree with the advantages of something you are proposing, such as introducing a new process or theory by showing how it compares to something more traditional.

Sample outlines for comparative essays on neoclassical and gothic architecture

Building a point-by-point essay.

Using the point-by-point method in a comparative essay allows you to draw direct comparisons and produce a more tightly integrated essay. Helpful tip: Note that you can have more than three points of comparison , especially in longer essays. The points can be either similarities or differences. Overall, in order to use this method, you must be able to apply criteria to every item, text, or idea you are comparing.

• Introductory material
• Thesis: Although neoclassical and gothic architecture are both western European forms that are exemplified in civic buildings and churches, they nonetheless reveal, through different structural design and ornamentation, the different intellectual principles of the two societies that created them.
• Why this comparison is important and what it tells readers

Building a block method essay

Using the block method in a comparative essay can help ensure that the ideas in the second block build upon or extend ideas presented in the first block. It works well if you have three or more major areas of comparison instead of two (for example, if you added in a third or fourth style of architecture, the block method would be easier to organize).

• Thesis: The neoclassical style of architecture was a conscious rejection of the gothic style that had dominated in France at the end of the middle ages; it represented a desire to return to the classical ideals of Greece and Rome.
• Text 1: History and development
• Text 2: Change from earlier form; social context of new form
• Synthesis and analysis: What does the comparison reveal about architectural development?

How do the audiences for the four examples you looked at differ? How might these differences have shape the documents’ development? Please be prepared to discuss your ideas in class.

Activity B: Consider the Implications of Integrity in the Workplace

As this chapter mentions, correct technical communication is truthful in its message and is communicated ethically. To explore what these concepts mean from various perspectives, read the following piece, composed by Sarah Raymond, Director of Career Services at Montana Technological University. In 2020, Ms. Raymond conducted a series of informational interviews with employers to discover what integrity means to them. After you have read the text, work with classmates to address the questions that follow. Be prepared to discuss your team’s responses in class.

What do you do when no one is watching?

Although integrity, by definition, is “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles” (Lexico, 2020, definition one), it is one of those abstract personal traits that can be difficult to pin down. Regardless, most people know what it is when they see it. You have probably witnessed times when people have disregarded integrity and may or may not have been caught. It can be devastating to watch when someone does get exposed, either as a result of a serious infraction or several small infractions that have previously been overlooked. In either case, the repercussions can be great.

Integrity is certainly important in academics, as academia is a training ground for the workplace. During her interview, Koren Vining, Vice President and Branch Manager at Cetera Investors, concurred with this view: “College gives you time to practice integrity and hone those skills, [and]…if you screw up, it isn’t life altering.”  Mistakes can, in fact, help people learn. Vining said she hopes her children learn from their mistakes before they enter employment—before their actions can really hurt their lives. To be sure, lapses in judgement, integrity, and ethical decision making can lead to substantial costs in the workplace (for example, your job, your money, your time, other people’s time, and other people’s money).

Companies recognize integrity in their employees and tend to promote those who work hard, do a good job, and have impeccable behavior. What leaders do and how they behave matters because people are always watching. Quality leadership correlates with a high degree of integrity (as well as transparency, accountability, responsibility, self-awareness, and other traits). Vining explained,

There comes a time when you are ready to take the next step; by having worked the right way , you have put in the effort, you have practiced the skills for future success. If you have been accidentally successful, there will come a time when it will crash.

Working in an investment firm, Vining has unfortunately seen this destructive situation happen to former employees. In a highly regulated business, someone is always watching.

As a testament to her integrity as a leader, Vining has shared pieces of her management style and has been open with members of her work team. This transparency allows her team members to be successful on their own terms. To encourage their success and self-sufficiency, Vining shares the following guidance with her team members:

Do your work. If you need a boss, someone to stand over you, this isn’t going to be a successful working relationship. However, if you need some structure and a coach, you can dictate your own success. Are you working on your own plan, or are you working on a plan that belongs to someone else?

Vining clearly values her employees’ beliefs in their ability to be successful and is transparent in her expectations.

In today’s new abnormal, remote work is something many people have experienced for a sustained period of time. Maybe you have even experienced a remote classroom that was not what you had planned when you registered for the term. In this type of situation, discipline and focus will serve you well as opposed to trying to avoid hard work by taking short cuts. In relation to this point, Vining asked, “How do you want people to think about you?”  In other words, what do they say about you when you are not there? Your personal brand and what you stand for matter in the workplace.

