MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO TECHNICAL
(Excerpt from an Annual Report)
WRITING
Lesson 1
Description/Definition of Technical Writing
- Its goal is to inform the audience to fulfill a certain task
involving such object, process or idea.
- It ensures accurate, brief, and clear presentation and
organization of information or ideas, thus making it
verifiable and understandable to its target audience.
- Its readability, objectivity, and utility take precedence over
its technicality, formality, and style.
- It conveys specific information about a technical subject to a
specific audience for a specific purpose. (Michael H. Markel)
- It is communication in any field.
- It is exposition about scientific subjects, and about various
technical subjects associated with the sciences; hence, it uses
scientific and technical vocabulary; tables, graphs, and figures
to clarify and support textual discussion.
PURPOSE OF TW
- gives information that leads to the accomplishment of
specific tasks and in the making of needed decisions.
(Ex. What to do after an earthquake; how to use safety devices
to avoid fire and burns etc.)
- analyzes events and their implications like the failure of
certain educational, socio- economic, or political systems; or
needed social changes, like how to save the dying bodies of
water in the country.
- persuades and influences decisions by showing how a
business or an industry succeeds because of just and fair
treatment of laborers, by explaining how an agency like the
NAPOCOR can improve the energy situation.
Subject Matter of TW
• contains an objective information that is
accurately and clearly presented.
• tells the reader exactly what to do, how
to do it, and under what conditions to do it.
• records data in business, science, engineering,
industry, and other professional areas.
• presents factual data, statistics, and
measurable elements
• gives explanations to support plausible
conclusions.
• is highly specific and detailed.
• leaves no room for conflicting
interpretations.
leaves its readers specific knowledge
Subject Matter of Creative Writing
• goes outside the bounds of normal professional,
journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature,
typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft,
character development, and the use of literary tropes or with
various traditions of poetry and poetics.
• leaves its readers a powerful feeling or
emotion.
• is subject to the different interpretations
of the readers.
Examples of Technical Write-Ups
1. Researchers over the past decades have posed increasing
interests in the study of nonverbal communication. (Excerpt
from a Qualitative Research Study)
2. Your endorsement of the Solar Mosquito Pester (SMP) will
encourage innovative young minds to keep on experimenting.
(Excerpt from a Proposal)
3. The UN’s International Labor Organization says job
stress is increasing to the point of a world-wide epidemic
affecting some of the ordinary jobs. (Excerpt from an
Analytical Report)
4. Through the years, PICOP has developed the pioneering
expertise and advancement in wood technology and paper
manufacturing.
5. The main objective of the present study is to produce
hydrogen gas from the anaerobic fermentation of formate
aided by the strain of the enteric bacterium, Escherichia coli.
(Excerpt from a Science Research Study)
The Readers of Technical Writing
• read for particular purposes.
• may be experts of their field, or are individuals who are
interested in other disciplines.
• may be managers, supervisors, secretaries, engineers,
scientists, sociologists, psychologists, or technicians.
• often know what they are looking for in reports.
• recognize the value of the information.
Why Readers of TW read?
• to prepare for an assignment,
conference, or a report
• to get informed about a topic or to reject or affirm
information
• to know something or a great deal, about the subject.
• for information, not for pleasure
Major Milestones in the History of TW 1949: Joseph D.
Chapline wrote a user’s manual for the BINAC computer. He
became the first technical writer of computer documentation.
1951: An ad for a technical writer was first
published in the “Help,anted” ads.
1952: Joseph D. Chapline documented the UNIVAC computer,
using examples to document its functions.
1960: The continued growth of technology, particularly in the
electronics, aeronautics, and space industries, created a big
upsurge in the demand for technical writers.
1964: Marshall MacLuhan published “Ünderstanding the
Media” proclaiming that electronic media will soon turn the
world into a “global village.”
1965: Ted Nelson coined the terms “hypertext” and
“hypermedia” to describe a model of non-sequential writing
and accessing information, stressing the connection among
ideas.
1975: The US government required all product warranties to
be stated clearly and ambiguously.
1976: The Modern Language Association (MLA) approved a
panel on technical writing at its annual conference.
1980: in an immigration case involving the question of the
occupation classification of a technical publication’s writer,
the US Department of Justice ruled that technical writing is a
profession.
1986: The American national Standards Institute (ANSI)
released the Standard
Generalized Markup Language (SGML), which became the
basis of several subset markup languages, including HTML.
1987: Early desktop publishing and page layout software
began appearing on writers’ desktops, including products
like Ventura Publisher, Interleaf, FrameMaker, and Aldus
PageMaker.
1991: ISO 9000 certification requirements created new job
opportunities for technical writers.
1992: ProEdit is founded in Atlanta, GA. 1999. Writers began
using XML, an extensible Markup Language
that is evolving from HTML.
2002: The Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002 creates new
opportunities for technical writers documenting policies,
procedures, internal controls.
