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ENGL 223, Technical Report Writing - Ass #1

Technical writing has specific characteristics that distinguish it from other types of writing. It is accurate, clear, and graphical, using tables, charts and diagrams. It is also objective, using passive voice and third-person point of view. Technical writing is practical, procedural, specialised for a specific audience, straightforward and authoritative by relying on expertise. A good technical writer has strong communication, critical thinking, and persuasive skills as well as integrity and enthusiasm. They use defined terms and describe mechanisms, processes, classifications and comparisons.

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96 views

ENGL 223, Technical Report Writing - Ass #1

Technical writing has specific characteristics that distinguish it from other types of writing. It is accurate, clear, and graphical, using tables, charts and diagrams. It is also objective, using passive voice and third-person point of view. Technical writing is practical, procedural, specialised for a specific audience, straightforward and authoritative by relying on expertise. A good technical writer has strong communication, critical thinking, and persuasive skills as well as integrity and enthusiasm. They use defined terms and describe mechanisms, processes, classifications and comparisons.

Uploaded by

Earl Michaelo R. Kalacas
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CHARACTERISTICS OF TECHNICAL WRITING

Technical writing, just as any other form of writing, has certain characteristics which distinguish it
from other types of writing. It is very different from writing opinion pieces, essays, prose, non-fiction
or fiction. The following descriptive words sum up all the characteristics or properties of technical
writing:

Accurate (Tactfulness in recording data.)


A technical written work is accurate when it deals with facts that are completely true, instead of
things whose identity, appearance, or measurements are so difficult to determine. An accurate report
uses words, sentences, numbers, or figures that exactly express what the written work intends to
convey (Bantin, 2008). It avoids the frequents use of expressions for hedging such as may, perhaps,
maybe, seem, apparently, would, etc. (Ling, 2004)

Clear
Your written work is clear if, in one reading, your readers are able to get a quick understanding of
the main message or point of the whole composition. You can achieve this if you use simple, concise,
specific, and grammatically correct language structures. For the sake of clarity, it is important, too,
that you apply in your work all the principles of good sentence construction like parallelism,
consistency of tense, dangling modifiers, split infinitive, choppy sentences, run-on sentences, comma
splice, wordiness, and so on. Applying the qualities of a good paragraph writing such as unity,
coherence, and emphasis are likewise essential to making your technical written work appear clear
to your readers. (Gustavi, 2008; and Marsh, 2005)

Graphical
Graphs like tables, charts, figures, diagrams, maps, pictures, and other illustrations are absolutely
necessary in technical writing. Considering that this nature of technical writing makes the technical
work not readable to all types of readers in this world, you then have to include in your work non-
prose materials like graphs to stress, clarify, simplify, or sum up ideas which you textually present in
your written composition. (Bertoline, 2009)

Objective (Writer consider himself as another person)


This characteristic of technical writing is shown by any written work of yours that avoids revealing
your individual thinking. 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 like his/her, they, or the user.
3. Downplay the subject or personal nature of the text by avoiding the use of emotive words
dissatisfied, uninteresting, or undignified.

Practical
Technical writing is practical if it results in a written output that you can apply, use, or carry out in
your day-to-day living.

Procedural (Conformity to general standard)


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 cause or writing
acts. It presents facts and information in a systematic or methodical manner.

Special
Writing something to cater to a specific set of people rather that 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 writing special.

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 will lead you to various topics, ideas, people, methodologies, concerns, purposes,
formats, language, etc. (Perkins, 2008)

Straightforward
A straightforward manner of writing means presenting knowledge or ideas honestly and directly.
Technical writing brings out things in franks, unequivocal, or clear-cut way.

Authoritative
To describe technical writing as authoritative is to think of it as one clothed with full rights, power,
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.

Presentable (General Appearance of the report)


The physical appearance of a technical writing output somehow mirrors the person who produced
such kind of paper. A dirty-looking technical written work diminishes its power, influence or
authoritativeness. The layout, order, or placement of the various parts of your work likewise makes
your work presentable.

QUALITIES OF A GOOD TECHNICAL WRITER


The following are the traits or skills of a successful technical writer:

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. Listening to peoples’ ideas,
exchanging ideas with others, and reading books or journals, especially those related to your target
topic are therefore your ways to substantiate your technical paper. Thus, to be an excellent technical
writer is to have rich and wide acquisition of knowledge, perception, or understanding of a lot of
things in this world through listening and reading and the ability to express these things coherently
to others through speaking and writing. (McMurray, 2002)

Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)


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. (Locker, 2009)

Persuasive Skills
In technical writing, two parties are basically involved: the writer or seller and the reader or buyer.
To persuade or convince the other party of the excellence of the technical paper or of the object of
the selling act, 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. 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 or 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. (Lesikar, 2010)

Zest
The expression, technical writing may sound difficult to some, but a zestful technical writer like you
knows how to turn anything difficult to something that is east and enjoyable. Your technical reports
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. (Perkins, 2008)

SPECIAL TECHNIQUES OF TECHNICAL WRITING


There are five distinctive technical writing techniques frequently used in technical and scientific
writing. They are definition, description of mechanism, description of processes,
classification/partition, and comparison and contrast. The discussion of the five special writing
techniques is intended to help develop and arrange the writer’s data in a way that would best
communicate ideas to the readers.

Definition
Definition gives concise but exact meanings of unfamiliar words and special meanings of familiar
words. Definition is a useful technique in writing about technical subjects. A technical writer should
define the terms with multiple meanings and those that are unfamiliar to the reader. A technical
writer should give a term a special meaning within a report by giving the operative meaning to the
term. The definition depends on the complexity or unfamiliarity of the term.

Definitions are classified as:


Informal – consists of one or more synonymous expressions substituted for the unfamiliar term used.
Formal – preferred to be used in technical and scientific work; has three parts: term, genus,
differentia.

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