TECHNICAL WRITING writer the status of an author, but just a
transmitter of messages or a translator of
Technical Writing is your act of
communicating, through writing. whatever you
think and feel about your job, business,
industry, profession, and organization. It is "on-
the-job witting a modem way, of defining
technical writing. Defining if traditionally, you
think of technical writing as mainly producing
written outputs about these three fields of
knowledge: Science, Technology and
Engineering. As an act of writing about a
workplace, it pertains to all kinds of
organizations, jobs, and professions, In the
field of Architecture, Agriculture. Business,
Engineering, Music, Medicine, Law,
Psychology, Radiology, Banking, and so on.
Involving varieties of people, products,
services. topics, and expressions that are
unique, special, or exclusive to a particular job,
this type of writing is apt to use these two
words-diversity and multiculturalism-to
characterize its nature. (Pfeiffer, 2007)
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 mean art,
craft, or skill; the last, which is the origin of
techne, means, to weave or fabricate. Being
the root of the word textile, teks indicates that
weaving (35,000 BCE) is one of the very first
technologies done by people in this world.
Technical Writing takes place within a
writer's field of profession or area of discipline
composed of readers who are familiar with the
technical writer's subject matter and writing
style. Expressions circulating in this group
of readers are not understandable or
familiar to all kinds of people (McMurray,
2002). Inclined to using specialized terms,
technical writing tends to exclude other readers
from its domain. Having its own subject matter,
format, technical terms, and audience,
technical writing exists to others as:
Professional Witting. Business Writing.
Occupational writing or On-the-Job writing
(Reep. 2003). For Holloway (2008), this is a
type of witting that has the purpose of
"displaying information on the paper to get
results."
One French philosopher Michel
Foucault, wrote that technical writing is the
"rhetoric of the world of work" of commerce
and production. But this kind of writing
according to him does not give the technical
meanings," who has no authority to introduce a
certain form of discourse in society at the same
time claim ownership of the mode of rhetoric
(Gerson, 2006). Thinking of technical writing
as a way of learning that does not deal with
theories a lot, but with knowledge to survive in
the "tough and tumble world." Peeples
(2003) stressed that this type of writing always
aim at "getting things done and at the same
time inviting a how- 10, or handbook method of
instruction."
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
Tracing the historical development of
technical wilting, you have to set your thinking
about this kind of writing in the prehistoric time.
Imagine the Stone and lion Age men as well as
the other nomadic hunters living in caves and
creating their own tools out of stones, then
later out of bronze and iron. These early tools
of men reflect, to a certain extent, the artistry,
techniques or technical skills of the prehistoric
men. Had these nomadic people possessed
writing skills during this period, they could have
recorded on paper, their unique ways or
strategies in creating their own tools to suit
their particular purposes. Unable to write in this
prehistoric period, they had to wait until 2.000
BC. so as to record on a piece of paper their
technical knowledge or special ways of doing
things. (D.S. MAX, 1996)
What helped these early people
communicate their thoughts or ideas about
their work during this period was the very first
book on communication, Rhetoric, by
Aristotle. The guidelines given by this book on
convincing people of the quality or credibility of
a certain product or service have remained to
be the basis of the modem-world persuasive
writing such as technical Writing. Evolving
hand in hand with advancements in the field of
Arts and Science, technical written works have
continued to minor technological innovations.
For instance, in the past century, electricity was
the leading source of light, heat and, power
atomic fusion, and fission emerged. Speedy
modernization or changes in the 20 century,
other sources of energy such as laser, solar
energy. in computer technology further
signaled complexities and innovations in
technical report witting. (Lay, 2003)
The growth of the world's concepts of
technical writing from the Stone Age to the
present global civilization has resulted in
different modes of life, more chances for structure How the person around you
growth, new issues on sociology, technology, expresses themselves or how you express
ethics, and varied ways or styles in technical ideas as they come to your mind serves as
writing (Winston and Edelbach, 2009). your guide or pattern in things on the paper.
