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Technical writing
Technical writing is a form of communication that professionals use to convey information about
specialized topics. A technical writer might create content to provide instructions or explain
technical concepts regarding environmental regulations, computer applications or medical
procedures.

Examples of Technical writing

Here are some prominent examples of technical writing:
• User Manuals - Documents that provide instructions, such as user manuals, are a perfect
example of technical writing. When readers open a user manual, their goal is to be informed
about the product so they can use it correctly and as efficiently as possible.
• Lab Reports - Lab reports are another example of technical writing. The main purpose of a
lab report is to explain the occurrences in a lab so that others will be able to gain
information.
• Other Examples:
• Progress Reports
• Press releases
• Business proposals
• Job descriptions
• Textbooks
Purpose of Technical Writing
The primary goal of technical writing is to inform by making the complex language sound simple.
With this type of writing, you're assuming the reader has no knowledge of the subject or only a
basic understanding of it. For example, everyone understands what a camera is and most people
know how to use the basics, like point and click. However, operating a specific model with its own
set of features necessitates more than just knowing how to turn it on and off and take pictures in
auto mode.
Features of Technical writing
A technical writer may be writing for a specific industry, in which case the language tailors toward
the education level of its audience. However, sometimes a technical writer is writing for a general
audience. Many of the details provided by technical writers are complex, so the process of writing
involves analyzing the information and presenting it in a way that's easy for anyone reading it to
understand, even someone who does not have a lot of experience with the topic.
1. Clarity:You can use technical jargon in documents where the audience all have the same
technical background. You probably don’t need to explain what a capacitor is to an
audience of electrical engineers or explain return on investment to finance
professionals.However, too much jargon tends to be a much bigger problem than too
little. If in doubt, avoid jargon or explain it.
2. Consiceness: Technical writing must be as brief as possible. If the writer can express
something in 2 words, she should not use 3 words instead. This is not creative writing. All
kinds of editorial asides or anthropomorphic similes and metaphors should be avoided.
3. CorrectIon: If tech writing is not correct, you can throw it directly into the trash basket
since nothing else matters as much.
4. ComprehensiveNess: If you are explaining the functions of the buttons on a toolbar, you
need to explain ALL of them. If a gadget has two communication ports, you need to explain
how each of them is used. Any omission in covering all system components or attributes in a
document means an eventual call to the customer service.

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5. Logical And Sequential Order: Technical writing information cannot contradict itself. All
information, all steps need to make sense with respect to one another. If you need to open a
lid in order to reach a button, you need to tell the reader to open the lid first and then to press
the button. In the above case, do not instruct the user to press the button and then open the
lid.
Technical documents are organized in the ideal "tree view" fashion. The material is
organized in layers, from general to the specific. The document starts with the general
aspects of a system and drills down to more specific details later on. For example, you
explain what the TopCardPro software accomplishes first (controls access to power plant
sites), BEFORE you explain the way to configure an access card with the user info

6. Pompous Vocabulary: One Of The Great Techniques For Obfuscating Our Writing Is To
Use Words Like "Obfuscate." This Chapter Introduces You To Lots Of Such Words. When
These Words Are Used Unnecessarily, They Cause Comprehension Problems For Readers
And Often Seem Pompous. Other Examples are Elucidate(Explain, Clear),
Dissemination(Spread), Bifurcate(Split) Etc

7. Appropriate For Intended Audience: Tech writing must be appropriate for its intended
audience. This audience can be a general audience, business people, or a specialized group
of engineers and scientists. If the writing style and vocabulary does not fit the audience, tech
writing will either be met with derision and criticism (because it is too easy for the
audience), or will fly off over the heads of a puzzled audience (because it is too hard to
understand).

