Technical Communication

“Facts rarely speak for themselves.”

“The challenge which every writer has is to find a

form which accommodates his mess.”
Technical writing is a specialized
form of writing. Its goal is to help
readers use a technology or to
understand a process, product or
concept.

Often these processes, products

or concepts are complex, but need
to be expressed in a much
simpler, reader-friendly form.
So within the technical writing
genre, you will find:
technical reports
installation and maintenance
manuals
proposals
work instructions
Procedures
PowerPoint presentations!!!
Definition
"Technical writing is the
presentation of information that
helps the reader solve a particular
problem. Technical communicators
write, design, and/or edit proposals,
manuals, web pages, lab reports,
newsletters, and many other kinds
of professional documents.”
“Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The most important thing a
technical writer must consider is
the audience. If a document does
not communicate the information
that the writer intends and what
he or she wants the reader to
understand, then the
communication is meaningless.
Consider:
How familiar are readers with the subject and
with the specialised terms and abbreviations
you need to use?
What is the best way to explain those terms
or shortened forms - footnotes, endnotes,
glossary, table of abbreviations, appendix,
links?
Do you need to accommodate secondary
readers (e.g. the manager or financier who
will make the decision about the proposal),
and how will you do that?
The Essential Elements of Technical Writing/Communication

The ability to communicate clearly is the most

important skill engineers and scientists can have.
Your best work will be lost if it is not communicated
effectively. Therefore, there are essential elements of
technical writing that need to be considered when
drafting any technical communication. These are:
 
Presentationand Tone
Number, voice and Tense
Conciseness
Unambiguity
Clarity
Presentation and Tone
Technical communication differs from
fiction in many ways. In mystery novels
the reader is kept in suspense because the
writer has hidden important clues that are
explained at the end of the story to
produce a surprise. In contrast, the readers
of technical writing are given the
important conclusions at the beginning,
followed by evidence supporting those
conclusions.
The following example
illustrates the difference. The
simple question Do we have any
mail today? can be answered by a
man sitting on his veranda in two
ways.
Number, Voice, and Tense

Most technical communication is done

in the third person. Pronouns like you,
me, my, I, and we are to be avoided.
The choice of voice used in technical
communication is important. Examples
of the different types of voice are:
There is a strong temptation to overuse
the passive voice in technical writing
to avoid using I and we; however, it is
good to use the active voice wherever
possible.
There is a strong temptation to overuse the
passive voice in technical writing to avoid
using I and we; however, it is good to use the
active voice wherever possible.
Past and perfect tenses are used in technical
writing, because they are used to report
something that has happened. The difference
in tenses is illustrated by the following:
Past tense: A break in the circuit interrupted
the current.
Perfect tense: A break in the circuit has
interrupted the current.
 It is usually best to pick a tense
and be consistent with it in your
writing. Frequent shifting of
tenses can leave the reader
confused.
An exception appropriate to use
the present tense is when stating
an enduring truth like “Current
passing through a resistor causes
it to heat up.”
Conciseness

A hallmark of good technical papers

and reports is that they are as concise.
Most readers are busy people, and the
technical writer should avoid
wordiness and redundancy.
 Consider the following example:

A schematic illustration of the spot friction welding

process is shown in Figure 1. The process is applied to
join the two metal sheets as shown. A rotating tool with a
probe pin is first plunged into the upper sheet. When the
rotating tool contacts the upper sheet, a downward force
is applied. A backing plate beneath the lower sheet is
used to support the downward force of the tool. The
downward force and the rotational speed of the tool are
maintained for an appropriate time to generate frictional
heat. Then, heated and softened material adjacent to the
tool deforms plastically, and a solid-state bond is made
between the surfaces of the upper and lower sheets.
Finally, the tool is drawn out of the sheets as shown in
Figure 1.
This could be rewritten in a much more
concise form without any loss of meaning as: 
Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of spot
friction welding of two sheets. A rotating tool
with a probe pin is plunged into the upper
sheet. A backing tool beneath the lower sheet
supports the downward force of the tool. The
force and rotational speed are maintained long
enough to generate heat. The heated material
adjacent to the tool deforms plastically and
forms a solid-state bond.
 