Putting in extra effort and time on tasks can cause stress, but Vining shared an alternate view: “Unless you are really a crappy person, there is stress involved with taking the short-cut too.”  In other words, taking short cuts to circumvent hard work is stressful because of the fear of getting caught.

Vining offered sage advice as a 19-year recruiting veteran: “Cultivate personal integrity. You will be more apt to have more success.”  At the companies she has worked, she has been fortunate to witness corporate America elevate people who have integrity. And, conversely, she has seen those who do not demonstrate integrity suffer. “Eventually it comes out, it may be post-mortem and that is certainly not how you want to be remembered.”  When you are responsible for someone else’s resources (money, time, property) in a job, people expect you to value that position. Employers trust you to make the next right decision.

According to Glen Fowler, the former President of Mountain Pacific Association of Colleges and Employers (MPACE) and the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), the adjectives integrity and credibility are synonymous. “Everything you say, if you are credible, I believe you without question. It is a distraction if you have to spend time and second guess people.”  Credibility is something that most employers are able to identify early in someone’s career. Similarly, lack of credibility on the job—for example, when steering a team or when reporting back on its work—can be career limiting. “Credibility is about your personal reputation. Once it is marred, it is all over,” according to Fowler. “People underestimate how small the world is. Leadership or decision makers know each other and if not, they will reach out to someone.”  Again, integrity is central to effective workplace performance.

Fowler echoed that academia is the time to develop and hone behavioral integrity. “This is how you are going to conduct yourself in the future.”  During his professional career, while onboarding staff and hiring scores of people, he observed that individuals entering his industry were Type A personalities. “These [were] people who [were] used to having all the answers. We had to break them of that mentality, break the conditioning they had developed. We had to give them the license to say ‘I don’t know.’”  Fowler stressed, “You are better off saying that you don’t know. You are hired for your expertise, but if you start your response with a conditional statement, ‘I think,’ people don’t hear that qualification.” Fowler also emphasized, “A sign of maturity is to admit you don’t have all the answers,” and quickly added, “But you can get them!”

Another subtlety of integrity and a way in which people can get into trouble, according to Fowler, “Is not just what you share, but what you didn’t share even when you knew it would help and yet still withheld it.”  People may not openly communicate for a variety of reasons, none of which may be malicious or self-serving. Maybe they do not communicate because they want to avoid confrontation or uncomfortable situations. Or, they may tell themselves it is not their place to be forthright. Regardless, “A junior-level person can question or stand up to a senior person, based upon perceived facts and still be respected,” according to Fowler. “To become a true leader, it is important to be engaged with your career and know yourself.”  In other words, recognize and own the values that underlay your actions and behaviors.

Employers use job interviews to assess a number of things: for example, skills, past performance, technical expertise, and level of workplace integrity. Some recruiters use behavioral or situational questions to help them better understand how job applicants would handle real-life problems or common situations. Here are a few interview questions for you to consider. How would you answer them during an employment interview?

• Tell me about a time you were new to a company or work group. What steps did you take to build trust with co-workers and/or staff?
• Give an example of a time when you over-committed yourself. How did you handle it?
• Describe a situation when you worked with someone you did not like or respect. How did you cope with the relationship?
• Tell me about a time when your values were in conflict with your employment organization’s values. What did you do?

Describe what the terms integrity and ethics mean to you. Tell me about a time when your integrity or ethics were challenged. What did you do?

Employers likely will not tell you outright when you are being asked questions about ethics or integrity. They may be more subtle and lay out situations to uncover your core values. Fowler shared, “Employers ask questions in…clever ways. They…[will] tee up a scenario that is specific to their industry. It gets at the heart of your personal judgement, conflict resolution, or teamwork.”  How will you respond? Will you make the next right decision? Are you a match for the team they already have in place?

As an employee, you will be evaluated on the quality of work you produce. That is another way your employer will measure your credibility. Are you performing the responsibilities of your post with integrity? Your employer will trust that you are going to do your work correctly, produce credible deliverables, and communicate effectively throughout projects. Your employer, in short, will rely on you to do what you say you will do in order to uphold the organization’s reputation and your own.

Integrity is clearly more than just the definition of honesty and moral uprightness. Ultimately, all you have is your word. The ability to follow through on your promises contributes to your professional reputation, and relationships and interactions with others count for a great deal. If people are not able to trust or rely on you in the workplace, you will miss opportunities for personal and professional success. Barb Crump, Director of Human Resources at Northern Montana Hospital, deals with people every day in her role. She values fairness in the workplace, and people come to her because they rely on her expertise and trust her willingness to guide them correctly. Crump shared, “Recently there was a post on Facebook that sums up what we are discussing: ‘I no longer listen to what people say. I watch what they do. Behavior doesn’t lie.’”

