Instructor: Ms. Ayana Angelu N.

Cañoneo
ayanaangelucanoneo@gmail.com
THE NATURE OF TECHNICAL WRITING

1. The Definition of Technical Writing

2. The Technical Writers
3. The Difference between Technical and Literary Writing
4. Characteristics and Examples of Technical Writing
5. The Basic Principles of Technical Writing
 THE DEFINITION OF TECHNICAL WRITING

What is Technical Writing?

Technical writing is the act of communicating, through writing, whatever you
think or feel about your job, business, industry, profession, and organization. It is
“on-the-job writing”—a modern way of defining technical writing.
An etymological definition of technical writing makes you discover that this
expression came from three foreign terms: technikos (Greek), techne (French), and
teks (Indo-European). The first two meant art, craft, or skill; the last, which is the
origin of techne means to weave or fabricate.
Known as a written part or subset of technical communication, technical
writing communicates factual technical, specialized information on a broad variety
of audiences.
The Technical Writing Process
Technical writing is a process because it is a specialized, structured way of
writing, where information is presented in a format or manner that best suits the
cognitive and psychological needs of the readers, so they can respond to a
document as its author intended and achieve the purpose related to the document.
Technical writing also means a skill in writing because “technical” comes from the
Greek word techne, which simply means “skill”
The Goal
 The goal of technical writing is to strip down one’s writing with useless
descriptions and trite expressions, elegant and complex language, pompous
words and phrases, thus reducing its contents to the barest essentials and
making technical terms clearly understandable and technically accurate.
 Technical writing is tasked to transform complex, technical information into
a language that is more easily understandable to the audience.
 THE TECHNICAL WRITERS

Technical writing is performed by a technical writer (or technical author) and is

the process of writing and sharing technical information in a professional setting.
A writer's primary task is to communicate technical information to another person
or party in the clearest and most effective manner.
Qualities of a Technical Writers
The following are the traits or skills of a successful technical writer:

1. Superior Communication Skills

Listening, speaking, reading and writing are the four basic communication
skills that any kind of writer has to master to be able to exchange ideas excellently
with others. While writing is the most used skill in technical writing, the other skills
of listening, speaking and reading are your means of obtaining data for your
technical written Work. You need varieties of ideas, information, opinions, and
other forms of knowledge to write on your paper or computer screen. The answer
to this writing need is the activation of all your communication skill.

2. HOTS or Higher-Order Thinking Skills

Higher-Order thinking skills require more and deeper mental effort from the
thinker. Thinking this way is not just focusing your attention on what appeal to
your senses, but also on those beyond your sensory experience called abstract
knowledge. Abstract thinking makes you entertain ideas beyond or apart what
your eyes can see. This takes place when you perform top-level thinking acts of
interpreting, evaluating, creating and appreciating. All these methods of thinking
elicit meanings based not mainly on concrete objects, but more on the reader’s
viewpoints or personal thoughts and feelings.
Among the higher-order thinking skills that you ought to practice frequently
in technical writing is critical or evaluative thinking. You perform this thinking skill
when you present your technical paper in a problem-solving technique that
requires you to evaluate situations well so you can distinguish the most important
issues from the most insignificant ones.
 3. Persuasive Skills
In technical writing, two parties are basically involved: the writer or seller
and the reader or buyer. Between the two, the first one has the burden of proof
or the responsibility to persuade or convince the other party of the excellence of
the technical paper or of the object of the selling act. To succeed in this, you
need to know and practice the art of persuasive writing where you have to apply
ethos (appeal to ones moral, educational, or ethical values or standards), pathos
(appeal to one's emotions or feelings) and logos (appeal to one’s logical,
systematic, of orderly thinking).
4. Integrity
Being an act of buying and selling, business is always equated with money and one
sure vehicle toward profitable business is excellent technical writing that will make
you offer ideas, services, products, or systems to clients for fees. However, for the
sake of money, stiff competition enough to erode your integrity or honesty as a
technical writer may arise between you or among several technical writers.
5. Zest
The expression, technical writing may sound difficult to some, but a zestful
technical winter like you knows how to turn anything difficult to something that is
easy and enjoyable. Your technical reports, business letters, research proposal,
instructional manuals, memos, brochures, or fliers and other written en
applications of technical writing have the power to stimulate your curiosity and
your readers’ interest in your technical written work reflects your sense of humor,
optimism, or positive thinking.
As a person with zest, your positive dispositions in life makes you consider
failures as a test of courage and your stepping stone to success. You know the
right way to overcome any hindrances or difficulties that may prevent you from
producing effective technical written works. ( Pekins, 2008).
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TECHNICAL AND LITERARY WRITING

