|
You Can Learn Writing Style - What is Technical
Writing?
Technical writing, sometimes called business writing, is
writing for a specific purpose and with a specific goal.
Usually its goal is to inform/instruct or persuade/argue.
Technical writing can really be considered transactional
writing because there are two people or groups involved in the
communication. One party has a clear goal to inform or persuade
the other party.
This is real-world writing in every sense. You may not be aware
of how much it already impacts your world through textbooks,
instructions, web sites, and communications from many
businesses and service organizations. There are professional
technical communicators but only large organizations have them
and even then they are not there to do your daily work for you
and that is why it is so helpful for many to take at least an
introductory technical writing class.
Why is technical communication important and what will you use
it for? Actually, technical writing will be used by most
college graduates as a regular part of their work. It is much
more likely that you will use technical writing than either
academic or creative writing unless you specifically enter
those fields. A few examples of why you will likely need these
skills include: getting a job - preparing a resume or
curriculum vitae, cover letter, application, and portfolio;
doing your job - preparing memos, letters, reports,
instructions, case reports, reviews, assignments, descriptions,
etc.; and keeping your job - communicating with management,
co-workers, peers, patients/students/public.
What separates technical communication from other forms of
writing, such as academic writing? Technical communication has
a specific audience and is purposeful, usually intended to
solve a problem for that audience. One area that really sets
technical communication apart is that it is quite often
collaborative. Technical communication is also focused on
readability issues, not only the use of clear writing, but also
page design and graphics. The excellence of technical writing
is judged by clarity, accuracy, comprehensiveness,
accessibility, conciseness, professional appearance, and
correctness.
There are seven principles to guide technical writing: remember
your purpose (to inform or persuade), remember your audience
(their concerns, background, attitude toward your purpose),
make your content specific to its purpose and audience, write
clearly and precisely (active voice, appropriate language to
audience), make good use of visuals (good page design and
graphics), and be ethical (truthful, full disclosure, no
plagiarizing).
Technical communication serves both explicit, or clear, and
implicit, or implied, purposes. Explicit purposes include to
provide information, to provide instructions, to persuade the
reader to act upon the information, or to enact or prohibit
something. Implicit purposes include establishing a
relationship, creating trust, establishing credibility, and
documenting actions. Most technical communications are based on
a problem statement which gives your document a clearly stated
objective for your benefit as well as your reader's. The
problem statement defines the problem, by doing more than
simply stating your topic, it goes on to explain what about
that topic is at issue. For example, if your topic is career
guidance then your problem could be the fact that many adults
need help identifying a career that suits their strengths and
abilities and the solution that your document will present is
to create a comprehensive clearing house that helps people
identify career paths through military, vocational training,
and higher education.
by Deanna Mascle - 19th September 2008
Back
to Top
You can learn writing style and find more writing advice at
http://answersaboutwriting.com
Article Source: http://www.creativewriter.me.uk
| 
BlinkList
Digg
Delicious
Facebook
Fark
Furl
Google Bookmarks
Livejournal
Ma.gnolia
Netvouz
Newsvine
Reddit
Spurl
Stumbleupon
Wists
Yahoo My Web
