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# Properties of Technical Writing The following properties of technical writing are also known as "considerations" when writing technical reports. 1. **Subject Matter** - in writing technical papers, you must ask the question, "What will I write about?" 2. **Audience** - when thinking about the au...
# Properties of Technical Writing The following properties of technical writing are also known as "considerations" when writing technical reports. 1. **Subject Matter** - in writing technical papers, you must ask the question, "What will I write about?" 2. **Audience** - when thinking about the audience, ask "Whom am I writing for? or Who are my intended readers?" 3. **Expression** - it refers to the two basic modes in which a technical report has to be delivered - writing it or reading it. 4. **Style** - it refers to how the material is written. A technical writer uses clear, specific point of view, objective, impartial, and unemotional style in writing. 5. **Arrangement of Materials** - this pertains to how ideas should be organized in chronological, spatial or logical order, from general to specific or specific to general, and use illustrations to present the information. # Writing can be grouped into five basic types: 1. **Technical Writing** - convey specific information about technical subject to a specific audience for a specific purpose. 2. **Creative Writing** - is fiction-poetry, short stories, plays, and novels-and far different from technical writing. 3. **Expressive Writing** - is a subjective response to a personal experience-journals and diaries-whereas technical writing might be objective observations of a work-related experience or research. 4. **Expository Writing** - "exposes" a topic analytically and objectively, such as news reports. Like technical writing, the goal of expository writing is to explain or reveal knowledge, but expository writing does not necessarily expect a response or action from the reader. 5. **Persuasive Writing** - depends on emotional appeal. Its goal is to change one's attitudes or motivate him/her to action. # Products of Technical Writing 1. **Business Letter** - is a type of written communication. It is written using formal language and follows formal elements of letter writing. 2. **Contract** - written agreement between two people under mutually agreed terms. 3. **Printed Action Memo** - ready-format memorandum that only requires a checkmark on the appropriate box that contains the message. 4. **Graphic Aids** - drawings, sketches and illustrations that aid the readers in understanding the presented data. 5. **Instructional Manuals** - written to guide readers on how to assemble, maintain, and operate an apparatus, machine or gadget. 6. **Brochures** - are pamphlets or flyers that endorse a product in such a way that the potential customer will be convinced to purchase. 7. **Proposals** - are written suggestions on how to make the company or organization more productive and successful. 8. **Memoranda** - are inter-office written communication used to disseminate information. # Principles in Good Technical Writing 1. Always assume that the reader is intelligent, but uninformed. 2. Always decide what the exact purpose of your report is, and make sure that every paragraph, sentence, and word makes a clear contribution to that purpose. 3. Use language that is simple, concrete and familiar. 4. Check your writing principle: "First you tell the reader what you're going to tell, then you tell him what you've told him." 5. Make your report attractive. # Purposes of Technical Writing 1. It serves as a basis for management decision. 2. It furnishes needed information. 3. It gives instructions. 4. It records business transactions through proposals. 5. It procures business proposals. 6. It serves as a basis for public relations. 7. It provides report to stockholders of companies. # Differences between Technical Writing and Creative Writing | | Technical Writing | Creative Writing | |-------------|-----------------------------|--------------------------------| | Content | factual, straightforward | imaginative, metaphoric or symbolic | | Audience | specific | general | | Purpose | inform, instruct, persuade | entertain, provoke, captivate | | Style | formal, standard, academic | informal, artistic, figurative | | Tone | objective | subjective | | Vocabulary | specialized | general, evocative | | Organization | sequential, systematic | arbitrary, artistic |