What are your responses to these items?

• A new employee received training from someone else in the office. The person responsible for the training withheld information that was critical to completing a particular task. The new employee struggled to complete the task, and the trainer eventually shared the proper information.
• How might the new employee feel?
• Why would the person conducting the training withhold information?
• What was wasted during the process: time, money, opportunities for collaboration and peer-to-peer learning, mental energy, or something else?
• What might happen to team morale? What might happen to the overall morale in the office?
• What did the company lose?
• An employer contacted a university’s career services office to inquire about an intern’s transcript. The employer had worked with this office for some time to offer internship opportunities to students. The intern was required to provide the transcript as a condition of employment, but the employer had concerns about the document since its format did not resemble transcripts that had been provided in the past.
• What do you think might have happened with the transcript?
• What was damaged in this situation?
• How should the employer respond?
• How should the career services office respond?
• How should the university respond?
• Imagine you had the opportunity to interview for a dream job in your field and were provided the list of interview questions in advance. How would you respond to these questions?
• Tell me about a time you were new to a group. What steps did you take to build trust with its members?
• Tell me about a time when you encountered a conflict with someone, either at work or in school. What communication strategies did you use to resolve it?

Homework: Email Your Instructor about Your Experiences with Technical Writing

Consider this textbook chapter in relationship to your experience as a student, employee, or consumer. Compose an email to your instructor in which you address the following prompt: What are two kinds of documents you have written or encountered that could be characterized as technical writing, and why? Use standard conventions for professional emails when completing this task. For help with composing and formatting your email, consult the “Writing Electronic Correspondence” chapter of this textbook. This exercise is adapted from Last (2019, p. 9).

Remember to edit, revise, and proofread your message before sending it to your instructor. The following multipage handout, from the Academic Writing Help Centre, Student Academic Success Service, University of Ottawa (2016), may be helpful in this regard.

Sentence Structure

https://sass.uottawa.ca/sites/sass.uottawa.ca/files/awhc-sentence-structure.pdf

Academic Writing Help Centre, Student Academic Success Service, University of Ottawa. (2016). Sentence structure . License: CC-BY 4.o . https://sass.uottawa.ca/sites/sass.uottawa.ca/files/awhc-sentence-structure.pdf

Last, Suzan (2019). Technical writing essentials: introduction to professional communication in the technical fields. License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 . Retrieved from https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/

Letessier, T.B., Mouillot, D., Bouchet, P.J., Vigliola, L., Fernandes, M.C., Thompson, C., Boussarie, G., Turner, J., Juhel, J.B., Maire, E., Caley, M.J., Koldewey, H.J., Friedlander, A., Sala, E., & Meeuwig, J.J. (2019). Remote reefs and seamounts are the last refuges for marine     predators across the Indo-Pacific. PLoS Biology, 17 (8), e3000366.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000366

Lexico. (2020). Integrity. In Lexico . Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/integrity

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2018). Threats to coral reefs: Overfishing [Infographic]. https://www.noaa.gov/multimedia/infographic/infographic-how-does-overfishing-threaten-coral-reefs

Northwest Vista College Library. (n.d.). Creative Commons matching game . License: CC-BY 4.0 . https://nvcguides.libguides.com/ccmatchinggame

Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo. (n.d.). Comparative essays . License: CC-BY-SA 4.0 . https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/sites/ca.writing-and-communication-centre/files/uploads/files/comparative_essays.pdf

Mindful Technical Writing Copyright © 2020 by Dawn Atkinson and Sarah Raymond is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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ENGL210: Technical Writing

Types of graphical illustration in technical writing.

Graphics used in technical documentation serve a specific purpose - to present information in the clearest format possible for the reader. Basic graphic principles apply:

• avoid clutter,
• orient the image properly,
• be aware of scale,
• always verify content, and
• avoid any graphic that is extraneous.

