The Importance and Scope of Technical

Writing Skills
Naveen Kumar Dubey*

Technical writing in English serves as an essential tool in

communicating or conveying one’s ideas, views, observations,
instructions, and suggestions in a more logical and technical manner.
Technical writing in English, in the field of engineering, requires
specific registers, structure, and definite sets of vocabulary.
Technocrats and professionals need to have good technical writing
skills in the preparation of reports, presentations, documentations,
etc. Technical writing in English is used for a specific purpose, and
hence it needs to be precise, relevant, and without redundancy. Skills
such as writing instructions and inferring data from graphs and charts
require the above. This paper highlights the above ideas with exact
examples, besides explaining the various writing skills required in the
field of engineering.

Introduction
Though the engineering students have learned English for about twelve years at school
before entering the engineering institution, the English taught in schools alone is not sufficient
when it comes to engineering subject. The engineering students are expected to
communicate technically, and Technical Writing plays a vital role in it.
Technical writing is a form of writing or drafting technical communication for technical
and occupational fields. Technical writing is sometimes defined as simplifying the complex.1
Technical writing is the clear and concise analysis of scientific or engineering results.
Technical writing comes under English for Specific Purpose (ESP), which is a method of
Teaching English more precisely, making it informative.
English varies from field to field like Business English, Technical English, Medical
English, Scientific English, English for Tourism, English for Art Purposes, etc. In the field
of engineering, inferring data from graphs and charts and preparation of proposals, resumes,
technical reports, instructions, procedures, e-mails, letters, press releases, case studies,
etc. require good technical writing skills.

* Student, B.Tech - Mechanical Engineering (Third Year), Dr. M G R Educational and Research Institute University,
Maduravoyal, Chennai - 600095, Tamil Nadu, India. E-mail: thenaveendubey@gmail.com
1
http://techwhirl.com/what-is-technical-writing

©282017 IUP. All Rights Reserved. The IUP Journal of English Studies • Vol. XII, No. 1, 2017