Attributes of Technical Writing

Attributes/Characteristics of
Technical Writing
http://studyofcs.blogspot.co

1. Degree of Formality
2. It pertains to a technical subject
 Engineering, Sciences, and Business
 That technical Subject is described in objective fashion

3. Has a purpose
 Always written for a reason
 Purpose may be to explain what was done, why it was
done, and results of a study
 To inform, to instruct, to persuade, to recommend, to
propose, to report, to request

4. Has an Objective
 Objective is larger level than purpose
 In industrial situation, the objective of any work is to
make or increase profit

5. Conveys information, facts, data
 Technical writing should have substance in its content
 A report without data or scientific evidence to support an
opening lacks credibility
 Use of factual information makes a work more credible

…contd.
 Verbs of factual information
Determined, Solved, Built, Accepted, Rejected,
Completed, Passed, Failed, Approved, Cancelled,
Designed, Developed, Discovered, Deduced, Studied
 Verbs to avoid
Think, maybe, suggest, appear, suppose, seem

6. Impersonal
 Objective
 People’s names are omitted in technical writing
 I studied
 It was studied

7. TW is concise
 Usually written for business reasons
 They are not intended to entertain
 Wandering sentences and extra words reflect badly on
others and have a negative effect
 So, unnecessary words are omitted

8. Directed to Readers
 Directed to particular readers
 The author keeps reader in mind
 Writer is aimed at reader
 Reader determines the level of formality

9. Style and Format
 Style
 Style is the way you write
 Format is physical layout of a document
 It is objective
 It is not opinionated
 Calculations are inferred from results
 Recommendations are the logical outcome of the
conclusions

…contd.
 Format
 Structure: Introduction, Procedure, Result
Discussion, Conclusion, Recommendation
 Font, Page layout, Date, Line spacing, Headings,
Subheadings, Number of words, Page numbers
 Agreed upon by like APA

10. Archival
 Retained as record
 Used as reference for future
11. Attributions
 Contains acknowledgement of others

References
G. Budinski, Kenneth. (2001). Engineers’ Guide to
Technical Writing. pp. 4-11. ASM International: USA

Attributes of Technical Writing

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Attributes of Technical Writing

Similar to Attributes of Technical Writing (20)

More from Mohsin Ali

More from Mohsin Ali (13)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Attributes of Technical Writing