Professor Terje Haukaas The University of British Columbia, Vancouver terje.civil.ubc.

ca

Technical Writing
I love to read books; suspenseful novels make me turn pages till the wee hours. That is
true, but that sentence cannot appear in technical writing. The first person “I” would be
inappropriate and “till the wee hours” is too informal. Technical writing, and academic
writing for engineers, aims at explaining data, methods, and results. The rules for doing
so are different from creative writing. Some rules are subjective, and some are easy to
break, but please be conscious of them. Good technical writing is rare. Unfortunately, in
contrast to my passion for novels, I do not love to read reports, theses, journal papers,
conference papers, and term project reports. Only rarely do I find technical writing that
captures my attention, succinctly explaining something well. That said, several papers
written by my PhD supervisor Armen Der Kiureghian are in the category of great
technical writing. An advice he gave me was: try to mimic writing styles you enjoy
reading. The Economist, a weekly newspaper, serves that purpose for me. Their writing is
outstanding and their analysis of data approaches academic standards. They have
published a Style Guide for their writing, which contains useful advice (The Economist
2018).
Other books give further advice on technical writing. A book written by Joli Jensen is
good for seasoned researchers and professors (Jensen 2017). Paraphrasing the title of that
book, write often, but when you write, write little, i.e., be succinct. For younger
researchers the book by Paul Silvia might be good (Silvia 2019). Several other books on
technical writing can be recommended (Leggett et al. 1970; Swales and Feak 2004).
Regardless of how you write now, keep working on it. We all do, every day. Also,
remember the quote from John Joseph O'Neill, former Science Editor of the New York
Herald Tribune:
“There is a high order of correlation between beauty and clarity of expression. A
slovenly designed and constructed sentence is an unsafe container of knowledge.”

Steps
1. Rigorously assess the usefulness of what you want to explain, and why it is of interest
to the target reader. Much writing and many submitted journal manuscripts should
have been terminated at this step.
2. Create the outline. Use the next section as a guide.
3. Careful: Write the abstract, introduction, and conclusions dead last.
4. Do not write any text until the visual elements are developed, i.e., figures, tables,
equations, references, lists, etc.
5. Review and discuss the outline and the visual elements. When done, do it again.
6. Write the text.
7. Sleep on it.
8. Review. Remove paragraphs. Remove words. Shorten and rewrite.
9. Repeat from Step 7, ad nauseum.

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Outline
Many documents follow this outline:
Title
Short titles are by far the best, but the title must describe the unique content that is
presented. A good title is designed to intrigue the reader, not to encompass the entire
content.
Abstract
The abstract is written last, when the document is complete. In contrast with the
conclusions, it is a summary that contains a few sentences about each of the following
items:
1. Objective
2. Importance
3. Method
4. Key results and findings
Introduction
Although written in the end, the importance of the introduction cannot be
overemphasized. It does not contain the substance of the document but it sets the stage
and establishes the tone. A poor introduction signals a poor document. A proper
introduction contains the following elements:
1. Start with a thoughtful first sentence that concisely summarizes the objective and
why it is important; above all, inspire the reader to read on
2. State the long-term goals and visions of the work
3. State the short-term objectives that are specifically addressed to achieve the long-
term goals
4. Provide a motivation and justification for the work to establish why the results are
useful
5. State the scope of the work to identify the problems that are, or are not,
considered
6. Identify who has done what in the past. Sometimes, this review requires a
separate section. However, care should be exercised to avoid an unnecessarily
lengthy literature review. A concise and well-informed exposure of the
background fits in the introductory section.
7. Depending on the complexity of the document, provide an overview of the
sections. This type of overview is more common in books, reports, and theses
than in conference and journal papers.
8. Identify the novelties of the document to let the peer reviewer understand that
there is something new in this document, and to let the general reader know which
highlights to look out for
Between the Introduction and the Conclusions there exist no mandatory section
organization. The outline depends strongly on the work that is carried out. The following
two sections provide a suggested organization and suggested content.

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Methodology
1. Build-up
o Bring the reader up to speed on the existing methodology; be brief
2. Developments
o Explain the new use, merger, or extension of the methodology; be detailed
3. Advantages
o Candidly substantiate what is this better than what has been seen before
4. Contrast
o Explain in detail how the new methodology compares with other
approaches
5. Disadvantages
o Honestly describe the pitfalls and downsides of the new developments
Application
1. Case selection
o Employ realistic examples that bring out the best in the methodology
2. Enable reproduction
o Give complete data to enable the reader to reproduce the results
3. Demonstrate
o Show results that highlight what the developed methodology provides
4. Visualize
o Include informative and visually appealing figures and tables
5. Discuss
o State the experience gained from the examples: including new results,
efficiency, etc.
6. Compare
o Contrast the results with earlier work
Conclusions
The conclusion is not a summary. Rather, the conclusions are observations from a higher
and broader viewpoint. They state the significance and future use of the developments.
They may also suggest problems to be addressed in future work.

