Technical Writing

101
By: Mr. Fanzo

What is technical
writing?
Technical writing is instructional or
informative communication.
Waning labels, instruction manuals,
disclaimers, and legal documents are all
examples of technical writing.
The information conveyed through
technical writing is typically complex,
specific, and technical.

Goals of Effective
Technical Writing
Clarity
Conciseness
Accuracy
Organization
Ethics

Effective Technical
Writing: Clarity

Methods for developing ideas precisely

An expressive essay can clarify the writers

intent through emotional, impressionistic,
connotative words (soon, many, several,
etc.).
An impressionistic word such as near will
mean different things to different people
which is okay
in in an essay
where the goal may be to convey a feeling.

Effective Technical
Writing: Clarity
The ultimate goal of effective technical
writing is to say the same thing to every
reader.
Lets say I write instructional manuals for
company manufacturing space heaters. If
I write,
Place the space heater near an open
window,
what will this mean to thousands of
customers who purchase the machine?

Effective Technical
Writing: Clarity
One person may place the heater 6 feet
from the window.
Another reader will place the heater 6
inches from the window.
As the writer, I have failed to
communicate clearly.

Effective Technical
Writing: Clarity
Specify
Provide specific detail
Avoid vague words (some,
recently)
Answer reporters
questions (who, what,
where, when, why, how)

Effective Technical
Writing: Clarity
Avoid obscure words
Use easily understood words
Write to express, not to impress
Write to communicate, not to confuse
Write the way you speak
aforementioned
in lieu of

already discussed
instead of

Effective Technical
Writing: Clarity
Limit and/or define your use of
abbreviations , acronyms, and jargon.
Define your terms parenthetically

CIA (Cash in Advance)

or
Supply a separate glossary

Alphabetized list of terms, followed

by their definitions

Effective Technical
Writing: Clarity
Use the active versus the passive voice.
Passive voice:
It was decided all employees will take a ten
percent cut in pay.
Unclear: Who decided?
Active: The Board of Directors decided that
all employees . . .

Overtime is favored by hourly workers.

Wordy
Active: Hourly workers favor overtime.

Effective Technical
Writing:
Conciseness
Limit paragraph, word, and sentence
length.

A paragraph in a memo, letter, or short report

should consist of
No more than four to six typed lines or
No more than fifty words.
Fog index (sixth to eighth grade level)
Strive for an average of 15 words per
sentence
No more than 5 multisyllabic words per 100
words

Effective
Technical Writing:
Conciseness
Fog Index
Count up to 100 words in successive
sentences
Divide words by number of sentences =
average number of words per sentence

Count number of long words (three or

more syllables) within sentences
Dont count proper names (Christopher
Columbus), long words created by
combining shorter words (chairperson), or
three syllable words created by ed or es

Effective
Technical Writing:
Conciseness
Use the meat cleaver theory of
revision
Cut the sentence in half or thirds

Avoid shun words

Avoid words ending in tion or sion
Came to the conclusion
concluded

Avoid camouflaged words

Make an amendment to
amend

Effective
Technical Writing:
Conciseness
Avoid the expletive pattern
There is, are, was, were, will be
It is, was
There are three people who will work for
Acme.
Three people will work for Acme.

Omit redundancies
During the year of 1996
During 1996

Effective
Technical Writing:
Conciseness
Avoid wordy phrases
In order to purchase

Proofread for accuracy

Consider ethics

to purchase

Effective
Technical Writing:
Accuracy
The importance of
correct grammar and
mechanics
Grammatical or
mechanical errors make
writers look
unprofessional and
incompetent.

