Lesson 1: Introduction to Technical Communication

Topic: Definition and Characteristics of Technical Communication

Learning Outcomes: At the end of this module, you are expected to:

1. Define technical writing;

2. Compare different categories of writing communication; and
3. Accomplish worksheet on the importance of technical communication.

Lesson Proper:

What Is Technical Communication?

Technical information is frequently communicated through documents such as proposals, emails, reports,
podcasts, computer help files, blogs, and wikis. Although these documents are a key component of technical
communication, so too is the process: writing and reading tweets and text messages, for example, or participating
in webinar or videoconference exchanges with colleagues. Technical communication encompasses a set of
activities that people do to discover, shape, and transmit information.

When you produce technical communication, you use the four basic communication modes — listening,
speaking, reading, and writing — to analyze a problem, find and evaluate evidence, and draw conclusions. These
are the same skills and processes you use when you write in college, and the principles you have studied in your
earlier writing courses apply to technical communication. The biggest difference between technical
communication and the other kinds of writing you have done is that technical communication has a somewhat
different focus on purpose and audience.

Difference of Technical writing to other types of written communication

Technical writing is different from other types of written communication. But it doesn’t mean you have to re learn
all the skills you’ve already learn to accommodate this new communication beast. Many of the writing skills you’ve
come across are applicable to technical writing.

College lasts only four to five years. Thus, you should continue to prepare yourselves by studying essays. In
addition, you also need to prepare for what comes next—your jobs. After you graduate, you will go to work where
you will write memos, letters, and reports. This is the importance of understanding the difference of technical
writing to other types of written communication.

Technical Writing versus Academic Writing

Academic and technical writing are two forms of writing between which a key difference can be identified. Most
people assume that a technical writer is, in fact, an academic writer as well. This, however, is a false assumption.
Although both academic writing and technical writing require excellent writing skills, the key differences between
these two types of writing are the audience and purpose of writing. Academic writing is a form of writing that is
used in academic disciplines. On the other hand, technical writing is a form of writing that is mostly used in
technical disciplines. As you can see, the context of the two forms of writing differ from one another. Also, the
target audience for academic writing is mostly scholars, but not in the case of technical writing. Even a lay person
can be the target audience.

Technical Writing versus Creative Writing

Technical writing and creative writing are two styles of writing, which may very well be distinguished just by having
a look at their traits. The principal between every of them is that, creative writing is written to enthrall, entertain
and arouse a certain felling in a reader, whereas technical writing is to show the viewers with the factual
knowledge and is launched in a logical technique.

Below is a poem about a tennis shoe as well as technical specifications for manufacturing the same shoe. These
two writing samples further illustrate the difference between technical writing and other types of writing.

UNDERSTANDING PURPOSE

Technical communication begins with identifying a problem and thinking about how to solve it. Because of the
variety of problems and solutions in the working world, people communicate technical information for a number
of purposes, many of which fall into one of two categories:

• Communication that helps others learn about a subject, carry out a task, or make a
decision. For instance, administrators with the Department of Health might hire a media
production company to make a video that explains to citizens how to use a website to manage
their Medicare benefits. The president of a manufacturing company might write an article in the
company newsletter to explain to employees why management decided to phase out production
of one of the company’s products. The board of directors of a community-service organization
might produce a grant proposal to submit to a philanthropic organization in hopes of being awarded
a grant. Figure 1.1 shows a screen capture from an online video that explains how to create a
facebook web page.
FIGURE 1.1 A Communication That Helps Others Carry Out a Task
The purpose of this online video is to help viewers carry out the task on how to create their own web page.

• Communication that reinforces or changes attitudes and motivates readers to take action.
A wind energy company might create a website with videos and text intended to show that building
wind turbines off the coast of a tourist destination would have many benefits and few risks. A
property owners’ association might create a website to make the opposite argument: that the wind
turbines would have few benefits but many risks. In each of these two cases, the purpose of
communicating the information is to persuade people to accept a point of view and encourage
them to act — perhaps to contact their elected representatives and present their views about this
public-policy issue. Figure 1.2 shows an excerpt from a website that promotes the building of wind
turbines off the coast of Massachusetts.

FIGURE 1.2 A Communication That Aims to Change Attitudes

 The purpose of this website, created by an energy development company, is to generate public support for an
offshore wind park.

UNDERSTANDING AUDIENCE

When you communicate in the workplace, you have not only a clear purpose — what you want to achieve — but
also a clearly defined audience — one or more people who are going to read the document, attend the oral
presentation, visit the website, or view the video you produce. Sometimes audience members share the same
purpose, but not always. It’s possible, even likely, that a piece of technical communication will have multiple
audiences with different purposes.