Technical Writing vs. Other Types of Writing

People get informed, entertained, educated through different types of
writing. Fictional writing that produces novels, short stories, plays, poems, and
other literary works do not only stir up your emotions positively, but also enlighten
you spiritually or mentally, Likewise, expository, academic, and other persuasive
kinds of writing that yield essays, anecdotes, journals, or biographies aim at
informing, enlightening, instructing or entertaining readers.
How do you compare and contrast technical writing with the different types
of writing?
Technical writing is not meant for entertainment purposes, but for
knowledge improvement. Basically, to reveal ideas, views, and feelings about a
certain topic is the main objective of all types of writing regardless of whether the
readers respond to the writer's ideas or not, or of what kind of responses or
reactions the text may get from the readers. The impact of the written wok entirely
depends on the reader’s judgment.
In relation to sharing of knowledge as the common objective of all types of
writing, technical writing slants a bit, in that, aside from informing or educating, it
necessarily elicits response, reactions, or answers from readers or clientele. It
operates in such a way that it has to establish a connection between two parties -
- seller-buyer/employer-employee/worker-worker/company-company-- whereby
such link must lead to making the second party or reader give his or her feedback
to the writer. The need of an immediate response to the content of written work is
the ultimate objective of technical writing. This is not so for expository, academic,
literary and other persuasive forms of writing which do not demand any reaction
or feedback from the readers. (Searles, 2003)
 CHARACTERISTICS AND EXAMPLES OF TECHNICAL WRITING
The following are the characteristics of a good technical writing:
a. technically accurate
b. consistent
c. clear
d. correct in spelling, punctuation, and grammar
e. concise
f. persuasive
g. interesting

 Technical writing must be absolutely error free.

 It must be accurate, brief, and clear.
 Its foremost objective is to communicate technical information.
Some common examples of documents that involve technical writing skills are
the following:
a. business plan and proposals
b. technical reports
c. research reports and abstracts
d. product plans and system designs
e. technical specifications
f. end-user guides
g. policy and procedure manuals
h. protocols and instructions
i. help files
j. tutorials
k. flow charts
l. scientific papers
m. web pages and sites
n. lab reports and many more
 In the Micron website ( http://www.micron.com/k12/writing/index,2007),
technical writing includes the following.

o Business letters o Operational guides

o Presentation materials o Press releases
o Newsletters o Web pages
o Web applications o Travel guides
o Scripts o Training materials
o Meeting minutes o Advertising copy
o Magazine articles o Instructional posters
o Resumes and cover o Contracts, proposals, and
letters grants
o Feasibility o Procedures, protocols,
reports/studies and manuals
o Questionnaires and o Scientific papers
forms o Cook books
o Data books and catalogs

THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TECHNICAL WRITING

It is necessary to begin by determining the nature and purposes of
technical communication. This will help students to distinguish the distinct
characteristics of technical writing from literary writing.
The main purposes of technical writing are:
a. to inform
b. to describe
c. to explain
d. to give instructions
Employing basic principles of technical writing serves as a guide to analyze
authentic texts to acquire knowledge and familiarity necessary to produce
affective technical papers.
 Generally, technical writing adheres to the following principles:
a. unity
b. coherence
c. emphasis
(order of time, order by position, order of importance, and spatial order)

1. Research one example of a technical paper and identify its type

(may it be a newsletter, data books, scientific papers, manuals,
etc.. You may refer on the different types/examples presented
on the material above).
You can download a document or an image from the internet.
In downloading, make sure to acknowledge the website/source
of the document.

2. Based on your example or in general, describe the language

and/or style of technical writing.
Barceros, E.L. 2011. Technical Writing in this Era of Globalization and Modern
Technology: REX Book Store
De belen, R.T, Enriquez B.B. 2015. Elements of Business and Technical Writing
(First Edition): Wiseman’s Books Trading, Inc.
Casela, N.C , Cuevas G.J.M. 2010. Developing Technical Writing towards Meeting
Academic Challenges:Books Atbp.Publishing Corp.