Lesson 2: Using Plain English - Mechanics Plain English (or
layman's terms)
- is a language that is considered to be clear
and concise. It usually avoids the use of uncommon vocabulary
and lesser-known euphemisms to explain the subject. Plain
English wording is intended to be suitable for a general
audience; it allows for comprehensive understanding to help
readers understand a topic.
➢ is clear, straightforward expression, using only as many
words as are necessary.
➢ is language that avoids obscurity, inflated vocabulary and
convoluted sentence construction.
➢ is not baby talk, nor is it a simplified version of the English
language.
Mechanics in Writing
➢ refers to the rules of the written language, such as
capitalization, punctuation and spelling.
➢ In composition, writing mechanics are the conventions
governing the technical aspects of writing, including spelling,
punctuation, capitalization, and abbreviations.
- "Teachers using a traditional, product- oriented approach
tend to focus on the formal mechanical and technical aspects
of writing while paying little attention to the individual writer's
communicative purposes. Thus, with this approach there is a
danger that, for many children, writing will become an
exercise in formal mechanics divorced from personal content
and intentions."
Plain English (or layman's terms)
Writers of plain English let their audience concentrate on the
message instead of being distracted by complicated language.
➢ They make sure that their audience understands the
message easily.
➢ Writers of plain English let their audience concentrate on
the message instead of being distracted by complicated
language.
➢ They make sure that their audience understands the
message easily.
Mechanics in Writing
Here, we shall be focusing on:
• Avoiding common vocabulary and
spelling errors
• Abbreviations and
• Punctuation
Avoiding common vocabulary and spelling errors
Avoiding common vocabulary and spelling errors
Beyond having a good dictionary available, there is no simple
guideline to follow to make sure you always use and spell
words correctly. However, there are a number of examples of
words that are frequently misused in place of a similar
sounding word with a different meaning.
Commonly Confused Words affect: verb meaning to
influence
effect: noun meaning result or verb meaning to bring about
adverse: adjective meaning unfavourable adverse: adjective
meaning opposed to or disinclined.
principle: noun meaning a standard or rule of conduct
principal: adjective or noun meaning most important
stationery: noun meaning writing materials
stationary: adjective meaning not moving
illicit: adjective meaning illegal elicit: verb meaning
to give rise to flaunt: verb meaning to show off
lout: verb meaning to show contempt allusion: noun meaning
a passing reference as in “were you making an allusion to my
wife?”
illusion: noun meaning a false impression complement: noun
meaning something that completes, or verb meaning to make
complete
compliment: noun meaning praise or verb meaning to praise
council: noun meaning an assembly counsel: verb meaning to
recommend or noun meaning recommendation
ensure: verb meaning to make certain
insure: verb meaning to protect against risk
mitigate: verb meaning to moderate militate: verb meaning to
influence (for or against)
practice: noun as in “put my ideas into
practice”
practice: verb
advice: noun meaning recommendation
advise: verb
Commonly Misspelt Words
accommodate, harass
, embarrass , privilege
, necessary , committee commemorate ,
mileage
, gauge , questionnaire
,parallel , commitment
, cupboard , rendezvous
, panacea ,enrolment
- The final class of vocabulary problems you should avoid is
using American spelling (unless you are submitting your report
to an American audience). This means in particular:
• Verbs should end in ‘ise’ rather than ‘ize’ as in
‘generalise’ rather than ‘generalize’ and ‘formalise’ rather
than ‘formalize’.
• Words like ‘colour’ and ‘flavour’ should
not be written as ‘color’ and ‘flavor’.
Abbreviations
• Always avoid abbreviating words out of laziness.
For example: Never write ‘approx.’ for ‘approximately’ (it
may be better to write ‘about’); Never write ‘e.g.’ for ‘for
example’. An exception, but misused example, is ‘etc.’.
- In most case where ‘etc.’ is used it can be avoided. For
example, people usually use it in the following way: “He eats
lots of fruit, such as apples, oranges, bananas, etc.” The ‘etc.’
here is redundant because of the ‘such as’. If you are
using ‘etc.’ then the correct way to write the above sentence
would be: “He eats lots of fruit: apples, oranges,
bananas, etc.”
• A long title, such as Tottenham Hotspur Football Club,
should not be abbreviated if it is used only once in a
document. However, if it is used more than once then it can
be abbreviated to its initials THFC providing that the first time
it is used you write the full title with the initials in brackets.
• Where initials such as THFC are used as
above it is useful to provide a glossary.
Capital letters
People use capital letters far more frequently than they
should. Apart from at the beginning of sentences, and proper
names, the only other times you need to use capitals are for:
• Organisations and places (for example,
the House of Commons);
• Acts of Parliament (for example, the Act of Union);
• Label formed from a proper name (hence
Marxist, but not communist);
• North, South, East and West when they form part of a
country name but not otherwise (hence South Africa, but not
south London);
• Titles when used with the name but not otherwise
(hence the Duke of York, but not the duke);
• Certain periods of history (for example,
the Black Death, Renaissance);
• God.