Grammar
Before embarking on the details of grammar, punctuation, and wording the following
general recommendations are provided:
1. Understand that a pedagogical presentation is as important as the content; focus
aggressively on clarity: First write, rewrite, and revise, then put the text aside for a
while before reviewing, rewriting, and revising again
2. While focusing on a clear and inspirational presentation, never compromise on
technical quality and academic integrity
3. To improve your writing, study and imitate the style and phrasing of publications that
you find particularly clear and inspiring
4. Define who your readers are and continually imagine them reading what you write

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5. Always start writing a document by spending significant time setting up a bullet-

itemized outline; a guideline is provided in the section below
6. Let each paragraph have one topic and provide meaningful links between paragraphs
to assist the flow of the text
7. Write grammatically active and complete sentences in accordance with the rules that
are described later in this document
8. Continuously search for more formal words to replace more informal ones; this
improves the style, clarity, and suitability of an academic document
9. Keep the sentences short and concise; mercilessly place each word on a imaginary
scale to test if it really justifies its presence
10. Avoid abbreviations unless they significantly improve the readability and brevity of
the subsequent text; if an abbreviation is necessary then define it only once, where it
first appears
11. Always describe and discuss the content of tables and figures in the text, but do not
duplicate data from those elements in the text
12. Avoid the use of boldface, italics, underline, parenthesis and other importance labels
in the text; state everything with words
Parts of Speech
Each word in a sentence is classified according to its function in the sentence. Often,
several words are combined to serve one function. The word classes—called parts of
speech—are listed in the following:
• Noun
o A noun indicates a thing, concept, person, place, etc.
o Examples: analysis, credibility, wood, Peter, Vancouver
o Nominative noun: Peter
o Possessive noun: Peter’s
• Adjective
o An adjective modifies a noun
o Examples: fast, credible, small, blue, one
o Comparative form: faster
o Superlative form: fastest
• Pronoun
o A pronoun refers to another noun; it can substitute for a noun
o Indefinite pronouns: anybody, everybody, somebody
o A pronoun has tree cases: Nominative, possessive, objective:
Nominative Possessive Objective
Singular personal pronouns
First person I my, mine me
Second person you your, yours you

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Third person he, she, it his, her, hers, its him, her, it
Plural personal pronouns
First person we our, ours us
Second person you your, yours you
Third person they their, theirs them
Relative or interrogative pronouns
Singular who whose whom
Plural who whose whom

• Verb
o A verb indicates an action, event, or state
o Examples: work, analyze, and develop
o The mood of a verb is one of the following:
§ Indicative: expressing a statement
§ Imperative: expressing a command
§ Subjunctive: expressing doubt, condition, wish, or probability
o Verbs are classified as regular if they conjugate according to the table
below. Otherwise they are irregular. The table is generated with the third
person singular pronoun “it” because it is most common in technical
writing.
Tense Simple form Progressive form
Active voice
Present it shows it is showing
Past it showed it was showing
Future it will show it will be showing
Present perfect it has showed it has been showing
Past perfect it had showed it had been showing
Future perfect it will have showed it will have been showing
Passive voice
Present it is observed it is being observed
Past it was observed it was being observed
Future it will be observed it will be being observed
Present perfect it has been observed it has been being observed
Past perfect it had been observed it had been being observed
Future perfect it will have been observed it will have been being observed

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o A verbal is a special form of a verb, which alone cannot function as a

predicate. Predicates are defined shortly. Verbals are classified as:
§ Infinitives (“to observe”)
§ Participles (“observing” in the present and “observed” in the past)
§ Gerunds (“observing”) are serving as nouns
• Adverb
o An adverb modifies a verb
o Examples: frequently, higher, faster
• Conjunction
o A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses
o Examples: and, but, or, nor, for, as, since, so, because
• Preposition
o A preposition connects a noun, pronoun, or phrase to some other parts of a
sentence
o Examples: in, on, at, between, by, for, of, to, from, through, with
• Interjection
o Interjections are stand-alone exclamatory word that expresses emotion and
are not used in technical writing
• Article
o An article combines with a noun and determines its definiteness
o The definite article is the
o The indefinite articles are a and an
Sentence Structure
To be grammatically complete, a sentence must have two ingredients:
Subject + Predicate
The subject is usually a noun that names something or someone. The predicate contains a
verb and says something about the subject. Within this simple framework the following
three sentence structures are most common:
• Subject + Verb
o Example: The analysis + is running
• Subject + Action verb + One or two objects (noun or pronoun)
o Example: The results + surprised + the analyst
• Subject + Linking verb + Complements (noun, pronoun, or adjective)
o Example: The figure + shows + the results
o Example: The results + are + surprising
The last sentence structure above is most common in technical writing. The following
additional sentence structures are avoided in written communication, although they
conform to the subject+predicate paradigm:
• Subject + Passive verb
o This structure is called the passive pattern and is used when the object of an
active sentence is made the subject
o Example: The analyst + performed + the analyses

