Technical Writing

NISS ASA Workshop

JSM
Salt Lake City
29 July 1 August

Writing for a Technical Audience

Purpose: To Inform
Aspects
Structure
Choice of Material
Organization of Ideas
Depth of Detail
Style
Grammatical Structure
Word Choice

Caveat: Dont Lose the Reader!

A Technical Writer Is NOT:

J.K. Rowling
Kid at summer
camp
Norah Roberts
Peter Mayle
Ken Follett
Dan Brown or Iain
Pears

Alexandre Dumas
Thomas Hardy or
Charles Dickens
Emily Bronte
D.H. Lawrence
Cervantes
Artur Perez-Reverte
or Franz Kafka
Leo Tolstoy

A Technical Audience is NOT:

On a QUEST
Challenge to
participate
Obstacles to
overcome, each
more difficult than
the one before
Prize for success
Penalty for failure

Keywords

Title
Abstract
Introduction
Body of article
Section by section

Result
Theorem
Discussion/Conclusion

Starting Point
Decide Purpose

Breakthrough (ground-breaking) new formulation to

solve old or new open problem
Progress / development often new methodology or
extension to higher dimension, a new context, or relaxation
of assumptions
Comparison of existing methods with/without modification
Reprise new more elegant proof of known result yielding
greater insight, often entirely new technical approach
Illustration application to real problem/ data of
importance, typical of other applications
Scientific result not primarily statistical innovation

Identify Major Results

Determine Audience

Structure: Logical
Introduction
Problem Statement
in Technical Form
Sequence of Lemmas
and Theorems
Primary Result

Simple Case / Progression

to General Case
Primary Result

Example / Simulation /
Proof of Concept

Application Example /
Simulation / Data Analysis
Discussion or
Conclusions

Structure: Signposts

Goal: Provide reader with a map to the article

You are here and What comes next

Outline for article, section by section

Outline for section

Introduction

Section - preamble or paragraph

Extensive proof or complex algorithm

Overview of sequence of lemmas, theorems

Overview of model development, inferential method
construction
Overview of data, analytic sequence

Paragraph (as preamble) outlining proof or construction

Sentence (midway) summarizing what has been proved, what
comes next

Outline for subsection introductory paragraph

Paragraph opening sentence stating purpose

Pre-First Draft
Written Outline
Purpose
Problem Statement
Signposts
To subsection level

Draft Abstract

Diagram

Example with application

1.0
1.1
1.2
1.A
2.0
2.1
2.A
3.0
3.1
3.A

1.0
1.1
1.2
2.0
3.0
A.0
A.1
A.2
A.3

Choice of Material
Space allocation by importance
Of result and its consequences
For making reasoning transparent
Critical steps and keys to solution
Proofs

Substitute (#.#) into (#.##) and apply Greens theorem

Noting that (#.#) can be rewritten as a mixed model with

correlated error structure, partitioning by . . . gives

Construction / derivation of methodology

Application orderly analysis

Principle finding through consequences

OTHERWISE: Skip the obvious and summarize

By straightforward but tedious algebra. . .

Following the proof by ***** in (reference)
NOT by chronology of research
NOT by pain of obtaining result

Introduction

Goals
Convey Importance, Impact of research results

Attract readers

General Context
What is the problem?
Why care about the work?
Technical Context
What was already known?
What was the gap (before this paper)?
Contribution of this paper
What is the approach to (nature of) the solution?
Outline of paper Signposts

Natural choices, signal papers not entire literature review

Citation without interrupting flow of text

Content

References within text

Style:

Transparent, Clear, Precise,

Parsimonious, Concise, Spare, Lean, Direct
Overall Impression
Careful writing reflects careful work
Precise word usage Standard English
1:1 Word:Concept

Precise notation usage

Definition before first use of notation or symbol

1:1 Notation:Definition
Numbered for internal referencing throughout text (as
appropriate)
Repeated (brief) definition for delayed use or for
modification (e.g., dropping subscript)

Grammar!

Spell and grammar check

Useful
Neither Necessary nor Sufficient

References: Strunk & White

Style:

Transparent, Clear, Precise,

Parsimonious, Concise, Spare, Lean, Direct

Effective Writing

Verbs

ACTIVE not passive when possible

Correct verb tenses

Clear Sentences

CONSISTENT voice either 1st person (I or we) or 3rd person

USE PARALLEL structure for series

Data Exist Present (NOTE: Data ARE - plural)

Papers Exist Present
Experiments End Past
Theorems Hold - Present

Series of sentences
Series within sentences clauses, verbs, objects

DISENTANGLE complex sentences

Equations
Figures all types
Definitions if referred to later, especially for section-long gap

Reference numbering

Style:

Transparent, Clear, Precise,

Parsimonious, Concise, Spare, Lean, Direct
Do Not Litter

DELETE: Wasted sentences

Vague, overly general

Only approximately (not precisely) true
Unnecessarily repetitive
Mixed models are important to many areas of
application.

DELETE: Wasted phrases and words

It is easy to see that. . .

In order to. . . (To almost always suffices)
Most adjectives, especially judgmental, emotional

REPLACE: Non-standard English

Personal words . . . You are not [yet] Tukey

Cute / funny / trendy / jargon /TXT expressions

Abstract: Illustration
This article proposes. . .[a general
semiparametric model . . .]. . . This model
provides. . . [tests]. . . This contrasts with
previous approaches based on . . . We
demonstrate that conditional likelihood is
robust to . . . Its main advantages are that. . .
A case study of spike data illustrates that this
method. . .