Note that the number of words is reduced
from 130 to 66. The word process is
unnecessary and overused. Welding process
means welding; likewise machining
process means machining and rolling
process means rolling. The fact that the
force is applied to the rotating tool is
obvious, that the bond is between the upper
and lower sheets is also obvious, and
saying that the tool is removed is not
needed.
Strive to find the balance between
the amount of information presented
and the time needed to read the
document.
Remember that you can use an
appendix or link to provide
supplementary or background
information.
Consider using an illustration, table
or graph rather than words to explain
a concept.
In writing a technical report, one can
often assume that the audience is
familiar with the scientific and
engineering terminology, but this is
not always the case so it is important
to consider the background of the
audience you are writing for,
avoiding long scientific explanations
where necessary.
Unambiguity

Technical writing should be unambiguous

so the audience knows exactly what the
writer intends. Consider the following
paragraph from a student report:
The cast is removed from the oven
and molten metal was poured into the
mould until the sprue filled. The
mould is cooled until the metal is no
longer red-hot. It is then placed into a
water bath to remove the investment
from the casting.
Here there is confusion between the
words cast, mould, and investment. It is
not clear what is meant by the word
cast. It is unnecessary to refer to filling
of the sprue, and the word bath adds
nothing. A shorter and more precise
version might be:
Molten metal is poured into a preheated
investment mould. When the casting is
no longer hot, it is plunged into water,
facilitating removal of the investment.
Another common source of
ambiguity is to refer the reader to
a table of data or a figure without
explaining what the reader is to
learn from looking at it. Good
figure captions can eliminate
some of these problems, but they
are not a substitute for good
writing.
 Clarity

The logical flow of the document will help

readers understand the content. It can be
useful to ask someone who is not familiar
with the topic to review your writing
before you finalise it. Using headings,
illustrations, graphs or tables can be useful
- your aim is to make it as easy as possible
for your readers to understand what you've
written. Consider how the way the text sits
on the page or screen - another clue to
maximising clarity for your readers.
Other elements to consider:
Accuracy
Sentence length
Paragraphing
Use of Acronyms
Accuracy
The information and the
interpretation of data that you
present must be accurate. If it's
not, your readers will question the
credibility of the content. Be
careful to clearly differentiate
between fact and opinion, and to
accurately cite references to other
works.
 Sentence length
Generally, complex or unfamiliar concepts
are best presented in shorter sentences.
This will give readers time to digest small
pieces of information before moving on to
the next. While this can be difficult to
achieve, try to aim for approximately 20
words per sentence. If you find you've
written a series of long sentences, look for
'and', 'but', 'however' and similar words
where you can break the sentence.
Paragraphs

The age-old rule about one topic

per paragraph is a useful guide.
That does not mean that you can
have only one paragraph for each
topic, but it does mean that having
only one topic in each paragraph
makes for clear, logical writing.
Use of Acronyms
Occasional use of acronyms can reduce the
number of required words. Each acronym
should be introduced by writing the full
phrase out. For example, scanning electron
microscopy (SEM). The number of acronyms
used in a paper should be kept to a
minimum.
There is no need to introduce an acronym if
the term is only used two or three times.
Each acronym requires the reader to learn a
new bit of jargon, which can make reading
more cumbersome.
Proofreading

All writing should be proofread,

with the specific aims of
checking for grammar, spelling,
and word errors; eliminating
repetition of words and ideas;
checking the flow of thoughts;
and seeing if sentence length is
varied.
Writing technical reports

In Engineering and Science, one of the major

forms of communication is the technical
report. This is the conventional format for
reporting the results of your research,
investigations, and design projects. At
university, reports are read by lecturers and
tutors in order to assess your mastery of the
subjects and your ability to apply your
knowledge to a practical task. In the
workplace, they will be read by managers,
clients, and the construction engineers
responsible for building from your designs.
The ability to produce a clear,
concise, and professionally
presented report is therefore a
skill you will need to develop in
order to succeed both at
university and in your future
career.
While reports vary in the type of
information they present (for
example, original research, the
results of an investigative study, or
the solution to a design problem),
all share similar features and are
based on a similar structure.
 Key features of reports

Reports:
* are designed for quick and easy
communication of information

* are designed for selective reading

* use sections with numbered

headings and subheadings
 
* use figures and diagrams to convey
data
Basic structure of a report
A report usually has these components:
* Title page
* Summary
* Table of Contents 
* Introduction 
* Middle sections with numbered headings

(i.e., the body of the report)

* Conclusions
  * References 
* Appendices