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• Expletive + Verb + Complement + Subject

o This structure is used to postpone the subject until after the verb
o Example: It + is + unlikely + that they will agree
o Example: There + will be + no change
• Verb + Object or Complement
o This structure is used in commands
o Example: Analyze this
Phrases
A phrase is a group of words that are used as a single part of speech. A phrase does not
have a subject and a predicate. Depending on the function of the phrase, it belongs to
either of the following categories:
• Prepositional phrases
o Adjective phrase (of great importance)
o Adverb phrase (with great care)
o Noun phrase (the analysis of the structure)
• Verbal phrases
o Participial phrase: functions as an adjective (carried out earlier)
o Gerund phrase: functions as a noun (running analyses)
o Infinite phrase: functions as adjective, adverb, or noun (to carry out the
analyses)
• Conjunctive phrases
o for the reason that
o owing to the fact that
o in addition to
o as well as
Clauses
A clause is a group of words that contain both a subject and a predicate. There are two
kinds of clauses:
• Main (independent) clause
o Makes an independent statement
• Subordinate (dependent) clause
o Functions as an adjective, adverb, or noun
o Is less important than the content of the main clause
o Often starts with a conjunction, like because, since, as
A sentence is classified according to the number of main and subordinate clauses:
• Simple sentence
o A simple sentence has one main clause.
o Example: The results match the observations
• Compound sentence
o A compound sentence has two or more main clauses
o Example: The analysis converged and the results are accurate
o Example: The analysis was started but it did not converge
• Complex sentence

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o A complex sentence has one main clause and one or more subordinate clauses
o Example: The analysis did not converge because boundary conditions were
not defined
• Compound-complex sentence
o A compound-complex sentence has two or more main clauses and one or
more subordinate clauses
o Example: The analysis was started but did not converge because boundary
conditions were not defined
Rules for Technical Writing
• Write complete sentences
• Adopt a consistent grammatical “point of view” within each paragraph. The point of
view consists of
o The particular subject
o The person (first, second, third) and number (singular, plural) of the pronoun
o The tense (past, present, future), mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive),
and voice (active, passive) of the verb
• Technical material is written in the third person, indicative, and active form
• Within the description of a subject the verbs must be consistent, either in the past or
present tense
• Use the present tense to describe material that is generally true or that has no
reference to time
• Make sure that the tense of the verb in a subordinate clause is logically related to the
tense of the verb in the main clause.

Punctuation
• Period .
o It marks the end of a sentence or signifies an abbreviation
• Comma ,
o There are no hard-and-fast comma rules, except consistency throughout the
paper
o Commas are utilized to separates parts of sentences to improve readability and
avoid confusion
o It is typical to use comma before “which” but not before “that.” Be careful
when interchanging “that” and “which” because the meaning may be
different, like in these examples:
§ The computations that were performed on a Cray were more accurate
§ The computations, which were performed on a Cray, were more
accurate
• Semi-colon ;
o It is used to separate main clauses that are not joined by a conjunction
• Colon :
o It is used to exemplify, restate, or explain the preceding sentence
• Hyphen -
o It connects the parts of a compound word

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• Dash —
o It sets apart parenthetic material
o It should be used in moderation
• Quotation marks “ ”
o They enclose quoted material
o They are also used to enclose unfamiliar words that the reader would
otherwise question; however, it should be applied only at the first instance for
the words, not later in the paper
o They should be used in strong moderation
o In the North American tradition the closing quotation mark encloses the
comma, period, and colon that may appear at the end of the quoted material,
like “this.”
• Apostrophe ’
o It is employed to denote possession, like in Newton’s second law
o It is also utilized in casual texts to denote contraction, but please don’t use that
in technical writing
• Parenthesis ( )
o They set apart parenthetic material
o As mentioned earlier, they should be employed in strong moderation
• Brackets [ ]
o They are used to indicate editorial comments or explanations
• Italics
o It is applied to words that are not part of the English language, including et al.,
e.g., i.e., etc.
o It is applied to the title of books and journals
o Italics, boldface, and underline should not be used to emphasize a word,
however tempting, because unless a word is important it should be removed