Characterized by diversity and multiculturalism
For the sake of clarity, it is important,
due to global exchange of knowledge,
too, that you apply in your work all the
services, science, and technology through the
principles of good sentence construction like
Internet that is accessible to many web users,
parallelism, consistency of tense, dangling
English or non-English speaking countries, the
modifiers, split infinitive, choppy
development of technical writing is prone to
sentences, run-on sentences, comma
this communication direction-Globalization to
splice, wordiness, and so on. Applying the
Localization. This means that with the
qualities of a good paragraph writing such as
continued worldwide increase of non-English
unity, coherence, and emphasis are Likewise
web users, some non-English speaking
essential to making your technical written work
countries are challenged to localize global
appear clear to your readers. (Gustav, 2008;
ideas; meaning, to translate this global
and Marsh, 2005)
knowledge expressed in English to World
Englishes or varieties of Englishes, such as Formal
Filipino English, Korean English. Chinese
English, Indonesian English, Indian English, In technical wilting, you cannot just write
and so on to suit their particular needs or anything you like in any way you want on your
purposes. (Pfeiffer, 2010) writing paper, because some witting standards
underlie the structure, pattern, format, and
CHARACTERISTICS OR PROPERTIES OF language of this kind of writing. You have to
TECHNICAL WRITING adhere to these agreed upon technical witting
rules because your readers judge the value or
The following descriptive words sum up
reputation of your output based on the how you
all the characteristics or properties of technical
conform to the conventions governing this kind
writing that experts or authoritative people
of writing.
named in the Reference List of this book
clearly expressed in their books. Graphical
Accurate Graphs like tables, charts, figures,
diagrams, maps, pictures, and other
A technical written work is accurate
illustrations are absolutely necessary in
when it deals with facts that are completely
technical writing. This is so because this kind of
true. Instead of things whose Identity,
writing deals with topics that are technical;
appearance, or measurements are so difficult
meaning. it deals with things appealing only
to determine. An accurate report uses words,
to certain group of people, or uses words
sentences, numbers, or figures that exactly
expressing specialized meanings or ideas
express what the written work intends to
known only to a specific set of people.
convey (Bantin, 2008). It avoids the frequent
Considering that this nature of technical writing
use of expressions for hedging such as may,
makes the technical work not readable to all
perhaps, maybe, seem, apparently would,
types of readers in this world, you then have to
etc. Using an expression that conveys one and
include in your work non-prose materials like
only one meaning Instead of an ambiguous
graphs to stress, clarify, simplify or sum up
term with multiple meanings will help readers
ideas which you textually present in your
get an easy and quick understanding of the
written composition. (Bertoline, 2009)
whole composition. (Ling. 2004)
Objective
Clear
This characteristic of technical writing is
Your written work is clear it, in one
shown by any written work of yours that avoids
reading, your readers are able to get a quick
revealing your individual thinking personal
understanding of the main message or point of
meaning, or emotional attitude about your
the whole composition. You can easily achieve
subject matter. Whatever understanding you
this if you always remember that clear writing
have about your written work comes from
always results from clear thinking, as well as
outside yourself; meaning. from the results of
from the use of simple, concise, specific,
your environmental observations or sensory
and grammatically connect language
experiences. Avoiding to include in your
technical paper your inner thoughts,
sentiments or feelings means adopting an
impartial or impersonal stand or attitude
towards what 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 in 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 the personalized first-person
point of view like We, Me, Ours, and the
like.
3. Downplay the subject or personal nature
of the text by avoiding the use of
emotive words like dissatisfied,
uninteresting, or undignified.