8. Action Oriented: You are writing a document to help users take action. Therefore, use
action verbs whenever possible, especially in the beginning of procedural steps.
ORIGINAL: "Cable A and Cable Z need to be connected now." BETTER: "Connect Cable A
to Cable Z."
9. Persuasiveness: It is a form of writing in which the writer uses a combination of thorough
research and careful word choice to convince the reader that the writer's opinion is correct in
regards to an issue.
Many reports, bids and proposals contain technical data and specifications. So business
writers may find themselves editing technical content, and technical writers may be called
upon to write persuasive documents for a non-technical audience.
10. Writing Process: Technical writing is the product of a thorough writing process, which
consists of the following steps: Planning,Organising, Writing, Reviewing and Publishing

Technical Writing Process

Just like any other activity, technical writing is the result of a set of steps. These five steps include
Planning,Organising, Writing, Reviewing and Publishing
1. Planning: ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.’
When you’re planning to write technical documents, you should ask yourself:
▪ Scope – How many documents do I need to write? What are their key characteristics? Am I
going to publish them in multiple formats – if so, are there any production requirements I
should be aware of?
▪ Timing – How long do I need to schedule for review cycles? What’s the final deadline?
▪ Process – What are the high level steps that I need to follow to create the documents?

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Along with these basic questions (which apply to almost any project – not just technical writing)
there are some specific writing-related questions that you’ll need to consider in your documentation
project:
▪ Audience – who am I writing for? Do they have a sophisticated command of language? What
are their education levels?
▪ Reviewers / Subject Matter Experts – these are the people who’ll lend their technical expertise
in the creation of the documents and review them for accuracy
▪ Existing information
▪ Style guide / templates
▪ Etc.
2. Organising
A structure is the backbone of your document – the hierarchy of headings that define the logical
order that it will progress. Structure is absolutely essential to successful documents, and it’s
something that you should develop before you start writing.
There are a number of common structural approaches when it comes to technical documents:
▪ Narrative structure – The traditional approach – intro, body, conclusion
▪ Process-based structure – Common in technical documentation such as procedures and user
guides
▪ System-based structure – Describing the components of a system, such as an auto manual.
3.Writing
Writing is where you convert your outline and notes into a series of drafts, culminating in a draft
that’s ready for formal review. Contrary to popular impression, writing is only about 20-30% of the
process in a well-planned document – much of the effort goes into planning, structuring, and
reviewing your work. In fact, the more time you spend planning and structuring your work, the less
time you’re likely to spend on writing.
There are a few time-honoured (as well as some new) techniques that technical writers draw on:
▪ Plain English
▪ Five Ws (and One H)
▪ Inverted pyramid
▪ Active voice
These techniques will help you write better documentation – documentation that your audience
finds useful, engaging and a pleasure to read. Of course, in order to apply these techniques you need
to have a decent grasp of the English language.
Remember – at this stage, it’s all fairly loose and informal – the formality comes in the next step,
Review.
The final part of writing is formatting and laying out your draft
4.Reviewing
n the Review step, there are a number of discrete activities going on:
▪ Review by subject matter experts
▪ Peer review by a colleague
▪ Proof reading and Editing
The point of all these activities is to apply the appropriate level of quality control to ensure your
document is accurate, useful, usable, and so on – in other words, good enough to publish.
5.Publishing
Publication is where writers manufacture and launch the final product. This might be as
straightforward as emailing an approved document to your manager, or uploading it to a content
management system or intranet.

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By applying the steps, activities and tools in the technical writing process – and customising it to
suit your project – anyone with a sufficient level of writing skills can successfully create technical
documentation

DOCUMENT DESIGN
1. ABSTRACT
Definition and Purpose of Abstracts
An abstract is a short summary of your (published or unpublished) research paper, usually about a
paragraph (c. 6-7 sentences, 150-250 words) long. A well-written abstract serves multiple purposes:
• an abstract lets readers get the gist or essence of your paper or article quickly, in order to
decide whether to read the full paper;
• an abstract prepares readers to follow the detailed information, analyses, and arguments in
your full paper;
• and, later, an abstract helps readers remember key points from your paper.
Example of an Abstract from a Research Paper:

Factors influencing the Cloud Computing adoption in Higher Education Institutions of

