Technical Writing

Know Your Purpose and Your Writing Situation

• Identify the purpose of your writing and state the purpose in writing
• Create and use a work plan for your writing
• Key concepts
  • Writing purpose
  • Writer’s situation
  • Writing work plan

Know Your Audience and Their Situation

• Identify your audience
• Recognize your audience’s situation
• Key concepts
  • Audience concerns and characteristics
  • Audience education, experiences, and workplace locations
  • Audience attitude toward your writing purpose

Choose and Organize Your Content Around Your Purpose and Audience

• Research content of writing
• Choose content of writing
• Organize content of writing
  • Chronological
  • Classification and Division
  • Mechanism Descriptions

Write Clearly and Precisely

• Write a clear opening paragraph
• Write in language appropriate for readers
• Write in active voice
• Key concepts
  • What to include in an opening paragraph
  • Audience
  • Active voice
  • Pronouns
  • Active verbs
  • Keep writing simple
  • Collaborative writing

Use Good Page Design

• Produce documents that are accessible
• Produce visually attractive documents
• Key concepts
  • Templates
  • Headings
  • Page headers and footers
  • Appropriate text
  • Lists and table
  • Bold, italics and caps
  • White space

Think Visually

• Obtain and use visual representations
• Key concepts
  • Technical drawings, photographs, and other images
  • Google image search
  • Fair use laws
  • Style guides
  • Cultural considerations for images

Write Ethically

• Write balanced documents
• Write honest documents
• Credit sources
• Construct ethical graphs
• Key concepts
  • Plagiarism
  • Style Guides
  • Citations
  • Ethical graphs

Elements of Reports

• Create reports with all appropriate parts
• Key concepts
  • Title page
  • Letter of transmittal
  • Preface
  • Table of contents
  • List of Illustrations
  • Glossary
  • List of Symbols
  • Abstracts and Summaries
  • Introduction
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion and recommendation
  • Appendixes

Formats of Reports

• Know the formats and parts that make up the most common technical documents
• Key concepts
  • Instructions
  • Warnings
  • Theory
  • Glossary
  • Analytical reports
  • Proposals
  • Progress reports
  • Empirical research reports

Formats of Correspondence

• Write professional and effective business correspondence
• Key concepts
  • Elements of a letter
  • Memorandums
  • Email
  • Resumes
  • Application letters