However some experts with modern view
on technical writing argued that adopting a
modem view of technical writing means
humanizing technical wilting: 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 fit 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 everyday
life situations like designing, constructing,
repairing, selling, traveling, 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
analyze your problem, collect data about it, and
present your conclusions, discoveries, or
findings about the object of your study
Special
Witting 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 witting 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, coworkers, cross-
cultural or multilingual communication brought
about by globalization through the Internet or
the E-mail, you come to think of this kind of
writing as one that will lead you to various
topics, 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.
(Conavox, 2010)
Straightforward
A straightforward manner of writing
means presenting knowledge or ideas
honestly and directly. Unlike these other
ways of writing - literary and expository wilting
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 person you 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 your technical writing may wield
over your readers springs from the fact that the
contents of your output does not mainly come
from your own intelligence but also from other
peoples' 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, as such, 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
witting output somehow minors the person who
produced such kind of paper. A dirty-looking
technical written work diminishes its power,
influence or authoritativeness 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 neatly
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 you entire
composition presentable or capable of getting
serious and favorable attention from your
readers.
IMPORTANCE OF TECHNICAL WRITING
You find the value or importance of
Technical Writing in the following aspects:
Completion of task
Technical reports on the progress of a
project indicate a thorough, careful, and
systematic planning, and performance of work.
Giving a definite course of action, reports
written technically assures serious involvement
of people and things in their desire to make the
project reach its full ending. /
Facility of work
A modem view of technical writing is to think
of this as an act of communicating what are
happening in a workplace. Writing at a
workplace, you make all parties involved in the
work get an update of the present, past, or
future of the work regardless of their distance
from the place of the main task/Near or far,
through a written communication about the job,
all project workers are given the opportunity to
be informed of the status of the job and to be
aware of the things they have to contribute for
the perfection and completion of the task. This
is true especially if your technical written work
includes graphics and figures to help the
project workers get a clear, specific, and
emphatic understanding of the nature of their
assigned task. (McMurray, 2002)
Improvement of Interpersonal Relationships
The ultimate objective of technical
writing is to initiate a meeting of minds between
two or more people in relation to the
accomplishment of a certain project/Applying
the principled and ethical ways of
communicating ideas about the project by
means of the various technical writing products
reports resumes, brochures, fliers, manuals,
etc.) and of writing letters, E-mails, and
memos, technical wilting plays an important
role in building better working relationships
among people Gerson, 2006)
Increase of Income
Money is always involved in technical
writing. Through research proposals, bid
proposals, brochures sales letters, order
letters, and many others buying selling
activities happen, Well-written resumes, sales,
letters and proposals are capable of getting the
nod of clients or buyers for the purchase of
items or the carrying out of a big project
involving millions of pesos that will
consequently enrich you by the millions, too.
(Holloway, 2008)
Means of Job Promotion book, the following are the traits or skills of a
successful technical writer:
It is every worker desire to be promoted
to a higher rank for this would mean higher pay Superior communication skills
and beer working conditions. The vehicle to
Listening, speaking, reading, and writing
any job promotion is technical writing abilities
are the four basic communication skills that
and skills that will make you produce written
any kind of writer has to master to be able to
works reflecting your thinking prowess,
exchange ideas excellently with others. While
communicative competence, and professional
writing is the most used skill in technical
preparations. Shown by your technical written
writing, the other skills of listening, speaking,
work, these qualities of yours are your
and reading are your means of obtaining data
Instrument to getting a job promotion. (Beer,
for your technical written work. You need
2006/
varieties of ideas, information, opinions, and
Improvement of Personality Traits other forms of knowledge to write on your
paper or computer screen. The answer to this
Viewed in a modem way technical
writing need is the activation of all your
wetting requires a great deal of reading and
communication skill