Graphics should never be used to dress up a document; they should only be used to enhance understanding. When principles of design replicate principles of thought, the act of arranging information becomes an act of insight (E. Tufte intro). A reader's attention is drawn to graphics more than to blocks of text. The use of graphics enables writers to present technical information more clearly and emphatically than words alone. Therefore, graphics for a technical document must be designed, edited, and prepared with precision to avoid weakness. Readers often look at graphics quickly. The message in a figure or table should be clear and readily apparent. The writer should be familiar with the intended audience of the document so that the right graphics are selected. Each graphic should focus on clearly conveying one piece of information. Uncomplicated graphics work best. Avoid what Edward Tufte calls "chart junk" (E. Tufte, Visual) that distracts the reader from the intended information the graphic is presenting. The Franklin Covey Style Guide for Business and Technical Communication provides comprehensive guidelines for each of the graphical components, and this wiki content text draws heavily upon it for both content and style recommendations (Franklin). There are several types of graphics, each with its own function. Graphics can represent these elements in a technical document:

• Line graphs
• Flow Charts
• Organizational charts
• Scheduling Charts

Photographs

• Words - Words emphasized by boxing them, by changing the color or the font, or enlarging them to call attention in a text are all forms of graphics, albeit not very sophisticated (McMurrey).

Visual techniques for depicting quantity include direct labels - for example, the numerically labeled grids of statistical graphics; encodings - for example, color scales; and self-representing scales - for example, objects of known size appearing in an image (E. Tufte 13). Illustrations are classified as either tables or figures: if the illustration is not a table (information is presented in columns and rows), then it is a figure. Tables and illustrations are numbered independently; within each category, they are numbered sequentially.

Tables 

Tables are the best graphic to use when readers need to focus on specifics. "A table is an effective display for two-dimensional data, usually when one dimension is a collection or series of items and the second dimension consists of attributes or characteristics that all or most of the items have in common, such as description, type, size, and color" (Gurak 357). Tables can communicate many details in a simple way; details that would be hard to comprehend if done through words alone. An advantage of tables is that they can be quickly scanned for information and that "commonalities and differences" across entries are readily apparent (Gurak 358).

Guidelines for Creating Tabl es

• Explain what the table contains and how it will help the reader.
• Give the table either a title or caption, as appropriate.
• Write informative, understandable, and visually distinct heading labels.
• Make rows distinct through headings or display of categories.
• Avoid wordiness, limit text in cells to a few words.
• Use color coding and symbols to facilitate quick scanning and data comparison.
• Ensure the table will be readable in the display format.

Figure 1. Table of data for a steel wall product.

Graphs plot a set of points on a set of axes, usually along the horizontal (x) and vertical (y) axes, to show abstract information in an easy to understand way. They visually represent and compare numerical data, and as such are useful for showing trends, cycles, cumulative changes, relationships between variables, and distributions. Though not as effective as a table in presenting precise data, readers can "see in one image a trend or pattern within a large data set" (Gurak 319). Graphs are better than tables to show the meaning of data.

"Because graphs represent complex data in visual form, they can be powerful and persuasive"(Gurak 322). Therefore, one must be careful when creating graphs that information is not distorted or misrepresented, that resource information is accurate, and that the graph is clear and easy to read (Gurak).

Guidelines for Creating Graphs

• Ensure the axes are clearly labeled, and that units of scale or measurement are identified (Gurak 323).
• Ensure that axes that do not begin at zero are clearly labeled.
• Ensure that the graph does not distort or modify the trend.
• Indicate the source of data used to construct the graph.
• Explain how the graph supports points discussed in the text.
• Design for simplicity, avoid overuse of colors and typefaces.
• Use software programs such as Microsoft Excel to create graphs.

Graphs should be numbered sequentially, include a title, and an informative caption which identifies the specific purpose of the graph. Warrant the source of the data contained in the graph with a footnote reference. Labels, numbers and letters should each be kept parallel with the horizontal axis.

Line Graphs

Line or coordinate graphs are plotted using grid lines, with a horizontal axis and a vertical axis. Labels and scales should indicate the quantity, magnitude and range of each axis. The key data lines should be made heavier than grid lines for less important data. Multiple lines can appear in the same chart to show different variables, and should appear in different colors or patterns to differentiate them (Franklin 108). Line graphs are especially helpful to show several variables relating to one other variable. For example, time is the variable tracked in Figure 15.15, and several types of mortgage rates plotted over time. This creates a clear and simple visual comparison for the reader.

Figure 3. Ozone concentration in locations A through E.

Pie graphs are circles divided into sectors, or slices, to show the relationship of parts to a whole. "Pie charts are often accompanied by numerical data presented as a spreadsheet or table to allow readers to explore the displayed information in more detail" (Gurak 271).