Punjab, Pakistan
Abstract:
Cloud Computing is one of the most important trend and newest area in the field of information
technology in which resources (e.g. CPU and storage) can be leased and released by customers
through the Internet in an on-demand basis. The adoption of Cloud Computing in Education and
developing countries is real an opportunity. Although Cloud computing has gained popularity in
Pakistan especially in education and industry, but its impact in Pakistan is still unexplored
especially in Higher Education Department. Already published work investigated in respect of
factors influencing on adoption of cloud computing but very few investigated said analysis in
developing countries. The Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of Punjab, Pakistan are still not
focused to discover cloud adoption factors. In this study, we prepared cloud adoption model for
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of Punjab, a survey was carried out from 900 students all over
Punjab. The survey was designed based upon literature and after discussion and opinions of
academicians. In this paper, 34 hypothesis were developed that affect the cloud computing adoption
in HEIs and tested by using powerful statistical analysis tools i.e. SPSS and SmartPLS. Statistical
findings shows that 84.44% of students voted in the favor of cloud computing adoption in their
colleges, while 99% supported Reduce Cost as most important factor in cloud adoption.

2.TABLE OF CONTENTS
The table of contents contains a guide to the contents of the whole report. It lists the preliminary
pages such as the letter of transmittal and the acknowledgements, and it includes all headings and
subheadings used in the report, exactly as they appear in the report.
The table of contents also includes the page numbers for all parts. Use lower case roman numerals
(i, ii, iii, etc.) for all preliminary pages and arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) for all pages in the body of
the report, starting with page 1 for the introduction of the body.This should list the contents in some
sensible way.
Example:
Smart scanning and near real-time 3D surface modeling of dynamic construction equipment from a point
cloud.

Table of contents
• 1. Introduction

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• 2. Related work in dynamic object tracing on construction sites

• 3. Proposed method

• 3.1. Data acquisition

• 3.2. Smart scanning and visualisation

• 3.3. Rapid target surface modelling

• 4. Field tests and results

• 4.1. Case study 1

• 4.2. Case study 2

• 4.3. Data wireless transmission

• 5. Conclusions and discussions

• Acknowledgment

• References

3. PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism means using someone else’s work without giving them proper credit. In academic
writing, plagiarising involves using words, ideas, or information from a source without citing it
correctly. In practice, this can mean a few different things.

Examples of plagiarism Why is it wrong?

Copying parts of a text word It makes it seem like these are your
for word, without quotation own words.
marks

Paraphrasing a text by It makes it seem like you came up

changing a few words or with the idea, when in fact you just
altering the sentence rephrased someone else’s idea.
structure, without citing the
source

Giving incorrect information If readers can’t nd the cited source,

about a source they can’t check the information
themselves.

Quoting so much from a Even with proper citations, you’re

source that it makes up the not making an original contribution if
majority of your text you rely so much on someone else’s
words.

Reusing work you’ve Even though it’s your own work, the
submitted for a previous reader should be informed that it’s
assignment, without citing not completely new but comes from
yourself previous research.

Submitting a text written Not doing the work yourself is

entirely by someone else academically dishonest, undermines
(e.g., a paper you bought from your learning, and is unfair to other
a ghostwriter) students.

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4. Citation
A citation is a reference to the
source of information used in your
research. Any time you directly
quote, paraphrase or summarize
the essential elements of someone
else's idea in your work, an in-text
citation should follow. An in-text
citation is a brief notation within
the text of your paper or
presentation which refers the
reader to a fuller notation, or end-
of-paper citation, that provides all
necessary details about that
source of information.

They are called parenthetical notes

because brief information about
the source, usually the author's
name, year of publication, and
page number, is enclosed in
parentheses as follows:

APA style: (Smith, 2013, p. 263)

In-text citations usually appear as

superscript numerals, or note
numbers. These note numbers are
associated with full citations that
can appear as footnotes (bottom of page), endnotes (end of chapter or paper), or lists of cited
references at the end of the paper.