In most of your previous academic writing, your audience has been your instructor, and your purpose has been
to show your instructor that you have mastered some body of information or skill. Typically, you have not tried to
create new knowledge or motivate the reader to take a particular action — except to give you a “95” for that
assignment.

By contrast, in technical communication, your audience will likely include peers and supervisors in your company,
as well as people outside your company. For example, suppose you are a public-health scientist working for a
federal agency. You and your colleagues just completed a study showing that, for most adults, moderate exercise
provides as much health benefit as strenuous exercise. After participating in numerous meetings with your
colleagues and after drafting, critiquing, and revising many drafts, you produce four different documents:

• a journal article for other scientists

• a press release to distribute to popular print and online publications
• an infographic for use in doctors’ offices
• an animated blog post for your agency to share on social media

In each of these documents, you present the key information in a different way to meet the needs of particular
audience.

The Challenges of Producing Technical Communication

One of the most challenging activities you will engage in as a professional is communicating your ideas to
audiences. Why? Because communication is a higher-order skill that involves many complex factors.

The good news is that there are ways to think about these complex factors, to think through them, that will help
you communicate better. No matter what document you produce or contribute to, you need to begin by
considering five sets of factors.

AUDIENCE-RELATED FACTORS

What problem or problems is your audience trying to solve? Does your audience know enough about your subject
to understand a detailed discussion, or do you need to limit the scope, the amount of technical detail, or the type
of graphics you use? Does your audience already have certain attitudes or expectations about your subject that
you wish to reinforce or change? Does your audience speak English well, or should you present the information
in more than one language? Does your audience share your cultural assumptions about such matters as how to
organize and interpret documents, or do you need to adjust your writing approach to match a different set of
assumptions? Does your audience include people with disabilities (of vision, hearing, movement, or cognitive
ability) who have requirements you need to meet?

PURPOSE-RELATED FACTORS

Before you can write, you need to determine your purpose: what do you want your audience to know or believe
or do after having read your document? Do you have multiple purposes? If so, is one more important than the
others? Although much technical communication is intended to help people perform tasks, such as configuring
privacy settings in a social-media environment, many organizations large and small devote significant
communication resources to the increasingly vital purpose of branding: creating an image that helps customers
distinguish the company from competitors. Most companies now employ community specialists as technical
communicators to coordinate the organization’s day-to-day online presence and its social-media campaigns.
These specialists publicize new products and initiatives and respond to questions and new developments. They
also manage all of the organization’s documents — from tweets to blog posts to Facebook fan pages and
company-sponsored discussion forums.

SETTING-RELATED FACTORS

What is the situation surrounding the problem you are trying to solve? Is there a lot at stake in the situation, such
as the budget for a project, or is your document a more routine communication, such as technical notes for a
software update? What is the context in which your audience will use your document? Will the ways in which they
use it — or the physical or digital environment in which they use it — affect how you write? Will the document be
used in a socially or politically charged setting? Does the setting include established norms of ethical behavior?
Is the setting formal or informal? Settings can have a great deal of influence over how audiences think about and
use technical communication.

DOCUMENT-RELATED FACTORS

What type of content will the document include? How will the content aid problem solving? Does your subject
dictate what kind of document (such as a report or a blog post) you choose to write? Does your subject dictate
what medium (print or digital) you choose for your document? Do you need to provide audiences with content in
more than one medium? If you’re using a document template, how should you modify it for your audiences and
purposes? Does the application call for a particular writing style or level of formality? (For the sake of convenience,
we will use the word document throughout this book to refer to all forms of technical communication, from written
documents to oral presentations and online forms, such as podcasts and wikis.)

PROCESS-RELATED FACTORS

What process will you use to produce the document? Is there an established process to support the work, or do
you need to create a new one? Do you have sufficient time for planning tasks, such as analyzing your audience
and purpose, choosing writing tools, and researching and reading background information? Does your budget
limit the number of people you can enlist to help you or limit the size or shape of the document? Does your
schedule limit how much information you can include in the document? Does your schedule limit the type or
amount of document testing you can do? Will the document require updating or maintenance?

Because all these factors interact in complicated ways, every technical document you create involves a
compromise. If you are writing a set of instructions for installing a water heater and you want those instructions
to be easily understood by people who speak only Spanish, you will need more time and a bigger budget to have
the document translated, and it will be longer and thus a little bit harder to use, for both English and Spanish
speakers. You might need to save money by using smaller type, smaller pages, and cheaper paper, and you
might not be able to afford to print it in full color. In technical communication, you do the best you can with your
resources of time, information, and money. The more carefully you think through your options, the better able you
will be to use your resources wisely and make a document that will get the job done.

