Technical Writing vs. Literature

Technical Writing vs. Literature

• Technical writing differs from literature.
• Literature includes prose recounting fictional tales and poetry expressing emotions through similes and metaphors.
• Technical writing does not narrate occurrences or analyze topics like expressive or expository essays.
• It avoids poetic images, personal experiences, and reporting events.

Traditional Essay Writing

• Creative Writing: It includes fiction, poetry, short stories, and novels that are very different from technical writing.
• Expressive Writing: This is subjective and based on personal experiences, like journals and diaries.
• Expository Writing: This analytically and objectively "exposes" a topic, similar to news reports.
• Persuasive Writing: Relies on emotional appeal.

Technical Writing vs. Creative Writing

• Content: Technical writing is factual and straightforward, while creative writing is imaginative or symbolic.
• Audience: Technical writing targets a specific audience, while creative writing aims for a general audience.
• Purpose: Technical writing aims to inform, instruct, or persuade, while creative writing entertains, provokes, or captivates.
• Style: Technical writing is formal, standard, and academic. Creative writing is informal, artistic, and figurative.
• Tone: Technical writing is objective and creative writing is subjective.
• Vocabulary: Technical writing uses specialized terms, while creative writing uses general and evocative language.
• Organization: Technical writing is sequential and systematic, whereas creative writing is arbitrary and artistic.

Language of Technical Writing

• Word choice is important as technical writing is straightforward, precise, and interpreted as intended and contrasts with creative writing, which is nuanced and open to interpretation.
• Language must be concrete, precise, concise, and technically appropriate for the audience.

Concrete Language

• Concrete language relies on senses and describes what can be seen, touched, smelled, heard, and tasted.
• Concrete language specifies intangible concepts, helping the audience see realities or instances rather than abstract ideas.
• Concrete words are measurable and observable, including nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
• Examples of concrete nouns include airplane, helicopter, jet, and drone.
• Examples of concrete verbs include take off, land, navigate, and hover.
• Examples of concrete adjectives include aerodynamic, lightweight, and clear.
• Examples of concrete adverbs include swiftly, heavily, and loudly.

Precise Language

• Precision works in conjunction with concreteness.
• Avoid words with multiple potential meanings.

Precision Guidelines

• Avoid metaphors because they compare one thing with another.
• Do not use intensifiers like "extremely" or "never" due to imprecision.
• Ambiguous phrases like "we believe" or "in our opinion" should not be used.

Concise Language

• Concise writing uses the fewest words to convey the most meaning while maintaining clarity.
• Avoid unnecessary padding, awkward phrasing, and overuse of "to be" forms, long preposition strings, vagueness, unnecessary repetition, and redundancy.

Tone

• Tone shows the attitude a document conveys.
• Tone comes from word choice (diction), word order (syntax), sentence construction, and viewpoint.
• Using appropriate tone leads to proper communication.

Jargon/Technical Language

• Jargon is a common vocabulary used by groups or professions.
• Using specialized jargon can increase usability and persuasiveness.
• Accurate Jargon usage with professionals will establish credibility.