5.Foot Notes:
Footnotes are notes placed at the bottom of the page in a piece of academic writing and indicated in
the text with superscript numbers (or sometimes letters or other symbols). You can insert footnotes
automatically in Word or Google Docs. They’re used to provide:
• Citations in certain styles
• Additional information that would disrupt the flow of the main text

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6.References:
References are used to cite your sources and give credit to the written work of others that you have
read and used. When you refer to these published works in the text of your report, you can choose
one of several format. End-of-paper citations, as well as footnotes and endnotes, include full details
about a source of information. References contain different pieces of identifying information about
your source depending on what type of source it is. In academic research, your sources will most
commonly be articles from scholarly journals, and the citation for an article typically includes:
• author(s)
• article title
• publication information (journal title, date, volume, issue, pages, etc.)
• and, for online sources:
◦ DOI (digital object identifier).
◦ URL of the information source itself
◦ URL of the journal that published the article

7.Glossary:
A glossary is a collection of words pertaining to a specific topic. In your thesis or dissertation, it’s a
list of all terms you used that may not immediately be obvious to your reader.
Your glossary only needs to include terms that your reader may not be familiar with, and it’s
intended to enhance their understanding of your work. Glossaries are not mandatory, but if you use
a lot of technical or field-specific terms, it may improve readability to add one.

8.Appendices
An appendix is like a storage warehouse, the place to put material that needs to be included in the
report, but is not essential. Putting material (such as raw data, processed data, analytical procedures,
details of equipment, etc.) at the end keeps the report from being buried in a mass of detail, but
keeps all that detail available if needed by any of your various readers. Each appendix is numbered
or lettered consecutively and given a title.
A section at the end of a paper that includes information that is too detailed for the text of the paper
itself and would "burden the reader" or be "distracting," or “inappropriate"

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The key point to remember when including an appendix or appendices is that the information is
non-essential; if it were removed, the reader would still be able to comprehend the significance,
validity, and implications of your research.
◦ Examples:
• List of abbreviations: If you use a lot of abbreviations or field-specific symbols in your
dissertation, it can be helpful to create a list of abbreviations.
• Glossary: If you utilize many specialized or technical terms, it can also be helpful to create
a glossary.
• Tables, gures and other graphics: You may nd you have too many tables, gures, and
other graphics (such as charts and illustrations) to include in the main body of your
dissertation. If this is the case, consider adding a gure and table list.

It is important that you refer to each of your appendices at least once in the main body of your
paper. Example 1. Referring to an entire appendix

The interview (see Appendix A) revealed that …

Appendix B presents the correspondence exchanged with the tness boutique.

9. Mechanical Elements of Reports

The mechanical elements of your report are largely included to make sure your information was
useful and accessible as possible for your readers. It is especially important to incorporate the HATS
methodology (headings, access, typography, spacing) when designing your mechanical elements, as
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that will make your documents easier to read, and it will give your documents a professional
appearance.
Headings: Headings are signposts that guide readers through document.
Access: Readers should be able to find understand important information easily (Bullets, graphs,
charts etc)
Typography: Font, size, colour, bold etc
Space: Margins, line spacing, indentation etc
10. Graphical Elements
Graphics are all the tables and figures used in a report as visual aids for the reader. They are useful,
important parts of a report and must be accurate. They should also be clear so the reader can
interpret them easily. Tables are all lists of data presented in rows and columns. Place the numbers
and titles above the tables. Figures are any other visual presentations. Place the numbers and titles
below the figures.
When tables or figures are discussed in the text, cite their numbers and the pages on which they
appear. Either number them consecutively through the report or number them according to the
section in which they appear (2.1, 2.2, 2.3, etc.). Put all units in the tables, and don’t make the tables
too long. If necessary, break them up into several short tabulations. This will help your tables be
more visually appealing and will encourage your readers to look at them.
Types of illustrations:
• Line graphs—for representing continuous processes
• Bar graphs—for representing absolutes
• Pie graphs—for showing percentages
• Flow charts—for illustrating stages in a process