Maps, both 2D and 3D, represent many purposes from simple road maps to visualizing complex numerical data. "The design and content of a map depends on the purpose and type of map being constructed, the conventions for that type of map, and the audience using it" (Gurak 324).

To map sequential data, it is best to use gradations of one or two colors to show gradations in the data. But, to show differences "in kind rather than in amount", many colors may be used; choose colors that are easily distinguished from one another (Gurak 325- 326).

Charts 

Charts are some of the most valuable and frequently used types of graphics. Charts have several conflicting definitions, depending on the resource consulted. For the purposes of our Style Guide, we will follow the style supported by the Franklin Covey Style Guide for Business and Technical Communication . Charts are graphs that do not rely on numerical interpretations, including organizational charts, flow charts, and schedule charts. The purpose of the chart, the audience, the medium, and the data and ideas being conveyed in the document should determine the best type of chart to use, rather than adhering to a hard rule (Franklin 42).

A chart is only as good as the effect it creates. A chart should only be included if it communicates information quickly and simply. Charts should be integrated with the text and convey information more dramatically than is possible without their use. A chart can both replace text and provide a visual road map that readers can use as they read through dense and complex material. Charts also provide a visual, which can aid recall. Flow charts, organization charts or scheduling charts should be used to help readers visualize the major points in a document.

Guidelines for Creating Charts

• Ensure the chart is consistent with how the audience will view the data.
• Design the chart so that it shows one primary idea or specific relationship.
• Keep the chart simple and clear; do not include too much information.
• Use clear, concise labels and titles; do not include too much text.
• Ensure that the information is not distorted or misleading.
• Use software programs such as Microsoft Excel to create charts.
• Ensure the chart is easily read from one-page orientation.

Sequentially number and label all charts the same as other graphics contained within a document. Do not have a separate numbering scheme for charts. Place footnotes and warranting evidence below a chart.

A flowchart is a common type of chart, representing an algorithm or process, and showing the steps as boxes of various kinds, and their order by connecting these with arrows. Flowcharts are used in analyzing, designing, documenting or managing a process or program in various fields.

There are many different types of flowcharts for different users (such as analysts, designers, engineers, managers, or programmers) representing different types objects.

Four General Types of Flowcharts (Sterneckert)

• shows document flow through system
• shows data flows in a system
• shows controls at a physical or resource level
• shows the controls in a program within a system (Business)

Features of a Flow Chart (Gurak 273)

• Each step in the process is represented by a shape.
• Decision steps are labeled in the form of a question. Different paths may be taken depending upon the answer to the question.

Figure 5. Flowchart representing steps for troubleshooting a broken lamp.

Organizational Chart

Organizational charts help readers visualize the structure and internal relationships of units or individuals within an organization. Organizational Charts Typically Show:

• divisions and subdivisions of the organization,
• hierarchy and relationship of the groups to one another,
• lines of responsibility and authority, where solid lines indicate direct lines of control, and
• lines of communication and coordination through the use of dashed lines.

Figure 6 . Organizational chart of the US government.

Scheduling Chart

A common project task is to schedule a series of events; the complexity of this task can vary considerably depending on how many steps are involved in the process. Some common challenges are:

• Resource Scheduling or the scheduling of people to work on and resources required by tasks.
• Dealing with uncertainties in the estimates of the duration of each task.
• Arranging tasks to meet various deadlines.
• Juggling multiple projects simultaneously to meet a variety of requirements (Franklin 47).

A scheduling chart visually illustrates the steps and their dependencies in a process. There are several types of commonly used scheduling systems.

Examples of Scheduling Systems

• MindMapper,
• Fixed Point Chart (FPC), and
• PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) (Evaluation).

Figure 7. PERT Network Chart for a seven-month project with five milestones (10 through 50) and six activities (A through F).

Using photographs in technical documentation conveys realism and gives the document credibility. While current technology allows complete manipulation of a photograph, readers still like the realism a photo provides. Information about size and scale should remain constant throughout a set of related images - scale should be constant (E. Tufte, Visual Graphics 25).

Photographs are used to show a reader what is - or what can be - rather than conveying a concept. Selection of a photograph should always be done after text is written. Match the message you want to convey to the text as closely as possible. All photographs need to support the message - a project should have several photographs for each message, from different sources, from which to choose. Budget allowing, color photographs are preferred, unless your text has been written to convey a historical message and the use of sepia tones or black and white images enhances your message (Franklin 231).

Representational illustrations include many types of graphics such as diagrams and drawings of actual products that allow a reader to see what they look like in concept, or to see inside the product to places that are usually hidden or not viewable. These help the reader to visualize an idea or a relationship. Even rough sketches convey information better than words in many instances.