writing on different areas of knowledge-
science. engineering, technology, arts, law, Listening to peoples' ideas, exchanging
medicine, commerce, architecture. musk, ideas with others, and reading books or
sociology, psychology among others. Engaging journals, especially those related to your target
in these activities makes you do a higher order topic are therefore your ways to substantiate
thinking skills (HOTS) like inferring, analyzing your technical paper. It is through reading that
orating, evaluating, creating and appreciating. you get opportunities to increase your
A frequent practice of these thinking acts vocabulary, improve your language abilities,
enhances your cognitive abilities. and widen your perceptions about life. All these
four macro-skills of communication make you
Technical wilting does not depend
increase your schemata or store ideas in your
mainly on your mental aspect but on your
brain that you will find essential in your writing
emotional stability, interpersonal relationships,
projects or assignments. Thus, to be an
and ethical standards as well the interplay of all
excellent technical writer is to have rich and
of those in your acts of writing technical
wide acquisition of knowledge, perception, or
reports, business letters, and research
understanding of a lot of things in this world
proposals, and in the use of information
through listening and reading and the ability to
technology (E-mail, voice mail fax, telephone,
express these things coherently to others
video- conference, internet, chat room,
through speaking and writing. (McMurray,
hypertext, Web blogs, IM or instant messaging
2002)
cell phone, face book, twitter, among others)
gives you enough opportunity to enhance the HOTS or Higher-Order Thinking Skills
moral, mental, emotional, physical and social
Higher-order thinking skits require more
aspects of your personality. (Kolin, 2006)
and deeper mental effort from the thinker.
Security of Records Thinking this way is not just focusing your
attention on what appeal to your senses but
Transactions, dealings, or agreements
also on those beyond your sensory experience
have to be recorded or documented for
called abstract knowledge. Abstract thinking
safekeeping purposes or for knowledge
makes you entertain ideas beyond or apart
transmission. Mere verbal exchange of ideas
what your eyes can see. This takes place when
and reliance on various modern electronic"
you perform top-level thinking acts of
communication devices that are prone to
interpreting, evaluating, creating and
mechanical defects do not guarantee a
appreciating. Al these methods of thinking elicit
permanent or lasting existence of essential
meanings based not mainly on concrete
information or ideas. Technical writing prevents
objects but more on the readers' viewpoints or
a possible loss or change of data involved in
personal thoughts and feelings
any working project. (Locker, 2009)
Among the higher-order thinking skills
QUALITIES OF A TECHNICAL WRITER
that you ought to practice frequently in
Gathered from some technical writing technical witting is critical or evaluative
experts named in the Reference List of this 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. In organizing the parts of your technical
paper, you likewise use critical thinking for your
readers' easy and coherent understanding of
the entire composition. (Locker, 2009)
Persuasive skills
In technical wilting, 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 one's moral educational or
ethical values or standards), pathos (appeal to
one's emotions or feelings) and logos (appeal
to one's logical, systematic, or orderly thinking.
Integrity
Sometimes you hear people, "Money is
in business. If you want to be rich, you must go
to business. Being an act of buying and selling.
business is always equated with money and
one sure vehicle towards a 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.
It is possible that wanting to win a bid
and earn a bigger amount, you may become
morally unsound in succumbing to a temptation
of producing a technical written work full of
falsities of gross exaggerations. Or desiring to
appear extra-impressive to your readers, you
may make the gross dishonest act of owning
experts’ ideas by presenting these borrowed
ideas undocumented in your technical paper.
Keep in mind that a successful and learned
technical writer must always practice integrity
in all his written projects or assignments. A long
and lasting wealth is based on Godly things
(Lesikar 2010)
Zest
The expression, technical writing may
sound difficult to some, but a restful technical
writer like you knows how to tum anything
difficult to something that is easy and
enjoyable. Your technical reports, business
letters, research proposals, instructional
manuals, memos, brochures, or fliers and other
written applications of technical writing have
the power to stimulate your curiosity and your
readers interest if 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. (Perkins, 2006)
TECHNICAL WRITING VS. OTHER
TYPES OF WRITING
People get informed, entertained,
educated through different types of writing
Fictional witting 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 work 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 necessary elicits
responses, 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 the 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)