CHARACTERISTICS OR PROPERTIES OF TECHNICAL WRITING

The following descriptive words sum up all the characteristics or properties of technical
writing that experts or authoritative people named in the book (Technical Writing in this Era
Globalization and Modern Technology) clearly expressed in their books.
ACCURATE
A technical written work is accurate when it deals with the facts that are completely true,
instead of things whose identity, appearance, or measurements are so difficult to determine. An
accurate report uses words, sentences, numbers, or figures that exactly express what the written
work intends to convey (Bantin, 2008). It avoids the frequent use of expressions for hedging
such as may, perhaps, maybe, seem, apparently, would, etc. Using an expression that conveys
one and only one meaning instead of an ambiguous term with multiple meaning will help readers
get an easy and quick understanding of the whole composition (Ling, 2004).
CLEAR
Your written work is clear if, on one reading, your readers are able to get a quick
understanding of the main message or point of the whole composition. You can easily achieve
this if you always remember that clear writing always results from clear thinking, as well as from
the use of simple, concise, specific, and grammatically correct language structures. How the
person around you express themselves or how you express the ideas as they come to your mind
serves as your guide or pattern in writing things on the paper.
For the sake of clarity, it is important too, that you apply in your work all the principles
of good sentence construction like parallelism, consistency of tense, dangling modifiers, split
infinitive, choppy sentences, run-on sentences, comma splice, wordiness, and so on. Applying
the qualities of a good paragraph writing such as unity, coherence, and emphasis are likewise
essential to making your technical written work appear clear to your readers. (Gustavi, 2008; and
Marsh, 2005)
FORMAL
In technical writing, you cannot just write anything you like in any way you want on your
writing paper, because some writing standards underlie the structure, pattern, format, and
language of this kind of writing. You have to adhere to these agreed upon technical writing rules
because your readers judge the value or reputation of your output based on the how you conform
to the conventions governing this kind of writing.
 
GRAPHICAL
Graphs like tablets, charts, figures, diagrams, maps, pictures, and other illustrations are
absolutely necessary in technical writing. This is so because this kind of writing deals with topics
that are technical; meaning, it deals with things appealing only to certain group of people, or uses
words expressing specialized meanings or ideas known only to a specific set of people.
Considering that this nature of technical writing makes the technical work not readable to all
types of readers in this world, you then have to include in your work non-prose materials like
graphs to stress, clarify, simplify, or sum up ideas which you textually present in your written
compositions. (Bertoline, 2009)
OBJECTIVE
This characteristic of technical writing is shown by any written work of yours that avoids
revealing your individual thinking, personal meaning, or emotional attitude about your subject
matter. Whatever understanding you have about your written work comes from outside yourself;
meaning, from the results of your environmental observations or sensory experiences. Avoiding
to include in your technical paper, your inner thoughts, sentiments or feelings means adopting an
impartial or impersonal stand or attitude towards what you’ve written.
This is what others call as the “You Attitude” or “Scientific Attitude”, whereby, in your
writing, your focus is on your reader’s point of view rather than on your views as the
writer. The following are some ways to maintain an objective or impersonal tone your
technical written work.
1. Use passive voice instead of active voice structures.
2. Use third-person point of view by using words like his/her, they, or
the user, instead of the personalized first person point of view like I, We, Me, Ours,
and the like.
3. Downplay the subject or personal nature of the text by avoiding the
use of emotive words like dissatisfied, uninteresting, or undignified.
However, some experts with the modern view on technical writing argued that adopting a
modern view of technical writing means humanizing technical writing; that is, feeling
free to use personal pronouns to arouse the readers’ involvement or interest in what they
are reading.
PRACTICAL
Technical writing is practical if it results in a written output that you can apply, use, or
carry out in your day-to-day living. It does not mainly deal with scenarios or situations that you
can just imagine or ponder on, but also tackles up things you can practice in your everyday life
situations like designing, constructing, repairing, selling, travelling, buying, bidding, inquiring,
cooking, painting, and many others.
PROCEDURAL
Being a formal and scientific way of writing whereby rules or conventions determine the
appropriateness of your written output, technical writing adheres to a particular course of writing
acts. It presents facts and information in a systematic or methodical manner. Here, you act like a
scientist following a certain procedure or a step-by-step method in proving your point about your
subject matter. For instance, first you have to identify and analyse your problem, collect data
about it, and present your conclusions, discoveries, or findings about the object of your study.
SPECIAL
Writing something to cater to a specific set of people rather than to any group of people
using expressions quite understandable and familiar only to this specific set of readers, not to all
kinds of people, is what makes technical writing special. Inclined to be exclusive and selective of
its topic, language, methodology, and readers, this kind of writing is special, unique, or extra
different from the other modes of writing.
DIVERSIONARY
Considering technical writing as on-the-job writing that is prone to extensive exposure to
multicultural clients, co-workers, cross-cultural or multilingual communication brought about by
globalization through the internet or the Email, you come to think of this kind of writing as one
that will lead you to various topic, ideas, people, methodologies, concerns, purposes, formats,
language, etc. It has some aspects or features that are as diverse or varied as the different kinds of
jobs available to all kinds of people all over the world. Though (Perkins, 2008) argued that
intercultural communication is the “highest art and science of human communication,” your
technical writing acts must always be “sensitive to pitfalls” or hidden dangers arising from
diversities in a multi-cultural environment. (Canavor, 2010)
STRAIGHTFORWARD
 A straightforward manner of writing means presenting knowledge or ideas honestly and
directly. Unlike these other ways of writing – literary and expository writing that permit the
writer to hide some meanings through figurative language – technical writing brings out things in
frank, unequivocal, or clear-cut way. Metaphorical, idiomatic, or circuitous expression of ideas
has no place in technical writing because your immediate purpose as a technical writer is to
persuade your readers to say “yes” instantly to what you have written.
Hence, to realize this objective, the language of your written work has to be direct,
specific, and simple enough to make you and your readers come to terms with you immediately.
The use of complex, highfalutin or pretentious words demands longer time for the reader to think
or decide about the effectiveness of your offer. This consequently hampers or delays the
decision-making power of any person you want to agree with what you have written.  
AUTHORITATIVE
To describe technical writing as authoritative is to think of it as one clothed with full
rights, powers, and influence to do a thing, to command or be obeyed, or to enforce something
on any one. The authority or power that you technical writing may wield over your reader
springs form the fact that the contents of your output does not mainly come from your
intelligence but also from other people’s expertise, knowledge, and experience that could
command respect or belief.
Proofs of the authoritativeness of your technical paper are the properly cited and
documented ideas of knowledgeable writers of technical writing books in your work,
specifically, the in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographical entries in your paper. Another
proof is the reality that you are the creator of the paper, and, such as, you have an idea of the
extent of its excellence, and have the full control over the quality, kind, or extent of ideas to go
into your paper, including the way you react to inquiries about your output.
PRESENTABLE
The physical appearance of a technical writing output somehow mirrors the person who
produced such kind of paper. A dirty-looking technical written work diminishes its power,
influence or authoritativeness. So, if you want your technical paper to have a strong impact on
the reader or to elicit an immediate and positive response from him, see to it that your written
work is free from any grammatical and typographical errors. Present it nearly whether it is
handwritten, typewritten, or computerized.
The layout, order, or placement of the various parts of your work likewise makes your
work presentable. In addition, focusing your attention on these basic elements of a written
prosaic work; margin, spacing, punctuation marks, size/style of the letter, and quality/size of the
stationery or bond paper contributes a lot to making your entire composition presentable or
capable of getting serious and favourable attention from your readers.