Types of Representational Illustrations

• technical illustrations,
• exploded-view drawings,
• cutaway drawings, and
• symbols and icons.

All types of illustrations should always be kept as simple as possible, with color used to enhance them. Sometimes in technical communications, full color may not be an option. In this case, working with two colors is preferred. The second color can highlight specific areas of an illustration to bring the reader's attention to that area.

Each illustration should be clearly labeled, with parts of the object shown.

When adding a series of illustrations, the viewing angle should be consistent for each figure.

All letters and numbers on the illustration should be numbered so they can be read without reorienting the book or manual. In a drawing showing a process, the flow of the process should read left-to-right (Franklin 120).

Figure 8. Illustration of a flying machine, by Leonardo da Vinci.

Technical Illustrations

Technical illustration is the use of illustration to visually communicate information of a technical nature. Technical illustrations can be component technical drawings or diagrams that aim to generate expressive images to effectively convey certain information visually to both technical and non-technical audiences. The visual image should be accurate in terms of dimensions and proportions, and should provide an overall impression of what an object is or does, to enhance the reader's understanding.

Figure 9. Technical illustration of an interface card conveying placement of the interface cable.

Exploded View Drawings

An exploded view, or assembly, drawing is a diagram, picture or technical drawing of an object showing the relationship or order of assembly of various parts.

The components of an object are shown slightly separated by distance - as if there had been a small controlled explosion emanating from the middle of the object, causing the object's parts to be separated an equal distance away form their original locations.

The exploded drawing is used in parts catalogs, assembly and maintenance manuals and other instructional material (Exploded).

Cutaway Drawings

A cutaway drawing, also called a cutaway diagram, is a 3D graphic, drawing, diagram and/or illustration, in which surface elements are selectively removed to make internal features visible, without sacrificing the outer context entirely (Cutaway).

Figure 10. Airplane hangar, showing exterior with cutouts to expose interior.

Symbols and Icons

Symbols and icons are very valuable technical communication tools in the global marketplace. Many symbols are considered "internationally recognized" and are used on signs in airports, train stations, and hospitals. These symbols are also used in manuals developed for international audiences. Incorporating symbols and icons into technical documentation can considerably reduce the number of words to describe something.

Other types of graphics that may be used to add interest or humor to a document are clip art and cartoons.

Cartoons are drawn visuals that engage an audience through humor. Cartoons can be used to:

• Introduce a general topic in a report or other document.
• Provide a funny example to make a difficult topic understandable.
• Connect with the audience to 'break the ice'.

"Humor, when used appropriately, offers an effective emotional appeal for persuasion. Showing a sense of humor can also build rapport with audiences" (Gurak 268).

To use humor effectively, the audience must not be offended, and must be able to see themselves in the situation. To do this, editors need to know their audience well. Because humor does not translate well across cultures, it is best to not use humor in international venues.

Cartoons can be found on newspaper and magazine websites as well as Comics.com and Slate.com . Be sure to cite the comic or source of the cartoon; and if the terms require, obtain the necessary permissions (Gurak). Audiences enjoy comic strips like Dilbert, "Because it reveals the absurd realities of many workplaces" (Gurak 269).

Clip Art is the simple, informal artwork associated with software programs like Word, or on the Web, or in clip art books. It is not necessarily humorous, and can be used to add interest to a document. It can also be used to highlight document text or guide the reader through the document. But like other graphics, it must be kept to a minimum so as not to look unprofessional.

Screen Captures

Screen captures are very helpful in technical documentation because they show the reader what an application looks like, rather than telling them. Seeing the actual screen is much more useful than describing it with words. Screen capture software may allow sections of a screen to be circled or numbered. Written instructions referring to these circles and numbers can help guide a user through a complex process.

Introduction

What is technical writing.

Technical writing is an audience-centered means of communication that provides a reader with clear and easy access to information.  In the business world, time equates to profit, and profit is the force behind all business interaction. The technical writer and reader have a vis-à-vis relationship. The writer recognizes, respects, and addresses the importance of time in effective and efficient communication by providing documents written in specific formats, using unambiguous language to send clearly assessable information. The reader in turn thoroughly understands the information in order to give a thoughtful response.

Formatting and Language

Formatting and appropriate language are the basic design elements of all technical documents.  A format that shows a hierarchical structure and a coordinate structure of information leads the reader thorough text.  Using appropriate language is significant in providing the reader with a thorough understanding of the purpose of the documents, how the document relates to the reader’s needs, and what action is expected of the reader.

