TECHNICAL WRITING

Prepared by: Gabriela C. Flores

 THE NATURE OF TECHNICAL WRITING
At the end of Chapter, you should be able to:
✓define technical writing;
✓differentiate technical writing versus creative writing;
✓enumerate the end products of technical writing;
✓use as guide the principles of technical writing;
✓define technical communication;
✓explain the qualities of a good English writer; and
✓apply the processes involved in technical writing.
Skills in technical writing is an advantage
 • Technical Writing refers to
writings about scientific
What is technical subjects and about various
writing? technical subjects
associated with sciences.
• Technical Writing is
characterized by certain
formal elements, such as its
scientific and technical
vocabulary, its use of
graphic aids, and its use of
conventional report forms.
Creative Technical
Writing Writing
 TECHNICAL WRITING CREATIVE WRITING

CONTENT factual, straight-forward imaginative, symbolic

AUDIENCE specific general

PURPOSE inform, instruct, persuade entertain, captivate

STYLE formal, standard, academic informal, artistic, figurative

TONE objective Subjective

VOCABULARY specialized general

ORGANIZATION systematic arbitrary

 PRODUCTS OF TECHNICAL WRITING
✓Business letter - a type of written communication. It is written using
formal language and follows formal elements of letter writing.
✓Contract - a written agreement between two people under mutually
agreed terms.
✓Monograph - a detailed essay or book on a very specific topic. It is
usually written by professionals or academicians on topics of interest
concerning their specific fields.
✓Printed Action Memo - a ready-format memorandum that only requires
a checkmark on the appropriate box that contains the message.
✓Graphic Aids - drawings, sketches and illustrations that aid the readers in
understanding the presented data.
 PRODUCTS OF TECHNICAL WRITING
✓Instructional Manuals - written to guide the readers on how to
assemble, maintain, and operate an apparatus, machine or gadget.
✓Brochures - are pamphlets of flyers that endorse a product in such a
way that the potential customer will be convinced that the product
is effective and eventually avail of the product.
✓Proposals - written suggestions on how to make the company or
organization more productive and successful.
✓Memoranda - inter-office written communication used to
disseminate information.
 FIVE IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES IN GOOD
TECHNICAL WRITING
1. Always have in mind a specific readers, real or imaginary,
when you are writing a report.
2. Before you start to write, always decide what the exact purpose of
your report is, and make sure that every paragraph, every sentence,
every word makes a clear contribution to that purpose.
3. Use language that is simple, concrete, and familiar.
4. At the beginning and end of every section of your report, check your
writing according to this principle: “First you tell the reader what you’re
going to tell him, then you tell him what you’ve told him.”
5. Make your report attractive.
 PURPOSES OF TECHNICAL WRITING

➢ It serves as basis for management decision.

➢ It furnishes needed information.
➢ It gives instructions.
➢ It records business transactions through proposals.
➢ It procures business proposals.
➢It serves as basis for public relations.
➢It provides report to stockholders of companies.
 PROPERTIES OF TECHNICAL WRITING

1. Subject matter
2. Audience
3. Expression
4. Style
5. Arrangement of materials
 Writing can be grouped into FIVE basic types:
1. Technical writing conveys specific information about a technical subject to
a specific audience for a specific purpose.
2. Creative writing includes fiction—poetry, short stories, plays and novels
and far more different from technical writing.
3. Expressive writing subjective response to a personal experience—journals
and diaries—whereas technical writing might be objective observations of
a work-related experience or research.
4. Expository writing “exposes” a topic analytically and objectively, such as
news reports. Like technical writing, the goal of expository writing is to
explain or reveal knowledge, but expository writing does not necessarily
expect a response or action from the reader.
5. Persuasive writing depends on emotional appeal. Its goal is to change
one’s attitude or motivate him/her to action. #