Dictionary
Verbs to Describe Research
Access Arrange Compare Cut
Achieve Assemble Compile Debug
Acquire Assign Compute Decide
Adjust Assume Communicate Demonstrate
Adopt Authorize Conceive Describe
Advance Advance Conduct Design
Advise Build Configure Detail
Align Calculate Construct Determine
Allocate Calibrate Consult Develop
Analyze Check Control Devise
Apply Clarify Coordinate Diagnose
Appraise Classify Correlate Direct
Approve Collect Create Discover
Argue Commit Critique Employ

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Enable Inspire Participate Retain

Enforce Install Perceive Retrieve
Engineer Institute Perform Review
Establish Integrate Persuade Revise
Estimate Interpret Plan Schedule
Evaluate Invent Point out Select
Examine Investigate Prepare Set Up
Experiment Isolate Prescribe Shape
Explain Justify Prioritize Show
Express Lay Out Probe Simplify
Extract Lead Process Sketch
Extrapolate Learn Produce Solve
Facilitate Lend Project Speak
Find Load Propose Stimulate
Forecast Maintain Pull Study
Formulate Manage Re-organize Substantiate
Foster Map Recommend Suggest
Gather Modify Reconfigure Survey
Generate Monitor Record Synthesize
Guide Motivate Redesign Tailor
Identify Mount Reduce Test
Imagine Negotiate Refer Transform
Implement Note Relate Understand
Improve Observe Repair Use
Influence Offer Report Utilize
Inform Operate Represent Validate
Initiate Organize Research Verify
Innovate Overcome Resolve Write
Inspect Paint Respond
Verbs to Describe Tables and Figures
In technical writing it is appropriate to use the active form of these verbs
(“demonstrates”) instead of the passive form (“demonstrated in”).
contains illustrates reveals
demonstrates indicates shows
depicts lists suggests
displays presents summarizes
exposes provides
gives reports
Linking Independent Clauses
Add furthermore
in addition
moreover
Backtrack however
nevertheless

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yet
Connect therefore
as a result
consequently
hence
thus
Clarify in other words
that is
i.e.
Contrast in contrast
however
on the other hand
conversely
on the contrary
Exemplify for example
for instance
Intensify as a matter of fact
in fact
Linking a Dependent Clause to a Main Clause
Backtrack although
even though
Connect because
since
Contrast while
whereas
Linking a Noun Phrase
Add in addition to
Backtrack in spite of
Connect because of
due to
as a result of
Contrast unlike

Latin Expressions
a posteriori after
a priori before
ad hoc improvised, for the specific occasion
ad infinitum without end
ad lib at will, off the top of the head
ante meridiem am before noon
circa ca. approximately

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confer cf. compare

de facto existing by fact, not by right
errata errata errors
et alii et al. and others
et cetera etc. and other things
exempli gratia e.g. for example
ibidem ibid. in the same place (same as the previous
reference)
id est i.e. that is
in memoriam in memory of a person
in situ in its original place
infra infra below
loco citato loc. Cit. in the place cited
nota bene N.B. note well (take note)
opere citato op. cit. in the work cited
passim passim here and there (the point is made in several
places)
per capita per person
post meridiem pm after noon
post scriptum P.S. after writing (something added after the
signature)
pro rata in proportion
quod erat q.e.d. what was to be demonstrated
demonstrandum
sic sic thus (the error is in the original quote)
videlicet viz. obviously (namely)

Versions of English
There exist differences between the English that is used in Australia, Canada, India, New
Zealand, the United Kingdom (British English), and the United States of America
(American English). One difference in punctuation is mentioned earlier; in North
America the closing quotation mark encloses the punctuation that may appear at the end
of the quoted material (like “this.”). The opposite is done elsewhere (like “this”.) There
are also differences in the spelling of some words, like “colour” and “color.” Canadian
English, which is a mix of British English and American English, is adopted in these
documents. The following table contrasts the Canadian and American English:

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Canadian English American English

behaviour behavior
centre center
colour color
defence defense
fibre fiber
grey gray
honour honor
modelling modeling
neighbour neighbour

Some words have alternative spellings in Canadian English, including the following:
acknowledgment acknowledgement
aging ageing
among amongst
analyze analyse
catalyze catalyse
judgment judgement
license licence
practise practice
specialty speciality

Some words have alternative spellings in other versions of English, but not in Canadian
English. These words include analogue, which is spelled analog elsewhere.

References
Jensen, J. (2017). Write No Matter What. The University of Chicago Press.
Leggett, G., Mead, D. C., and Charvat, W. (1970). Handbook for Writers. Prentice-Hall,
Inc.
Silvia, P. J. (2019). How to Write a Lot. American Psychological Association.
Swales, J. M., and Feak, C. B. (2004). Academic Writing for Graduate Students. The
University of Michigan Press.
The Economist. (2018). Style Guide. Public Affairs, Perseus Books.

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