PUNCTUATION
Apostrophes
Apostrophes have two purposes only:
1. To show that a letter has been missed out:
For example, isn’t (is not), can’t (cannot), it’s (it is).
2. To show possession:
For example, the snake’s eyes, the children’s shoes. If
the thing doing the possessing already has an s at the end,
then do not add an s. For example, if we are talking about the
eyes of several snakes
then we write: the snakes’ eyes
The only exception to this last rule is if:
• it is a proper noun (Mr Jones’s daughter);
• the word ends in a double ss (the boss’s
office).
- You never use an apostrophe with a possessive pronoun like
her, its, theirs, ours. If you learn these two simple rules then
you should know immediately that the following examples are
wrong (yet they are extremely common):
• I gave the cat it’s food • I like tomatoe’s • In the
1960’s • All the department’s were represented.
- In each case the apostrophe should not be there. A related
mistake, which is appalling in its stupidity yet incredibly
common, is:
• I should of done my homework instead of
• I should’ve done my homework (short for
should have).
COMMAS
Apart from the case where a sentence would be too long
 otherwise, there are just four reasons for using a comma:
1. Where you are writing a list. For example
‘I like apples, oranges, peaches and bananas.’
- However, note that in technical reports it is usually better to
use enumerated lists or bullet points.
Where the items in the list include commas themselves you
should use semi-colons rather than commas to separate the
list items as in:
“Government departments such as health; agriculture, food
and fisheries; the foreign office and employment.”
2. Where you are using a qualifying word or expression at
the beginning of a sentence, such as;
• ‘However, it is best..’
• ‘For example, we can see …
• ‘Unfortunately, you should know..
• ‘Firstly, it is unlikely .
3. Where the sentence would be ambiguous without it. For
example:
“I decided on an alteration of course” means that you
changed your course, whereas:
“I decided on an alteration, of course” means that,
naturally, you decided to make an alteration.
4.To show where you have inserted a phrase. For example:
“Teddy, who is normally the best in the
team, had a very poor match.”
In any such case the sentence should still make sense if you
remove the part between the commas.
EXCLAMATION MARKS
There are only two reasons ever to use an exclamation
mark:
1. Where there is an exclamation as in
“Do it now!”, “Help!”
2. As the mathematical notation for the factorial function,
as in “the number 4! is equal to the number
24”
- You should never use an exclamation mark at the end of a
sentence to indicate that the sentence was supposed to be
funny.
Many people do this and it is both stupid and annoying. If the
sentence was funny, the reader should have found it funny
without having to be told to laugh. If the sentence was not
funny the exclamation mark will have simply confirmed to the
reader that you are a poor writer. Either way you lose in the
eyes of the reader.
SUMMARY
1. The only certain way to avoid spelling errors and incorrect
vocabulary is to use a dictionary whenever you are unsure of
anything. However, there are common examples of words that
cause errors and you can learn these.
2. Use English rather than American spelling unless you are
targeting an American audience.
3. Abbreviations should be used only where necessary.
4. Apostrophes should only be used to show possession or to
show that a letter has been missed out. All other uses
(especially when used before the ‘s’ in plurals) are wrong.
5. There are simple rules to learn for when to use commas. In
general, however, writing shorter sentences means using
fewer commas.
6. Apart from its special use in mathematics you should only
use an exclamation mark in an exclamation. Never use it to tell
the reader that a sentence was supposed to be funny.
Module 1 LESSON 3: The Technical Writing Process
Technical writing
it's a process because it is "a specialized, structured way of
writing, where information is presented in a format and
manner that best suits the cognitive and psychological needs of
the readers"
- it's a skill in writing because "technical" comes from the
Greek word techne (skill)
- the first rule is to identify the audience and the need for the
information
- a process of gathering, organizing, and presenting the
information on a technical subject
- user friendly to a specific audience
The Technical Writing Process
1st
- Technical writer needs to have the skills in the technical
writing and the knowledge technical subject.
2nd
- He/She identifies the readers or target audience including
their need for information.
-Interest and enthusiasm on the subject is also an important
ingredient for the technical writer to attract the audience.
-Technical writing uses technical terms when it makes its
contents more accurate, brief and clearer.
-The simpler usage, presentation and organization
suitable to the target audience are always advised in technical
writing.
Technical Writing Defined
- a written part or subset of technical communication that
communicates factual technical, specialized information on a
broad variety of audiences.
- a process of "designing, writing, and organizing factual
documents to deliver consistent technical clear and
information"
- its goal is to strip down one's writing with useless
descriptions, complex language, pompous words and phrases.

Michael H. Markel
"The words and graphics of technical writing are meant to be
practical: that is, to communicate a body of factual
information that will help an audience understand a subject
or carry out a task"
- The primary goal of any technical communication is to
accurately transmit technical information... it differs from
popular nonfiction (Bly & Blake, 1982)

Characteristics of Technical Writing

a. technically accurate
b. consistent
c. clear
corrects in spelling, punctuation, grammar