A document may have one reader (the primary reader) or several readers (the secondary readers). A primary reader is the person who ordered the report to be written or the person for whom a report is intended. These readers will usually read the entire report.  Secondary readers are those readers who will read only the sections of the report that relate to them, their jobs, their departments, responsibilities, etc. For example, if a report was sent that detailed funding for different departments, a piping superintendent may only want to read the section that relates to piping. This is where format, the use of headings, is significant in allowing the reader easy access to information. That the piping superintendent can scan though the document and clearly find the heading that identifies his department saves time.

Academic Writing versus Technical Writing

The definite purpose, strict format and use of appropriate language in technical writing define the differences between technical writing and academic writing.  The academic writer purpose may be to write an assignment, a story, a letter, etc.. These works may or may not have a reader. However, technical writing always has a definite purpose and will always have a reader.  Regardless of the number of the intended readers of a document who may or may not read the document, the document will be read by the primary reader.

Cultural Communication

Technical writers need to be aware of the differences between the behavior and the norms, beliefs and values of specific cultural.  According to Edward T. Hall and Mildred Reed Hall, In Understanding Cultural Differences , each culture operates according to its own rules (1990, pp. 3-4).  Hall and Hall add that problems occur when members of one culture apply the rules to another culture (1990, pp. 3-4). To communicate effectively with other cultures, the technical writer needs to not only be aware of rules governing behaviors that can be observed but also of the not-so-obvious rules that govern the norms, beliefs, and values of the people of a culture. The invisible rules of a culture dramatically impact the acceptance of ideas, plans, and strategies.  The Cultural Iceberg illustrates patterns of world communication, showing indicators of Institutional Culture (the obvious behavior of a culture), which can be clearly seen as the tip of the iceberg, and People Culture (the norms, beliefs and values of a culture), which cannot be seen and which are the barriers to successful communication.

Technical writers have a responsibility to their readers and to their employers to follow ethics when writing reports. Technical writers must use words that demonstrate valid appeals to reason, avoiding emotional words and phrases that appeal to basic emotion instead of justifiable reasoning. In addition, technical writers must use valid references to support ideas and strategies, avoiding referencing non experts to sway readers’ support. Also, technical writers must use accurate numbers to report data, avoiding charts and tables that skew data. Using any type of fallacies in technical writing is unethical and could result in dire consequences.

Daniel G. Riordan (2005), in Technical Report Writing Today , cites Dombrowski to define three threads of ethics:

One major thread is that the communicator must be a good person who cares for the audience. Communicators must tell the truth as convincingly as possible, because truth will lead to the good of the audience. Another thread is that the communicator must do what is right, regardless or possible outcomes. A third thread is that communicators must act for the greatest good for the greatest number of people. (p. 16)

In addition, Riordan (2005) references the “code of ethics of the Society for Technical Writers, and cites five of the code’s tenants:

My commitment to professional excellence and ethical behaviors means that I will

• Use language and visuals with precision.
• Prefer simple direct expression of ideas.
• Satisfy the audience’s need for information, not my own need for self-expression.
• Hold myself responsible for how well my audience understands my message.
• Report the work of colleagues, knowing that a communication problem may have more than one solution. (Riordan, 2005, pp. 15-16)

Hall, E. T. & Hall, M. R. (1990). Understanding Cultural Differences. Yardmouth: Intercultural Press, Inc.

Riordan, D. G. (2005).  Technical Report Writing Today .  Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

• Technical Writing. Authored by : Dr. Elizabeth Lohman. Provided by : Tidewater Community College. Located at : http://www.tcc.edu/ . Project : Z Degree Program. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Image of Textbook. Authored by : Dominik Wagner. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/eoAvCb . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Image of Text with Watch. Authored by : Stephen Wu. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/tZ1LP . License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives

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Is my writing “dense” what does this mean if it is, and what can i do about it.

Hello friends and authors,

Responses to a story can be varied, just as opinions about anything bring a range of opinions. From readers of my writings, one comment I haven’t yet received is “dense”.

Mary Carroll Moore, experienced author and writing coach explains what “dense” writing actually means. Suggesting ways to evaluate and make suitable changes.

Feedback Says My Writing Is “Dense”–What Does This Mean and What Can I Do About It?