Lesson 2: Importance/Purpose of Technical Communication

Topic: Types of writings required in Technical Professions, Basic Principles of Good

Technical Communication, Properties of Technical Writing, and
Qualities of the Technical Communicator

Learning Outcomes: At the end of this module, you are expected to:
 1. Identify the different types of technical writing
2. Reflect on the given example of technical document
3. Enumerate the qualities of technical communicator
4. Show how technical communication is done in one‘s home
5. Recognize the basic principles of good technical writing.

Lesson Proper:

TYPES OF TECHNICAL WRITINGS

1. Traditional Technical Writing

- While traditional technical writing sounds broad, pieces of content within this category are
specifically written for professional audiences. These experts rely on traditional technical
writing for targeted research papers, programming guidelines, and repair manuals.

a. Science and Medical Papers

▪ Research results can be hard to explain, so scientists collaborate with technical
writers to interpret and organize findings. These papers act as learning
resources for practitioners to understand procedures and results. As with any
form of research, technical writers ensure that proper credibility is given in the
text.

b. Professional Reports and Review

▪ In addition to writing for scientists and doctors, technical writers assist in
creatingreports for business growth and educational institutions. Examples of
professional reports include project and business status reports, legal case
reviews, and personnel activity reports.

2. End-User Documentation
- Almost every product you purchase has a written explanation of operation. These
―how-to‖ pieces are written to help users understand and operate products correctly.
Since end-user documentation requires clear and concise instruction, it‘s important to
create content that breaks down technological terms to layman‘s terms.

a. User Help Guides

▪ When software product users have questions that needs specific answers, they
turn to user help guides. These are written to provide clear and sensible answers
to common questions that may develop as use of software programs continue.
User help guides are broken down into sections depending on the type of ‗help‘
needed – allowing users to read ahead or re-read information to make their
understanding of a product stronger.
b. Product Manuals
▪ Product manuals are those small booklets that highlight a product‘s main
features, general maintenance, and basic operation. It contains written
guidelines informing the audience how to use a certain product.
 c. Assembly Guidelines
▪ Since assembly guidelines tell users how to physically set up a product,
technical writers are responsible for writing clear and user-friendly,
step-by-step instructions. It‘s important for these instructions to be
written in a way that ensureusers can accurately assemble products.

EXAMPLE:

3. Technical Marketing Content

- Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and
distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a
clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
The primary goal of marketing content, is to convince the reader to buy a product
or service.

a. Brochures
▪ Brochures take users to a deeper level of understanding and appeal
through clear descriptions, functions, and uses of a product. It is
intended to provide customers with additional information on
corporate offerings, and are used by sales personnel to persuade
customers to purchase a product. The brochure – also called a data
sheet, product brief or solution brief – describes the main features of
the product, any specifications for its use and is usually accompaniedby
either a picture of the product or an architectural design, illustrating the
solution.

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF GOOD TECHNICAL WRITING

 1. Always bear in mind a specific reader, real or imaginary, when you are writing a
report; and always assume that he is intelligent but uninformed.

• An awareness of who is going to read a user guide, the knowledge gap that
the userguide is filling and the delivery method of the guide all play
important roles.

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 and makes it at the right time.

• Before beginning any writing task, the writer analyzes audience and
identifies thepurpose for the document. The writer asks following
questions about the audience:
✓ Who will read the document?
✓ What are their biases?
✓ What are technical writer‘s ethical
responsibilities whencommunicating this to audience?
• With regard to purpose, technical writers ask: what should this
documentaccomplish? What should it do? Should it:
✓ Inform
✓ Request
✓ Instruct
✓ Suggest
✓ Order
✓ Report
✓ Reply
✓ Analyse/ critique
✓ Compare
3. Use language that is simple, concrete, and familiar.

• Different types of writing have different audiences, and each audience

has its ownlinguistic needs, which the writer respects with tone and word
choice.

4. At the beginning and end of every section of your report, check your writing
according tothis 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 to look at.

After knowing the basic principles in technical writing, I know that you are pondering on the
question, ―How can I make my technical written work attractive? What are the features
needed to make a technical document accurate to its audience?‖ Let us answer all your
questions by discussing our next topic!

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 towardswhat 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 thepersonalized 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 wordslike 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 personyou 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
our 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 orauthoritativeness. 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 favorable attention from your readers.
QUALITIES OF A TECHNICAL WRITER
In view of these properties and principles of technical writing, the technical
writer shouldpossess the following basic qualification:

1. Adequate knowledge of the subject matter.

2. Ability to compile information.
3. Ability to organize facts or ideas.
4. Ability to analyze and synthesize.
5. Ability to learn and use specialized vocabularies.
6. Ability to write at the reader‘s comprehensive level.
7. Ability to use the inductive and deductive methods of reasoning.
8. Accuracy of language.
9. Objectivity in presenting facts and issues.
10. Ability to write concise prose.
11. Ability to determine the effectiveness of words, sentences, and paragraphs.
12. Ability to conform to the code of ethics in the technical writing professions.