Effective
Technical Writing:
Accuracy
Grammar is so important in technical
writing that in a one page assignment
4
3
2
1

major
major
major
major

grammatical
grammatical
grammatical
grammatical

errors
errors
errors
error

=F
=D
=C
=B

A means excellent which is defined as

without flaw

Effective
Technical Writing:
Organization
Methods for organizing
Spatial
General to Specific
Chronological
Mechanism Description
Process Description
Classification

Effective
Technical Writing:
Organization
Methods for organizing
Definition
Comparison/Contrast
More Important to Less Important
Situation-Problem-SolutionEvaluation
Cause-Effect

Effective
Technical Writing:
Ethics
Ethics methods encouraging moral
standards in technical writing
Practical
Legal
Moral

Effective Technical
Writing: Ethics
General categories of ethics in communication
Behavior towards colleagues, subordinates and
others (plagiarism, harassment,
malicious actions)
Dealing with experimental subjects,
interviewees,
etc. (informed
consent)
Telling the truth (falsify data, misrepresent
facts)
Rhetoricchoosing your words (loaded words,
discriminatory language, logical fallacies)

Effective
Technical Writing:
Process
The writing process is effective . . . and
easy.
All that you need to do is three things:
Prewrite
time)
Write
Rewrite

(about 25 percent of your

(about 25 percent of your time)

(about 50 percent of your time)

Technical Writing:
Prewriting
Techniques
Reporters questions
Mind mapping
Brainstorming/listing
Flowcharting
Outlining
Storyboarding

Technical Writing
Is important to success in business
Lets you conduct business
Takes time
Costs the company
Reflects your interpersonal
communication skills
Often involves teamwork

The Goal of
Technical Writing
The objective of technical writing is to
convey an idea with as little ambiguity
as possible.
In doing so, it is imperative the text and
images provided are specific,
comprehensible, and straightforward.
Ex.

Examples of
Technical Writing

PS4 Controller
Layout

Notarized Docs

Instruction
Manuals

Image Inclusion
The written language itself is not
always sufficient. Assembling a product
or operating an unfamiliar device is
much easier if you have visual aids.
Step-by-step visual representations of
the configuration process expedite the
assembly process.
However, the language and visuals must
convey same idea or instruction. If not,
room for ambiguity is created.

Comprehending
this without the
visuals

The Value of
Diction
When giving technical instructions or conveying a
complex idea, word choice is also important.
The terms you select in communicating the idea
should be exact, not equivocal.
For example, if I am instructing you on how to
compose a Works Cited Page in APA, I probably

book

shouldnt use a term like

in a general
context. If I say, cite your books on the last page, I
have left too much room for ambiguity.
Instead, books should be sources and I may
need to specify on what I mean by last page.

Value of Diction
Continued
Also, its best to refrain from using fanciful,
unnecessary modifiers.
For example, if I am instructing you on how to
change the oil in your car, I shouldnt waste
language in using adjectives that describe how
awesome your car is or how ridiculously
easy the process is.
Instead, Ill give you the visuals and instructional
language you need to complete the task.
Write only what the recipient needs to know.

How to Change
Your Oil
1. Purchase 1 oil pan, 6-8 quarts oil and 1
oil filter as recommended (compatibility
guide can be found at most auto mechanic
retailers).
2. Locate oil tank (likely under vehicle).
3. Be sure vehicle has been idle at least 1
hour so oil is cooled.
4. Place oil pan underneath oil tank
(under vehicle).

How to Change
Your Oil
Continued

5. Use fitted socket wrench to unscrew oil cap on bottom of

vehicle (Note: oil will pour immediately from tank onto pan)
6. Once drained entirely, reattach cap securely with socket
wrench.
7. Unscrew oil cap under the hood of the vehicle and, with a
funnel, begin dispensing oil into oil tank.
8. Once full, reattach cap securely.
9. Remove old oil filter.
10. Reattach new filter (be sure filter is not fitted too
tightly for leaking hot oil could calcify and cause difficulty
detaching on next filter change.

Visuals to Include
Im sure I left some things out, but you
get the gist of it.
Now, what visuals could I use to
accompany my writing?
In order for you to successfully follow
my instructions, what what images
should I include? A picture of the oil I
would use for my vehicle? What an oil
filter looks like?

Activity
Now, its your turn.
I want you to compose an instruction

peanut
butter and jelly sandwich.
manual on how to make a

In your manual, include at least 10

steps and provide at least 5 visuals.
Remember, be specific and give
warnings when necessary.