BASIC PRINCIPLES OF GOOD TECHNICAL WRITING

Technical writing is one of the most important elements of a company's customer support
strategy, and these five principles that technical writers must bear in mind to be successful.
Inattention to any of these five areas often leads to a substandard document and dissatisfaction
on the client end.
 
Mills and Walter (1980: 13-14) identified the basic principles as follows:
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 user guide 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 the purpose 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 when communicating this to audience?
 With regard to purpose, technical writers ask: what should this
document accomplish? 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 own linguistic 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 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 to look at.