Readers have told her that her writing can be dense and hard to get into.  As a thriller writer–and someone who is very comfortable with action scenes–this confused her.  “For my book to be accessible I want to make it as quick and easy to read as possible,” she told me.   “I’ve tried to make it fast paced because that grabs people’s attention.”

She’s also tried to minimize description because, she says, “when it’s done poorly it slows people down,” and I agree.

So why do some readers say that her writing is dense?

Dense, by the way, doesn’t mean stupid, slow, not getting it, or any of the other slurs we might have used (or still use).  In writing lingo, it refers to writing that feels thick to the reader, difficult to absorb.  Dense writing can appear in a couple of ways.

1.  When a piece of writing uses a lot of big words or complicated terms–think legal language or tax forms–it can read “dense” to us.  It takes work to figure out what the writer is trying to communicate.  I once read an article about what happens in the brain when we repeatedly encounter words we don’t know or writing that feels too complex to easily understand or makes us work too hard.  The brain literally turns off.  It stops absorbing meaning, or even trying to.  This can even occur when we’re reading and a word pops up that we don’t know.  Our brains just say, “Nope,” and begin right then to disconnect from the emotional impact of the writing.  Imagine a whole paragraph like this, or a page or two.  Not a pretty sight.  This is dense language.  Language, or word choice, that feels unnecessarily complex.

One of my students years ago was a published poet.  He was trying his first novel.  He brought his love for words, especially complicated, poetic words, into his fiction.  At first it was interesting.  Then he began getting feedback from the class (and me) to ease up on the love of language.  Stop trying to make everything beautiful and intense and interesting, and make sure the words he chose actually served the story.

He backed off a bit from the poetry, chose simpler words and structure, and the story blossomed.  Once the story was intact and working, he could go back in and add his poetry.  It was a big wake-up call for him and changed his writing.

Another way dense writing appears is too packed with events or information in too small a space.  One editor I know calls this rat-ta-tat-tat writing.  This happens, then this happens, then this happens with nary a pause for a breath.  If you write like this, and my student who posed the initial question for this blog article might, your goal is to keep things moving fast.  But realize that readers need time to actually “see” what’s happening and “feel” the character’s reaction.

They need what’s called beats.  Beats are the small pauses between events or dialogue lines that allow us to absorb the meaning.  Beats are a big part of screenwriting, and novelists and memoirists are learning to use them too.  When I add beats, I can do it intuitively, for the most part–although we are all most blind to our own writing.  But if I can’t, I grab a favorite published book and read a page aloud to get a feel for where those pauses, those beats, occur.  Then I read a page of my own writing and see if I can sense where the pauses should occur.

Nonstop action isn’t all that fun to read, truthfully.  After a while, it’s just rat-ta-tat-tat.  And who needs that.

2.  Dense can also have to do with the visual appearance of paragraphs and sentences on the page.  Dense prose means too little white space.  Novelist Alexander Chee has a great technique for seeing this:  print out a chapter and placing the pages end to end, then squint to see the balance of text and white space.

If you see pages with thick chunks of text, see if you can break them up.  Conversely, if there are lots of one-line paragraphs, consider adding beats to create some density.

It all comes down to a perfect balance.

I love hearing from readers!  If you have a question about writing or book structure, email me at mary[at] marycarrollmoore.com and I’ll happily respond in a blog post.  (To read any posts you missed, visit my award-winning website.)

I hope you found Mary’s article interesting. Her experience shared through her weekly blogs has become one of the many foundation stones on which I depend to improve the craft of my personal writing.

I have always listened to or read the comments given to me by my readers and friends. Then discussed the opinions with experienced writing coaches to gage whether the suggestions are applicable to modern writing styles these days. And applicable to me.

I repeatedly comment to my husband that everyday I learn more than I knew the day before. There is still such a lot to be learnt in this journey of writing. Perhaps this is why the energy to write remains at a high level.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the preparations for the Christmas holiday season .

#critiques #writing coach #motivation #the craft of writing # The Fortune Seekers #dense writing #book structure #writing beats

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2 responses to “Is My Writing “Dense”? What Does This Mean if it is, and What Can I Do About It?”

Another great post! I’m happy I found you 🙂

Hi Will, you are very kind. Encouragement helps an author keep on writing. Thank you.

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Technical writing and presentation.

This course is designed to help students learn to write their manuscripts, technical reports, and dissertations in a competent manner. The do's and don'ts of the English language will be dealt with as a part of the course. Assignments will include writing on topics to a student's research interest, so that the course may benefit each student directly.

Instructor: S.A. Shivashankar