Technical writing is characterized by a combination of all these elements. No single characteristic distinguishes technical writing from other kinds of writing. Remember, the saying, beauty lays in the eyes of the beholder. So, it is not surprising that technical writers find beauty in the bland manuals. They can appreciate a well written, usable, useful, and well-organized manual, because that’s the beauty of technical writing! Show Purpose Technical writing is directed to a specific set of audience who reads to understand a product, or a concept, or to perform a task. The document should inform, instruct, and educate them. It should contain facts, theories, information, and details that the users look for. Technical writing is factual, not fictional. Audience The users read a document with a purpose to learn, understand, perform certain tasks and to make certain decisions. They are users of the writing. Hence, you should know about your audience and try to meet their expectations. You have to write what they want and what they need to know, not what you want or what you may want them to know. The audience is the most important element of effective technical writing. Technical writing is usually for a specific set of audience. Language It takes a different level of writing talent to write different kinds of documents. The document should help the readers accomplish the task without them noticing that they were helped along by excellent documentation. Use of language is an important factor that distinguishes it from the other forms of writing.
Writing Style Creative writers have their own style and mode of writing and hence, we can often identify the writer by the style of their writing. In comparison to the other forms of writing, technical writing is bland because you have to follow certain do’s and don’ts in terms of writing styles and guidelines when creating technical documents. Technical writing is consistent, organized, logical, systematic, and format specific. The identity of the technical writer is lost to standard stylistic issues, format, and rules.
Technical writing is concise and to-the-point.
Technical writing is logical and consistent.
Technical writing is a combination of art and science. Format The companies with well-established teams have their own customized style guides, which describes the guidelines and the style issues. They often have a preferred way of writing, organizing, and laying out the content of the technical documents. The writers have to follow the format and stylistic guidelines decided by the organization. Technical writing is format driven. Organization In technical documents, the information has to be organized sequentially and systematically. There has to be a logical sequence to the sections and procedures to reflect the usage and patterns. Technical writing is systematic, organized, and sequential. Visual Aids It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The users appreciate a tabular representation of the data or a flow chart instead of wading through lengthy paragraphs. Hence, make use of appropriate visuals aids in the document instead of painting a picture of words. Visual aids help in the following ways:
Tone The tone of the writing is objective and to the point.
Dependency Creating a documentation is not a stand alone function—it depends on many factors:
You have to depend on the SMEs for getting the document reviewed for technical accuracy. Most of the time, they may not respond to your request for timely review. If the documents are not reviewed on time, the entire documentation schedule gets delayed, due to which the product release also gets delayed.
If any functionality of the product is changed, you will have to make the corresponding change to the document. If the product (or a functionality) is not stable, and is in a dynamic state of constant change, you may not be in a position to write that part of the document.
In any case, the writer will be held responsible for the delay for not completing the document on time and will be seen as incapable and inefficient. This problem usually arises when the work of the documentation team is underestimated. Advertisement Share this:
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